I would suggest February, based on our schedule here in Egypt.  

Two days ago a group from Germany contacted me and said they might call for a national week of action (incl. strikes) involving students, pupils and teachers.

The week of action is suppose to be at the end of May (25/05 - 30/05).
For the day of action on Nov.5th we took the date from the Canadians. Maybe this time it would be a great opportunity to take this week in Germany.

Then all the groups could mobilize in their region by emphasizing that there is actually a rather huge week of action planned in Germany already.

And May still gives us enough time to get things organized (poster, flyer, official Call (in various languages), mobilization video, "live greetings of solidarity", mobilizing around the world,...).

I know that this might not be a great date for Canada, but if it is alright for most groups, then this suggestion might be worth considering.

Would May be alright for Egypt?

What do you think?

May works for Australia, they're currently reducing the length of our semesters. They've raised the prices as far as people will accept them so they've decided to reduce what they'll actually provide for a while instead. But May should still be good for a whole week of action.

Most US students finish in early May, so April would be better so finals don't get in the way of mobilizing people, we'd have to do stuff before people leave schools, which mostly happens between the 1st and the 15th depending on the school.

Early may if possible - the end of it gets close to finals.  For US schools, doesn't April also coincide with spring break weeks? 

but when they finish in early may, so early may may still be ok. it could be a bit too early for germans (they have free until April 13th, then semester starts, but the courses begin 2 weeks later) but a compromize if we want to combine it better with US protest, which we should.

so 'it May be early May'. Quite near to May 1st, then, but why not.

Do you think it´s possible in US to start when they "begin to leave"?

Hey,

I agree that April is a minefield for US students.  I think May would work better, even though it will be final exams, at least everyone will be on campus.  That said I doubt we will be able to find a week that meets everyones needs, so we should focus on what is best for the most people.

I have tried tracking down the groups in these two articles with limited success:

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20081120233833273

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20081120233833273

Anyone know how to get in contact with them?

jim

I agree with Mike (also from the US), April would be the best month here. What do people think of April? March here is spring break and academic conferences and May is full of final exams before summer break.

If we can't all agree because of respective school schedules, why can't we stagger them within a few weeks of each other?

I also wonder how we can create a stronger network of groups that are participating? Could we ask that each group post a working, up-to-date link of a homepage or facebook group and also a contact email and phone number? Like before, but more in depth and in a central location like a directory of participants. This way,  we could have the information more conveniently and try to keep in touch with everyone. I also recommend that if groups have a Facebook page we should all join each other's to keep on top of ideas other groups generate. What do you think?

well, do what ya want. i think, april is too early, early may would be a nice compromize between 'better late may' and 'better april'

how many countries prefer april?

Semestr letni
Okres zajec dydaktycznych         26.02.2009-19.06.2009
Przerwa swiateczna         10.04.2009-14.04.2009
Dni rektorskie         14.05.2009 (Juwenalia), 12.06.2009
Sesja egzaminacyjna         22.06.2009-03.07.2009
Sesja poprawkowa         01.09.2009-24.09.2009

so: they have brake in april in wroclaw/PL.  but

between april 17th and mittdle of june i think should be fine for them.

Why not the end of February (like the first suggestion) since March-May seem problematic?

Maybe we should stick to as few dates to choose from as possible.

To me it seems that most people can agree with the last week of April (27/04 - 03/05/2009)! What do you think? Or shall we kick off that week in the middle of the week? For example: 22/04 - 29/04/2009 (Wednesday)

What do you think? Let's suggest particular weeks, so that we can decide on a week as soon as possible.

I certainly do support Lisa's suggestion of having groups (people to be contacted) listed from each country on the homepage for those interested in getting involved or want more details regarding the regional development. Groups should also post details and their progress in the forum for others to read.

We can start collecting these contacts in the forum for now as well. And I will put them onto the front page of the website as soon as we have a few.

hi there.

end of february would be bad in germany cause of the semester-break. also it would be too early to get in touch with enough groups already to take on preparations.

we need more time to think about what and how to do.

actualy we in hamburg would like to participate in the week of action, but some of us mentioned that it would be better to not call it "week of action" in order that then the public expect us all to do a week full of action. (which would be nice but it does not seem realistic right now.) so our proposal would be to find another name for it, but we dont have a clue yet either ;)

may would suite us, but in january we will have our next federal-wide meeting so there we could see how many groups in germany will or can participate this time.

greetings in solidarity

well, so lets talk about it on sunday.

but it would be nice to find a clear time on sunday. something between february and may.

i will not accept a chat without a finished timeplan at the end of it. i´ll make a "SZENE" (in german: someone is making loud stuff on a few mailing lists) if we really fall too deep into diskussions that we forget we need a timeplan for between feb and may

OKAY?

"would be to find another name for it, but we dont have a clue yet either ;)

ok what about streikaktion or strike.action oder streikaktionswoche or strike.action.week

i´ve found it incidantly on

http://wiki.bildung-schadet-nicht.de/index.php/Step3 (no idea, what it is)

and my question is: ya have another proposals?:

how many?

you can post them here or there (but please: at the bottom of the document. normally you also wrtite lines down, when you´re writing, so: if there - please take care for the wikinetiikette

a) last week of April (27/04 - 03/05/2009)
b) 22/04 - 29/04/2009 (Wednesday)
c) 13.-19.4.09 [monday till sunday]
d) 7.-14.4.09 [TUE]
e) 2.-9.4. [thursday]
f) 23.-29.3.09 [mo][nday]
g) 20.-27.2.07 [freitag][piatek][friday]
h) 2.-8.2.09 [mo-sun]
i) 10.-17.2.09 [tuesday]
j) 2.-9.5.09 [sat-sat]
k) 19.-26.5.09 [tue-tue]
l) 11.-18.5.09 [mo-mo]

waiting for next suggestions, please follow the alphabet, so that we could make the votings on sunday / conference a bit faster

proposals and suggestions (names)

http://wiki.bildung-schadet-nicht.de/index.php/Step3#names_proposals

Hi people,

I wasn't able to get involved with action on the 5th November in the UK, but I know that there some actions did take place and the 5th November protests did get significant coverage in some of the UK student media.

Because our government is scheduled to review higher education funding in march/april, we (various left student groups across the UK) are currently mobilising for a protest on February 25th. Though I will be mobilising for this protest, my personal main aim at the moment is to get students on my campus (UCL in London) talking about free education and the marketisation of education with the hope that we can then make it the policy of our students' union to support free, tax funded university study. Nationally our National Union of Students (led by a New Labour crony) has an awful position on HE funding - they have given up the fight for free education and now support a graduate tax.

Well, I hope that helps somehow,

"on February 25th."

so, how many countries are against student strike actions [whatever you call it, it should involve this idea] starting in last week of february?

please tell us, how many

and you think that´s impossible (not 'why maybe not easy', but why really impossible in your eyes/from your position/in your opinion).

ok. against "marketisation"... do you accept against "economization", too?

we should involve something like "against social selection through education", maybe we manage a sentence like this to get a consensus.

actions beginning on 22./23./24. OR 25. of FEB: how many countries against this idea?

in germany we should concentrate on tuitionfree allemange, force the other countries to take their tuition-jokes back. and do not forget: in the middle of the crisis - with the 'help' of enough people believing in this 'crisis' - they will want to restart their joke.

The official umbrella organisation of students bodies in Ireland is calling for a massive (biggest in the history of the state) for February 4th.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/89977

Mark.

4th until 26.FEB: this would be 3 weeks.

how many countries against 3 weeks in early springtime?

it looks like tomorrow
we can vote for:

g) 20.-27.2.07 [freitag][piatek][friday]

h) 2.-8.2.09 [mo-sun]

i) 10.-17.2.09 [tuesday]

m) UK: "around FEB 25th" (so maybe - rethinking steffis asking):
FEB 19th-FEB26 (then it´s still not "the end of" feb) [thursday till thursday]

n) IR: "around FEB 4th" (so maybe - if the 1-week-solution is preferred:
FEB1st-FEB 8th) [SUN-SUNday]

Some groups won't join the week of action, if we have it in February, because they say it is too early for them. If we want this to be big and well co-ordinated, then I also think we need a bit more time.

Attac France contacted me and said that activists from a few organisation will try to set-up a European demonstration in March 2009 and arrange a counter summit. These protests will take place during the European Summit, which will deal with higher education and research and evaluate the Lisbon strategy, which aims for "the European Union to become the most competitive and dynamic
knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic
growth" and is the basis for the Bologna Process.

So I would suggest that we mobilize for decentralized actions against the commercialization of education during the summit (March 2009) in Europe!!

And at the same time prepare for a global week of action a month later (April 2009)!!

During the decentralized protests against the European education agenda, we can also mobilize and spread the word about the global week of action a month later!

That would be my suggestion.

direct contact for the last eintrudelnden fellowpips.

find the entry to the int. students conf. chatroom here:

http://wiki.bildung-schadet-nicht.de/index.php/International_chat_confer...

fu-studi/allem./BLN

...................Egypt: I would suggest February, based on our schedule here in Egypt., <- dito IR, UK, if i understood them

Allem., Other: End of May

SO. I do vote for both. I mean, FOR HEAVEN´S SAKE. we´re talking about 2x action week (2nd: "including strikes" <-- see entry from allem. above)

I mean, i think, a pure action week IS possible and organizable. until FEB.

and a bigger week (including strikes) in MAY.

why not! let´s try it. this is what i would say.

... so that more people can understand what you are trying to say.

Personally I would prefer to concentrate on one week! It is a lot of work to get one week co-ordinated! And I would prefer the end of April as a time frame.

Furthermore I would not call for a stike on an international level. If groups want to choose "strikes" to express their protest during that week, then these groups can do that. But we should leave it to each group to choose what tools they want to make use of. And we should not mention any words containing acts of "civil disobedience" in the name for the global week of action, because some groups don't want to be associated with "civil disobedience" and therefore this will disunite us.

And we should really try hard to avoid that.

Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry I didn't give news about what we are doing with my friends in France, we were quite busy with student elections in november ... and an action to support the italian movement against the Gelmini law (there were protests in front of the Italian consultat in Paris and Lyon on the 14th november).

We decided to start a campaign about the stakes of an Europe of Education, in order to inform and to mobilize students during the first semester of 2009. As for now, we are going to present the results of the International Day of Action in various universities when the video will be released !

I think it will be a very good idea to make a protest during the European summit in march 2009, because we will have the Eu parliament elections in june 2009, and more and more countries are associated to the Bologna Process.

As for a week of protests, for us in France, either February or the end of April will be fine. The exams will start in May, and not at the same time in every universities, so it will be difficult for us to involve students at this time of the year.

But I think it will be better to set this week at the end of February, so that we can also connect it in Europe for the European summit !