"International Student Movement"

Most of you are probably curious what other groups will be doing during the "Reclaim your Education - Global Week of Action" (20/04 - 29/04).

So this thread was created to help give an overview of the planned actions so far.

Also let me refer you to this thread, where you can arrange "live greetings of solidarity" and other communication efforts during the Global Week of Action with groups elesewhere on this planet.

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Luxembourg:

• UNEL (Union Nationale des Etudiant-e-s du Luxembourg) plans to organize a conference about education in a highschool with politicians and other experts to analyze the actual educational situation as well as the perspectives.
  (Details will follow soon.)

Germany:

• Berlin: General assemblies at the "Freie Universität" (23/04) as well as at the "Technische Universität" (29/04)
  
• Marburg: "global flashmob" with pupils and students (22/04); "open forum" during the evening after the flashmob (22/04); info-booths for four days on campus (21 + 22/04) and city centre (17 + 18/04); public lecture with profs + "soup kitchen" (21 + 23/04)
  
• Frankfurt/M: "global flashmob"; teach-in; "big read"; video display of protests worldwide (all on 24/04)
  
• Heidelberg: a demonstration (20/04), general assembly, "global flashmob" and smaller actions!
• Hamburg: Demonstration (24/04)
• Leipzig: Actions following the judgement by the Federal Administrative Court regarding the introduction of tuition fees (29/04). The lawsuit is based on the "International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right" (UN). Among the actions is also an event the "Exploitation of Staff at Universities" arranged by the "Free Workers Union" (FAU).
• Halle: Event arranged by "Free Workers Union" (FAU): the "Exploitation of Staff at Universities" (28/04) also in Halle.
• Münster: "Teach-in" informing the public at crowded places about the Global Week of Action (20/04); public camping & film presentation of protests worldwide (21/04); "global flashmob", various actions during the academic senate assembly and public camping with programme (22/04); last day of camping with programme (23/04); street theatre at the city centre (24/04)
• Oldenburg: "global flashmob" (more details here)
  

Belgium:

• 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].

Guatemala:

• Public lecture in Jocotenango (Los Patojos Programa) about the importance of free and emancipatory education. The first ever of such kind within the community. (date to be announced)
  

Denmark:

• "Reclaim your Education; Denmark" are arranging buses going all the way through Denmark, Northern Germany Netherlands to Louvain (Belgium). Actions across Denmark are being currently arranged. (details coming up)
• In Copenhagen: "global flashmob" (22/04); occupation of the university's administration buildung
  

U.S. of A.:

• Students at the City College of New York will walk out of class at 2 pm on Wednesday, April 22nd, in protest against budget cuts and tuition increases and in commemoration of the 1969 student strike. The 1969 strike lead to the open admissions policy, which changed CUNY from an elite public university to a university that served the entire population of the City of New York. Within five years, CUNY was awarding more degrees to people of color than any other university system in the US.
• The Committee on Revolutionizing the AcaDemy (ComRAD) is organizing a Conference: "Reworking the University: Visions, Strategies, Demands" at the University of Minnesota (24 - 26/04). The programme can be accessed here. As part of the week of action and the conference they also call for a collective manifesto. Everyone is invited to contribute.
• Speakers Panel at the University of California, Berkeley (27/04)
• Speakers Panel in Houston (Texas), incl. music and poetry (25/04)
• Sit-in at the University of Vermont (UVM) student center (if the administration still refuses to negotiate by April 20th) in protest of budget cuts, layoffs and administrative mismanagement beginning on April 22nd until the university reverses its cuts and reinstates laied off faculty and staff.
  

Canada:

• Free education week of action at the University of Toronto. (more details expected soon!)
• Rally against supplementary fee increases at the University of Ottawa (24/04).

Japan:

• Activists in Tokyo will hold a rally during Global Week of Action.
  Title: 学費が高い・・・、奨学金がローンってありなのか？
  Global Week of Action 2009!! 教育を取り戻せ
  (Too expensive school fees ... is it possible to call "student loans" as "scholarship"? Global Week of Action 2009!! Reclaim your education)
  Place: Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
  Date: 25th April, 17:00

Poland:

• a group at Wroclaw University will organize "info-tents" on campus, as well as meetings and petitions to school authorities.

Indonesia:

• Actions on the streets of Surabaya by university students. Now is campaign time for upcoming elections. They will demand for the next goverment to stop the privatisation of the education system, reject a new education law and protest for debt cancellation and free access to education.

Croatia:

• Various groups in Zagreb 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)
  (Maybe it would be nice, if activists from around the world could give them a call or send them letters of support, which they could then display during their occupation!!)
• Various student groups in  Zadar will hold a public forum on tuesday (21/04) on campus together with professors, provosts and rector discussing further plans during the Global Week of Action. Groups such as the Student Council of the University of Zadar, the Sociology Club, Geography Club, the independent students' website "Sajt" and others are promoting the global perspective of our struggle against the commercialization of education. The developments can be followed on: sajt.net.hr Photos and videos will be posted inside this forum after the week.
  

France:

• Activists at the University of Lyon will organize a game involving parents and children at some central place (22/04). It will help to deliver knowledge about education around the world.

Finland:

• During the week groups are calling for several demonstrations and rallies in the area of the Jyväskylä University campus. Furthermore there will be performances and speeches and students and staff on campus will be informed about the protests and the educational policies around the world.
• A call for a week of action in Finland, which will be part of the "Reclaim your Education - Global Week of Action":
  "Come to imagine the University of your Dreams
  Week of action from 20 to 24 April

  We invite all students and staff of the university to The University
  of Dreams Action Week, which is held from Monday 20 April to Friday 24
  April. During the week, university people exchange ideas, what a
  perfect university would be like. The week offers dozens of different
  activities, from sports and yoga to discussion events and workshops on
  how to repair a bicycle, for example.

  The aim is to construct a new kind of forum for an open discussion and
  a free exchange of ideas, uniting all students and teachers.

  "Media coverage of the university reform has concentrated to the
  defects of the reform. In the University of Dreams Action Week we want
  to underline that the question is not about opposing everything, but
  about the will of the universitarians to participate in the discussion
  on to which direction the universities should be developed", says
  Juhana Venäläinen, one of the organisers of the action week.

  In the morning, we have the possibility to prepare ourselves for the
  challenges of the intellectual work by jogging, yoga or bird spotting
  excursions, for example. In "sweatshops" we can learn useful skills on
  how to repair a bicycle or how to knit a woollen sock. In "knowledge
  workshops" everyone can be the teacher and the pupil, using our common
  experiences and knowledge to form new ideas about the university.

  The panel discussions deal with the hot topics of the university
  system. On Tuesday, we discuss about interlaces between the university
  and the cultural life, on Wednesday about the basic income and on
  Thursday about the coming University of Eastern Finland (with Rector
  Perttu Vartiainen). Evening program is also abundant and serve to
  nourish the dreams in a more relaxed atmosphere at clubs and parties.
  Cultural events, as for example music and dance, have been mixed with
  other events to avoid too serious atmosphere. Most of the activities
  take place on the university campus.

  The program of the action week is visible on the website
  http://www.unelmienyliopisto.net.

  The University of Dreams Action Week has been organised by the
  University Action Network, formed in spring 2009 by university
  students and staff. In the same time, the "Reclaim Your Education - Global Week of Action" takes place around the world. In Finland, university action weeks are held also in Helsinki and Tampere, among others. More details regarding the week of action in Tampere can be accessed here.

  Further information:
  University Action Joensuu
  Heidi Meriläinen
  Tel. +358 44 322 4564
  hemerila[at]cc.joensuu.fi"

Liberia:

• Student and youth groups in Monrovia together with NGOs are preparing for a public forum with workshops discussing education issues.

Nigeria:

• Kids & Teens Resource Centre (K&TRC) is organizing a media programm, as well as arrange two rallies in two different states, which will both end at the Governor's office.

Austria:

• National Day of Action on April 20th for better conditions within educational institutions and more public spending on education and against the commercialization of education. Various protests (incl. demonstrations) will take place in Vienna, Salzburg, Tirol, Oberösterreich, Kärnten, Steiermark, Burgenland, Niederösterreich and Voralberg. (for more info [in German] click here)

Russia:

• Groups in Moscow will hold an open discussion "What education do we want?
  Reforms and alternatives" (26/04). The discussion targets the recent
  local educational reforms syncronised with the European ones. Among
  the subjects are Bologna reform in Russian universities, school final
  exams and university enterance exams, precarisation of professors' and
  teacers' labor and of ex-students' professional trajectory,
  alternative forms of education and of self-organised institutions.
  Participants are scholars, students, school teachers, pupil,
  university administrators, politically engaged artists, political and
  civil activists. During the debate pictures and videos of protest
  movements in Europe targeting the commercialization of education will
  be displayed.

Spain:

• National Strike of Universities across Spain (28/04), with debates and activities at various educational institutions. Groups will try to drag the strike and make it open-end, at least at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

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Please leave a message below or drop me a line (united.for.education[at]gmail.com), if you want me to add your planned actions for the Global Week of Action to the list.