Italy: Fighting Neoliberal Reforms in Education

Since October last year, students from all over Italy have been involved in a wide number of protests against new laws which are aiming to introduce neoliberal reforms in both schools and universities. These new laws, law 133 and law 169, have been put forward by minister of education Mariastella Gelmini who is aiming to balance the government’s books through cutting public expenditure in education. The main thrust of the new laws are:

Japanese Lesson

The world’s political elites are looking just a little jaundiced now that the free market god is proving to be a touch fallible. The days of free market triumphalism are long gone as our shell shocked leaders try to prevent the world economy sliding into prolonged depression. With free market solutions now dead, the big question is whether or not massive government action will be enough to avoid an economic meltdown.