Members of the International Students for Social Equality spoke March 4 at rallies in San Diego, which drew thousands of people to protest cuts to public education. The demonstrations were part of events throughout the state and country to oppose school closures, tuition increases, and teacher layoffs.
About 1,000 students and faculty gathered at a March 4 rally against education cuts at San Diego State University in California. A similar number of people demonstrated at the University of California, San Diego. A subsequent demonstration in downtown San Diego drew several thousand.
The events in San Diego were among the largest demonstrations in the state. Tens of thousands of students, parents and workers demonstrated throughout the country against school closings, tuition hikes, and teacher layoffs. (See, “Students and staff protest against education cuts in US”)
Among the main speakers at the San Diego rallies were members of the International Students for Social Equality, the student organization of the Socialist Equality Party. The ISSE, which helped organize the demonstration at SDSU, called for a break with the Democratic Party and for a socialist movement to defend education.
Tens of thousands of students, teachers and workers participated in protests Thursday against cuts in education across the US. Many of the largest protests were in California, where the state government has pushed through massive cuts in K-12 education funding, as well as sharp increases in university fees.
Students at many colleges and schools walked out for at least part of the day, with the main state universities in California and several other states staging rallies. Students in the University of California system were recently hit by a 32 percent increase in fees. Large evening demonstrations were called in the major cities as well.
This statement is being distributed at rallies on March 4th throughout the US in opposition to attacks on public education. Click here for a pdf version to download and distribute in your area
The International Students for Social Equality supports the demonstrations today in California and throughout the US against education cuts. These events must be made the starting point for a nationwide campaign against tuition increases, school shutdowns, the attack on teacher pay and benefits, and the destruction of public education as a whole.
Education is a vital necessity for all workers and young people. It is not a luxury that should be slashed to the bone to meet the budget-cutting demands of Sacramento or Washington. The ISSE insists: it is not a matter of what must be cut. Instead, it is a question of the necessary political strategy to oppose all cuts.
This statement is being distributed at rallies on March 4th throughout the US in opposition to attacks on public education. Click here for a pdf version to download and distribute in your area
The International Students for Social Equality supports the demonstrations today in California and throughout the US against education cuts. These events must be made the starting point for a nationwide campaign against tuition increases, school shutdowns, the attack on teacher pay and benefits, and the destruction of public education as a whole.
Education is a vital necessity for all workers and young people. It is not a luxury that should be slashed to the bone to meet the budget-cutting demands of Sacramento or Washington. The ISSE insists: it is not a matter of what must be cut. Instead, it is a question of the necessary political strategy to oppose all cuts.
The International Students for Social Equality calls on all its members and supporters to distribute this statement at the March 4 demonstrations.
On March 4, students and workers throughout California and the US will demonstrate against the attack on public education and increases in tuition that are making a college education unaffordable for the majority of working class youth.
The ISSE encourages all youth and working people to take part in these events. It is high time for a fight back against the unrelenting attack on jobs, living conditions, and social services!
However, demonstrations by themselves will not solve this crisis. What is necessary, above all, is a new political movement that unifies all sections of the working class in a common political struggle, directed at the source of the crisis: the capitalist system and the two political parties—the Democrats and Republicans—that defend it.
The global recession unleashed by the financial crisis of September-October 2008 has drastically impacted on Canadian society. This is particularly evident in the situation facing Canadian students and youth.
Currently, the official unemployment rate for persons aged 15 to 24 is 15.1 percent, nearly twice the figure for the labour force in general.
This figure only begins to describe the social crisis which confronts the newest generation of Canadian workers.
In July 2009, when youth participation in the labour market peaked at 75.3 percent, youth unemployment hit 17.0 percent, an increase of 6.7 percentage points from July 2008. For students in secondary and post-secondary institutions, the unemployment rate was even higher—19.2 percent. Joblessness among youth has risen faster than any other segment of the Canadian population.
As the academic year begins in Australia and New Zealand, the International Students for Social Equality (ISSE) will be holding meetings during the university orientation weeks on the “The Global Economic and Political Crisis and the Perspective for Socialism”. The O-Week events will be followed in March with meetings on “In Defence of Leon Trotsky”. ISSE members will also be distributing several thousand copies of a four-page brochure, outlining the programmatic basis of the ISSE and urging students in both countries to join and establish clubs on their campuses.
The International Students for Social Equality is holding a series of meetings in the UK to advance a socialist programme in opposition to the cuts in higher and further education by the Labour government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The government has announced education cuts totalling £900 million. This is only the tip of an iceberg. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the cuts may reach £2.5 billion. Leaders of the Russell Group of 20 leading universities have stated that at least 30 universities could disappear and others face possible meltdown. The cuts would send at least 14,000 academics to the dole queue.
The catastrophe that is engulfing the people of Haiti is more than a natural disaster; it is an international and historic crime. The party chiefly responsible for the death and suffering in Haiti is the United States.
The pervasive poverty, the lack of infrastructure, the corrupt, impotent, and anti-democratic political system—all of which have immensely compounded the devastation wrought by the earthquake—are all the products of more than a century of US imperialist domination of the island nation.