Millions turn out to protest Italian education reform

[Ellipse]

AFP
Saturday 25 October 2008

Italy's opposition staged a mass rally in Rome Saturday, claiming 2.5 million people had taken to the streets to protest against Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing government.

In a demonstration organised by Walter Veltroni's centre-left Democratic party (PD), left-wing activists marched to the Circus Maximus under a sea of red and green opposition flags proclaiming that "another Italy is possible."

Veltroni, whose PD is riding low in the polls after its defeat to Berlusconi's new conservative People of Freedom (PDL) in May, called the protest "the biggest in the last few years."

"From what I can see and from the information I am receiving, this is the biggest protest organised by a party in a number of years," said Veltroni at the rally.

"It is proof that democracy is alive and well... We could never have imagined such a large turnout," he added.

Although police has not verified the size of the protest, one demonstrator warned that the prime minister, who is also a large media mogul in Italy, could distort the figure.

"Even if we are one million people protesting today, Berlusconi will say there was only one hundred of us. And he will be able to do that because he controls so much of the media," said Livio Giorgi.

Another protester, Maria Turri who was demonstrating against the government's education policy, carried a placard saying: "Hello children... Your mother is protesting for you!"

"My children have no guarantees for the future. We do not want a US-style society where we cannot afford the schools. The government must invest more money into state schools instead of giving it to the banks," she told AFP.

The protest follows a similar demonstration by left-wing activists earlier this month against Berlusconi's conservative policies and his avoiding prosecution for alleged corruption.

http://www.france24.com/en/20081025-millions-protest-education-reforms-berlusconi-italy

 

[Ellipse]

Crowds rally against Italy's PM

By Duncan Kennedy
BBC News, Rome

A huge rally has been held in the Italian capital, Rome, to protest against the government of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Opponents accuse Mr Berlusconi of taking Italy too far to the right.

The leader of the centre-left opposition told the crowds that Mr Berlusconi was incapable of handling Italy's social and financial crises.

The demonstration was the biggest anti-government rally since Mr Berlusconi was returned to power in April.

Rome's ancient chariot track, Circus Maximus, was the setting for the protest.

Huge turn out

Estimates of the exact numbers taking part vary from hundreds of thousands to more than two million.

Either way, it was a substantial turn-out from Italy's left-of-centre opposition.

Its leader, Walter Veltroni, told the crowd that Italy was becoming more fascist under Mr Berlusconi.

Mr Veltroni has been relatively invisible since April's elections which returned Mr Berlusconi to power.

The prime minister's policies against crime and illegal immigration especially have earned him high ratings in the polls.

But those measures and others in education which involve cutting funds to universities and holding separate classes for immigrant children who can't speak Italian, have started to galvanise the opposition again.

Its parliamentary muscle may be no match for Mr Berlusconi's, but at street level it is still able to command widespread support.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7691404.stm


Comment : The AFP aticle highlight a different goal of the protesters : http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=10491.0

 

[melanie]

An invitation to the international press to keep an eye on the Italian situation.

Francesco Cossiga (former president of the Italian Republic, Prime Minister and Home Secretary, and now senator for life) on October 23, in an interview with the "Quotidiano Nazionale" (Il Giorno/Il Resto del Carlino/La Nazione), declared:
“Maroni [the current Home Secretary] should do what I did when I was Home Secretary.
First, leave protesting high-school students alone, because just think what would happen if a young boy was killed or seriously injured...
Let university students continue to protest. Withdraw the police from the streets and universities, infiltrate the movement with agents provocateurs ready to do anything, and let the demonstrators devastate shops, set fire to cars and put cities to fire and sword for ten days or so.
Then, with public opinion on your side, the sound of ambulance sirens will exceed those of the police and the carabinieri. In the sense that the police should not show any mercy to them and send them all to hospital. Arresting them is useless because judges would release them very quickly, but we should beat them up as well as the teachers who are stirring them up.
Teachers above all. Not the older ones, of course, but the young female primary school teachers…this is the democratic recipe: putting out the flame before the fire spreads”.
http://rassegna.governo.it/rs_pdf/pdf/JMS/JMSRA.pdf

After nationwide student protests against proposed government education cuts, the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, organized a press conference last Wednesday to say:
“Let me speak clearly: we will not allow schools and universities to be occupied. Today I will summon Home Secretary Maroni to consider police intervention.
Minister of Education, Gelmini, is excellent. We will not withdraw the legislative decree. Left wing leaders are liars".
Later he complained about the presence of violent people in the student movements, which, as the international press can verify, is in fact peaceful.

Some newspapers which support the current government (like “Il Giornale”, whose owner is Berlusconi’s brother) are fomenting a daily campaign against teachers and protesting students, and “Libero”, another Berlusconi supporting newspaper, even suggested clubbing demonstrators on their asses (“parti molli”, i.e. soft parts of the body).

In Italy the situation of teachers is extremely worrying.
They are underpaid and often held in poor esteem by families and children, who instead are attracted by TV personalities, football players and rich entrepreneurs (their honesty doesn’t matter). These models have been spread, above all over recent years, by the current Premier.
In particular “PRECARI” teachers (temporary teachers on short-term contracts) who often carry out their mission with great enthusiasm and love, are kept in a dramatic situation.
Despite all having degrees, teaching qualifications and sometimes also master degrees for public authority employment, they are hired every year in September and sacked when the school year ends. Then they just have to hope to be hired again the following year.
There are also many teachers in this situation of limbo who are no longer young and who have also been subjected to this treatment for over 25 years!
Cuts in tens of thousands jobs in the school, which in Italy receives much less investment than other developed countries, will mainly hit these teachers, who have no have no
contractual rights.

We ask you to look into the Italian situation where there is not a real free press because Premier Berlusconi, directly or indirectly, controls most TV channels and a large number of newspapers.

A group of worried teachers.

Link to list of signatures
http://www.worriedteachers.com/sign/list/worriedteachers

 

[spyraal]

In Italy the situation of teachers is extremely worrying.
They are underpaid and often held in poor esteem by families and children, who instead are attracted by TV personalities, football players and rich entrepreneurs (their honesty doesn’t matter). These models have been spread, above all over recent years, by the current Premier.
In particular “PRECARI” teachers (temporary teachers on short-term contracts) who often carry out their mission with great enthusiasm and love, are kept in a dramatic situation.
Despite all having degrees, teaching qualifications and sometimes also master degrees for public authority employment, they are hired every year in September and sacked when the school year ends. Then they just have to hope to be hired again the following year.
There are also many teachers in this situation of limbo who are no longer young and who have also been subjected to this treatment for over 25 years!
Cuts in tens of thousands jobs in the school, which in Italy receives much less investment than other developed countries, will mainly hit these teachers, who have no have no
contractual rights.

Hello melanie and welcome,

Well, if you only substitute a few words like "PRECARI" with their equivalent terms, this whole thread could very well apply to Greece also! What a coincidence, right? We have a saying: "great good and great evil comes only by design" and this situation in the education of both countries -and others of course- can only be masterminded with great insight and executed very systematically to take THAT proportions and be THAT problematic and inefficient sadly...

And just to cheer things up a little, the only "consolation" i have regarding our current plight in Greece is that at least we don't have Berlusconi for Prime Minister! :D
But i have to admit that we still qualify for second or third worst with our current one. Wow! I can only attest that the PTB have great casting skills.... ;)

 

[Pierre]

An invitation to the international press to keep an eye on the Italian situation.

Hi Melanie,

And a warm welcome to the SOTT forum.

The current Italian situation reminds me of what happened to the students and teachers strike movement a few month ago.

Sarkozy and his minions handled it in a perfect Machiavellian way :
- controlled medias kept focusing on negative (and often manufactured) aspects of the movement : violence during demonstrations, understatement of the size of the movement, interview of people who were against the movement
- introduction of agent provocateurs
- twisting student and teachers testimonies
- ridiculing students and teachers situation (lazy, well paid, too much holidays...)
- manipulation of the involved unions
- use of police violence
- use of administrative sanctions decided by university presidents
- ...

The strike movement getting attacked from every direction finally died and the French education system keeps regressing. 12000 less teachers this year, more and more precarious contracts, dropping budgets, modification of the teaching programs.

Ignorant people are less prone to see and understand ponerized deeds and words so no wonder education is one of the first targets of ponerized politicians.

 

[mkrnhr]

I teached last year in France and I can tell you that the dumbing of youngsters worked very well so far. The actual effort to go on at a faster pace is simply frightening!
Italian students told me about the nonexistence of press in Italy and the dumbing of people through mass media. One thing a student from Roma told me is "They want us to become like Americans".