Over-reaction!

RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES ESCALATE ACTION AGAINST SCHOOL STUDENT UNION

By Stephen Wilson

    

The Russian actor Pavel Ustinov is unlucky! The stars are certainly not on his side. For on the 3rd August he had arranged to meet a friend to discuss his work. Instead, he inadvertently walked out of a building to be immediately assaulted by four national guardsmen. They wrestled him to the ground, detained and arrested him. Those men were 'policing' an unsanctioned protest demonstration against unfair council elections which were to be held on the 8th September. Poor Pavel found himself subject to an unfair trial on the falsely brought charges of assaulting a law enforcement officer. The authorities claimed that he had been shouting political slogans and physically assaulted a policeman. But two video recordings and witnesses which suggest otherwise were not accepted as evidence in court! And Pavel Ustinov is not interested in politics. He doesn't like to discuss it. He is apolitical. But Pavel Ustinov just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Within the vicinity of Pushkin Square where a massive demonstration was going on. He was sentenced to three and half years in prison. The case has provoked the anger and outrage among his fellow actors as well as the wider public.

             

More and more Russians are growing incensed at arbitrary arrests and absurd accusations against protesters. For instance, under article 280 of the law of the Russian Federation the student Yegor Zhukov, has been charged with not only a call for mass disorder but put on a list of 'extremists' and terrorists'. Yet it is the opposition who is being constantly threatened, assaulted and abused, and not vice versa. Navalny has received countless death threats, yet nobody has been charged for this. Only recently, the authorities have threatened to charge a 17-year-old school boy, Leonard Shaidurov, from school number 622, of Saint Petersburg, under article 280, of ' publically calling for  extremist activity. ' But all Leonard did was to found a school student union which would openly discuss how to address serious problems in schools. The headmistress stated he was organizing unsanctioned demonstrations! That would mean any school children could be arrested just for meeting up for a game of football or a birthday party.

             

Second City Teachers wrote an article last year about the foundation of the School Union. According to the information of acquaintances, Leonid Shaidurov hardly comes across as an extremist. He doesn't drink, smoke, swear or even raise his voice. He speaks softly and articulately. It would be highly misleading to dismiss his activity as part of 'an adolescent rebellion' or 'as naive'. Many of the points he is raising are shared by the union, 'Teacher', as well as 'Solidarity', the Union representing teachers at universities. He states: "We don't like the sham of commercialization and bureaucratization of education. There is mass religious discipline and pseudo-patriotic lessons. There are lessons on the 'Uniarmy' . There is constant message of the government party United Russia from teachers." Joining the Uniarmy is supposed to be voluntary, but in practice school students complain of being pressurized to join up.

             

The Union advocates a minimum and maximum program. The minimum program consists of the following demands:

             

- School students must not be subject to more than three tests a day.

             

- Don't exceed the number of lessons for a particular subject a day.

             

- Don't violate the right of school students to self expression such as forbidding them from wearing some clothes or dyeing their hair.

             

- Allow the school students the right to legitimately organize their activities in a school union.  

             

The maximum program calls for the end of the Unitary state exam system. None of those demands are of an extreme nature. Even calling for a strike as a means to obtain your ends does not entail extremism. Only recently a government official called Gref, made a speech suggesting Russian schools might be better to abandon exams all together. Has he been threatened with charges of being an extremist?

             

On a more controversial note, the Union calls for the ending of propaganda encouraging the militarization of youth through the Uniarmy, free school meals for children and forbidding the persecution of school students for their political beliefs and activity. All the demands being made by the school union are to be found enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation as well as the law on Russian Education. The latter especially emphasizes that the rights of students should not be threatened or abused in anyway.

             

In fact, the demand for free school meals was accepted by some local councils in Scotland because children were so hungry they could not concentrate on their lessons in school. Free meals actually helps children study better.

             

It could be argued that far from the school union threatening civil disorder, it is simply sincerely upholding the law. This is something Russian politicians and adults are refusing to do. In this case, children appear to be more mature than adults!  They are only guilty of telling the crowd that the emperor has no clothes.