Strike for Higher Education

October 7th, 2010 – Day of Strike & Action

Under the guise of an economic collapse, we see the public resources that once supported us, and the public spaces that once provided fertile grounds for shelter and inspiration degrade. Every level of public education has been cut to the bone, programs for the homeless and public welfare have been scaled back in contradiction to escalating needs, and dozens of basic necessities have become difficult to obtain or too expensive to afford—from finding healthcare to transportation, jobs to housing.

The managers of industry, university administrators, and bank executives have undercut our public commons, imposed burdens on workers and gambled away our future in a thoughtless, last-ditch reaction to prop up a failing system. The bailout of banks, bloated managerial budgets and salaries, and the privatization of public schools are some of the devastating initiatives they continue to push; and so now, we’re beginning to see the aftermath: high foreclosures rates, lay-offs and unreasonable tuition. What seemingly began as an economic crisis, has become a crisis of social values. Do we stand by and accept their tired policies, or do we refuse them and reinvent ourselves?

As a mosaic of communities that recoil from the unbearable, we have the ability to network and join together, not only to fight off cuts and injustices, but to recreate and sustain our future. In the emergence of the student movement, we’ve seen our creativity flourish and the formation of new ties and connections between commonly separated groups. We see our united strength, and we know that together we can challenge the false options between housing and the environment, education and prison reform, and the false division between workers and students. We reject any “solutions” that would maintain one community at the expense of other vulnerable populations.

In April, organizers fighting for education converged and called for a day of strike and action on October 7, 2010. In recognition of the increasing struggles we face today, not only as students, but as teachers, parents, and workers, we wish to broadly organize direct actions with a diversity of communities who wish to be involved in this defense of education, in this struggle to take back our lives.

Take this message to your friends, your family, to the union forums and to your coworkers, to your community organizing meetings and your allies struggling to reverse the erosion, to students at every level of education, to your teachers and your tutors, to anyone who ever opened a book and spoke to friends about building a better world. United we are a flood that sweeps away the decay of defeatism, that brings forth new seeds to instill a fighting spirit and form new opportunities. (via Facebook Event)

(Endorsements and call available here)