Milwaukee, WI – Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the movement for education rights at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) is celebrating a victory just as school begins. UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago declared he is resigning by October 1, 2010.

Targeted in an ongoing campaign to defend tuition, jobs, and other student services, the Chancellor was rocked by protest every step of the way in his plan to balance a $20 million budget cut on the backs of students and workers.

“We demand, “Chop from the Top!“” explained Mike Gold of Milwaukee SDS. “We told the Chancellor that if the politicians are not going to hold the bankers and wealthy elite accountable for their economic crisis, cuts to our education are not going to be taken out of the pockets of workers and students; that money can come from the salaries and benefits of the Chancellor and high level administrators.”

Over 20 student groups and campus unions rallied to the cause over the last year, attending and supporting speak-outs organized by SDS and eventually forming the UWM Education Rights Campaign. When the National Day to Defend Public Education on March 4th arrived, hundreds at UWM came out in support. SDS led a march to the Chancellor's office to deliver campaign demands and signatures of support.

Upon hearing of the march, the Chancellor locked the doors of his building and had UWM and city police bust up the protest. Chancellor Santiago backed up the decision to mace, rough up, and arrest peaceful protesters. The arrested students became known as the Milwaukee 16, gaining nation-wide attention.

The attempt to use police intimidation backfired overnight. By the next day, another protest was planned outside the Chancellor's office. A forum put on by students and covered widely by the press, countered the lies the university administration promoted concerning March 4th. Progressive lawyers lined up to defend the students. Entire departments of university faculty came out with statements in support of the Milwaukee 16.

Chancellor Santiago finally agreed to a student demand, a public forum. Nearing the end of school and drawing in hundreds, the forum was covered by every media outlet in the city. Angry students, faculty, and community members filled the room along with a handful of university Regents. The Chancellor was booed and hissed for denying wrongdoing on March 4th and displayed a great amount of arrogance towards the popular education rights movement.

Shortly after, the UW System Board of Regents witnessed once again the anger and frustration at UWM. Typically quiet in the summer, two-dozen protesters crashed the summer Board of Regents meeting. They declared their intention to resist more budget cuts and to demand the dropping of the charges against the Milwaukee 16. The movement was not letting up.

One week later, UWM began negotiating to drop the charges against the Milwaukee 16. In August, with school soon resuming, the Chancellor declared his resignation, intent to leave six days shy of the next National Day of Action to Defend Education on Oct. 7th.

Looking forward, Milwaukee SDS is modifying their campaign, this time with demands for the next incoming Chancellor, who will be selected before the 2011-12 school year. The education rights campaign will continue, with this new campaign adding to its demands to end war profiteering at the school.

“Chancellor Santiago's resignation was good for our movement,” commented Natasha Morgan of SDS. “It's one less hurdle in our way and we're all very exited about this year's education rights movement. October 7th is going to be a big day here in Milwaukee and across the country.”

#MilwaukeeWI #EducationRights #StudentsForADemocraticSocietySDS #March4thMovement

Minneapolis, MN – On April 28, the Save Our School and Chop from the Top coalitions held a community forum called “The People’s State of the University” in Coffman Memorial Union at the University of Minnesota. Initiated by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the event served to counter President Bruininks’ State of the University address (which was only presented as a written document online) with alternate viewpoints from the University community.

Bruininks claims in his address to “have the best interests of the University and our students at heart,” but the administration continues to balance the budget on the backs of students and frontline staff. The forum served as a venue to speak out against the hypocrisy of the administration and as an opportunity for students, staff and faculty to continue the discussions ignited by the national March 4 education rights protest.

The forum’s speakers included Phyllis Walker, president of AFSCME 3800 clerical workers’ union; Professors Eva von Dassow and William Messing from Faculty for the Renewal of Public Education; Eli Meyerhoff and Elizabeth Johnson from Graduate Student Workers United; Student Solidarity Alliance member Jesse Simmons and SDS member Mia Overly. The audience included students, staff and faculty. Noticeably absent was the representative from the administration who President Bruininks had promised to send. It is clear that the administration is not interested in hearing our voices, despite Bruininks’ claims to the contrary.

AFSCME 3800 President Phyllis Walker declared that although the administration has continually stated that everyone should be tightening their belts in light of the current budget crisis, it is the lowest paid workers that have been targeted for layoffs: clerical, technical and health care workers. The administration has proposed forced furloughs, which, Walker states, would mean a “1.15% pay cut to the lowest-paid.”

Things aren’t much better for students. As Jesse Simmons of the Student Solidarity Alliance pointed out, the average student from the U of M graduates $30-40,000 in debt, and tuition just keeps increasing. Meanwhile, the administrators are paid bloated, ridiculous salaries.

Mia Overly of SDS said, “The [budget] crisis… has been brought on by the greed of the administration and now are they are kindly asking the students to pay a bit more in tuition, the grad students to continue to pay their extravagant fees, the staff to kindly take a few more unpaid days, the faculty to teach more and larger classes, and the list goes on.” Explaining why SDS wanted to have the forum in the first place, Overly expressed doubts about President Bruininks’ intentions, despite his claim to have the students’ and workers’ best interests at heart: “SDS finds this hard to believe when the majority of the cuts to funding and to programs are aimed at the most underprivileged in our community.”

Overly also pointed to the skewed priorities of the U.S. government, stating, “Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Cuba, Sri Lanka and Brazil, just to name a few, are countries that provide free higher education to their citizens, some even including funding for non-citizens. The priorities of the United States in comparison are obvious when we can spend trillions on war and occupation and negligible amounts on higher education.”

Proffessor Messing also spoke of the free universities in Europe, hoping that the U.S. could follow their examples. Meyerhoff took the comparison a step further: Students in Europe riot when university fees go up. “Where are our riots?” Meyerhoff asks, adding, “Non-action is supporting the status quo.”

The panel members, along with the organizations they represent, are fed up. Although the groups involved in the Save Our School and Chop from the Top coalitions have diverse backgrounds and tactics, it is clear that their goals are the same: to make a more fair university, where faculty work together instead of competing for grants and promotions, where staff are valued and paid fairly and where any person can afford to attend this public university. Education should be a priority of our nation, not a privilege to the wealthy.

Mia Overly finished her remarks by quoting Howard Zinn: “’The oppressors always try to force victims to turn on other victims.’ This is clearly the way the administration would like us all to see it – one group against the other, let us fight for the limited remaining resources, when in fact we should be allies together in this struggle against the one oppressing us all: the administration at the University of Minnesota.”

#MinneapolisMN #StudentsForADemocraticSocietySDS #AFSCME3800 #March4thMovement #StudentSolidarityAlliance

The Milwaukee 16, many who are members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), were arrested at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) on March 4 while protesting for education rights. On that day, police tried to shut down a powerful demonstration of 200 students, workers and faculty members. The protest was outside an administration building and involved students delivering petitions as part of the National Day of Action to Defend Education.

The March 4 education protest, led by the UWM Education Rights Campaign, ended with police pepper-spraying and arresting protesters, members of the press, the student government president, union organizers and bystanders. The UWM police chief targeted one African-American student for arrest and was caught on video saying, “You’re the perfect person to arrest.” Most of the arrested students were charged with unlawful assembly for gathering outside Chancellor Santiago’s office.

Professors and faculty members have been vocal in their support of the Milwaukee 16. The School of Letters and Sciences faculty, the School of Education faculty and the School of Architecture and Urban Planning faculty passed resolutions calling for Chancellor Carlos Santiago to drop the charges against the 16. In addition to the widespread campus support, a well-respected team of lawyers volunteered to represent each of the 16 in court.

The Education Rights Campaign is demanding that highly paid administrators take cuts from their six-figure salaries before cutting staff and forcing furlough days on low-paid workers and faculty. Tuition at UWM has doubled in the past decade as state funding gets cut again and again. The administration continues to sell off pieces of the public university to private corporations.

Chancellor Santiago, in a March meeting, agreed to participate in a forum hosted by the Education Rights Campaign to address the affects of the economic crisis on the university. Since then, the chancellor has created multiple delays in an attempt to avoid his commitment to the university body. This process has proven to many students and faculty that the chancellor isn’t serious about addressing education rights issues.

The Education Rights Campaign continues to build momentum. Their slogans include: “Education is a right!” and “Chop from the top!” Now the campus coalition is adding a new one, “Drop the charges against the Milwaukee 16!” SDS promises to put the pressure on Chancellor Santiago to stop education cuts and treat students with respect.

#MilwaukeeWI #InJusticeSystem #StudentsForADemocraticSocietySDS #March4thMovement

Milwaukee, WI – On March 11, over 70 students, professors and teachers assistants picketed outside the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee chancellor’s office, as several organizers met inside with the chancellor to demand that he drop the threat of academic punishment for the 16 student protesters who were arrested during the March 4 National Day of Action for Education Rights.

“15 police in riot gear were inside the building protecting the chancellor,” noted Students for a Democratic Society organizer Rachel Matteson. “We won two basic demands today, which were to have the chancellor participate in a public forum about the demands of the UWM Education Rights Campaign and to have more investigation into the excessive use of police force on March 4, but the academic punishment of the protesters is still uncertain and the much larger struggle for student and worker rights must continue.”

Many students report that Chancellor Santiago had ready three swat vans, two police wagons, 20-30 police in riot gear and six cops on horseback – all hidden behind the university dormitories.

#MilwaukeeWI #EducationRights #March4thMovement

STRUGGLE FOR EDUCATION RIGHTS

RESIST STATE ABANDONMENT AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF EDUCATION

Solidarity Statement from Philippines

March 4, 2010

Various students and youth belonging to the ANAKBAYAN Philippines (Sons and Daughters of the People), League of Filipino Students and Student Christian Movement of the Philippines, together with the National Union of Students of the Philippines and College Editors Guild of the Philippines, join in solidarity with the students, youth and education sector across the United States of America in the March 4 Nationwide Day of Action to Defend Education.

The picture is clear everywhere. It is the people who bear the brunt of rescuing big capitalists in this great recession, with the increasing slash on social welfare funding including education.

In the US, the anti-students and anti-people policies like the policy of 32% tuition hike passed by the University of California Board of Regents last November 2009 deserve the strongest condemnation of the youth. Most affected also are the peoples of color and the students from working families who are still struggling with their outstanding mortgages.

Similar cases of tuition hikes have also been experienced in other states, all blaming cutbacks in government funding.

Last year students, workers and faculty in the State University of New York (SUNY) and City University of New York (CUNY) also militantly defied Governor Paterson's ill-willed proposal of $698 million education budget slash which were to directly effect a raise in tuition fee for SUNY up to $620/school year, $600 for CUNY and $400 for community colleges.

In Europe too last November, there had been massive workers-supported students strikes like the mobilization of about 250,000 all across Germany in the clamor against the introduction of tuition increases and curriculum revisions.

Students in Austria and even in Scandanavian countries decried the bail-out for the banks and held walk-outs and “university occupations” in resistance to the European Union's Bologna process which is to drive education more to serve imperialism.

Student movements in Asia Pacific especially in Indonesia, India and Korea had also agitated against the worsening condition of the youth with the state abandonment of education.

We therefore commend our fellow youth and students in New York City and throughout US for their courage to stand up inside the “belly of the beast”.

Cut-backs on state funding is abandonment of government's responsibility and an outright attack to the people's most basic right to education. It paves way to tuition and exorbitant fee increases, academic staff lay-off, cramped up rooms, and a host of other infringement as commercialized regime on education is imposed in various levels.

To delude the public, the government use as an excuse the “nominal increase” in education funding which is always lopsided and unproportional to number of new entrants. The more obsene is the use of the argument that higher education is no longer a right and therefore with the use of the “globalization mantra” everyone is urged to pay for their education. Education is a commodity with a price-tag.

In the Philippines, the myth of the “liberal education” instituted from the American direct colonialism in our country up to current regime, is unmasked as an ensuing and worsening education in crisis that is colonial, commercialized and fascist in character.

The global recession further worsened the Philippine education sector for in truth, the current Arroyo regime has been ruthlessly attacking our basic right and with all servility imposes the policies of imperialist globalization that has led to worsened commercialization of education. In the tertiary level from 2001-2008 alone, the Arroyo regime presided over the 70% increase of the national average tuition and an allotment of measly 1.8% of GDP given to the entire education budget, pathetically way below the international standard and among the lowest in the world.

What happens to the youth who cannot continue their education? They are added to the battalions of reserve labor force or unemployed or join the cheap semi-skilled work-force who are most exploited in times of capitalist crisis.

Faced with such attacks on our fundamental rights, we have no other option but to fight back. This is a lesson we have learned through decades of fearless struggle, and a lesson we will continue to uphold until we are victorious.

Once again, we Filipino youth raise our fists in solidarity with you in the continuing struggle to end the foreboding annual budget cuts and tuition increases. We must join our hands in resisting the onslaught of imperialism against our education and the youth's future.

Education is a right, not a privilege!

#Philippines #EducationRights #March4thMovement #ANAKBAYAN

The March 4 national day of action for education was a huge success! Over 100,000 people marched, rallied and took action at over 100 schools and colleges. The biggest protests were in California, both on college campuses and in city streets. College students and union members joined parents with their children, as well as high school students, to demand education funding from the state government. Across the country, students, union workers and faculty marched across campuses and rallied outside administration buildings, while administrators hid or snuck out the back door. In some cases university chancellors and presidents locked themselves inside their offices surrounded by police while students tried to deliver petitions.

We are excited to see a new movement arising out of California and spreading in response to the various states’ budget crisis. We oppose program and class cuts, layoffs, pink slips, furlough days, raising tuition and fees. We stand against university presidents closing African-American, Chicano/Latino and oppressed people’s programs and centers. We oppose shutting down women’s centers and gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender support programs. Cut administrators and their bloated salaries, not financial aid and childcare! We oppose the rich and their politicians, while supporting the struggle of students, workers and educators. We say states should tax the rich and not pit education against other needed social services! Now is the time to mobilize the masses and raise the level of militancy. When the governors and boards say, “Cut back,” we say, “Fight back!”

The right-wing media is claiming that student protesters are self-serving and greedy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The students are fighting for what is right in an attempt to forge a better society. What the corporate media and rulers are truly afraid of is the possibility that the student movement will spark a broader movement during the economic crisis. The education rights movement is a challenge to the powers that be, because of the example it sets. And the powers that be respond accordingly – just look at the 16 arrests at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

March 4 was a tremendous day for Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) both locally and nationally and more students should join SDS so the education rights movement can continue. It is important to organize protests both nationally and on the local level, uniting activists to make practical mass demands in the context of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. At colleges, coalitions of union workers, graduate student and faculty unions and student organizations like MEChA and SDS can make an incredible difference. Students from kindergarten through high school, parent and community organizations alongside teachers’ unions are uniting to find common demands and stop privatization.

These coalitions have and will bring out hundreds and thousands of protesters to march and place demands on school and college administrators, boards of education, state legislators and governors. There is also growing resistance to the federal government’s spending on war abroad and anti-union policies in education at home.

The fight has just begun, there are more cuts coming. State budgets are in crisis and it is not going to get better anytime soon. University administrators wring their hands and point at politicians and governors. The politicians, funded with wealthy people’s money, give excuses and even justify themselves as carrying out the ‘people’s will.’ It just isn’t so. In our country, education is more and more about big business and profits and less and less about what is good for people or for a just, fair and healthy society. We have begun to build a mighty movement to defend public and free education.

Chop from the top!

Tax the rich!

Education, not occupation!

#UnitedStates #CapitalismAndEconomy #EducationRights #March4thMovement

At 1:00 p.m., the noon rally ended in a militant march. Several hundred students and workers marched around campus and when they reached Murphy Hall (the administration building), demonstrators marched inside and took over the hallway outside chancellor's office. The hallway was filled to capacity with people. Students presented a list of their demands to the chancellor but were blocked from entering his office by police.

The students and workers demanded that the chancellor come out and talk to them, but he never did. Over the next several hours, protesters took turns speaking, reading poetry, doing homework and playing music.

In the afternoon, another campus rally concluded around 5:00 p.m. and attendees marched up to Murphy Hall to show support. About 100 people were still inside. At this point, the police blocked all the entrances with bicycles. They let people out but would not allow anyone else to enter the building. Protesters stayed outside in support while those inside decided what to do. Eventually, the cops declared the people inside to be an unlawful assembly and ordered them to disperse. After considering civil disobedience and holding a vote, the remaining occupiers decided to come out together. They were greeted with cheers from the outside protesters as they emerged from the building.

While the protesters were not able to confront the chancellor face to face, participants agreed that their action was successful in raising consciousness and drawing more attention to their struggle. The six-hour occupation attracted local and national news (including an interview by CNN of a lead organizer in the hallway) and demonstrated that protesters are willing to raise the stakes for the UC administrators.

#LosAngelesCA #EducationRights #March4thMovement

Minneapolis, MN – About 500 union members, students, and faculty, came together for a spirited rally and march here, March 4. Organized by the Chop From The Top Coalition and the Save Our School Campaign, protesters first gathered at the central administration building, Morrill Hall, where Phyllis Walker, president of AFSCME Local 3800 was among those who addressed the crowd.

Walker said, “While the budget for public education gets slashed, over 250 administrators at the University of Minnesota earn more than $200,000 per year. Increasing layoffs and threatened furloughs reduce vital services for students. Furloughs are a pay cut, and front line staff are already struggling to get by.” When her speech ended, the chant, “Chop from the top” went up from the crowd.

Students were well represented at the protest. “The tuition increases, up 134% since 2000, put students into massive debt, taking on extra jobs during school and treat education as a consumer item,” said Tracy Molm of the University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society.

After the rally at Morrill Hall, participants marched to Coffman Union where Linden Gawboy, of the Minnesota Coalition for a Peoples Bailout spoke, “We did not cause this crisis. The super rich and greedy bankers are to blame.” She added, “We don’t see them going homeless. Their kids can afford tuition. They could take a ten-year furlough and still be richer than we will ever be. But they are whispering in the ears of the politicians saying we have to cut back.” Members of the Coalition also distributed flyers from the Network to Fight for Economic Justice urging support for Tuscaloosa bus drivers.

Also speaking at Coffman Union was Jess Sudin of AFSCME local 3800, who stated, “There’s a simple way to balance the University budget and preserve public education: Furlough the administrators, not faculty and staff. Lay off the fancy dinners, instead of front-line workers. Across the board, it’s time to chop from the top.”

Sundin continued, “Along with the University of California students confronting our old nemesis Mark Yudof, or the bus drivers on strike at the University of Alabama, we need to stand united. Public education is under attack – what we do? Stand up, fight back!”

Summing up the day, Cherrene Horazuk, of AFSCME 3800 told Fight Back!, “Today is a real victory. We have brought together students, workers and faculty to say no to layoffs, furloughs and tuition hikes. We will resist any attempts to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto our backs.”

#MinneapolisMN #Labor #EducationRights #March4thMovement

San Bruno, CA – Hundreds of Skyline College students left class and gathered on the campus quad for their Day of Action protest against budget cuts, on March 4. The action was organized by Skyline Against Cuts, which grew out of the students’ struggle against budget cuts last fall. After a short song, Skyline Against Cuts leader Michelle Araica led off the march. As student marshals held open doors, led chants and stopped traffic, nearly 500 students and a dozen or more faculty and staff supporters marched through almost all the buildings on campus, chanting “Hey hey! Ho ho! Budget cuts have got to go!”

After the march, there was an 11 a.m. rally that included faculty and students speaking out against the budget cuts. Skyline history professor George Wright told the students that this was a “historic protest” along with other schools throughout the state and across the country. Later that afternoon, carloads of students went to a 5 p.m. rally in San Francisco’s Civic Center called by local unions. A contingent of teachers from the faculty union, American Federation of Teachers 1493 also went to the rally.

This protest was possibly the largest student action ever in Skyline’s 40-year history. Skyline College is a small community college with about 10,000 students, located about 15 miles south of downtown San Francisco. It has a fairly diverse student body (45% Asian, 25% White, 20% Latino, and 10% other) which is mainly working-class. It is a commuter campus which empties out in the afternoon and then fills up again in the evening.

The college, like almost all community colleges in California, mainly depends on the state government for its operating funds. Last fall, the district called for $7 million in cuts for the upcoming year (2010-2011) due to the state government cutting 10% from spending on community colleges. At Skyline, the Child Development Center, which provided on-site childcare for both students and staff, as well as being a site for the college’s Early Childhood Education program was put on the chopping block. There had already been deep cuts in programs and services for disabled, low-income and first-time college going students, along with cuts in class sections. The struggle against these cuts led to the formation of Skyline Against Cuts last fall.

In February, Skyline Against Cuts organized a teach-in that involved faculty, student service directors and campus workers that drew hundreds of students. Following the teach-in many new student organizers joined Skyline Against Cuts and they began to plan for the March 4 Day of Action and organize for a student walk-out. Student organizers began tabling in the cafeteria, speaking in classes, putting up flyers and reaching out to other student groups. To build up for the Day of Action students did a ‘flash mob’ in the campus quad which got a front page photo in the school newspaper.

Through the fall struggle and the teach-in, students had formed a strong alliance with progressive faculty in the new Concerned Faculty of Skyline College. The Concerned Faculty had also formed in the fall to oppose the termination of two academic programs, Health Sciences and Nutrition. Faculty were angry that programs were being cut and the fact that faculty had no cost of living increase while most administrators were getting an average of 24% increase in their salary schedules.

Skyline Against the Cuts was also able to forge a broad united front in support of the March 4 day of Action. Students, along with Concerned Faculty members, mobilized for a meeting of the faculty Academic Senate and got a strong resolution in support of the Day of Action passed. Skyline Against the Cuts also met with the student government to get them to pass a resolution in support of March 4 and to work together on a rally that day. Students had support from the faculty union, which provided buttons and coverage of the teach-in. They also reached out to the California State Employee Association, which represents office staff and to facilities workers represented by AFSCME (American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees). Members from these unions had borne the brunt of job cuts in the district, along with the part-time faculty.

The broad support for the Day Action led to a very positive statement from the college president to all the faculty and staff about the Day of Action. Some faculty members cancelled their classes; others cut their classes short so that their students could participate in the Day of Action.

I was able to speak with a number of students after the rally. Floyd Pitts, President of the Black Student Union and member of Skyline Against Cuts, was one of the main organizers of the Day of Action. He said, “I was glad to see such a big turnout. I hope that we can keep the energy going.” Morgan and Josh, two other organizers with Skyline Against Cuts, told me that they were excited to see picket lines at elementary schools on their way to college that morning.

I also spoke with Alejandra, who said that it was her first protest. She said, “It was very unified. I was happy to see the school come together to fight the budget cuts.” Another student, Mícheál, said that he had heard about the walk-out from one of the student organizers. He was thinking of going to class, but said that “When I got here, I saw the signs and people and I decided to stay. This was the most effective protest that I have every been in.”

This upsurge in student activism is part of a growing wave of struggle against budget cuts to education that is sweeping across California and most of the country. In addition to teach-ins, walk-outs and rallies, students are planning to march on the state capitol in Sacramento on March 22 and faculty are organizing educational programs about the budget cuts.

Masao Suzuki is a member of the Concerned Faculty of Skyline College and a participant in the March 4 Day of Action at Skyline College.

#SanBrunoCA #Labor #AFSCME #March4thMovement #SkylineCollege #SkylineAgainstCuts #ConcernedFacultyOfSkylineCollege

Chicago, IL – There was a forceful protest of over 250 people at the University of Illinois-Chicago who came out to defend education and to fight for fair contracts, March 4. Chanting, “Chop from the top!” and “Whose university? Our university!” students, members of SEIU Local 73, the Graduate Employees Organization and faculty joined in unison against the administration placing the budget crisis on their backs. Earlier in the day, there was a forum by several professors speaking on the budget crisis, followed by a rally and march through the campus to the administrators’ building. The day closed with a soup kitchen provided by SEIU to demonstrate for a fair contract.

SEIU Local 73 President Christine Boardman announced, “Clerical workers at UIC will be taking a strike authorization vote in the coming weeks.” This was after she described the eight months of fruitless negotiations, the layoffs of union members and the conservative policies of the UI administration. “A strike might be just what’s needed to fix the situation here.”

#ChicagoIL #StudentMovement #SEIULocal73 #March4thMovement

Thousands of students, workers and faculty at over 100 campuses in at least 39 states participated in a national day of action March 4. One demand was that administrators and chancellors must quit raising tuition and fees. Another demand was that theycut the salaries of the highest-paid administrators instead of the lowest-paid staffers on campus. Many of the protests opposed layoffs. Actions ranged from walkouts and marches, to occupations and shut-downs, to teach-ins and movie showings.

At UCLA, where cuts have been especially severe, over 300 students have staged a sit-in at the administrators’ building where the chancellor refuses to come out and meet with the protesters. Eric Gardner from UCLA Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) says, “We don’t accept the explanation that their hands are tied by the crisis. There are a lot of things they can do right now to alleviate the situation for students and workers, but they refuse – so we are confronting them and will continue to do so, today and in the future. Our struggle is not over yet. We make this university run, so they cannot ignore us for long.”

Charla Schlueter from UCLA SDS was also at the protest. “Five hours later, students are still here protesting the cuts with spirit. Later tonight, there will be a march with both UCLA and high school students demanding an end to the furloughs, and no more pink slips for high school teachers [who are expecting 5000 more pink slips this spring]. This whole day has been incredible – I have never seen so much unity amongst students, workers and professors working together to defend public education. Professors have brought their classes to the protests, people have been bringing food at water, workers have been taking their furlough days to protest.”

Schlueter continued, “ The most inspiring moment to me was when a group of visiting grade school kids came to the protest and talked about how nobody in their family has had the opportunity to attend college. That’s when I realized that if we don’t fight this now, then those children might never get that opportunity.”

Protests happened across California. At UC-Davis, police were firing rubber bullets into the ground as students tried to take over Interstate 80 in a dramatic effort to force the administration to listen to their demands. UC-Berkeley had a rally of hundreds and blocked the campus’s main gates. Students at UC-Santa Cruz held a day-long strike, blocking intersections starting at 5:00 a.m. and shutting down the university for the day. Students held a rally chanting, “Whose university? Our university!”

At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a peaceful speak-out and march to the chancellor’s office ended with the police arresting 18 people, including the student body president and a member of the press. Police were overheard saying “Let’s go arrest some hippies,” and demanding that protesters put away cameras and video equipment.

Rachel Matteson, an SDS member and a leader of the UWM march, was one of the arrested students. She stated, “All of the arrests were completely unjust and unnecessarily forceful. I was pepper-sprayed in the mouth and kicked repeatedly in the shins before being arrested – my throat is still burning hours later. However, all the arrested students were in high spirits and chanting in our cells. Everybody here is ready to come to the next protest, because this fight is not over. I am proud to have been arrested for standing up for our right to education.”

Students at Syracuse University in New York held a sit-in at Bird Library to demand an end to cuts in workers’ benefits and a tuition freeze. They have more than 1000 signatures on a petition they are going to present to administrators. SDS member Mariel Fiedler says, “We figured we would do something at the library because we saw it as symbolic and action-oriented. The sit-in is the culmination of everything.”

In Maryland, over 700 students, mostly high-school students, marched to a juvenile detention center, stopping at the state school board where more students joined to rally with them. Students demanded the state divert $100 million from the juvenile detention center to education-based jobs. Once at the detention center, 15 youths and adult allies initiated an occupation of the building that lasted for over an hour. Activist Chris Goodman from the Baltimore Algebra Project said that he was excited about the protest and the amount of people there, and is looking forward to next steps to pressure Governor O’Malley to invest in students and young people.

Steph Taylor from the University of Minnesota SDS said about their protest, “Over 400 students, staff and faculty rallied at the University of Minnesota demanding the administration take a pay cut before laying off thousands of workers, forcing furloughs on faculty and staff or raising students’ already inflated tuition and fees. After the rally SDS led the masses into the student union and out into the streets chanting, ‘Fund education, not administration!’ The University’s regents will be meeting next week to discuss the state of the university in this trying economic time and SDS plans to be there with our banners and voices to demand a say in how our university is run and to keep the student movement growing.”

In Chicago there was a forceful protest of over 250 people at the University of Illinois-Chicago who came out to defend education and fight for fair contracts. Chanting, “Chop from the top!” and “Whose university? Our university!” students, members of SEIU Local 73, the Graduate Employees Organization and faculty joined in unison against the administration placing the budget crisis on their backs. “This is the first step toward more militant actions,” says Kait McIntyre, a student at UIC and member of Chicago SDS. “Today we showed that you can’t put this on the backs of students and workers, and you can't cut our diversity centers without a fight.”

As more information about the day of action unfolds, Fight Back! will be here to report on the heroic struggles of students and workers to demand a right to education and to resist cuts and furlough days.

#UnitedStates #Labor #March4thMovement

Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society Condemn Police Brutality, Demands Justice, Continue the Struggle for Education Rights

18 arrested, 250 rally for education rights at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee for the March 4 National Day of Action for Education Rights****

March 4, 2010 – Milwaukee, WI – Students for a Democratic Society is an organization that stands for social justice, peace, and equality. In the face of massive budget cuts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, we helped form a campus-wide coalition for education rights, called the UWM Education Rights Campaign, consisting of dozens of organizations, including the professor and teacher assistants union.

The campaign organized a peaceful demonstration on March 4th, part of a national day of action to defend education (www.defendeducation.com). The local campaign organized a speak-out to bring attention to our demands. The really ended in a march to Chapman Hall, to deliver petition signatures to a Chancellor that has thus far refused to meet with us, instead choosing to introduce us to more campus police and locked doors.

250 students, workers, professors, teacher assistants, and concerned community members gathered today to show their support for the UWM Education Rights Campaign. SDS believes we had a great event, and are proud of the students and workers who rallied with us for education rights and stood their ground for over two hours as the police pepper sprayed, punched, and arrested over 18 people.

“It is difficult to express how outraged we are of the use of police repression against a peaceful protest,” commented student organizer Jacob Flom. “We are outraged by the Chancellor’s unwillingness to come and meet with the peaceful assembly. Our thoughts and prayers go out tonight to the students who have been attacked, arrested, pepper sprayed, and injured. This campaign was about the tens of thousands of youth in our impoverished city who have absolutely no hope of attending this university due to a gutless university administration and politicians who instead give billions to war, occupation, and bank bailouts.”

Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society demands all the arrested be immediately released. We will not stand for charges against our fellow protestors. Despite the violence and repression, however the Chancellor is trying to depict this situation, we will continue forth with our campaign for education rights with more energy and vigor than ever seen before.

Read more about Students for a Democratic Society here: www.sdsmke.com. The UWM Education Rights Campaign can be read more about at www.educationrightscampaign.com.

#MilwaukeeWI #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #EducationRights #March4thMovement

Los Angeles, CA – As the March 4 Day of Action draws closer, campuses across California are getting restless.

The latest series of struggles began Feb. 24, on the campus of UC Irvine. That morning, a group of about 20 students and workers took over the campus administration building. The action began as a sit-in, but by noon students had locked down the building and barricaded the entrances with dumpsters. Their list of demands included a revocation of the 5% furloughs imposed on service workers, financial aid for undocumented students and greater investment in ethnic, queer and women's studies programs. Police dismantled the barricades by the afternoon, and students were released after being briefly detained.

The following day, Feb. 25, students at UC Santa Cruz, Cal State Fullerton, and San Francisco State University conducted banner drops urging students to strike on March 4.

That night, some 250 students at UC Berkeley took over Durant Hall, a building which used to house the East Asian Library, and more recently became the site of one of the administration's ‘capital projects.’

In a statement, the occupiers linked the expansion of capital projects which serve only the administration with the rapidly rising student fees: “As we now know, the UC administration has used not only students' tuition, but also the promise of future tuition increases, to secure the bonds and bond ratings necessary to channel ever increasing resources into construction projects. They will always need more money, and it will always be our money. A general concern that changes the way we see the campus that surrounds us. But if there is one building in particular that exemplifies this process, it is Durant Hall: its renovation was halted in 2008 for lack of funds, and only started up again after the administration sold $1.3 billion in construction bonds last May backed by our fee hike as collateral. Its melancholy fate is to become yet another administration building. Durant Hall will be inhabited by deans and staff of the College of Letters and Science, but it has already been occupied by a bloated administration with private capital on its mind.”

Students occupied the building for several hours before beginning a rowdy march down Telegraph Avenue, the heart of Berkeley's downtown. Demonstrators scuffled with riot police before dispersing and at least two were arrested.

On Feb. 26, students led by the Black Student Union at UC San Diego and the Afrikan Student Union at UCLA staged sit-ins at the offices of their respective chancellors. Several hundred students mobilized, demanding that the administrators take action to improve the conditions on campus for non-white students. The actions were prompted by a string of racist incidents at UC San Diego, but protesters also drew connections between the ongoing budget cuts and the plight of students of color. Students at UCSD occupied their chancellor's office for more than six hours before leaving.

On March 1, the UC Berkeley Black Student Union organized a silent protest in solidarity with the San Diego action. Students blocked one of the main gates on campus, dressed in black, with black cloth tied over their mouths.

On March 2, members of UCLA's Afrikan Student Union and allies took over a major campus walkway with linked arms and megaphones, chanting at the passers by and denouncing hate crimes and a lack of diversity in the UC system. At Berkeley, another series of banners urging students to strike have gone up.

We can only guess what tomorrow will bring.

#California #CA #EducationRights #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #IndigenousPeoples #March4thMovement

Fight to Defend Education and Jobs on March 4!

The Network to Fight for Economic Justice calls on all its members and supporters at schools and colleges across the country to protest and rally for jobs and education rights on March 4. In the midst of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, workers and students are struggling more than ever to stop cutbacks and layoffs and to keep fair wages, affordable tuition and the right to an education.

On March 4, students and workers will take a stand to say no more to bailouts and big bonuses for bankers as campus employees and students are made to pay for the budget crisis. Campus workers, professors, teachers and graduate students across the country face massive budget cuts, furloughs, layoffs and shortened hours. Students face tuition and fee hikes that are driving them out of school, hindering access to a quality education, denying their hopes and dreams.

In the face of this dire situation of economic crisis created by the rich, the bankers, and the politicians, workers and students are fighting back. Three examples are: (1) the student and worker strikes at the massive University of California system last November; (2) the University of Alabama bus drivers fight for a union contract with a livable wage; and (3) the Garfield High School parents’ group and the United Teachers union of Los Angeles fighting privatization of the education system. There is hope in the struggle!

On March 4, the fight continues, as a nationwide movement led by coalitions of campus union workers like Teamsters, AFSCME and SEIU, professors’ associations and graduate employee organizations (NEA, AFT, GEO), students groups like SDS and MEChA and Black student unions, parents organizations, and community members plan to take action chanting, “Chop from the Top!” and “They say Cut Back, We say Fight Back!” and “Education Is a Right!”

March 4 will be a turning point in the struggle against education cutbacks. Politicians and the wealthy people who tell them what to do will have to think twice about making cutbacks that slice education budgets. The movement must demand more taxes on the corporations and the rich. Students and workers are sick of being told there is money for war and there’s no money for jobs, housing, health care and education.

Please write to the Network at info@wesayfightback.com if you want more information and to sign up for the Network email list. Send us photos and reports on the March 4 protests. We will publish them on our web site.

#UnitedStates #NetworkToFightForEconomicJustice #March4thMovement

Today education is under attack. Tuition and fee hikes are closing the doors to higher education. Working class and even many middle class college students are being forced out or are taking on crushing debts. Cuts in financial aid and student services and extra fees for undocumented students are limiting access. Furthermore, programs won through past struggles such Ethnic Studies and campus Women’s Centers are coming under attack. We say “Education is a Right, Not a Privilege”!

Across the country students are fighting back. Mass protests and building occupation rocked the University of California in opposition to tuition hikes. Workers, teachers, and their unions have joined with students to fight for their jobs and for education. The recession and financial meltdown have led to the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Lay-offs, foreclosures, and budget cuts are hitting our communities while the government bails out the big banks and corporations. March 4 is a national day of action to fight these cuts on campuses and schools across the country.

Fifty years ago, on February 1, 1960, four African American students sat in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in North Carolina. This protest unleashed a wave of direct action against Jim Crow, and ushered in a new, militant phase of the Civil Rights Movement led by Black students in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Many white students who were involved joined the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the antiwar movement on college campuses. Today, students are again marching in the forefront of the people’s fight back.

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) would like to put forward the following three slogans in the fight for education:

• Chop from the Top! While students are seeing fewer and fewer classes, top administrators are earning CEO salaries. Across the country the number of administrators and their pay is growing, while they claim that there is no money to keep paying teachers and staff. Many schools are laying off their own workers and outsourcing jobs to lower-paid, non-union workers. This corporate approach to education is making the bad budget situation even worse. Lay offs, outsourcing, no way! Cut the administrators’ pay!
• Tax the Rich! State government and local schools across the country have less tax revenues due to the Great Recession. Many governments are raising their sales tax, which falls the hardest on low-income families. While both Republican and Democratic politicians say that they can’t raise taxes on the rich, the people of Oregon showed them how by raising the tax on corporations and high-income households!
• Money for Education, Not Occupation! The Federal Government is sending tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan. Each soldier costs more than a million dollars per year. While military spending is reaching new highs, the Federal Government is proposing to freeze domestic spending, including education. We say the Federal Government should cut military spending and spend more on education! We need books, not bombs!

#UnitedStates #EducationRights #March4thMovement