GLOBAL EDUCATION STRIKE, Huelga Global de Educación

GLOBAL EDUCATION STRIKE Oct.18th & Nov.14-22nd 2012

We are calling for a  Global Education Strike. It is the first time that an education strike  is being coordinated worldwide. We will UNITE in solidarity, because no  matter where we live, we face the same struggle against national state  and profit driven interests, and their hold on education. Increasing  tuition fees, budget cuts, outsourcing, school closures, as well as  other phenomena are linked to an increasing commercialization and  privatization of education. Only by uniting globally will we be  able to overcome these and enable free emancipatory education for all.

We are all struggling against cuts in education. Most of us are drowning in student debt. The increasing pressure to perform just makes us sick  and the restrictions on education and ever-increasing tuition fees, among other barriers, make us angry!

Everyone must have access to education no matter their monetary or social status.

We  have had enough of the pressure to measure everything – even the   unmeasurable! We are sick and tired of competitiveness being the only  criteria dictating everything! It is about time that we do something about this together – UNITED!

We are all people affected by the increasing commodification and  commercialization of education. This is vividly portrayed by the  symptoms affecting us, such as schools and universities being  de-democratized and the further implementation of more hierarchical  structures. The education market and competition between institutions  is being facilitated by governments around the world, which are  increasingly privatizing education, health care, and all other social  needs.

In June 2012 alone, we recorded 45 protests in more than 40 cities in connection with the struggle for free emancipatory education. Governments have chronically underfunded the institutions, often using   the current economic crisis as a pretext. They promote ‘solutions’ such as: rankings encouraging competition; closing schools that  ‘underperform’; increasing student enrollment without increasing   faculty, staff, and student resources; outsourcing everything that can  be outsourced; promoting elite institutions. All these ‘solutions’ are steps towards an increasing commodification and privatization of  education, which also has negative impacts on the conditions for teaching and learning.

The education market and national states require that profits take  priority over developing the capabilities for emancipatory thinking.  Both need obeying ‘citizens’, consumers and cheap labour, not  emancipated individuals living self-determined lives.

We are being mechanized to function as cogs in the capitalist machine. We   are socialized to compete with our fellows on every level. Our creativity, our energy and our free spirits are actively being crushed by the educational institution.

The  education system within capitalism consists mainly of training  factories which are supposed to produce human capital for the  exploitation on the labour market as well as knowledge to be  commodified. To point out these links and interrupt this mode of production we herewith call for the closing down of educational institutions worldwide during the Global Education Strike.

Fight back! Join in the GLOBAL EDUCATION STRIKE.

All justice begins with knowledge. Stand with us as one this October and November, and the whole world will hear our call to Reclaim Education.

Send an email to the global ISM mailing list or to united.for.education@gmail.com, if you endorse this Call to Action as well and want to be listed below the Call.

Re-posted from http://ism-global.net/call2action_GES

Also from the ISM platform read/share the International Joint Statement