Global Student Protests Continue

Over the past year, students have been protesting throughout the world against cuts to public education and privatization schemes. Here’s a roundup for September, from the International Student Movement website:

• Greek students have occupied more than 224 facilities since September 1^st. They also occupied the state television network this week and succeeded in getting a public statement read over the air. They have been protesting increasing tuition and attacks on their student organizations.
• In Chile, students have been demonstrating in the streets for months against the privatization of the education system and increased student fees.
• On September 6, student protesters confronted Cabinet Ministers in Galway, Ireland, over the closure of Roscommon hospital’s emergency department and increasing tuition.
• 100 students occupied a grammar school overnight in Bremen, Germany, this month to protest budget cuts.
• Students and teachers in Colombia went on strike this month over a new law that increases the privatization of the universities.
• In Kenya teachers blocked the Nairobi-Naivasha highway to demand that they be hired as permanent employees rather than contract workers.
• Students and staff went on strike at the American University of Cairo to protest increasing tuition and to demand higher wages for university employees.
• Thousands of people protested in front of the parliament in Rome against a new austerity package that includes education cuts.
• Hundreds of students protested at the University of the Philippines, in Diliman, against education cuts, while 8,000 students, faculty and employees at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Sta.Mesa marched against education cuts.
• Students at Dhaka University in Bangladesh demonstrated against a newly introduced fine for students who don't attend class often enough. At least ten students at Rajshahi University (RU) were injured as members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) allegedly attacked them while staging a sit-in in protest of fee hikes.
• Students occupied the George Square Lecture Theatre of Edinburgh University, Scotland, over the £36,000 in tuition fees charged to British students coming from outside Scotland.
• Tens of thousands of students and teachers marched throughout Spain against cuts to public education and attacks on teachers’ pay and benefits.
• Ongoing protests have been occurring at numerous campuses of the University of California and the Cal State University systems against tuition hikes and cuts in services.

Video: youtube.com

Oaxacan Teachers Resist Tests, Merit Pay—Strikes to Spread Throughout Mexico?

On May 23, 70,000 teachers struck in Oaxaca, Mexico. They were not asking for raises or better benefits, though they certainly need them. They were demanding better funding for their students and expressing their opposition to the government’s merit pay plan that ties teacher pay to their students’ score on the new national test. Many teachers oppose the test entirely and have refused to administer it, despite the fact that their union president signed a pact with the government accepting the merit pay scheme. The new national education law, Alliance for the Quality of Education (ACE), also replaces tenure with yearly contracts. According to Labor Notes, the teachers also want the Oaxacan government to pay for the schools’ utility bills, rather than charging parents, most of whom are struggling to pay their own bills and feed their children. They also want computers installed in the schools.

Oaxacan Teachers Strike (from the South Notes website)

The strike action included blockades of government offices and private businesses. Teachers also shut down major intersections and “liberated” the toll booths on the private highway from Oaxaca to Mexico City (see Indy Bay). South Notes says that Seccion 22, the Oaxacan local, intends to continue their strike through June 3. Labor Notes reports that other teacher locals could join the Oaxacan strike, including those in Chiapas, Michoacan, Tlaxcala, Guerrero, Baja California Sur, and the Federal District, and that the opposition caucus within the union is organizing for a general strike to oppose the test.

Oaxacan teachers have been at the forefront of Mexico’s labor movement, engaging in job actions nearly every year for the past 30 years, according to Indy Bay. However, in 2006, they went on a protracted strike in which they erected barricades, took over radio stations and set up a camp in the Zocalo, in Oaxaca town. Then-Governor Ulises Ruíz sent in the police to attack striking teachers as they slept. He was also probably complicit in the creation of the death squads that killed over 20 teachers and their supporters (See here and here).

Detroit Mayor Asks God to Close Budget Gap

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

Detroit’s mayor Dave Bing was quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying "I'm not afraid of an emergency financial manager being named . . . he or she almost becomes god and can do whatever is necessary to bring financial stability back." Bing could be anointed god of Detroit under Michigan’s Financial Martial Law legislation, which allows the Governor to declare any city or school district a failed state and impose a financial manager who has the authority to shred union contracts, fire everyone (and let some other god sort it out later.) Bing, a Democrat, has already slashed city workers' health care and pensions to close a $200 million city budget gap. However, he said that if city unions refuse to agree to rollbacks, the budget gap could reach $1.2 billion by 2015, setting up the unions as straw men to justify declaring financial martial law in Detroit.

Detroit Public Schools (DPS) has already been declared a failed state and has had its own financial manager, Robert Bobb, for several years now. Bobb has taken advantage of his god complex by sending out pink slips to every one of DPS’ 5,466 employees, according to the WSJ, including all of its teachers and 250 administrators. Reuters reports that Bobb has pledged to use his powers as financial manager to address the school districts $327 million budget hole, threatening to make unilateral changes to teacher contracts and abolish seniority rules. Bobb has already shut down dozens of Detroit schools and plans on closing dozens more or converting them to private charter schools.

Meanwhile, opposition has already begun, with at least twelve students and teachers occupying the Catherine Ferguson Academy for pregnant, parenting teens, to prevent it from being shut down, according to the Daily Censored. The protest was organized by the group By Any Means Necessary, which fears that the school will be converted to a charter school and cease to provide services for pregnant and parenting youth. Hundreds of others joined the protest outside, providing logistical support for those inside the school and attempting to block the police from entering. Eventually, though, the protesters were arrested for trespassing and taken to jail, including young mothers and their children. Police threatened to turn their children over to Child Protective Services. However, the children were eventually released back to the parents, all of whom were cited and released.

Rallies, Occupations at All 23 Cal State Campuses

Thousands of faculty and students rallied at California State University campuses throughout California yesterday to protest funding cuts and rising tuition. Building occupations and sit-ins occurred at Cal States Northridge, East Bay and Los Angeles, as well as at the Pomona and SFSU campuses, according to the LA Times. However, Angus Johnston, of the Student Activism blog, reported occupations at eleven of the CSU campuses. He also said that students are demanding the resignation of Chancellor Reed. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote that eight hundred students marched on the administration building at CSU Long Beach. According to Occupy California, the Associated Press estimated that over 10,000 students participated in the actions.

Gov. Brown wants to slash the CSU and UC budgets by $500 million each (and the community colleges by $400 million), which will result in enrollment cuts, tuition hikes, teacher layoffs, and reduced course offerings. Many students have already had to postpone their graduation dates because they haven’t been able to get the courses they need to graduate, greatly exacerbating their financial woes as they must pay for an addition year or two of tuition and housing.

Most of the occupations ended by evening, although students continued their sit-in at Sacramento State until this morning.