A mass, direct action movement has broken out in Austria against planned attacks on the university education system.
It all started when The Fine Art Academy was occupied by a small number of students who were protesting at plans by the Austrian education ministry to introduce a three-tier degree system. Students were furious that many of them would be unable to access the higher ‘masters’ qualification and that their choice over what subjects to focus on would be dictated from above.
John from London asked Roman from REVOLUTION Austria to report from inside the occupation. Read more…
Across University of California (UC) campuses, thousands came out in protest against proposed furloughs for teachers, job reductions for campus workers, and a staggering 30% increase in tuition costs for students. School administration and government officials blamed budget shortfalls; however, that did not stop the protests from expanding not only across all the UC campuses but to other California-based universities as well.
Over 250,000 school students, university students and trainees took to the streets on June 17. The students were demonstrating against cuts in education and also against the increasing involvement of private enterprise in the school system. The protests took place in more than 70 cities all over the country.
by Christopher Müller, student representative of the “AHS Kleine
Sperlgasse (Vienna)” and spokesman of REVOLUTION
Our second school strike was a great success. According to the ORF(television station in Austria), 2,500 students marched in Vienna to the Ministry of Education and about 10,000 were protesting nationwide against the deprivation of education by the SPÖVP government. The youth organization REVOLUTION had already organized a first school strike in Vienna on April 2nd and also took the initiative to organize this second school strike. Today we were able to mobilize students from a large number of schools. An important force in the mobilization process was the action committees which formed in a number of schools to organize the resistance against the deprivation of education.
After being forcibly evicted from the barricaded cafeteria in the Kimmel Center for University Life and later served with indefinite suspensions, the occupying students from New York University [NYU] were granted their right to return to classes this coming Monday. This can be attributed to massive support from the public, teachers and professors at NYU, and students from other New York-based universities who participated in occupations at the New School and the University of Rochester. The tireless efforts of the NYU students who kept up the fight even after being removed from campus housing and threatened with expulsion by the administration, provide invaluable lessons for future militant action across American university campuses. The thirty-six hour occupation formally ended at 2 P.M. on February 20th, but, as Take Back NYU! notes, the struggle to democratize student life and break NYU from investing in corporations that enable the Zionist regime in Israel to murder Palestinians in Gaza is far from over.
Drawing inspiration from the widespread student occupations across Britain and last year’s New School takeover in New York City, students, activists, and community members converged at the University of Rochester to protest against the university’s economic ties with the Zionist government in Israel and its murderous occupation in the Gaza Strip more generally. While organized primarily by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), many other groups, including the Campus Antiwar Network (CAN), the International Socialist Organization (ISO), and Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) were all active fighting contingents.
This past week, between 75 and 100 students from a variety of New York City based colleges and universities barricaded themselves inside The New School’s dining hall in protest of school president Bob Kerrey and his administration’s policies. An email from a City University of New York (CUNY) student to the Campus Anti-War Network national discussion list emphasized that it was not only New School students involved in the occupation. It stated that “[s]tudents from several universities commandeered this space. Students of City College, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Hunter College, and CUNY Graduate Center are here participating in this struggle. This is every student’s occupation.” Cafeteria workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 101 showed their support by refusing to cross the barricades.
