1989. Czecholovakia. The “student miracle”
(archives) Spearhead of the opposition, the students have been with the actors, "on the go" since 17 (November), the date of their brutal dispersal by the police in Prague. The strike started on Monday 20, however still continues today. Because alongside demands for democracy and political freedoms, their future is not assured. In the occupied universities, debates open to all, conferences and strike activities... follow one another uninterruptedly from morning to evening.
The Party's hold on the content of studies, the careers of professors, courses in ideology
mandatory, and the monopoly of the organization of socialist youth... are at the center of criticism, as well as the conditions of study. The share of the budget devoted to education is one of the lowest in Europe. The equipment of the universities is poor, few photocopiers or computers. Students can only live with financial help from parents…etc. If the majority of teachers support these demands; some remember, and prefer to abstain from all publicity… fear.
In each faculty, a strike committee, made up of the most dynamic elements, settles the daily problems of organization. A coordination center sits 22 hours a day in the two capitals: Prague and Bratislava (education being decided at regional level since 24), all coordinated by a federal committee in Prague. An internal care structure is provided by medical students.
Wise "revolution" all the same, which invites to denounce the incitement to violence to ... the police! Police who sometimes cooperate in the discipline established, with success, since no serious incident is to be deplored - crime having even dropped in Slovakia by 75%!
The nerve of the "war" however remains information. Typewriters, computers and mimeographs run almost day and night to print newspapers and leaflets, which are then distributed to all strategic locations. Signing the bankruptcy of the communist education system, " this movement - declares Dean Tichy, excluded from teaching since 1969 - is a real miracle; what we old people couldn't do, our children did. They had enough courage to go out in the street to express their ideas "...
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
- article published in the Quotidien de Paris, December 1, 1989
