Call for a Global Week of Action 2009

Constitutive on the "International Day of Action against the Commercialization of Education" on Nov.5th 2008, the International Students Movement is calling for a Global Week of Action in April 2009 (20/04 – 29/04).

We are a loose network of various progressive (student) groups from close to 30 countries on 5 continents. What unites us is the struggle against the increasing commercialization of education and for emancipating public education accessible to all members of society.

More and more groups realize that forces responsible for this development – the privatisation and commodification of education (like many other aspects of life) – function globally. And we can only effectively counter them, if we unite in our struggle.

Students, teachers, workers and parents around the world ask themselves: Is the public education system actually still serving the interests of the public, or is the focus shifting to implement education systems that primarily serve private and business interests? Tuition fees are – once introduced – sky-rocketing, universities and schools are turned into businesses, student debt keeps increasing and education budgets cut. Institutions of higher education become highly dependant on their ability to attract sponsorships (usually from economic actors).
Consequently only those institutions and departments are able to survive, that are deemed valuable by sponsors.

Public education systems, from kindergarten to university, must prioritize emancipating aspects, be free and accessible to all. A democracy only exists, if society consists of emancipated and self-determined individuals, that are able to critically reflect their (social) environment, developments and power structures. Any system, that doesn’t fulfill these criteria is not a
democracy.

The fact, that groups in more than 20 countries on 5 continents joined the international day of action in November show how international this struggle is.
During the week of April 20-29 active citizens around the word are uniting to reclaim education from the grip of commercialization and so-called "neoliberal policies".

It is up to each group how and for how many days they want to express their protest. It can be a smaller or bigger action. But it is important that we co-ordinate this together.

Therefore please get in touch with us, once you decided to arrange something for the Global Week of Action.

Let's get organized and unite in our struggle!

Please send your questions or enquiries to: [email][email protected]