Inside the Egyptian Revolution,

Last night (23/10/11) the Space Project played host to Jano Charbell, journalist and anarchist activist from Cairo in Egypt. Jano spoke to an audience of about 30 in the newly decorated space, about the conditions in Egypt since the revolution began and Mubarak fell. He warned of the counter-revolutionary activities of the ruling military council in Egypt as being a threat to the energy and optimism of the millions who took part in the initial uprisings of 2011. The council has put thousands of civilians on trial, gagged the media and delayed promised elections. He also spoke, however, of the causes for optimism in Egypt where new civil society organisations, such as independent trade unions and neighbourhood assemblies continue to spring up.

For Jano the internationalism of the current wave of resistance is crucial. There is a real cross-fertilisation of struggle. Activists in Egypt are not only inspiring and inspired by other Arab popular revolts, but also inspired by the current global Occupy movement and other anti-capitalist protests. Building international links of solidarity and support is a key part of ensuring that the challenges to capitalism remain strong.

Jano’s talk is just one of the many events being organised in The Space Project. Other up and coming events include: ‘There was Struggle Before Us’: A programme of walks, talks rides and performances concerning radical history on the streets of Leeds; and in conjunction with Leeds International Film Festival, ‘Living With an Earthquake: a Week of Militant Cinema.

For a full programme of events check out: http://spaceproject.org.uk/events/month.calendar/2011/10/24/-.html.

Call for a Transnational Meeting in Tunisia

Call for a Transnational Meeting in Tunisia

We, students, precarious workers, unemployed, and activists of Europe and North Africa met in Tunis to share our knowledge and begin a process of common struggles. The struggles that have swept across North Africa over the last few months spoke to the entire globe because the absence of a future for the new generations was at the center of these conflicts. The front lines in these struggles were held by the new generation who is always the first to fight and the last to be listened to. In the context of the global economic crisis, there are many parallels in the reasons why we are fighting in Europe and why Ben Ali and Moubarak were toppled.

These struggles are demanding a radical change of a system based on generalized exploitation by parasitic governments of elites over the needs of the many. We are revolting against the misery of the present and to build new social relationships that are produced by processes of liberation and the reappropriation of our collective wealth. These struggles create common spaces that power constantly tries to fragment and repress.

This is why we are calling for a transnational Meeting of activists to share our struggles and to construct common strategies and campaigns. We don’t want to have a “media” event, but to construct a transnational network able to face these times of struggle and great social transformation.

We would like this Meeting to be a laboratory of reflection and common work around the following fundamental questions: migration and the free circulation of people and knowledges, precariousness, the question of debt and social services, free and accessible education for all, the construction of autonomous media and networks, the reappropriation of urban spaces, the mechanisms and the forms of social mobilization and the experimentation of new forms of organization and collective intelligence.

We propose a 3-day Meeting in Tunisia in September 2011, and invite all collectives, groups, individuals and activists who adhere to this call and who wish to construct a transnational network of struggle.

Front de Libération populaire de la Tunisie

Knowledge Liberation Front

Network Welcome to Europe and other activists of NoBorder

Soliplenumk Revolte (Gottingen)

 

Source: http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/call-for-a-transnational-meeting-in-tunisia/

Greek Public Universities in Danger

To the international academic community

PUBLIC Greek Universities in Danger

 In the last few years, a wave of ‘reforms’ within the European Union and throughout the world has subjected Higher Education to the logic of the market. Higher Education has increasingly been transformed from a public good and a civil right to a commodity for the wealthy. The self-government of Universities and the autonomy of academic processes are also being eroded. The processes of knowledge production and acquisition, as well as the working conditions of the academic community, are now governed by the principles of the private sector, from which Universities are obliged to seek funds.

Greece is possibly the only European Union country where attempts to implement these ‘reforms’ have so far failed. Important factors in this failure are the intense opposition of Greek society as well as the Greek Constitution, according to which Higher Education is provided exclusively by public, fully self-governed and state-funded institutions.
According to the existing institutional framework for the functioning of Universities, itself the result of academic and student struggles before and after the military dictatorship (1967-1974), universities govern themselves through bodies elected by the academic community. Although this institutional framework has contributed enormously to the development of Higher Education in Greece, insufficient funding and suffocating state control, as well as certain unlawful and unprofessional practices by the academic community, have rendered Higher Education reform necessary.
The current government has now hastily attempted a radical reform of Higher Education. On the pretext of the improvement of the ‘quality of education’ and its harmonization with ‘international academic standards’, the government is promoting the principles of ‘reciprocity’ in Higher Education. At the same time, it is drastically decreasing public funding for education (up to 50% decrease) which is already amongst the lowest in the European Union. New appointments of teaching staff will follow a ratio 1:10 to the retirement of existing staff members.  This will have devastating results in the academic teaching process as well as in the progress of scientific knowledge.
The government proposals seek to bypass the constitutional obligations of the state towards public Universities and abolish their academic character.

• The self-government of Universities will be circumvented, with the current elected governing bodies replaced by appointed ‘Councils’ who will not be  accountable to the academic community.
• The future of Universities located on the periphery, as well as of University departments dedicated to ‘non-commercial’ scientific fields, looks gloomy.
• Academic staff will no longer be regarded as public functionaries. The existing national payscale is to be abolished and replaced by individualized, ‘productivity’ related payscales, while insecure employment is to become the norm for lower rank employees.
• Higher Education will be transformed into ‘training’ and, along with research, gradually submitted to market forces.

The government proposals have been rejected by the Greek academic community. The Council of Vice-Chancellors and the Senates of almost all Universities have publicly called the government to withdraw the proposals and have suggested alternative proposals which can more effectively deal with the problems of Greek Universities. Despite this, the government proceeds with promoting its proposals, in confrontation with the entire academic community.
We appeal to our colleagues from the international academic community, who have experienced the consequences of similar reforms, to support us in our struggle to defend education as a public good. We fight, together with our British, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and other colleagues, for the respect of the academic tradition of the European universitas in current conditions.

We ask you to send electronically the appeal below, signed with your name and indicating your academic status and institutional affiliation, to the Initiative of Greek Academics (europeanuniversitas1@gmail.com) or  sign online at http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?GRUNIV

The support of the international academic community will prove invaluable for the upcoming developments not only in Greek Universities but in respect to public European Higher Education as a whole.

Initiative of Greek academics

Free Frank Fernie

In recent weeks a number of prison sentences have been handed out to some of those arrested during the student protests of late last year and also the ‘March for the Alternative’ demonstration of this year, of which Frank fernie is just one and Charlie Gilour perhaps the most well known. There are a number of people still going through the legal system.

As the state attacks and imprisons us it is vital that we show solidarity with those inside.

Francis Fernie a York (UK) based student was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for fighting a cause he believed in.

Frank was involved in the student protests that took place earlier this year and when the police turned aggressive to protesters Frank decided to fight back.  Frank’s offences were minor. The most of severe of which was, “throwing two sticks at police officers”, (police officers that were protected for a full riot).

Frank should not be in prison.

It is easy to see that Frank’s sentence is disproportionate to the crimes he has commited and his background is one of lifelong kindness.

Frank’s has a campaign group fighting to quash his disproportionate sentence and to highlight and put a stop to politically motivated verdicts. For more info of how you can help visit: http://www.freefrankfernie.info/

 

Defend Education – Fight Privatisation. London 9th November 2011

Aaron Swartz arrested for downloading too many articles from JSTOR

Aaron Swartz, from MIT & online group ‘demand progress’, has been arrested for downloading too many articles from the academic database ‘JSTOR’ – a ‘crime’ some have compared to taking out too many books from the library! He faces a maximum sentence of *35 years in prison*.

Details of the story can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/21/aaron-swartz-indicted-hacking-charges

A support page for Aaron is here:
http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/support_aaron/?source=fb

In an act of solidarity someone has made 18,592 scientific publications freely available along with a manifesto via this torrent:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6554331/Papers_from_Philosophical_Transactions_of_the_Royal_Society__fro
Knowledge should be freely available as part of our ‘commonwealth’ – take part in some digital commoning – download and seed this torrent!

300,000 Chileans Protest for Education Reform

On June 30, high school and university students, along with academics and workers, held a march for education in Santiago that drew over 150,000 people in the capital, and just as many in other regions of the country.

This is the largest demonstration in Chile since the marches against Pinochet at the end of the dictatorship, more than twenty years ago. It confirms that this is a moment of intense social mobilization and anger over the precarity of the system, the high levels of student debt, the low performance of the most lucrative private universities and the constant defunding of public education. More than two hundred high schools are still occupied and the country’s most important universities find themselves totally paralyzed with many of their departments also occupied.

The movement has gone beyond the area of student demands, questioning the “democracy” of the post-dictatorship and its institutional and economic legacy in the current system. Along with the traditional forms of protesting, there has been a call for artistic activities, giving the demonstrations a carnivalesque richness. Also today, students occupied the headquarters of the most important political parties. The cry is for a true democracy and the empowerment of the multitude.

The government’s response has been the same as always, repression without an answer. The fear in the faces of the politicians and the market, however, is already beginning to show themselves.

Source: http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/huge-protests-in-chile/

#J30 Leeds

On June 30th unions and non-unionised individuals came out in force across the country. Under the remit of pension reform protest – but actually over a blossoming sense of discontent and injustice – there were pickets, rallies, demonstrations and protests up and down the country alongside at least 12,000 schools shut and 20,000 marching in London.

In Leeds 55 schools were shut and 120 partially closed, pickets were outside job centres and government buildings. Outside Leeds Met the official UCU picket was swelled by supporters and by the time it marched into City Square where about 1000 people waited, numbers were up to 2000.

Copies of the Sausage Factory were doled out up at Leeds University (which wasn’t on strike) to great enthusiasm, and interesting conversations were had with some of the lowest paid workers who were working there.

Whilst the unions are declaring it a resounding success, the government declare it a resounding failure. But aside from a display of public disapproval or approval for the pension reforms are more interesting questions such as how did j30 contribute or not to generalising struggle and dissent?

June 30th was merely a day within a process of contesting the austerity measures currently being implemented. June 30th might have been the visualisation of this particular moment but it wasn’t any more part of resistance than the process before and after it. And the process so far has certainly been of interest to us here at the ROU. Since March 26th when ROU and a number of other groups and individuals critiqued both the A to B TUC march in London and it’s naughtier little brother the black bloc smash up, agitators have been looking at new forms and new relationships between official and unofficial, the sanctioned and the unsanctioned. Using propaganda to encourage people to phone in sick or take the day off, this was an attempt to be with and in the official union structures but also ways to operate beyond it. That this happened successfully through assemblies in many towns and cities with people of different political backgrounds and allegiances finding ways of working together should indeed worry both the coalition government as well as the shadow cabinet.

Talking with people on the street leafleting, or giving out sausages, or on the picket lines, the public mood seemed to be with and for the protests not bemused and against. Likewise, it seemed that there was a feel of long term resistance, that nobody this time expected a demonstration would make the slightest difference to the austerity strategy, but that rather action would have to be taken again and again. When strike action happens on a wide scale like this, when there is face to face contact in the streets and schools and workplaces, then conversations happen. Statistically, it seems the nation was split nearly down the middle with strike support, (the young and the north significantly more in favour) but these cheerful protests do not just create a kneejerk Yes or No response but a more complicated and thoughtful consideration. June 30th was a moment when politics wasn’t happening down in Westminster but was happening here. With us all. On our streets.

Press release from EAN– H.E. White Paper – a disaster for universities; a government in chaos

Below is a press release by the Education Activist Network responding to yesterdays HE White paper. ROU will be publishing out own comments soon.

contact educationactivist@gmail.com or 075454588417

The coalition government’s White Paper on H.E. has been released today. Its proposals have been greeted with alarm by academics, students, parents and education activists around the country.

It will force universities into competition with one another, opening them up to rampant privatisation, and put business and profit before the needs of those who work and study in these institutions.

The H.E. White Paper undermines universities’ autonomy and their contribution to free- thinking and critical oppositionality in modern society.

With increased interference from government, on the one hand, and exposure to the caprices of the market on the other, this cynical, morally bankrupt move by the government threatens to dismantle the H.E. system and tender it out to the highest bidder. It shows Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts’ total disregard for social equality and justice.

The core values of universities are being eroded and the Education Activist Network calls on all its members to resist these measures with all their vigour.

As tuition fees rise to up to £9,000 per year, and after Grayling’s private, for-profitNewCollegeof the Humanities has announced fees of £18,000, the White Paper proposes the following :

• To cap the number of students receiving government-funded loans
• To redefine HEFCE’s role so that it becomes simply the ‘promoter of a competitive system’
• To grant degree-awarding powers to new bodies, i.e., private H.E. providers
• To interfere in universities’ autonomy and to wrap them in red tape
• To stimulate self-interested competition between academics

All this means that:

• Universities will be prey to market forces and business interventionism
• Students will pay three times more, while academics will have less time for teaching and research
• Institutions up and down the country will be at risk of closure
• Administrators and support staff will be casualised, put on short-term contracts, and denied a living wage.
• Transparency-drives will mean over-regulation and homogenisation
• Students will be seen as consumers rather than participants in a university community

Mark Bergfeld, NUS executive, says:

‘Not only are the Tories responsible for the anarchy of the market in Higher Education, they are also responsible for the protests in the streets, the strikes in the schools and occupations of our universities. They have not given students and workers any other option than to resist!’

The H.E. White Paper is part of the government’s plan to erode social justice and equality and the Education Activist Network calls on members to support strike action on 30 June.

Nick Grant, from NUT Ealing, says: ‘This strike is reaching all parts of the education system that unions don’t normally. Academies, other independent and private schools, even those in David Cameron’s own constituency, will be hit by our strike.’

Richard McEwan, from Tower Hamlets UCU, says ‘This generation can expect to be worse off than their parents [...] 30 years of the market have failed us; we need an alternative. The 30^th June could be the start.’

Source: http://educationactivistnetwork.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/press-release-h-e-white-paper-%E2%80%93-a-disaster-for-universities-a-government-in-chaos/

Statement in relation to the outlawing of the Copenhagen Free University: All power to the free universities of the future

All power to the free universities of the future

The Copenhagen Free University was an attempt to reinvigorate the emancipatory aspect of research and learning, in the midst of an ongoing economisation of all knowledge production in society. Seeing how education and research were being subsumed into an industry structured by a corporate way of thinking, we intended to bring the idea of the university back to life. By life, we mean the messy life people live within the contradictions of capitalism. We wanted to reconnect knowledge production, learning and skill sharing to the everyday within a self-organised institutional framework of a free university. Our intention was multi-layered and was of course partly utopian, but also practical and experimental. We turned our flat in Copenhagen into a university by the very simple act of declaring ‘this is a university’. By this transformative speech act the domestic setting of our flat became a university. It didn’t take any alterations to the architecture other than the small things needed in terms of having people in your home staying over, presenting thoughts, researching archival material, screening films, presenting documents and works of art. Our home became a public institution dedicated to the production process of communal knowledge and fluctuating desires.

The ethos of the CFU was critical and opinionated about the ideological nature of knowledge, which meant that we did not try to cover the institution in a cloud of dispassionate neutrality and transcendence as universities traditionally do. The Copenhagen Free University became a site of socialised and politicised research, developing knowledge and debate around certain fields of social practice. During its six years of existence, the CFU entered into five fields of research: feminist organisation, art and economy, escape subjectivity, television/media activism and art history. The projects were initiated with the experience of the normative nature of mainstream knowledge production and research, allowing us to see how certain areas of critical practice were being excluded. Since we didn’t wanted to replicate the structure of the formal universities, the way we developed the research was based on open calls to people who found interest in our fields or interest in our perspective on knowledge production. Slowly the research projects were collectively constructed through the display of material, presentations, meetings, and spending time together. The nature of the process was sharing and mutual empowerment, not focusing on a final product or paper, but rather on the process of communisation and redistribution of facts and feelings. Parallel to the development of the CFU, we started to see self-organised universities sprouting up everywhere. Over this time, the basic question we were constantly asking ourselves was, what kind of university do we need in relation to our everyday? This question could only be answered in the concrete material conditions of our lives. The multiplicity of self-organised universities that were starting in various places, and which took all kinds of structures and directions, reflected the diversity of these material conditions. This showed that the neoliberal university model was only one model among many models; the only one given as a model to the students of capital.

As the strategy of self-institution focused on taking power and not accepting the dualism between the mainstream and the alternative, this in itself carried some contradictions. The CFU had for us become a too fixed identifier of a certain discourse relating to emancipatory education within academia and the art scene. Thus we decided to shut down the CFU in the winter of 2007 as a way of withdrawing the CFU from the landscape. We did this with the statement ‘We Have Won’ and shut the door of the CFU just before the New Year. During the six years of the CFU’s existence, the knowledge economy had rapidly, and aggressively, become the norm around us in Copenhagen and in northern Europe. The rise of social networking, lifestyle and intellectual property as engines of valorisation meant that the knowledge economy was expanding into the tiniest pores of our lives and social relations. The state had turned to a wholesale privatisation of former public educational institutions, converting them into mines of raw material for industry in the shape of ideas, desires and human beings. But this normalising process was somehow not powerful enough to silence all forms of critique and dissent; other measures were required.

In December 2010 we received a formal letter from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation telling us that a new law had passed in the parliament that outlawed the existence of the Copenhagen Free University together with all other self-organised and free universities. The letter stated that they were fully aware of the fact that we do not exist any more, but just to make sure they wished to notify us that “In case the Copenhagen Free University should resume its educational activities it would be included under the prohibition in the university law §33″. In 2010 the university law in Denmark was changed, and the term ‘university’ could only be used by institutions authorised by the state. We were told that this was to protect ‘the students from being disappointed’. As we know numerous people who are disappointed by the structural changes to the educational sector in recent years, we have decided to contest this new clampdown by opening a new free university in Copenhagen. This forms part of our insistence that the emancipatory perspective of education should still be on the map. We demand the law be scrapped or altered, allowing self-organised and free universities to be a part of a critical debate around the production of knowledge now and in the society of the future.

We call for everybody to establish their own free universities in their homes or in the workplace, in the square or in the wilderness. All power to the free universities of the future.

The Free U Resistance Committee of June 18 2011.