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Bonaventure School - an experiment in libertarian education
Even though now it's been around for nearly two years,
the libertarian school Bonaventure d'Ol=E9ron had never
really reached the communes of the Northern Alps and
a fortiori nor did it reach Italy. So it seemed to us that
with a libertarian group in Maurienne, whose activities
stretched as far as Chamb=E9ry, a link to the FA
(Anarchist Federation of France) and a co-
organisational project with our comrades in Italy that
this was an area that should be dealt with.
The rounds were done between the 5th and the 11th
of March during which time we stopped off at the home
of some organic farmers in Ain, were the guests of the
FA group in Grenoble, and held public meetings in
Milan, Pinerollo, Turin, Chamb=E9ry and finally Saint-
Jean-de-Maurienne. A heavy week for the two
bonaventuriers, from whom we were able to verify the
energy of the anarchist movement and the Italian
revolutionaries who have, more quickly than here, seen
the abandonment and indeed the defeat of a mass
education system led and, up until recently, promoted
by the state. In effect, the government and big industry
foresee 'grave management difficulties' regarding the
administration of certain social services - one being
education - to justify their financial disengagement.=20
A first move will be to empower local authorities to
forgo their legal obligation to provide a maternity
education service - we won't have to wait long for this
one. Large local companies, heavily in the red, will not
hesitate to shut the school gates in order to relieve their
budgets.
Within such a framework alternatives don't seem very
possible. Only the Roman Catholic church has the
means to take over 95% of these scholarly
establishments, according to our comrades in Italy. And
one can't deny that things have indeed worked out well
for the bourgeoisie whose natural ally, in the homeland
of Roman Catholicism (as indeed it is in France) is the
state with its helping hand. This can be explained in
several different ways but that of which we can be
certain is that the states of Europe need a church that
has never really lost its political footing and which,
moreover, is willing to play the 'charitable role' of the
state which today simply has to play at social politics
whilst, at the same time, preferring that this disregard
for the conditions of the poor should not provoke their
revolt.
The underlings therefore will get their diet of 'what
they need' - an education of suppression and the
necessities to survive - no more. Under such conditions
it is tempting for the Italian anarchists to take advantage
of this space and try out the idea of a libertarian school
- self-management here and now, an education of
revolt, for autonomy and individual harmony..
Well of course the argument was heated between
those who argued that the state system offered the best
chance of offering space for the development of a
revolutionary libertarian education and those who
thought it impossible for any state institution to be
reformed and advantage gained from it.
The idea of the Bonaventure school came just in time
to rescue the latter's cause and our two bonaventuriers
were well questioned about educational matters and
also about the political experience they had had on the
Ile d'Ol=E9ron and it's region. In short we can say there's a
lot of interest on the other side of the Alps and we hope
to see one day (soon?) a libertarian education network
which wouldn't be a mean achievement.
On this side of the mountains the debate was
somewhat different (as are our situations) but we can
say that the interest generated in the single concrete
instance of libertarian education that we have was equal
to the Italian experience.
Considering together the twenty outsiders who came
to the Chamb=E9ry meeting (along with friends), when we
hadn't been to the town for three years, with a dozen
faces we came across in Sainte-Jeande-Maurienne and
a few lively debates - and finding a general consensus
view that social change is required one can say that
these initiatives in Savoy were successful. And a
success that was well covered by the local press. So we
will continue, for sure, with this project and others now
that we have proof that libertarian ideas and practices
can be popular.
Translated from Le Monde Libertaire