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International Day of Action
posted Monday, 23 October 2006
Let's take a look at the latest protest developments led by students in Germany to encourage the governments of various states to drop their plans of introducing tuition fees.
- 05/10/ Parliament of Hesse passed the new law forcing students to pay at least €500 (plus €250 fees for registration; totalling at least €750 per semester for BA students), if they want to spend a semester at uni. Hundreds of students protested in front of parliaments house.
- 12/10/ A panel of international researchers has picked three universities (Munich's Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich's Technical University (TU) and the University of Karlsruhe) to be granted extra funds, so that they can too become 'elite universities'. That this is a great step to establish a two class education system in Germany doesn't really seem to bother anyone.
- 14/10/ During a student protest in Siegen (state of North Rhine Westphalia) the 'green team' attacked peaceful protesters with tear gas and clubs; a few people were injured and eight students were radomly arrested. One 86 year old woman was injured and had to be taken to hospital when the police pushed her onto the ground while chasing students.
- 16/10/ The council of the university of Mannheim (state of Baden Württemberg) decided to meet up with representatives of the Deutsche Bank inside their corporate headquater in Frankfurt. They talked about the closure of the faculty of philosophy and the technical IT sector, as well as cuts in the mathematic faculty. The uni is suppose to be turned into another Business School. Furthermore they discussed how to spend the tuition fees. Just outside the building students gathered to protest this partnership between public universities and corporate giants like the Deutsche Bank.
- 20/10/ A 22 year old philosophy student was sentenced after taking part in an Autobahn (highway) blockade in May this year. He has to pay €500. More trials are to be expected.
- 20/10/ A peaceful protest took place in Marburg (approx. 600 individuals) and other uni cities across Hesse.
- 21/10/ The alliance of unions (DGB) in Germany called for protests in 5 major cities (Berlin, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart) across Germany. Altogether more than 220 000 people bothered to join the protests to pressure the government to change its politics and stop dismantelling the welfare state. 80 000 people protested in Berlin alone. In Frankfurt were 15 000 with 3 000 of them being students. Again the police used clubs and tear gas and arrested eight students.
... and the resistance continues!!
It's not just Germany, students across the globe protest against cuts and the continuous privatisation in the education sector.
That's why it is about time that this whole movement unites and organizes protests together! This is not a national, but a global problem, therefore it needs an international resistance!! The same goes for the workers movement. When will the unions learn that it is vital to establish international networks. People of the world need to unite to counter the full might of the corporate and political elite.
Social progress only takes place through struggles and fights. Multinational Corporations and governments are never concerned about peoples' welfare. Governments and corporations have their own interests, that they are after. And only if these interests are threatened, things will change.
That is why people at the European Social Forum came up with the idea to take on a global action day for education because neoliberalism, especialy the G8 and various corporate lobby groups (see Bertelsmann) are forcing education to be trade-able. But education is not for sale, education is a right!
Right now it´s not like everyone has acces to this right, mostly it depends on the money of their parents. The students want to change that - and you can see their struggle in all the world.
At the Anti-G8-Camp near Rostock this summer, called Camp.inski, a group of students from France, Poland, Germany and other countries gathered and decided to take on this Global Action Day on November, 30th. With this Global Action Day they want to show, that we are not begging anymore, but fighting for our rights, so most of them will do a reclaim the streets party - taking back the streets like we will take back the education!
The following video shows struggles and protest actions of 2006.
Enjoy, talk about it, get in action and get organized! Spread the word!
Students unite!
~GlobalSolidarity&Peace~
We will prevail.
PS: Don't get me wrong, I am not promoting violence, especially not towards other beings!
PPS: Check out what happened during the Global Action Day for Education by clicking here!
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