Statements

The demonstrations taking place all over the world, including the weeks-long occupation of lecture-rooms in a number of European countries, are an important step in the struggle against the profit-oriented restructuring of the education system. These protests are part of social conflicts that are erupting on an international scale as the economic crisis deepens.

The demands raised by students following intense discussions are to be welcomed: an end to the system of study fees that limit access to higher education to all but a wealthy elite, the democratization of schools and universities, and increases in education funding.

Teachers, students, parents and workers must act now to oppose the cuts to public education agreed to by Michigan lawmakers.

Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm on October 19 signed into law cuts in public school outlays that will reduce per-student funding by $165. She then used her veto power to cut an additional $54 million from school districts throughout the state.

More cuts are to come. In signing the bill, Granholm said that a $100 million shortfall in the state’s education fund remained, and this can only grow as sales tax revenues continue to decline. By all indications, another drastic cut to funding will be imposed within a matter of weeks, bringing the total per-pupil cut to $300 or more.

The impact on the education of young people is incalculable. The reductions will translate into immediate layoffs, cuts to school services, and increased class sizes.

“Non-essential” education for high school students will be gutted—music, physical education, sports, art and history. There will be fewer textbooks and computers. Overworked and underpaid teachers will be unable to provide the same level of instruction. Bus routes will be cut. Schools will be shut down.

An overwhelming majority of the state’s population opposes these cuts. But this opposition finds no expression in the political establishment—neither in Lansing, nor in Washington.

This statement will be distributed to California university faculty, students and staff participating in a one-day walkout on September 24 to protest layoffs, pay cuts, and tuition increases. The ISSE at San Diego State University has called a rally on the same day.

Faculty and students in the University of California system are planning a walkout on September 24 to protest the attack on California’s university education system through a series of budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs, student fee hikes, and course reductions.

There is growing anger over the destruction of the public education system in California. The International Students for Social Equality (ISSE) supports the broadest popular mobilization to defend and advance public education in California and across the country. A successful fight, however, requires a new political perspective.

Academics and general staff at the University of New South Wales went on strike last Wednesday as part of the National Tertiary Education Union’s “National Day of Action”. Members of the International Students for Social Equality—which has a club on campus—visited the picket lines and spoke to strikers.

Staff are opposing restructuring plans by university management. If implemented, these will see class sizes increase (even further), with lecturers taking on extra teaching and administration responsibilities, all with zero additional funding. Faculties are already chronically under-resourced. The restructuring also involves an erosion of academic tenure in favour of individual contracts.

The following is a statement issued by the International Students for Social Equality to the students of the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil’s largest university, who have been engaged in a strike, together with professors and staff members, since May 3. The action, which has been accompanied by an occupation of the university’s administration building, was taken by the students on May 3 in response to series of decrees by the state of Sao Paulo’s right-wing governor, Jose Serra, abrogating university autonomy, particularly in budgetary matters, thereby paving the way to the privatization of higher education and subordinating learning directly to the demands of the major corporations. Serra has repeatedly threatened to end the occupation by sending in military police riot squads. The strike has spread to other universities in the state.

Students at USP have translated the statement into Portuguese and are distributing it at the struck university.

End the occupation of Iraq! No to war against Iran! For an international socialist movement against war!

The following resolution was passed unanimously on April 1 by the International Students for Social Equality/Socialist Equality Party Emergency Conference Against War, held March 31-April 1 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It represents the position of the conference on the necessary political foundation for a renewed struggle against war.