EU-wide student- and pupilstrike newsletter number 2
EU Students | 09.10.2001 15:57
At the beginning of August we called for an EU-wide pupil- and studentstrike between December the 10th and December the 14th. Here is newsletter number 2 with updates about the international mobilisation for the strike.
EU-wide student- and pupilstrike newsletter number 2
EU-wide student- and pupilstrikes
Info numer 2
At the beginning of August we called for an EU-wide pupil- and studentstrike between December the 10th and December the 14th. We want to call for actions in the first days at a local level and then call students and pupils to come to the D14 demonstration during the EU-summit in brussels on December the 14th. In this newsletter we write an article about the first national meeting of German pupils and students that took place on sunday September the 30th. We will also write something about developments concering the strike in other European countries.
Germany:
At the first national meeting in germany there were representatives from "Landes- und Bundes- Sven" ( Union for pupils on regional and national level), Widerstand international (Resistance Intenational), SSG-Netzwerk (Network for build-up of a pupil- and studentunion), DGB ( Big German workersunion), EU For The People, Solid (Socialist Youth), autonomous group U.N.I. ( Autonomous studentgroup from Leipzig), Asta Bochum (Student representative of the university of Bochum), FZS ( The big German Studentunion) and the JungdemokratInnen/Junge Linke (Young Demcrats,Young leftists).
Under the slogan "We gonna take the power back" this coalition will call for nationwide protests on the 11th and 12th of December 2001 and for the 10th untill the 14th of December 2001 throug the whole of the EU. All involved organisations and individuals are free to choose their own form of action: occupations, strikes, demonstrations etc. The actions are being organised against the GATS-treaty (General Agreement against Trade in Services) and it`s consequences and against the lack of civil rights and democracy at schools, universities and the European Union. Both issues are WTO and EU products wich make it nescesarry to create an international coalition of groups that ressist against the issues.
In Germany these issues are extra conflicting because of the new security-law wich force universities to handover ALL documents and personal information about ALL muslims at their university to the police. They use it for a new databank about terrorism. We will try ressist us against this new law as well. Another important issue at the meeting was the demand of a basic social status for all people, in other words.. enough money to live during for instance the time that you have to study.
Very active are the „BundesschülerInnenvertretungen“ (The national pupils union)that wants to publish a paper about GATS and the coming protests and that reported at the meeting that the local groups where pretty enthousiastic about the actions. The mobilisation is being organised by the regional „SV“´s. The local SV in the city of Bremen changed the date of their already planned actionday into the week of the European protests (10th Untill 14th of December).
At the OBESSU (Organizing Bureau Of School Students Unions) the people were not very enthousiastic. But member-organisations in France (FIDL), Italy (UDS), Switzerland (USO) and Austria (AKS) were pretty positiv about it.
The network for founding a pupil- and studentunion supports the call for a strike and is also thinking about demonstrations in Cologn and Frankfurt. The SSG-network is trying to get support from local workerunions as well.
The autonomous group U.N.I. from the city of Leipzig supports the idea of a strike but have some point of critic about the call (state-fixation). They will mobilise for a strike at the university of Leipzig. The group would even like to call an european-wide call for a strike because the EU-candidate states are facing the same problems.
„Widerstand International“ (international ressistance) also supports the call for a strike and thinks that because of the growing movement of globalisationcritics our chances for a strike are good. They are mobilising for the EU-summit at the moment.
One of the people of EU Studenten (EU Students) will speak about GATS and education during a workshop at the Attac congress in Berlin at October the 20th. Over 1000 people will gather in Berlin.
The participants at the meeting in germany decided to organise a weekend about GATS and education from November the 9th untill November the 11th with workshops, disussions etc. The next nationwide German meeting will be during this weekend at November the 11th.
On October the 8th about 5000 pupils were striking in Berlin for peace and justice as a immediate reaction at the US and British attacks against Afghanistan. In the morning they were marching through Berlin.
International:
The reactions were very good. Groups from italy, Greece, UK, Spain, Austria; Finnland, Netherlands and Belgium are intrested in the idea of an EU-wide strike. In some countries people are already mobilising for the strike. In Austria there is a week of action at the moment (October the 6th untill October the 13th) and some groups are also plannig things for the week in December. One member of the German coalition will attend at a congress of leftwing youth in greece at the first week of November. Two people from the German coalition will be in Spain at the end of November and will try to meet some people there (This information is fresh, so there are no apoitments made yet). Tommorrow somebody is going to a D14 meeting in Belgium to speak about sleeping places during the EU-summit protests in Belgium for students and pupils.
The Website is now translated in 5 languages. Spanish, German, Dutch, Catalan and English. Because our webdesign-programm doesn`t upport Greek, we have put a WORD.doc in Greek of the call for a strike on the bottom of the startingpage of the website. Greek people can download it from there. Somebody is also making an Italian translation. We are still looking for translations of the website in Portugese, Danish, Swedish and French. At the link-page on the website we also published a link to GATS and Education (GATSWATCH).
The coordination of the strike, information updates, discussions and information about meetings are all on the mailinglists. You can also use the to make contact with local organisations. Just introduce yourself or your organisation at the list and ask if other people from your country or region are at the list.
Mailinglists:
English:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/international-pupil-and-studentactions
German:
http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/int-schueler-und-studentenaktionen
Dutch:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/int-scholieren-en-studentenakties
Website:
http://www.studi-protest.de.vu or http://int-protest-action.tripod.com
contact:
eustudenten@gmx.net
Info numer 2
At the beginning of August we called for an EU-wide pupil- and studentstrike between December the 10th and December the 14th. We want to call for actions in the first days at a local level and then call students and pupils to come to the D14 demonstration during the EU-summit in brussels on December the 14th. In this newsletter we write an article about the first national meeting of German pupils and students that took place on sunday September the 30th. We will also write something about developments concering the strike in other European countries.
Germany:
At the first national meeting in germany there were representatives from "Landes- und Bundes- Sven" ( Union for pupils on regional and national level), Widerstand international (Resistance Intenational), SSG-Netzwerk (Network for build-up of a pupil- and studentunion), DGB ( Big German workersunion), EU For The People, Solid (Socialist Youth), autonomous group U.N.I. ( Autonomous studentgroup from Leipzig), Asta Bochum (Student representative of the university of Bochum), FZS ( The big German Studentunion) and the JungdemokratInnen/Junge Linke (Young Demcrats,Young leftists).
Under the slogan "We gonna take the power back" this coalition will call for nationwide protests on the 11th and 12th of December 2001 and for the 10th untill the 14th of December 2001 throug the whole of the EU. All involved organisations and individuals are free to choose their own form of action: occupations, strikes, demonstrations etc. The actions are being organised against the GATS-treaty (General Agreement against Trade in Services) and it`s consequences and against the lack of civil rights and democracy at schools, universities and the European Union. Both issues are WTO and EU products wich make it nescesarry to create an international coalition of groups that ressist against the issues.
In Germany these issues are extra conflicting because of the new security-law wich force universities to handover ALL documents and personal information about ALL muslims at their university to the police. They use it for a new databank about terrorism. We will try ressist us against this new law as well. Another important issue at the meeting was the demand of a basic social status for all people, in other words.. enough money to live during for instance the time that you have to study.
Very active are the „BundesschülerInnenvertretungen“ (The national pupils union)that wants to publish a paper about GATS and the coming protests and that reported at the meeting that the local groups where pretty enthousiastic about the actions. The mobilisation is being organised by the regional „SV“´s. The local SV in the city of Bremen changed the date of their already planned actionday into the week of the European protests (10th Untill 14th of December).
At the OBESSU (Organizing Bureau Of School Students Unions) the people were not very enthousiastic. But member-organisations in France (FIDL), Italy (UDS), Switzerland (USO) and Austria (AKS) were pretty positiv about it.
The network for founding a pupil- and studentunion supports the call for a strike and is also thinking about demonstrations in Cologn and Frankfurt. The SSG-network is trying to get support from local workerunions as well.
The autonomous group U.N.I. from the city of Leipzig supports the idea of a strike but have some point of critic about the call (state-fixation). They will mobilise for a strike at the university of Leipzig. The group would even like to call an european-wide call for a strike because the EU-candidate states are facing the same problems.
„Widerstand International“ (international ressistance) also supports the call for a strike and thinks that because of the growing movement of globalisationcritics our chances for a strike are good. They are mobilising for the EU-summit at the moment.
One of the people of EU Studenten (EU Students) will speak about GATS and education during a workshop at the Attac congress in Berlin at October the 20th. Over 1000 people will gather in Berlin.
The participants at the meeting in germany decided to organise a weekend about GATS and education from November the 9th untill November the 11th with workshops, disussions etc. The next nationwide German meeting will be during this weekend at November the 11th.
On October the 8th about 5000 pupils were striking in Berlin for peace and justice as a immediate reaction at the US and British attacks against Afghanistan. In the morning they were marching through Berlin.
International:
The reactions were very good. Groups from italy, Greece, UK, Spain, Austria; Finnland, Netherlands and Belgium are intrested in the idea of an EU-wide strike. In some countries people are already mobilising for the strike. In Austria there is a week of action at the moment (October the 6th untill October the 13th) and some groups are also plannig things for the week in December. One member of the German coalition will attend at a congress of leftwing youth in greece at the first week of November. Two people from the German coalition will be in Spain at the end of November and will try to meet some people there (This information is fresh, so there are no apoitments made yet). Tommorrow somebody is going to a D14 meeting in Belgium to speak about sleeping places during the EU-summit protests in Belgium for students and pupils.
The Website is now translated in 5 languages. Spanish, German, Dutch, Catalan and English. Because our webdesign-programm doesn`t upport Greek, we have put a WORD.doc in Greek of the call for a strike on the bottom of the startingpage of the website. Greek people can download it from there. Somebody is also making an Italian translation. We are still looking for translations of the website in Portugese, Danish, Swedish and French. At the link-page on the website we also published a link to GATS and Education (GATSWATCH).
The coordination of the strike, information updates, discussions and information about meetings are all on the mailinglists. You can also use the to make contact with local organisations. Just introduce yourself or your organisation at the list and ask if other people from your country or region are at the list.
Mailinglists:
English:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/international-pupil-and-studentactions German:
http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/int-schueler-und-studentenaktionen Dutch:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/int-scholieren-en-studentenakties Website:
http://www.studi-protest.de.vu or http://int-protest-action.tripod.com contact:
eustudenten@gmx.net
EU Students
e-mail:
eustudenten@gmx.net
Homepage:
http://int-protest-action.tripod.com