Students on strike.

600,000 Alumnos sin beca / 600,000 students without grants

Faculty closed for educational strike

A note from our professor saying that class is cancelled because of the strike.

So something kind of weird happened today... As normal, I crawled out of my bed at just gone 7.30am to get to my Russian class for about 8.45am (it's supposed to start at 8.30 but the teacher doesn't have a great concept of time!) I left the flat at 8.10am and went on my merry way to the metro station. As per usual, I got to uni about 30 minutes later, and noticed that some new graffiti had been added to the already expansive collection all over campus. There were banners up outside the metro station saying '600,000 alumnos sin beca' (600,000 students without grants), but to be honest, I hardly batted an eyelid as this has become a regular occurrence - the Spanish youth sure do love a say in things (more on this at a later date...) On my way to class, I notices that something was a bit... off. There were a fair amount of people about, but they were all just hovering, not really going anywhere. It usually takes about 10-15 minutes from when you leave the metro station until you enter your classroom, but it's usually fairly uneventful - that was until today. I went to cross a road, and noticed that a police car was blocking the traffic from going the direction of my classroom. How strange! However, it was only 1 policeman so I just assumed that there has been some sort of collision further down the road. Anyway, I carried on, but as I got closer to my destination, I noticed more police vehicles - and this time they were't just cars. There were probably 20 (if not more) full on police people-carriers lined up down the road, yet it was pretty much silent. Again, I continued, but when I reached the building of my Russian classroom, I noticed that loads of people were again just standing around outside, and a larger group of people were looking over a balcony, in the direction of all of the police cars. I looked down, and saw more police cars, and then a large group of students barricading the entrance of one of the other buildings in my faculty, all surrounded by police in their full get up - batons and shields at the ready. As you can imagine, I was quite confused - what possibly could be going on to need this many police?! I asked a fellow confused student, and she told me that the students of our faculty (and a few others) were striking because of the cut in grant money and were therefore blocking this particular building. I still didn't quite get why so many police officers were needed, but I saw other students enter into my building and decided to follow suit as my class would be starting any minute. 

I arrived at my classroom, and to be honest, I wasn't all that surprised to be the first one there - despite it being about 8.55am at this point. Convinced that someone would be arriving soon, and that they must just be delayed by the commotion going on outside, I decided to wait... and wait... Whilst waiting I decided to Whatsapp my friend from another class saying how everyone one was late. The reply I got was a bit worrying..

"What? You went to class? Did you not see the news?" 

Um, no? I don't have time to be watching tv at 7am! He then went on to explain the situation...

"They started a fire, they're occupying the buildings and they're attacking the police! You should probably go home"

It all seemed so calm and quiet outside, but now I was starting to worry. Is this why no one had bothered to come to my Russian class?

"How is the situation now?" I told him what was going on, and asked him if there would be any classes today, as I was supposed to have another two hours after my Russian class.

"It's not that there aren't any classes, the teachers aren't on strike, the students are. Classes will depend on whether the teacher can get there or not"

So, after an hour of waiting in my empty classroom, I decided to text my friend Katya (who I had my next class with) to tell her what was going on. We didn't know whether or not we would have our next class, and as she was already on her way, we decided to show up and go from there. When we got to the classroom, we were greeted by a piece of paper stuck to the door (last picture) that explained that the class was cancelled because the teacher physically could not get to the building due to the strike. So not only was this craziness going on outside, but I also woke up at 7.30 for nothing!! As there was nothing left to do, we both headed back to the metro (where Katya had been only 20 minutes before!) to go home again. On the way back, more police were blocking the main avenue of the campus and then we could hear chanting in the distance. Before we knew it, crowds of students were marching from both directions down the avenue, and all we could do was watch from the sidelines. As we got closer to the metro stop, we saw more and more police vehicles, and still loads of people hovering around. Now I think about it, all of the people who didn't know what to do with themselves were clearly foreign. As per usual, the foreigners were left out of the loop - so the only people on campus were protesters, police, and a confused bunch of foreign students wondering what the hell was going on. A warning email would have been nice... Didn't think of that one now did you ERASMUS office?

Luckily we were able to escape without any further drama, but it was overall an utterly confusing series of events. Nowhere but Spain would you have students on strike! In the UK, the teachers may occasionally go on strike, but everyone is pre warned and it is generally for a good reason, but no, things are the other way around in Spain! You certainly wouldn't have the police getting involved in the UK either, and I'm actually really lucky that I only ran into a few police vans, because as you can see in the video below (that I didn't see until I got home), things actually got pretty serious. Fires started, police beatings, 53 arrests, and it turns out that the students that had been barracading themselves in one of the buildings had been in there for a week! Just another day as a Year Abroad student - I'm actually starting to feel like I'm back in Russia!

Now, I'm not familiar with all of the facts, but I did do a little research to see what caused this strike in the first place, and to be honest, it sort of backs up my 'Spanish youths don't know how lucky they are/they'll protest about anything' theory (again, more on this later). So, let's just take a quick look at what caused this kerfuffle;

- Students have been taking part in a 48-hour protest against rising fees and harder access to grants.
- It costs the average student approximately €18,000 (£15,000 or £3,750/year) for a 4 year language based 'grado' (undergraduate) degree at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (prices depend on subject)
- However, many students have access to 'becas' or grants and there 6 different types of 'becas' available depending on your need/status.
- As with grants, these 'becas' are non-repayable, so basically free money to help students get through university.
- If you compare that to the situation in the UK, the Spanish are having to pay only a third of the price per year, and also receiving 'becas' to help them fund it, whereas a typical student studying in the UK would be able to take out a loan, and grants are fairly hard to come by.

I am obviously no expert, but it all seems a bit ridiculous to me! What are your thoughts? Do write me a comment if you have anything to add/dispute, I'd like to hear what you think!

If you want to read a bit more on the subject, here are two links to articles written by El País - a national Spanish newspaper: 

http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/03/26/inenglish/1395835412_287554.html

http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/03/27/inenglish/1395917283_458509.html?rel=rosEP

Until my next crazy adventure!

Isobel x

*Sorry that some of these photos aren't great - I didn't want to get too close to all of the action!