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