Home › Forums › Forums of the past › Global Week of Action 2009 (April)

Actions and Events on 29/04 [Wednesday] (GWA)

Mon, 27/04/2009 - 21:58 — Mo

29/04/2009

All groups are asked to list their reports (incl. videos and pictures), that took place today, inside here!

Planned actions for today (as far as I know):

  • Germany (Berlin): General assemblies at the "Technische Universität"
  • Belgium (Louvain and Leuven): Activists in France and Spain are calling for groups from across Europe to protest in Louvain and Leuven against the "Ministerial Bologna Conference" (28/04 - 29/04).
    Details will be available soon on louvain2009.com and are also being discussed here.
    For now you can access the official call in [Deutsch] [ελληνικά] [English] [Español] [français] [italiano].
  • Canada (Toronto): Free education week of action at the University of Toronto.

  • Croatia (Zagreb): Various groups will occupy the university building of one faculty, consisting of about
    5,000 students. They will offer an alternative programme, inform about
    the Global Week of Action and its development and promote the global
    perspective of our struggle against the commercialization of education.
    (20 - 26/04 or longer)

‹ Actions and Events on 24/04 [Friday] (GWA) Actions and Events on 23/04 [Thursday] (GWA) ›
  • Login or register to post comments
  • Share this
Thu, 30/04/2009 - 20:48 — Mo

Sheffield (UK)

Sheffield students targeted military recruiters and arms dealers at the University’s careers fair, demanding they have a say over who is allowed on campus. The stalls of QinetiQ, Rolls Royce, the Army and the Navy were all dismantled with protesters bagging up materials from the stalls and removing them from campus.
Activists from Sheffield university continued what is now a growing line of actions highlighting the university’s links to arms companies and military recruiters. The careers fairs held in university buildings are events run by private companies for a profit and often include employers such as the Army, Navy, Rolls Royce and Quinetiq. Rolls Royce is renowned for its arms deals providing billions of pounds of weapons to countries across the world every year. Students also protested about the military, including the Army and Navy, being allowed on campus. These institutions whilst advertising a nice safe job to graduates continues with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and lures graduates in with promises of free further training which is in fact given in return for years of service. Rolls Royce is one of the top investors in the university, investing in research which ultimately is used in weapons manufacture, students attacking the company felt our students’ education and expertise should not be used for arms companies purely because they are willing to pile money into it! Students and staff should have a say in how money is spent and where funding comes from in this university instead of the university being run as a business in the interests of profit, especially when it comes to careers fairs selling our graduates on to employers such as Rolls Royce. The university has repeatedly refused to listen to the large body of students at staff who wish to end the university’s ties with the military and arms trade, and when students occupied in desperation to get the university to listen they were taken to court!

Source: indymedia.org.uk

Thu, 30/04/2009 - 22:03 — Mo

Hildesheim (Germany)

After a successful general assembly at the University of Hildesheim with close to 800 students hundreds of them stormed the senat, which was having a meeting nearby, demanding more democratic structures at their institution.
Since they refused to leave the room the senat shifted its meeting to the auditorium and had to face the questions by the students and justify its stance.
The struggle continues.

Source: E-Mail

Thu, 30/04/2009 - 22:10 — Mo

Belgrade (Serbia)

A group of students gathered around a new radical student bulletin Studenti za studente (Students for Students) and website www.studentizastudente.net organized an initial protest against the increment of tuition fees and the ongoing neoliberal reform of higher education. Their goal is to make education available to all members of society, in other words to make it free of charge.
The protest started at noon, in front of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. Some 100 students gathered in front of the banner ‘One world, one struggle. Education is NOT for sale’. Two students from their independent initiative gave short speeches on the struggles of collegues around the world, stressing out the present struggle in Croatia, as well as information on the upcoming reforms within the education system. A student from Poland also gave a speech during which she compared the higher education system in Sebia to those existing in some European countries, stressing out that the reforms in Serbia will destroy critical thinking and create a mass of servile and scared citizens.
After the protest they occupied the amphitheatre in the Faculty building in order to make an open student meeting with some fifty collegues. This meeting was very successful and their initial group has now grown in numbers. Their next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday next week when they’ll decide how to continue.
This was only a first step in creating a long-term campaign against the neoliberal reforms of higher education, but also in creating a wide network of activists who are willing to fight for what we see as a basic human right.

Free education – not free market!

Students for students!

Source: E-Mail

Thu, 30/04/2009 - 22:22 — Mo

Louvain la Neuve (Belgium)

More than 300 students protested near-by the summit of the "Bologna Ministerial Conference".
This was the final protest of a series of demonstrations by students from across Europe to resist the Bologna process and the commercialization of education.

Source: rtbf.be (in French) + actu24.be (in French) + archives.lesoirs.be (in French) + rtlinfo.be (in French; video clips)

 

Fri, 01/05/2009 - 00:29 — Mo

Casablanca (Morocco)

A group called "Club de Conscience Estudiantine" initiated and planned a whole week of programme for the Global Week of Action, which ended today.
It included film screenings, public discussions, as well as exhibitions.

Source: conscience-estudiantine.blogspot.com (in French)

 

Fri, 01/05/2009 - 02:15 — Mo

Barcelona (Catalunya/Spain)

d e m o n s t r a t i o n   +   o c c u p a t i o n

Following a demonstration through the city, students took direct action against the education ministry. At 2pm a group of college students entered the government building, passing by the security measures in the entrance. They arrived at the 5th floor, home of the of the education minister, Ernest Maragall, and demanded to see him, but he was unavailable for comment. They then hung a banner reading “Colleges against mercantilisation and for the public”.
At 3pm some students tried to enter with food for their companions. Upon being denied entrance they linked up and ran at the line of police, trying to force their way in. The police response was to charge, beating the students with truncheons. At 3.45pm a group of riot police arrived at the scene to proceed with an eviction. Once the riot police were in the building, the press were not allowed to enter (this is common practice in evictions and ensures police impunity for the torture that often occurs inside and off camera). The students were identified and taken outside, to be met with cheers from the assembled crowd.
The action took place at the same time that unionised teachers from all over the Catalan territories rallied outside council buildings and the education consortium.

Source: interuni-bcn.blogspot.com

 

Fri, 01/05/2009 - 18:44 — Mo

Zagreb, Zadar, Rijeka, Split, Osijek, Pula, Varaždin (Croatia)

o c c u p a t i o n s


Around 20 faculties (including 2 whole universities) are under occupation in 8 Croatian cities (Zagreb, Zadar, Rijeka, Split, Osijek, Pula, Varaždin and Slavonski Brod) for 9 days now. The protesters demand "free education for all". The protests got great media coverage. Around 35,000 signatures have been collected supporting the action. Many professors, some faculties and all the trade unions support the means and the aim of the action.

Chronology of press releases are available in German, English, Danish (only 1st press release), Czech (only 1st press release), French (3 press releases), Italian (2 press releases), Slovenian, Spanish (3 press releases), Swedish (only 1 press release)

Chronology of news is available in English.

An overview of documents in various languages can be accessed here.

On the banner above it says:
"One World One Struggle - Education is not for sale"

---------------------

"I have learned of the struggle of Croatian students to ensure that free
education will be available to all. It is a worthy goal for every
society — including my own, where such rights are not honored — and I
would like to wish them success in their efforts."

~ Noam Chomsky

Sun, 03/05/2009 - 16:43 — rud

Gdańsk (Poland)

During the GWA OKUPÉ activists (Open Commitee for Liberation of the Educational Space)from the University of Gdańsk have managed to gather many hundreds of signatures under the petition for radical changes at the University library. The goal is to make it a user-friendly place, for example by reducing the police-like controls and by making it not necessary to have money at the entrance. Students, PhD researchers and academics have also taken several interventions asking police to leave from the campus. They were ensured by the head of the university that all the old agreements with police, allowing them to enter the campus, will be cancelled.

More here