Mass student protests in Denmark

On the 6th of October, 30 000 students gathered in the cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Viborg, Odense, Sønderborg and Aalborg, to protest against budget cuts in Danish school. Furthermore 60 schools were occupied by the students at least one day before the demonstration. The name of the campaign and the initiative organizing the protests is called Out of the crisis – into the future and consists of all the students organizations of Denmark and the young trade-union movement.

“The government has made cut downs every year for the last 10 years and it’s the wrong way to go in an economic crisis”, says the spoke man of the initiative and the president of the organization of Danish upper secondary school students (DGS) Bjarke Dahl Mogensen. “Education is the future and to inject money to education is an investment. The vocational school students don’t have training places and in upper secondary school we sit way too many students in the class rooms. The unemployment of youth is increasing enormously – we don’t want to be garbage generation, we need investments and action from the politicians!”

Since the demonstration in the beginning of October more money have been promised to the university students and party of the opposition have said that they will vote for a limit of size of the classrooms – so now there is majority for a limit if we get a new government. The supporting party of the Danish government has said that they will not vote for budget cuts on education. But if they do what they have promised is doubtful, since the final reading of the Budget proposal is still waiting. So the Danish students continue the fight.