March 4 day of action in solidarity with California students & teachers

[Doug Singsen]

Hello,

I want to let everyone on this list know about a call for action being planned for March 4 in solidarity with Californian students and teachers and also to oppose the attacks on education here in New York. The CUNY Campaign to Defend Education, together with other groups in New York and other states, is working on putting out a national call for March 4, and on organizing actions in New York City on that date.

In New York City, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Bail Out the People and Students for Educational Rights (at City College) have committed to helping organize this, while the Brooklyn College Student Union is already planning an action of its own for March 4. We're also reaching out to Grassroots Education Movement, New York Coalition of Radical Educators, CUNY Contingents Unite, New School and NYU students, and other groups that we hope will join us.

Groups that are working with us on the national call include SDS, Bail Out the People, Students Taking Action to Reclaim Education (University of Maryland), Connecticut Students Against the War, and students in California, Colorado, Illinois and North Carolina. Groups in California are currently working on putting out a national call, which we hope to merge with the students we are in contact with to issue a united national call.

There's going to be a conference call tomorrow evening to discuss the national call that many of the above groups will participate in. If you'd like to be on the call, the information is below. We encourage any and all groups to hold solidarity actions on their campuses on March 4.

The time of the conference call is Wednesday, December 9th at 9pm
The call-in number is (218) 339-4300
The access code is 697890#

In solidarity,

Doug Singsen
On behalf of the CUNY Campaign to Defend Education

[PUSH: Ideas Into Action]

Cheers from Purchase College

 

We have been talking about a state-wide week of action against budget cuts,tuition hikes, for workers, and education. We felt as though a week would be best to give different schools a chance to organize on their own schedules and keep a rampant fire of action instead of just once and then its over, Our originally idea was february 22-27, but if there is a solidarity call to action on march 4th, the first week of march makes more sense to do it.  I will talk to comrades about having a week of action, with the culmination on the 4th!!  Tomorrow we are having a rally/meeting @ 9pm for a student union to address budget cuts, education, and action, followed by a meeting (PUSH) to discuss a weekend conference at Purchase that is in the works march 12-14. !  I will make the conference call & connect students at the meeting to the national call to action.

 

Jordan

I

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[Doug Singsen]

That's great!

I forgot to mention the background for the March 4 date because everyone on this list has probably been following the student movement in California, but that date was picked because it was chosen as a day of action in California by the state-wide conference of teachers, students and workers that met on October 24.

For more info on the October 24 conference and March 4, check out http://socialistworker.org/2009/10/27/conference-calls-spring-walkout. For more on the inspiring California student movement, see http://socialistworker.org/2009/11/20/struggle-heats-up-in-california and http://socialistworker.org/2009/09/24/california-public-universities-strike. The California movement has brought together public school teachers with students and faculty in higher education, which is one of the most exciting developments happening there. For info on LA teachers' struggle, see http://socialistworker.org/2009/05/19/battle-intensifies-in-la-schools.

Doug

PS Although the articles recommended above are all from the International Socialist Organization's newspaper, the planning for March 4 is being conducted by an open coalition that includes a wide array of different groups, and the ISO is not playing a larger role in the planning than any other group. I picked those articles because I'm an ISO member myself and I was familiar with these articles and they were the easiest ones for me to locate.

[PUSH: Ideas Into Action]

okay sounds good!

 

thanks