TODAY! 8pm EST Oct. 7th National Conference Call to Defend Public Education, Endorse the Call
Wes Strong
Sunday August 22nd, 8pm Eastern Time
Call in Number: (218) 339 4300
Access Number: 697890
Updates from Sept. 15th, October 2nd, and Ethnic Studies Week Organizing
Possible Update from Global Wave of Acitons, ISM
Demands / Talking Points ongoing discussion
October 2nd Organizing and Discussion
October 7th Organizing and Discussion
Discussion on Rainbow Push Coalition March on Aug 28th
other points to be added
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Endorse the National Call!
Below are the National call and the California Call. We encourage endorsement of both. You can endorse the national call via this webpage. Follow instructions at the bottom of the California call to specifically endorse that call
National Call – endorse the national call: http://www.defendeducation.org/?page_id=884
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National Actions
to Defend Public Education, October 7th 2010
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 in Milwaukee, 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: fall_a...@defendeducation.org or call us at 8609162761
Endorsers
Group:
Bail Out the People Movement
Baltimore Algebra Project, Baltimore, MD
Brother Tracy
Gibson & Associates, Inc. Philadelphia, PA
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
Education
Action Now, CSU Monterrey, CA
Education Rights Campaign at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST)
Freedom Socialist Party
Georgia Students for Public Higher Education
International Action Center
Jersey City Peace
Movement, Jersey City
Joint
Forces at SDSU, San Diego, California
Labor Art & Mural Project, Central CT State University
La La Voz de los Trabajadores- Worker’s
Voice- LIT(CI)
Liberty Tree Foundation
M4 Coalition @ SDSU San Diego, CA
March 4ward Coalition, CSU East Bay
May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights-NYC
Michigan
Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice
Moratorium NOW! Coalition to
Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs
New York City Labor Against the War
Pan-African News Wire,
Detroit, Michigan
Peoples Video Network, New York, NY
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
Students For A Democratic Society – Birmingham Chapter, Birmingham
Alabama
Students For a Democratic Society, University of California LA
Students For a Democratic Society, University of North Carolina Ashville
Students for a Democratic Society – UNC Chapel Hill
Students for a Democratic Society – Gainesville
Students For a Democratic Society, University of Illinois of Chicago
Students for a Democratic Society – Milwaulkee
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 – Tuscaloosa
Students for a Democratic Society – Wilbur Wright College, Chicago, IL
Students for an Educated California, San
Diego, California
Student Labor Action
Project
Take Back Our Transit System, New York, New York
UE 150, North Carolina Public Service
Workers Union, North Carolina
Undergraduate-Graduate Alliance at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
UPTE-CWA
Local 9119
Venice Student Union, Los Angeles, California
Young Democratic Socialists – William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ
Youth Against War and Racism, Minneapolis and St. Paul Metro Area,
Minnesota
Youth for Socialist Action
Individual, in the order submitted
(group names for ID purposes only):
Ben Manski, AFT 6100, Sociology Faculty, Madison College
Jackie Hayes, UAlbany Coalition to Defend Education, Albany, NY
Michael Mulholland, AFSCME Local 207, Detroit, MI
Noam Chomsky, MIT Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, Internationally
renowned Critic of US Foreign Policy
Dan LaBotz, Socialist Party
candidate for the U.S. Senate from Ohio. Cincinnati, Ohio
Shannon Gibney, MN Organizing Group, Minneapolis
Andre Powell, Delegate, Metro Central Labor Council, Baltimore, Maryland
Mike Gimbel, AFSCME Local 375 , Saylorsburg, PA
Susan E. Davis, National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981, New York City
Heather Cottin, La Guardia Community College
Gloria Rubac, Houston Federation of Teachers, Local 2415, Houston
Dave Welsh, Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council, San Francisco, CA
Sara Flounders, International Action Center, NYC
Greg Dunkel, PSC – AFT Local #2334, New York City
Robin McCubbin, California Teachers Association, Chula Vista, California
Minnie Bruce Pratt, Professor, Women’s & Gender Studies, Writing
& Rhetoric, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Studies,
Syracuse, NY
Milt Neidenberg,Local 840, IBT retired,Brooklyn, NY
Michael Friedman, PSC-AFT, NYC
Mary Lou Finley,Peace and Freedom Party,USA
Justin,
DestroyIndustrY, Raleigh, nc
Jack Gerson, Oakland Education Assoc., Oakland,CA
International Endorsers
AStA (student representative body) at
the University of Marburg, Germany
Worldwide Nepalese Students’
Organisation-Nepal
Part of the International Student Movement Global Wave of Actions