In a speech with a strong social and political sign, the Secretary -General of the KKE CC, Dimitris Koutsoubaswas placed on the burning issue of youthful delinquencycharacterizing it not as an individual deviation but as a “mirror” of an entire system. From the step of the NTUA, Mr Koutsoubas rejected the government’s approach to repression and individual responsibility, identifying the roots of the problem in socio -economic conditions.
According to the Secretary General of the KKE, the abusive behavior of young people is not accidental. It is the result of the despair they experience when they and their families are confronted with poverty and unemployment. He argued that the modern school, instead of educating and opening horizons, “strangles dreams” and enhances social separation.
“That’s why we emphasize that: There are no dangerous children. There are children who are in danger, within this system, either to fall victims or become victims! “
Dimitris Koutsoubas criticized the ND government, but also in the previous SYRIZA and PASOK, accusing them of dealing with the issue solely in terms of repression. He emphasized that promoting the logic of “individual responsibility” of parents and teachers is a strategy aimed at withdrawing the state from its social obligations for prevention and substantial support.
“The solution is no more policing, school cameras, stricter penalties and disciplinary measures,” he said, explaining that such measures simply reinforce control and generalized policing at the expense of the youth, without touching the core of the problem. According to him, the real culprit is the “violence that exerts on the working-class families today’s system of capitalist exploitation”.
Contrarying the repression with a radically different approach, Mr Koutsoubas deposited the KKE and KNE claim. The solution, he said, is in a holistic change that includes:
- A different school, that will educate completely and will not psychologically exterminate the students.
- A different society, that will provide real hope and perspective to the younger generation.
- A world without exploitation, where young people will be a power of creation and not a “problem”.3
He stressed that the definitive elimination of such phenomena can only be achieved in a socialist society, free from the violence of competition and the hunting of profit. “A large part of these young people can be saved,” he concluded, “if he meets the ideas of class wrath and class social rebuilding of a new world.”