Education is a Right!
Neal...@aol.com
Students and youth across the country are organizing demonstrations for October 7, demanding their right to education — including full funding of public education now! They are being joined by many undocumented youth who are also standing for their right to education and advancing their courageous stand, Undocumented and Unafraid. Various meetings, demonstrations and sit-ins have already taken place and there are more to come. Across the country students, teachers and staff are standing up to oppose attacks on education and demand that government meet its responsibility to all to provide the right to education.
In an effort to divide and split the growing movement of the youth for rights, the government has recently organized to impose false choices on the youth. The Democrats, backed by President Obama, added what is known as the DREAM Act to the Defense Appropriations Bill, which provides funding for the Pentagon. The Appropriations Bill is a bill widely opposed by all, youth especially, as it provides hundreds of billions every year for wars against youth abroad, for military recruiting on campuses, for all those things hated and opposed by the youth. Banners often carried by youth at rallies embody this spirit, proclaiming Fight the Rich, Not Their Wars! By adding the DREAM Act, which makes it possible for some undocumented youth to secure documents and potentially attend university or get jobs, the Democrats hoped to divert the firm anti-war stand of all the youth. And they hoped to impose on both the youth and immigrant rights movements false choices — and the false divisions that go with them.
Undocumented youth are given the false choice to wait still longer for what belongs to them by right — their right to education and jobs — or to support war funding in the hopes of getting the DREAM Act passed. Youth opposed to war are forced into opposing those standing for the DREAM Act. An effort is being made to divert anger from the source of the problems — a war government and the system it supports, which is in no way democratic. Instead anger is to be directed to various forces within the movement. Such a situation favors the rich, not the youth and students.
Similarly, legislation, which is entirely in the hands of the Democrats and Republicans, becomes the main aim of the movement. No doubt, passing or opposing particular legislation is commonly one part of various movements. But in this situation it is being utilized to try and split the movement, while removing the government itself as a target.
It is the government that is responsible for meeting the rights of all the youth, especially their right to education. It is its failure to do so that is the main problem. It is their failure to meet the rights of immigrants by providing all the documentation required now that is also the problem. It is their failure to recognize the rights of the peoples abroad to determine their own future free of U.S. wars and interference that is also the problem. Fighting for the rights of all serves to unify and strengthen the movements of the people.
The notion that debate must be confined to being pro or con whatever the rich dictate is a long-standing mechanism of the rich to split and divide the peoples. The conscious building of the movement, the strengthening of its fighting organizations and unity, its central focus of fighting for rights, all are to be sacrificed to these false divisions. It is by rejecting this trap of the rich and putting the fight for rights front and center that the youth and immigrant rights movements can counter these assaults on their rights and further advance.
As well, the DREAM Act is being utilized to put in place mechanisms requiring youth to register with the government and agree to certain requirements before being able to attend university. For the DREAM Act in particular, the requirements are registering with the government, including providing biometric data like fingerprints; meeting what the government arbitrarily determines is “good character;” and finishing two years of college or two years of military service within a six year period. There is no guarantee of citizenship or attending university. And anyone signing up for the military must do eight years of service, not two. The Pentagon is fully behind the DREAM Act, as the military anticipates a new pool of about 65,000 youth every year as a result of its passage. And it is well aware that only 1 out of 20 undocumented high school seniors attends college. Even those who manage to go to school or who survive the military are not guaranteed citizenship and could in fact be deported.
What is significant here is instituting mechanisms where the government determines that in order to be eligible for higher education, youth must first meet whatever arbitrary requirements the government dictates. And “good character” is consistently part of the requirements. And, just as biometric identification is first to be required for all immigrants, then for all workers — also with this “good character” requirement — it is likely that these requirements contained in the DREAM Act will first apply to undocumented youth and then be extended to all youth. This is particularly dangerous at a time when the government is openly saying that only those who pledge allegiance to the U.S. imperialists and support the war effort are to be considered American and those who do not will be branded un-American.
The government can only succeed in such a direction by splitting and dividing the movements of the people, using false pro and con choices decided by the rich. By putting the rights of all at the center we can break free of these false choices and develop our own anti-war, pro-social agenda. This fight is one that it is in our hands, where we have the power to decide.
Fight the Rich, Not Their Wars! Legalization Now! Defend the Rights of All!