Resisting the Education cuts- Dublin's turn

by dunk Fri Dec 19, 2008 14:09 fuspey at yahoo dot co dot uk

Regarding the situation in Ireland in relation to the proposals to cut fees, the student resistance to it, the solidarity and resistance from all sections of Irish society against these cuts and the wider economic- political crisis that we are in and what we can do about it...

What with the goings on in Greece, it seems that the "economic crisis" is being met and resisted head on by students, workers, young people. People are fed up there, and are taking action to change things. Not only is anger and action for change brewing fiercely on Greek streets, its spreading. Here in Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain, there has been series of solidarity actions with Greece, but before the Greek riots, there were already many many universitys occupied due to resistance against the "Bolonia plan". Otherside of the water and in news today there is talk about the NEW SCHOOL university in NYC, new york city, which has been occupied, as both reaction against negative elements in the university aswell as, or maybe further fuelled by?, acts of solidarity with Greece and beyond. This occupation was reported on yesterdays Democracy Now headlines
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/18/headlines#14

New York City: New School University is now OCCUPIED!

We liberate this space for ourselves, and all those who want to join us, for our general autonomous use. We take the university in explicit solidarity with those occupying the universities and streets in Greece, Italy, France and Spain.

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/145006/index.php

Greece on Fire: "Moments of a great social revolution"
Many, if not all, Greek universitys are "no go zones" for cops, many are being used for spaces to organise out of, many have been taken over and occupied, some are used for battle stations to fight from, some have been burnt down. Much is the same with schools, as Alexis was 15 year old school boy.
Athens, Greece: Cops murder 16 year old boy
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/90111

Greece unrest: A letter to students from Proletarians, December 2008

Don’t stay alone. Call us; call as many people as possible. We don’t know how you can do that, you will find the way. You’ve already occupied your schools and you tell us that the most important reason is that you don’t like your schools. Nice. Since you’ve already occupied them change their role. Share your occupations with other people. Let your schools become the first buildings to house our new relations. Their most powerful weapon is dividing us. Just like you are not afraid of attacking their police stations because you are together, don’t be afraid to call us to change our life all together.

http://libcom.org/library/letter-students-december-2008...22008

Spanish occupation of universities
Last weekend Spanish students met in Valencia, to further organise and plan their strategy of resistance. It is quite amazing to walk through the UB, the main university building of Barcelona, it is a lovely grand old building on the edge of the old town, its adjacent square is where tommorrows greek solidarity demo will start. Every day there are workshops, films, discussions, communal eating, cafe, living zones, they are resisting and building.

http://www.tancadaalacentral.blogspot.com/ is there website, all other uni buildings that are occupied have their own site, they are very well organised. Barcelona has a v strong tradition on horizontal organisation, see photos accompanying of long list of occupied unis, well over half are Catalan.

Many of the faculties are on upper Diagonal, yesterday a few hundred of them blocked Diagonal, One of Europes biggest streets / motorways, 8 car lanes, riot cops were sent into sort them out,
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/360052
http://biodiuno.blogspot.com/2008/12/jornada-de-lluita-....html
see below for a few photos

more infos on IMC-BCN, education section: http://barcelona.indymedia.org/?category=ensenyament

see vid at end for footage and views from student body, in Catalan...

Bologna process
There is much scepticism and criticism of the Bologna process from the side of academics. Thus Dr Chris Lorenz of the Free University of Amsterdam has argued that:

"the basic idea behind all educational EU-plans is economic: the basic idea is the enlargement of scale of the European systems of higher education, ... in order to enhance its 'competitiveness' by cutting down costs. Therefore a Europe-wide standardization of the 'values' produced in each of the national higher educational systems is called for." Just as the World Trade Organization and GATS propose educational reforms that would effectively erode all effective forms of democratic political control over higher education, so "it is obvious that the economic view on higher education recently developed and formulated by the EU Declarations is similar to and compatible with the view developed by the WTO and by GATS."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_process
spanish wiki: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaraci%C3%B3n_de_Bolonia

New York City: New School University is now OCCUPIED!

From Occupied New School: CUNY Students' statement of solidarity with students in New School

As CUNY students facing cutbacks and tuition hikes put forward by Governor Paterson, the CUNY administration, and the Board of Trustees; we declare our full support and solidarity with the New School student occupation carried out against the New School’s corrupt administration headed by the war criminal Bob Kerrey.

We consider their struggle our struggle.

We as CUNY students see the struggle of the New School students as part of a broader struggle around the world - from the uprisings in Greece and Italy to the recent Republic door and window workers occupation in Chicago (which served as an inspiration to the New School student occupation) to the striking workers at the Stella D’Oro bakeries.

http://nyc.indymedia.org/or/2008/12/102286.html

related posts:
http://www.newschoolinexile.com/
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/

see below for Democracy Now vid on NYC student occupation
DaveShukla

Irelands fight

It seems Irelands students are standing up to these cuts which are being proposed, it seems they have much support from the wider community. This is first steps. What are the causes of the "economic crisis", why do we let it remain, what can we do?

Perhaps our Irish students might start to look more at whats going on outside of the island, in response to the questions raised by Paula, in terms of "how do we resist", as well as look deeper into the root causes and from that take necessary action for change...

Its in their hands, but like Greece, if they take the lead, many unhappy with the present state of affairs will roll in behind.

Good luck from post a DIT student

Barcelona students take to the streets AND occupy their universities

BCN faculty of Philosopy, 1 of the many occupied spaces

BCN occupied spaces, a long and determined list

BCN student resistance meets riot cops

New York City: New School University is now OCCUPIED

Caption: Embedded video Youtube Video

Caption: Embedded video Youtube Video

by Sharon . - Individual . Mon Dec 08, 2008 23:18

Hi !

More pics of the protest can be seen here -
http://11sixtynine.blogsome.com/2008/12/08/2009-republi...2008/

- thanks!

Sharon.

Don't make the children pay....

by Paula Geraghty Mon Dec 08, 2008 00:26

Most people had left before the pale, male and stale were even half way through- not having family friendly protest closing policies. The organisers just couldn't relate to who had participated and present a strategy to roll back the cuts.
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If you don't have a Ben Ten watch- I don't want to be part of your Revolution

by Paula Geraghty Mon Dec 08, 2008 00:00

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by Paula Geraghty Sun Dec 07, 2008 23:48

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