1988. november (277-303. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2
j ősimmé ©mE Editor: György Krassó * 24/D Little Russell Street * London, WC1A 2HN * Tel. 01-430 2126 (írom abroad 441-430 2126) 301/1988 (E) 25th November, 1988 National Student Strike Yesterday and the day before Hungárián students organised strikes meetings and actions in nearly all universities and colleges. The university students had already made complaints at the Veszprém Student Parliament in the summer and then in September they held waming strikes in Szeged and Pécs. Bút their demands were nőt met, the Ministry of Education replied a month after they had submitted them and then only in a highly unsatisfactory manner. l'he calls fór the November 23rd and 24th strikes were originally made in Szeged bút university and college students in Pécs, Miskolc, Békéscsaba, Szombathely, Győr and Eger alsó joined them. In Budapest students in the Eötvös Loránd University, the Kari Marx School of Econoraics and in the Technical and Law Universities alsó supported the strikes. Qn Wednesday at 10 am Technical College students held a meeting and lecturers and students stated that Hungárián higher education is on the brink of collapse. At 11 am instead of attending lectures students took part in a debate and held lectures about university autonomy and the financial situation of higher education. At 3 pm hundreds of them formed a humán chain around the Gólyavár building and organised a meeting in the evening. In the Kari Marx School of Economics three members of Parliament’s Cultural Committee and Dr Kálmán Szabó', the ex-rector of the university, heard the students’ demands. During the meeting the economics students drafted an Open Letter addressed to Parliament in which they state that the govemment has made promises instead of giving them laboratories, books and equipment and demand that education is improved, ceases to be a state monopoly and that church and foreign Capital is brought in to fináncé it. They stress the vitai importance of investing in humán Capital, in education and state that the situation in Hungary is catastrophic. Their announcement contained four demands: /l/ The budget quota fór education and culture must increase radically, /2/ Acceptable social investments must be made in the universities, /3/ Recognition fór educationalists must be raised to an adequate level both morally and materially, and /4/ The autonomy of higher education institutes must be ensured by law. The demands circulated in various towns and teaching institutes of the country in- cluded increased financial support, university autonomy, educational freedom, the end of compulsory Russian language lessons, to replace ideological type subjects with a more generál social theory and alsó protests aeainst the plán to close universities because of an ostensible shortage of coal. The university actions alsó continuea on Thursday. In Szombathely teachers and students - nearly 2000 of them - organised a pro test in the moming. In Budapest at 11 am a great meeting was organised in the BEAC sports hall involving about a thousand students from various universities. They supported the students of the József Attila University in Szeged who have sent a letter to the Ministry of Education and they heard a statement by other universities. A proposal to solve education financing by reducing the amount spent on military bodies was récéived by great applause. At 3 pm a funeral march set off from the comer of Váci Street and Kigyó Street accompanied by hundreds of students and moumers, the coffin contained the corpse of higher education which according to one of the leaflets announcing the demonstration "had died after much suffering". The cortege proceeded to the Erzsébet Bridge where the coffin was thrown intő the Danube and banners saying "We will Ressurectl" were raised. Subscribers can use or quote the Hungárián October newsletters in totál or in detail as long as the source is acknowledged.
