Sign call education is not for sale!
EU Students - 02.05.2002 15:36
EU-wide protestcampaign in 2002:
Education is not for sale!
Forum about education and international studentblock at demonstration Sevilla (Spain) June 20-21-22
Decentralized protests in Europe during the summer-semester
We are looking for organizations and persons who want to support the call education is not for sale by signing it (read the call and the people and organizations who signed it untill now below) in order to expres the broad support for the campaign in several countries. You can sign the call by sending an e-mail with the text Signature in the subject line and with your name or the name of your organization, city and the country where you are coming from. Send this information to:  info@education-is-not-for-sale.org
EU-wide protestcampaign in 2002:
Education is not for sale!
Forum about education and international studentblock at demonstration Sevilla (Spain) June 20-21-22
Decentralized protests in Europe during the summer-semester
Study fees, budget cuts, deregulation, privatisation, lack of democracy... In all European countries (and beyond) education is changing rapidly. A change in education policy is also what we want, but not the neo-liberal changes that are being pushed forward by the European Union and its member states.
Why do they want to change the education systems ?
While the UK´s schools might one day be worth £25bn a year to potential "investors", the US system has been valued at $700bn. Worldwide, education is worth trillions (for exact figure: OECD). If a country can seize an early and substantial share of this market,its economy can overcome a crisis by that and it ensures itself a big advantage in the competition with other ones. And they are not only thinking like that in the UK, it`s EU policy and it`s the main reason for many changes in the European education sector. Education is increasingly not "only" a provider of new human resources for big business, but big business in its own right.
New laws in Europe
In Germany study fees are being introduced through the back door. There are various kinds of fees, which aren´t named as such. In Berlin students have to make a contribution to the university-bureaucracy of 50 Euro per semester, and in some states (Bundesländer) there are fees for students who have studied for more than 13 semesters. In July 2001 one of the highest courts declared this legal. Though these examples show the existence of study fees in Germany, politicians still pretend that there are no fees and that the discussion about their introduction was open.General study fees seem to be a question of time. Labeled as autonomy; universities shall and do search for funding beside the stately budgets. Sponsoring increases. The present developments do not only serve economical goals but can also be described as diciplination of students. So is it possible now at some universities to drive out students who studied more than a certain number of years without passing their final exams. In Austria the government introduced study fees last year. In the UK an increasing number of higher education and business leaders talk openly of a completely privatised system of deregulated fees, while the government has introduced privatisation into the school system for the first time. In Italy the government have plans to privatise schools and universities. In the Netherlands, Minister of Education "Hermans" is a great fan of GATS. In Spain the goverment has introduced a new law called L.O.U. (In Spanish: Ley Orgánica de
Universidades). This law is reforming universities and will suppress the joyce bodies of the universities, operate universities under strict managing criteria, let the managerial class into the University, and encourage Universities to finance themselves by competing for private money. The present Directive that the Popular Party is proposing imposes the most conservative and capitalist postulates of the right-wing policy. In Denmark the new neo-liberal government has a majority in the parliament to make budget cuts specific to education of 15 % within the next 3 years, and futhermore they are letting 6.000 extra students (which is a lot in Denmark) into the system without extra funding. In France, for many years, university reforms have been intended for diminishing the state financing and have been carrying an hiden privatization planning. In 1998, the Attali Report recommended reforms in order to make the colleges pay as they do in Anglo-saxons countries, what would destroy the public services of education. This report particularly recommended a new system of diplomas with degrees after 3, 5 and 8 years of study. Since this report, the reforms by the former secretary of Education Claude Allègre, the "3rd Millenium University" development plan (U3M), and most recently the reforms engaged by the actual French secretary of Education Jack Lang, put into practice these recommandations. The secretary of Education Jack Lang is now going further, instituing points-scored degree i.e. the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System). Students strike actions try to oppose this free market logic (the firms will soon be allowed to invest in the Universities) and to stand up for everybody´s right to gain access to a good-quality knowledge. Such strike actions particularly took place in November and December 1998 and March 2001. At the French speaking university of Brussels most students have to pay for language courses, only the exams are for free. The Belgium government stated that they will never privatize higher education. What they mean is that the public universities will always give the diploms etc. In praxis universities can let companies do the courses. Students can follow the course for a fee by the company and do the exam at the university for free. In Ireland tuition fees of Euro 3,000 to Euro 4,000 are being discussed . The reintroduction of fees for full time students is one of two stark options set out in a confidential draft report to the Irish Government. In Turkey the government proposes new laws to get "ready" for GATS.
The European Round Table Of Industrialists (ERT)
In Europe, the reforms required to privatise state education are gradually being put in place. Under pressure from the European Round Table of industrialists (ERT), the European Commission has decided to take things in hand, and new information and communication technology offers an ideal pretext for doing so. Every six months, the ERT holds a meeting with the president of the European Union to discuss priorities. Since 1999, this pressure group has been chaired by Morris Tabaksblat, president of the Anglo-Dutch company Reed-Elsevier, which has declared its intention of becoming the world leader in the education and internet publishing sector. The ERT has also set up a working group on external economic relations to supervise the progress of the WTO talks. This is headed by none other than BP-Amoco chairman Peter Sutherland, who is a former director-general of GATT. This lobby group is very clear about what it wants governments to do: ´Responsibility for training must be assumed by industry once and for all... education should be considered as a service to the economy.´ National education systems will not be completely eliminated. Under the logic of the neo-liberal economy, in which profit-making entities are privatised and loss-making ones are subsidised by the taxpayer, governments will still have a role to play. The OECD wrote: ´The only role of the public sector will be to ensure access to learning for those who will never be a profitable market, and whose exclusion from society in general will be accentuated as others continue to progress.´
Bologna proces and GATS
In the Netherlands, minister Jorritsma(VVD,Dutch liberal party) has said that the universities should be jugded by their market-ableness. His comment fit in the framework of the Bologna declaration of the European ministers of education and the General Agreement of Trade in Services (GATS) of the WTO. European schools and universities have to transform so they will be competitive for competitors from non European countries . In Germany the education system is getting re-structured according to the proposals of neo-liberal think-tanks like the CHE (center for university-development which is closly linked to the Bertelsmann Group). The study-structure for example is supposed to be transformed from a more open diploma- or magister-system towards a restrictive Bachelor/Master-system . This structure means: a light version of education for everyone and special skills for some chosen few. It means more pressure to finish your studies (although 75% of the german students have to work in order to finance their studies), it means a reduction of content, especially such that can be considered as critical. The Bachelor-Master structure is part of the Bologna proces. With this system the universities can easylier compete with eachother. They are trying to sell it to students with the slogan about mobility, but who`s mobility? The mobility of the ones who can afford it!
GATS
By means of GATS (General Agreement on Trade on Services, a WTO - World Trade Organisation - treaty) state (public) services like education services and healthcare are declared a tradable commodity. At the moment the liberalisation of education and healthcare sectors are being negociated under the umbrella of GATS. The USA, New Sealand and Australia made proposals for the GATS-negociations about education. The European Commission ( The unelected "government" of the EU, which negotiates in the WTO on behalf of EU member states) has also demonstrated its commitment to the liberalisation of public services. The European Union already accepted to open their markets for primary education services, secundary education services, higher education services and adult education services for public - private partnerships. And since the negociations about education are not finished yet, there is a danger that the EU will even go further. Given that the Commission´s ´Towards GATS 2000´ statement of intent calls GATS "first and foremost an instrument for the benefit of business", the coverage of education by GATS will contribute to the extension of private initiatives to education at all levels throughout the world (at January 1st 2002 144 countries were member of the WTO). At the WTO ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001 the WTO member states have agreed that requests for countries to open up their services sectors will be submitted by 30 June 2002 and initial offers of countries to liberalise will be submitted by 31 March 2003. Negotiations on services, as with the other agreements, will be completed by 1 January 2005. GATS rules may effectively prevent government subsidies from being selectively applied to public services. There are two key trade principles at the core of the GATS. These two principles are designed to limit government interventions in the service sector. For example under the national treatment principle, once a government signs up a service, it could face WTO challenge if it implements legislation which favours local suppliers over foreign suppliers. This has implications when it comes to the granting of subsidies. For example, where a GATS commitment has been made, governments providing subsidies to domestic service suppliers also have to make an equivalent subsidy available to foreign providers operating in the country. This raises the possibility of having a basic government-funded education system, with funding given to all providers (private- and public), and then allowing individuals to enhance this by paying top-up fees to providers with varying so called "elite universities", or for the provision of ´optional extras´ at an additional charge. In other words, GATS could dramatically boost the trend even further away from universal and equal access to free, publicly provided quality education (wich is something we`ve never had, but it`s one of the goals we want to achieve), towards the spread of education systems based on the ability of pupils and students to pay. Another big problem is that the education programms will change when there is more and more competition between private- and public schools and universities. Private institutions will only learn people what "big bussiness" wants them to know. State schools and universities will follow, otherwise they will lose pupils and students. Perhaps the biggest threat posed by GATS is the threat to democracy. Once decisions are reached under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), government activities in the services sector that are seen to ´interfere´ with trade faces the threat of WTO legal action. GATS means that if a government listens to the voice of its people and responds by making appropriate policy changes it also faces the threat of WTO legal action. For commercial and political reasons it may be easier to "trade" higher education in particular for access to other countries´ markets for EU businesses. But the stakes are high: Pascal Lamy, the EU Trade commissionair, stated, "For the EU, services are central. We are number one in the world: 26% of world trade. Services account for two thirds of EU GNP" and on another location he said about the trade in services:"If we want to improve our own access to foreign markets then we can´t keep our protected sectors out of the sunlight. We have to be open in negotiating them all if we are going to have the material for a big deal. In the US and the EU, that means some pain in some sectors but gain in many others, and I think we both know that we are going to have to bite the bullet to get what we want". Alexa McDonough, the leader of Canada´s National Democratic Party, stated that the GATS constitutes "the greatest transfer of economic and political power in history... from communities and nation states into the hands of a small number of global corporations".
The consequences:
- More and more schools and universities in Europe are being privatised
- Studyfees are being introduced or the fees are getting higher and higher
- The right to get a good education is more and more a question of money
- Democratic rights for pupils and students at schools and universities are being cut
- The things we learn are increasingly the things companies want us to learn
We want an education system for people, not for profits!
We will not allow education policies to be dictated by undemocratic organisations such as the European Union, the World Trade Organisation and private companies. Students, teachers, parents and pupils have to decide what kind of education they want. We will have to act at the local and international level to stop these developments since they are happening everywhere.
For an international campaign during the summer-semester of 2002!
We propose to start an international campaign against these developments during the summer-semester of 2002. In December 2001 students of several European countries protested against the privatisation of education with strikes, occupations and demonstrations. We think this short campaign was a step into the right direction. We want to put more pressure on the decision-makers and develop alternatives for a different kind of university. Therefore we call on all students to join the forum about education and culture and the international student demonstration in Salamanca (Spain) during March 17-19 and to join the international student block and the forum about education in Sevilla (Spain) during June 21 & 22. In the months between the protests and forums we in Spain call all students to increase local protests against the privatisation of education and to fight for our democratic rights at OUR universities!
First supporting organizations and persons who signed this call
Organizations:
1. Appel pour une école démocratique (appeal for a democratic school), Belgium
2. Offene Linke Liste [oll] der University of Potsdam, Germany
3. Campaign for Free Education(UK), London, United Kingdom
4. Scudag-Koordinierungskreis, Network for a student- and schoolstudent union, Germany
5. Observatorio Global de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
6. Kritische Studenten Utrecht, Netherlands
7. Aktionsbündnis für Freie Bildung (action-coalition for free education),University of Wuppertal, Germany
8. Rudolf Steineracademie Antwerpen, Belgium
9. Initiative for Economic Democracy, Yugoslavia
10. Anarchist Black Cross Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
persons:
1. Susan George, writer, Associate Director of the Transnational Institute, France
2. Rainer Marquardt, Mitglied im Personalrat des WDR (German radio & Television), Dortmund, Germany
3. Sarah Stockmann,Vorstand LSV NW, scudag, Meerbusch, Germany
4. Özlem Demirel, Vorstand LSV NW,Cologn, Germany
5. Marcus Wendin, Peace quest, Göteborg, Sweden
6. Andrej Grubacic, historian, coordinator of Initiative for Economic Democracy and SEE Social Forum, University of
Belgrade,Yugoslavia
7. Carlos Ruano, grupo activo "otro mundo es posible", Salamanca, Spain
8. Abel Valenzuela Garcia, University of Barcelona, Spain
9. Chris Paul, ceo innovation in digital and electronic arts (IDEA), Manchester, NW, England
10. Referat für Frieden und Internationales (Section peace and international affairs), AStA Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
11. René Schuijlenburg, EU Students, FH Dortmund, Germany
12. HoPo Referat, ASTA BUGH, Wuppertal, Germany
13. Jochen Vlieghe, ATTAC- university in Gent, Belgium
14. Sara Olvegård, Göteborg, Sweden
15. Ole Erdmann, Scudag-network, Bonn, Germany
16. Joris Verschueren, ATTAC-RUG, Gent, Belgium
17. Amanda O´Brien, Toronto, Canada
18. Alison Russell, Brussels, Belgium
19. Brit Eckhart, Boston-Cambridge Alliance for Democracy, Boston, MA. USA
20. Klaus B. Jensen, PLS, Copenhagen, Denmark
21. Info - Referat des ASTA der BUGH, Wuppertal, Germany
22. Mateusz Kuiavski, New Media student at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada
23. Margalit Laufer, OPEN POORT, cultural centre for children aged 1 -14 Zeist, Netherlands
24. François Josserand, Glasgow, Scotland
25. Paola Manduca, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
26. Crystal Chesshire, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
27. David Hachfeld, Berlin, Germany
28. Leopold Wonneberger, Attac, HU Berlin, Germany
29. Meredith de Landelles, Darwin, Australia
30. Manfred Bergmann, Roman Migrant Social Forum, Rome,Italy
31. Aslak Orre, CMI, Bergen, Norway
32. Dr. Eero Carroll, researcher in sociology, Stockholm University, Member of Attac, Sweden
33. Hermann Gendrisch, Übach-Palenberg, Germany
34. Gunilla Andersson, student at Malmö University, member of Attac, Malmö, Sweden
35. Martin Odalgård, Göteborg, Sweden
36. Irina Neszeri, member of city council Duisburg, Duisburg, Germany
37. Joe Rukin, editor educationet.org, Coventry UK
38. Eva Quistorp, MdEP a.D (former member of European Parliament),women`s nnetwork of ATTAC , Berlin, Germany
39. Sten Rigedahl, secondary school teacher, Sundsvall, Sweden
40. Toni Segovia-Silvestre, Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain)
41. Andre Wokittel, Halle, Germany
42. Bianca Kurth, Bielefeld, Germany
43. H. - W. Hoffmann, Dipl. Des. Dipl. Ing, Dortmund, Germany
44. Prof. Dr. Ingrid Lohmann, University of Hamburg,Fachbereich Erziehungswissenschaft ,Hamburg / Germany
45. James Redmond, member of socialist alternative, Ireland
46. Donal Lyons, member of socialist alternative, Ireland
47. Finbar Dywer, member of socialist alternative, Ireland
48. Ciaran Murray, member of socialist alternative, Ireland
49. Daniel Finn, member of socialist alternative, Ireland
50. Martina Marcet i Fuentes, student of 1st Batxillerat, La Nou de Bergedà, Catalunya (Spain)
51. Oskar Wistbacka, Upper secondary school student, Vasa, Finland
52. Sabine Teubner, Brunnerstraße 4, 39112 Magdeburg, Germany
53. Steven Kelk, University of Warwick, England
53. Patricia Fumière, enseignante, Belgium
54. Beate Obst, Wuppertal, Germany
55. Daniel Zettler, Augsburg, Germany
56. Dominik Ruppenthal, FachSchaftsVertreterInnenKonferenz(FSVK)-Spokesperson, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany
57. Eilert Stamm, LandesschülerInnenvertretung NRW, Niederkassel, Germany
58. Frank Rippel, Berlin, Germany
59. Jiri Nantl, Vice Chairman of the Academic Senate, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
60. Erich-Günter Kerschke, Cologn, Germany
61. Heiko Kunert, Regenbogen - für eine neue Linke (Rainbow - for a new left ), Hamburg, Germany
62. Michael Schultze, Politikwissenschaftler, Magdeburg, Germany
63. Stijn Oosterlynck, Member of Attac, Belgium
64. Ulla Lötzer, MdB PDS (Member of German parliament), Köln, Germany
65. Christiane Fey, Journalistin und StudentIn FH Dortmund, Witten, Germany
66. Mike RowleySteering Committee, Campaign for Free Education and member of Alliance for
Workers´ Liberty, Oxford, United Kingdom
67. De Marco, Paul, Richmond Hill, Canada
68. Lars-Olof Karlsson, member of ATTAC, Stockholm, Sweden
69. Anna Kossack, Vorstand LSV-Hessen, Berkatal, Germany
70. Glenn Rikowski, Hillcole Groupof Radical Left Educators, London, United Kingdom
71. Jan Buelinckx, ATTAC-University of Ghent, Belgium
72. Nadine Kötter, 42477 Radevormwald, Deutschland
Wanna sign this call? Send an e-mail with the text Signature in the subject line and with your name or the name of your organization, city and the country where you are coming from. Send this information to:
Contact: info@education-is-not-for-sale.org
Websites:
 http://www.education-is-not-for-sale.org
http://www.geocities.com/observaglobal/ (in Spanish)
Mailinglists:
English (The international list):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/international-pupil-and-studentactions
or send an empty e-mail to:
international-pupil-and-studentactions-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
German:
http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/int-schueler-und-studentenaktionen
Dutch:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/int-scholieren-en-studentenakties
 E-Mail: info@education-is-not-for-sale.org  Website: http://www.education-is-not-for-sale.org
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