International Student Movement

June 13th: Riot Police Raids University
following Mass-Demonstrations across Chile

Like in many other parts of the world also in Chile the struggle against the increasing commercialisation of education and for free emancipatory education continues. More than 100,000 students, teachers and parents took to the streets of Santiago and other cities for another in a long series of protests calling for a radical shakeup of the educational system.

Besides the Confech university students confederation also high school student associations CONES and ACES, the Student Federation of Private Universities (MESUP), a parents’ group and a group representing teachers across Chile were involved in the protests that day. Riot police used batons, water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowd towards the end of the rally in Santiago, which resulted in dozens suffering serious injuries and hundreds being arrested.

Following the march, Carabineros, Chile’s uniformed police, violently entered into the central campus of Universidad de Chile which — alongside 25 other university buildings — has been occupied by students as part of the struggle. The police intrusion even drew fierce condemnation from university chancellor Víctor Pérez.
More than 20 students were injured and 20 others arrested during this attack alone. Nonetheless students remained in control of the premises, according to activists on the ground.

Protesters also clashed with riot police in Valparaíso and Concepción, amongst others. Arrests across the country totalled up to 360, according to involved students on the ground.

“They say they want to move forward on getting business out of education, but they allow the continued advance of a Superintendency of Higher Education that legitimizes profit instead of ending it,” Vela Diego, president of the student federation at Catholic University, said of the administration.
Among others people resist tuition fees and the fact that private institutions are subsidised by the state even as public schools in poor areas struggle.

Chile’s public schools and universities were neglected during the 1973-1990 rule of the late Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Private schools mushroomed under the military regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet in the 70s and 80s. The trend continued after democracy was restored, also during the 1990-2010 tenure of the center-left Concertacion coalition.

Students and parents want the elimination of school fees, an end to for-profit universities and a reduction in the high cost of college, which forces many to take on large debts.

sources: hispanicallyspeakingnews.com / santiagotimes.cl

Reclaim Education - June 2013
an ISM newsletter

These past few weeks people decided to re-launch Reclaim Education - an ISM newsletter. And now the first issue since September 2011 is finally really to be published!
It consists of two A4 pages and can therefore be conveniently printed onto one sheet of paper. Download the .pdf here (~ 6mb).

In case you are interested to work on future issues of Reclaim Education, then subscribe to this mailing list.

Reclaim Education #9 by International Student Movement

The following statement was agreed on by various teachers, parents, and (school) students in Marburg (Germany) in April 2013 after a month long discussion. The process was actively facilitated by the local Education and Science Workers' Union (GEW Marburg-Biedenkopf) and is currently being spread in the region and beyond, also through this petition.

We want to use this opportunity to express our solidarity with fellow teachers, students, workers and parents around the world struggling against the increasing commercialization of education, precarious working conditions, as well as for free emancipatory education for all.

To inform people in other parts of the world that also in Marburg we are actively involved in the struggle this statement was translated into English.

Marburg Call for Education
Democratization instead of Commercialization!

May 16th: Rectorate Occupied
at the University of Belgrade

Reported by Miodrag on the global ISM fb page:

On May 16th students occupied the headship of the University of Belgrade (main administration building / rector's office) and brought it under student control.

Short-term demands by the protesters:

1. Stopping increases in tuition fees now;
2. Stopping the ongoing abolition of university autonomy;
3. Public support by the academic community (teachers).

Long-term demands by the protesters:

1. Free (publicly funded) education for all;
2. Stopping the implementation of the Bologna declaration;
3. Replacing student parliaments with direct democratic bodies.

The occupation peaked in a press conference, which was held at the occupied building during the next day (May 17). After that the students left the building again.

This was the first in a series of actions planned for this season. During an assembly it was decided that this occupation was just a warning so it was held for one night only this time. Further protests and a set of actions are already scheduled for the next week.

When asked what the protesters mean by demanding to see "the abolition of university autonomy" constrained a fellow activist on the ground said:

We demand autonomy of the university because state institutions (and private interests) in coordination with official representative student bodies, are trying to control the political situation at the university. They are threatening with police and already hired private forces (security agencies) to fight students which stood up for their rights. Autonomy primarily means that the police have no business being inside the university, students have the right to directly and democratically decide on university issues and to organize freely within the territory of the university. All these rights are consistently and persistently violated. In the shorter term autonomy also means a strategic requirement that faculties maintain their present right to regulate the tuition themselves, to stop announced increase of prices, and to join us in the fight for free education against higher government authorities. This is important because state is trying to take these rights away using the excuse that it does not have any power to regulate prices and blaming the university, and all this is just a cover for further commercialization of education and the transformation of education into a privilege.

Students of all universities unite! Knowledge is not a commodity! One world, one struggle!