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Notes of Open Chat Meeting of Education Activists Worldwide (June 16th 2013)

Mon, 17/06/2013 - 16:45 — Mo

People connected to the ISM regularly call for global chat meetings for education activists around the world to network and make coordinations. Here are the notes of the chat on June 16th 2013.

::: Round of introduction :::

Around 20 people in Bristol, Goettingen, Greece, Ljubljana, Marburg, New York City, Nigeria, North Carolina, Québec, Rio de Janeiro and Scotland participated in the chat meeting.

::: Q&A on the International Student Movement (ISM) platform :::

  • Is there a vague description of the platform?
    --> The ISM was initiated by education activists in different parts of the world in 2008 following an international day of action against the commercialisation of education. In the past people met during chat meetings and coordinated days and weeks of action related to the struggle. The ISM is a communication platform. Nobody represents or speaks for it. There is a basic introduction to the ISM also online here:     http://ism-global.net/ism_en. So far two statements were written by activists through various chat meetings on the ISM, one focussing on education: http://ism-global.net/international_joint_statement and one on (state) repression: http://ism-global.net/anti-repression_statement. Those statements also don't speak for the ISM but it gives you an idea of what many connected to the ISM support. One of the main channels of communication is a global mailing list.
  • Is the ISM an hierarchical organized platform?
    --> No it's not. It is horizontal-based even though there are people who know more about the way the platform works. The most important thing and the main aim is to share news about what is going on around the world in the struggle for free and emancipatory education. Main tools therefore are the mailing list,     https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/international_students_movement , the website [www.ism-global.net] as well as various pages on facebook, especially https://facebook.com/ism.global. There are also several pages on Facebook that translate news in various languages.

::: News and updates from around the world :::

  • Greece:
    So recently in Greece the "main" exams in schools were held: Exams to get your chance to go to a university. After more than 20 years the teachers decided to make a strike at these exact dates. The government decided to sent papers to their homes to FORCE them go on with the job they had to do during the tests. It is a way to forced labour. An case someone would deny he had to face jail time. Parents and students where soooooo much brain washed from the media, that the teachers had received a huge social pressure. The system in greece is (somehow) "democratic" inside the schools: In order for a strike to happen, it has to be voted by the local syndicates in the schools and this decision is then forwarded to the central syndicate. The local syndicates have voted DESPITE the governments decision and the social pressure FOR the strike. The central syndicate though VOTED AGAINST it! So the exams took place with the teachers betrayed by the central syndicate (as it had no power or right to do this). Also, the national television is shut down. Which means: 3 national channels, 1 satellite channel, dozens of radio stations, 3 orchestras and a choir are all shut down with just a minister deciding it!
    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/05/18/pers-m18.html
  • Nigeria:
    In Nigeria police repression of students protest has increased. On February 25, 4 university students protesting against poor conditions were shot dead. Eversince more protesting students in other campuses have been killed. On June 12 a student of another university was shot dead during another protest. In addition, five officials of NANS (the National student confederation) died on auto crash on june 13 while hurrying to the university where a protester was shot dead a day earlier.  We should probably have a statement condemning the police brutality and also commisserating with studend on the loss of the five officials. A seven day mourning period starting from tomorrow has been declared.
    report of police repression of students in Nigeria http://socialistnigeria.org/page.php?article=2180
  • North Carolina/US:
    The millions in proposed cuts to education have led around 400 people to occupy the state legislature and get arrested for doing so. Since we are in southern US, the movement has immense overtones of the old civil rights movement. It is the first mass civil disobedience in NC in something like 50 years. Most of the arrestees are older liberals and young radicals disillusioned with both parties. "Forward Together" is the name of the movement, it is being led by the NAACP  http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/moral-monday-is-a-class-struggle-not-a-racial-one - http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/06/08/north-carolinas-moral-monday-protests-are-only-the-beginning
  • Brazil:
    In the last weeks a lot of protests are happening in many Brazilian cities.
    at first the protests were called because of the increase in the fares for public transport. at the moment in most brazilian metropolis the cost of transportation can arise to 1/3 of the minimum wage.
    So basically it started as a protest called by a movement that is university-based and that reclaims free acess to public transport for students, but it became bigger than that once most of the population can't access to university.
    the initial call came from a university-based movement. but I would like to stress that the majority of the population in brazil, even in the metropoles, does not access the university. and these are the persons who are most affected by the fare  increase, and also are the workers and non-universitary youth that are also coming to demonstrations. so international press shows it as a university movement but it's not just that.
    furthermore the construction works related to the FIFA world cup and particularly in Rio, the 2016 Olympics are being used to justify a series of brutalities and humilliations against the population, particularly the poors.
    Yesterday in Brasilia, there was the inaugural game of the "Confederations Cup", seen as a training for the FIFA world cup. There was a 2-day protest in which the protesters tried to prevent the game from happening, by blocking the access to the stadium with barricades of tires in fire. They managed to delay the game and it finally happened with the use of a lot of police brutality: police here uses these "low-impact bombs" against demontrators, rubber bullets, pepper spray and gas.
    There is a campaign that aims at sabotaging the FIFA world cup by trying to make the international people not to come to Brazil. Because the governments are using this to evict the poor people from their houses with extreme violence.
    The bombs that the police use are made of (theoretically) degradable plastic, low amounts of gunpowder and a lot of dust.
  • New York City/US:
    I am going to report from a K-12 and teacher education point of view and then add what I know about the movement at the university level.
    K-12 has been quite busy in the states - due to the decentralized nature of public education different areas of the country are at different places in their resistance to the corporate take over of public education.
    Parent actions include opting out of high stakes tests - in NY state well over 1000 parents opted their children out of required tests. In some cases district officials have been very helpful, supporting children and families.
    In other districts students have been threatened with being held back, others have been threatened with having sports and extra curricular activities restricted. In NY state there is at least one group sueing their district over these threats.
    High School students have been walking out in New Jersey and in Denver over high stakes testing and budget cuts - they have also been walking out over teacher firings (ones that have been a function of teacher evaluation systems based on test scores).
    In Chicago the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) rested control of the union from tired leadership and in NYC we have MORE in Newark, NJ we NEW in other districts teachers are organizing to regain control of their unions.
    I believe that there's also movement along these lines in Florida, Philly and Seattle.
    Webpage of a of the National umbrella organization for folks who opt their children out of high stakes tests     http://unitedoptout.com
    MORE (Movement of Rank and File Educators - part of the United Federation of Teachers the NYC teachers union)      http://morecaucusnyc.org/tag/movement-of-rank-and-file-educators
    CORE (Caucus of Rank and File Educators - from the Chicago Teachers Union)     http://www.coreteachers.org

    Parents are also organizing across the country around school closures. In Newark, NJ and Philly, and a bunch of other cities parents are organizing to get the federal government to recognize the pattern of school closings in areas of high poverty communities as a civil rights violation.

    On the teacher education front - university professors and students are resisting the new teacher examinations developed by Pearson* and are trying to maintain their control of the curriculum and their academic freedom - this is particularly true at University of Mass, Amherst and at Teachers College, Columbia University NYC.

    On the student debt front, activists have moved some federal legislators and there's movement to rescind the upcoming interest hike on student loans. Occupy Student Debt in NYC has been very active.
    Also, students at Cooper Union (the only free university in the USA) have occupied their presidents office for the last month or so in an effort to force the administration to keep the university free for all students.
    Newark student union - these students have lead walk outs over budget cuts and school closings     https://facebook.com/groups/204992436186083

    * Pearson is a British text book & testing company that is making huge profits off of the marketization of public education - like US$8 billion increase in profits in the last year alone.
  • Slovenia:
    I will give you a short briefing of what has happened in the last half a year in Slovenia.
    In Slovenia our main problem is that our previous government has cut the budget for public education system and they have pressured universities to cut back enrollment slots for social studies and humanities. They have however given more funds for private schools. We have also lost free serial and parallel type of studying and there was (and still is) the immanent danger of tuition fees at least for 2nd Bologna level (Master degrees).
    Because of that, students and profesors from university of Ljubljana – all activists, organized the week called Svobodna univerza (free/liberated university) from 15th to 20th april. This week was marked by a lot of irregular lectures, classes and round tables all over the faculties. Main theme of the lectures was the problem that market oriented economy and neo liberal politics are posing for education as a common good.
    The turnout was okay, but it should be better. We still think that students and larger public are not aware of the crisis of public schooling in our country and all over the world.
    The free university week was however done after the collapse of the previous right-wing government and we also spoke with new minister for education who promised us that there will be no tuition fees in his mandate. However even this so called left-wing government is increasingly applying neoliberal approaches and current minister for education is already in pat position, because he can only work within the given budget.
    If it comes to tuitions we will occupy the university.
  • Marburg:
    Some students in marburg and cairo came up with the idea to organise a Transnational Student Congress (TSC) in Marburg at the end of October.
    aim of the TSC: work on a common ground to establish a transnational network among students involved in emancipatory struggles.
    so far involved are individual students on the ground in Marburg, the department for international networking of the general students' committee at the University of Marburg, and the MIU Student Movement - الحركة الطلابية لجامعة مصر الدولية
    so far we agreed that the congress will be for all students  involved in emancipatory struggles. Which means struggles like equal access to education, women empowerment, student empowerment, as well as gender equality.
    background info: there were recently student union elections held in Egypt and now some of the students who were elected are not supporting the current regime. this is rather new and students want to learn about how student unions work and struggles take place elsewhere.
    we are currently working on a text explaining the idea and aim of the congress. so it can be spread around the world.
    we also try to cover all the costs for food and accomodation. but it would be great, if people can try to pay for their own travel expenses.

::: open space :::

  • deadline to suggest contributions for the next 'Reclaim Education' newsletter: June 28
    please post suggestions inside here: https://we.riseup.net/ism_global/ism-newsletter-vol-3-issue-2
  • next chat meeting: June 30th - 4pm UTC

::: agenda items for the next chat meeting :::

  • content for next issue of 'Reclaim Education' newsletter
  • Transnational Student Congress (TSC) in Marburg at the end of October 2013
WARNING: 'Nazis in Disguise' (Identitarian Movement) ›
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