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Home Articles General October 7: National Actions to Defend Public Education

October 7: National Actions to Defend Public Education

This call for action is reprinted from www.defendeducation.org. The Peace and Freedom Party has endorsed this call. Some of the events in California on October 7 are listed here.

Last fall, California sparked a movement that has grown drastically over the past year. Much energy went toward building March 4th 2010, National Day of Action to Defend Education, which as a resounding success in the struggle to defend public education. Thousands organized and participated in the events of that day which took place in 32 states. Major actions took place throughout California, but also inMilwaukee, New York City, Illinois, and Baltimore with hundreds of actions planned nationwide. University of Puerto Rico students capped off a two-month strike with a victory receiving many concessions from administration.

What is clear is that this fight is not over. The lines are drawn. As working families struggle to recover from the crisis, access to education is diminishing as cuts continue to come. California activists have proposed October 7th as the next Day of Action. Internationally, activists are focusing on October and November as crucial moments in the struggle to fight back against neoliberalism and defend education rights. We, the below signed organizations and individuals, call on students, teachers, faculty, staff, workers, and parents to unite together and Defend Public Education this fall.

In Texas, the Board of Education has drastically changed the content of Texas textbooks, to include praise of Joseph McCarthy, and many other clauses. In Arizona, The state has passed the racist SB1070 that mandates police detain anyone looks like an undocumented worker. Following this, Arizona is also shutting down ethnic studies programs. In New York City, Chicago, and Detroit, districts are facing massive school closings. Public universities throughout the country are raising tuition costs and looking for more private investors. Budget cuts, tuition hikes, school closings, and right-wing reforms are hitting working families the hardest, especially in communities of color.

As these cuts continue to come, we see the costs of neoliberalism hit home harder than they have before. Public education has been losing funding for years, much of which disappeared because of neoliberal changes to the economy. The current budget crisis in many states will result in further drastic cuts to public education, including further cuts to underfunded schools, increases in unpaid days off for staff, a incentive program promoting “reforms” that are outright attacks on teachers, a restructuring of the public university around the needs of private business – largely supported by massive private grants, and tuition hikes that threaten accessibility to higher education for working families and people of color.

As the education disparities between poor and affluent grow ever wider, public schools serving communities of color are swiftly being re-segregated, provided fewer resources, and less-experienced teachers. These students are being tracked into non-academic, dead-end programs while ethnic and multi-cultural classes and opportunities are being cut.

This crisis and this solution are a direct result of neoliberal-era ideology, reducing or dissolving taxes on the rich and corporations while working people struggle to provide for their families out of their ever-shrinking pockets. As private interests gain more power, as the private dollar begins to strengthen its influence in education, our democratic rights are being stripped away.

The time to act is now, students teachers and staff are preparing for the next wave of actions. We need your support and participation to make this day a historic moment in American history. To get involved please Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call us at 8609162761

Endorsing Organizations

  • American Association of University Professors
  • Bail Out the People Movement
  • Baltimore Algebra Project, Baltimore, MD
  • b.a.n.g. lab
  • Brother Tracy Gibson & Associates, Inc. Philadelphia, PA
  • California State University Employees Union
  • Casa Esperanza, Plainfield, NJ
  • Coalition for Equal Quality Education, Boston, MA
  • Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions, U.S. and Canada
  • Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
  • De Anza Restoring Education, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
  • East Village Community School – Parents Association, New York, NY
  • Education Action Now, CSU Monterrey, CA
  • Education For All Coalition
  • Education Rights Campaign at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
  • The Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People
  • Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST)
  • Four Winds School
  • Freedom Socialist Party
  • Freedom Road Socialist Organization
  • Georgia Students for Public Higher Education
  • Historians Against the War
  • International Action Center
  • International Socialist Organization
  • International Socialist Organization (PSU)
  • Jersey City Peace Movement, Jersey City
  • Jobs with Justice Triad NC,Greensboro NC
  • Joint Forces at SDSU, San Diego, California
  • Labor-Community Forum of the South Bronx Community Congress
  • Labor Art & Mural Project, Central CT State University
  • La La Voz de los Trabajadores- Worker’s Voice- LIT(CI)
  • Liberty Tree Foundation
  • Links for Literacy
  • M4 Coalition @ SDSU San Diego, CA
  • Mankato Area Activist Collective
  • March 4ward Coalition, CSU East Bay
  • May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights-NYC
  • Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice
  • Mobile Broadcast News
  • Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs
  • National Student Bill of Rights for All Youth Movement
  • Northwest Student Coalition
  • New York City Labor Against the War
  • Our American Generation
  • Pan-African News Wire, Detroit, Michigan
  • Pan American Solidarity Organization, Portland, OR
  • Peace & Freedom Party
  • Peoples Video Network, New York, NY
  • Plan of Action in a Changing Era
  • Portland Coalition to Defend Education
  • Project Great Futures,Los Angeles, CA
  • Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM)
  • Radical Women
  • Revolutionary Students Union – Utah Valley University
  • S.O.S. Save Our Schools Coalition, Providence, RI
  • San Diego Democratic Women’s Club, San Diego, California
  • Socialist Action
  • Socialist Alternative
  • Socialist Organizer
  • Social Justice Allainces – UCR,Riverside
  • Socratic Punk, Tampa, Fl
  • Solidarity
  • SpeakOut – the Institute for Democratic Education and Culture, Oakland CA
  • STAND at Queens College, Flushing, New York
  • Student-Farmworker Alliance
  • Students Fight Back
  • Students for a Democratic Society – Animas
  • Students For A Democratic Society – Birmingham Chapter, Birmingham Alabama
  • Students For a Democratic Society, University of California LA
  • Students for a Democratic Society – Diablo Valley
  • Students for a Democratic Society – Gainesville
  • Students For a Democratic Society, University of Illinois of Chicago
  • Students for a Democratic Society – James Madison
  • Students for a Democratic Society – McDaniel College
  • Students for a Democratic Society – Milwaulkee
  • Students for a Democratic Society – University of Minnesota
  • Students For a Democratic Society, University of North Carolina Ashville
  • Students for a Democratic Society – UNC Chapel Hill
  • Students for a Democratic Society – University of North Carolina- Charlotte
  • Students for a Democratic Society – Northern Virginia
  • Students for a Democratic Society – University of Oklahoma
  • Students for a Democratic Society – Rochester
  • Students for a Democratic Society – Syracuse
  • Students for a Democratic Society – Tuscaloosa
  • Students for a Democratic Society – Waukesha
  • Students for a Democratic Society – Wilbur Wright College, Chicago, IL
  • Students for an Educated California, San Diego, California
  • Students For Unity, Portland, OR
  • Student Labor Action Project
  • Student Liberation Movement, Florida International University
  • Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (PSU)
  • Student Worker Action Team
  • Take Back Our Transit System, New York, New York
  • UAW 2865- Academic Student Employees of the University of California
  • UE 150, North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, North Carolina
  • Undergraduate-Graduate Alliance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • United National Peace Conference
  • United University Professions, Solidarity Committee, New York
  • University Council- AFT, Univ. of California
  • University of Georgia Living Wage Coalition, Athens, Georgia
  • UNM Graduate Employees Together (G.E.T),Albuquerque, NM
  • UPTE-CWA Local 9119
  • Venice Student Union, Los Angeles, California
  • Veterans for Peace
  • Walker County Democratic Party, Huntsville, TX
  • Whatcom Peace & Justice Center
  • Winthrop University Socialist Student Union
  • Workers World Party
  • Wooster Democratic Socialists, Wooster, OH
  • Young Democratic Socialists
  • University of Kansas Young Democratic Socialists
  • MSU Young Democratic Socialists
  • TU-YDS, Tulsa, Oklahoma
  • Young Democratic Socialists – William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ
  • Youth Against War and Racism, Minneapolis and St. Paul Metro Area, Minnesota
  • Youth for Socialist Action

 
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