We are united in working to ensure that:
If we are to have such a society we need general public discussions on the role of public education systems: Whose interests do they - and should they - primarily serve?
The "Education is NOT for $ale - Global Week of Action" will spread awareness regarding the global nature of the problems linked with the increasing commercialization and corporatization of public education around the world. It will unite activists, groups and movements involved in the struggle for free and emancipatory public education accessible to all and protected as a fundamental human right - Worldwide.
Please sign and forward this petition if you share these demands for public education.
For more information on the "International Student Movement" and/or the "Education is NOT for $ale - Global Week of Action" feel free to send a mail to united.for.education[at]gmail.com or visit emancipating-education-for-all.org
Disclaimer: This petition is not directed at any particular political institution, but designed to bring to light the global nature of the struggle for free and emancipatory public education, inspiring activists and concerned citizens worldwide to unite in their efforts.
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What is the "International Students Movement"?
The "International Students Movement" is a platform used by groups and activists around the world struggling against the commercialisation and privatisation of public education to network and co-ordinate protests together.
The platform is independent from any political parties, unions or other institutions. It is dominated by grassroots movements and generally open to everyone [students, pupils, teachers, parents, workers,...]. The forces pushing for the commercialisation of education [unleashed by global competition] - just like the commercialisation of every other aspect of life - are located on the global level. To effectively counter this development groups struggling for free and emancipatory public education need to unite internationally and globally.
The "International Students Movement" makes use of the following tools:
"Education is NOT for $A£€ - Global Week of Action"
After the "International Day of Action against the Commercialization of Education" [05/11/2008] and the "Reclaim your Education - Global Week of Action" [20 - 29/04/2009] activists from various countries agreed to call for another Global Week of Action later this year: Nov. 5th 2009 ["Warm-up" Day of united Action] + Nov.9th - 18th 2009.
Why this time frame? Last year on Nov.5th the same platform called for the "International Day of Action against the Commercialization of Education". To have some sort of continuation we agreed during an international chat, that Nov.5th should be the "Warm-up" Day of united Action". Nov.17th marks the "International Students' Day". Groups on the Philippines are already planning protests against the commercialization of education on that day.
An "info pamphlet" can be downloaded here. [print 2 pages on 1 + duplex!]
What is this struggle about?
Students, teachers, workers and parents around the world ask themselves: Is the public education system still serving the interests of the public, or is the focus shifting to implement education systems that primarily serve private and business interests? Tuition fees are – once introduced – sky-rocketing, universities and schools are turned into businesses, student debt keeps increasing and education budgets cut.
Institutions of higher education become highly dependant on their ability to attract sponsorships (usually from economic actors). Consequently only those institutions and departments are able to survive, that are deemed valuable by sponsors.
Public education systems, from kindergarten to university, must prioritize emancipating aspects, be free and accessible to all. A proper democracy only exists, if society consists of emancipated and self-determined individuals, that are able to critically reflect their (social) environment, developments and power structures. Any system, that doesn’t fulfill these criteria is not democratic.
The fact, that groups in more than 20 countries on 5 continents joined the international day of action in November and the Global Week of Action in April this year shows how international this struggle is.
It is up to each group how and for how many days they want to express their protest during the week of action. It can be a smaller or bigger action. But it is important that we co-ordinate this together.
Therefore please leave a message as a comment or send a mail to:
united.for.education[at]gmail.com
if you have any questions or decide to unite in protest against the increasing commercialization of public education with groups and activists around the world or to be added to the list of supporters.
Let's get organized and unite in our struggle - worldwide!
Dear Surfers,
some of you might have been wondering why I didn't get to post any entry on this blog for the past few months. There is a simple reason.
After the "International Day of Action against the Commercialisation of Education" on Nov.5th 2008 a loose network was created, which now calls itself "International Students Movement" and involved groups from about 30 countries.
Activists involved in that network have "international chat-conferences" regularly and during one of those chats decided to call for a "Reclaim your Education - Global Week of Action" in April (20/04 - 29/04).
To understand the problem and the global perspective of the struggle better check out the list of education protests I compiled for the year 2007 and 2008 . For some of the latest protests this year in Finland, Spain, the U.S. of A., Philippines, France and elsewhere click here.
Materials, such as this poster...
... can be downloaded here.
Currently more than 45 groups in close to 30 countries officially support the call for the Global Week of Action. The complete list can be accessed here.
This is the mailing list of the "International Students Movement". And if you are registered on facebook, then you are also welcome to join this group for the week of action.
As part of the Global Week of Action groups from across Europe are mobilizing for protests in Louvain/Leuven (Belgium) to protest against the Ministerial Bologna Conference [28/04 - 29/04]. Click here for more details. Official homepage for this mobilization is louvain2009.com And if you are looking for transport opportunities to get to Belgium for the protests, hopefully this entry can help you. Currently I am also working on creating some sort of "Overview" of the Global Week of Action, so that groups around the world can see what others are actually planning on doing.
A "Twitter" account , especially for the Global Week of Action, was also set-up.
Globally united for free and emancipatory education - worldwide!!