National calls for a day of action to defend education on March 4

[Doug Singsen]

In the last week, two calls for a national day of action to defend education on March 4, 2010 have been issued, one by the California Coordinating Committee and one by a group of student and leftist organizations from around the country. The two calls were prepared simultaneously by different groups, and were not intended to compete or be counterposed with one another in any way. They were issued separately due to the fact that the two groups writing them were not in contact with one another, not out of any political, strategic or tactical differences.

Several CUNY students, including members of the CUNY Campaign to Defend Education and Students for Educational Rights, participated in the planning for the latter call, while the idea for the national call was first proposed by Larry Hales of CCDE and SER.

All individuals and groups are invited to endorse these calls and to help plan and build actions in March 4 to defend higher education and the public school system. A listserv for March 4 organizing in NYC has been set up at http://groups.google.com/group/march-4-education-ny?hl=en. You can join the listserv by visiting the homepage or emailing me.

I am attaching the text of both calls below. Online resources for the second national call (the one CCDE and SER helped organize) are as follows: the website is at http://www.defendeducation.org, where there is a form you can use to submit endorsements; the Facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=213637229312; and the Google group is at http://groups.google.com/group/march4thaction. I don't have any information on a website or other online resources or the California Coordinating Committee call.

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March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education

 

As people throughout the country struggle under the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, public education from pre-K to higher and adult education is threatened by budget cuts, layoffs, privatization, tuition and fee increases, and other attacks. Budget cuts degrade the quality of public education by decreasing student services and increasing class size, while tuition hikes and layoffs force the cost of the recession onto students and teachers and off of the financial institutions that caused the recession in the first place. Non-unionized charter schools threaten to divide, weaken and privatize the public school system and damage teachers’ unions, which are needed now more than ever. More and more students are going deep into debt to finance their education, while high unemployment forces many students and youth to join the military to receive a higher education. And all of the attacks described above have hit working people and people of color the hardest.

 

In California, students, teachers, workers, parents, and faculty have taken action against these attacks. They took to the streets in a one-day strike on September 24th, organized strikes and actions across the state during the University of California Board of Regents meeting from November 18th to 20th, and have called for a state-wide day of action on March 4th. These actions have created a broad mass movement in California, drawing in students from all over the state to create a powerful struggle. As the effects of the economic crisis continue to spread into the education system nationally, it’s time to join our voices with students and workers in California and draw inspiration from their example.

 

We support each group or coalition organizing in the manner and for the duration of their choosing. In solidarity with those in California, we the below-signed individuals and organizations call on students, teachers, workers, parents, faculty, and staff across the country to join together on March 4th to Take A Stand For Education!

 

Visit the Web site for more details at http://www.defendeducation.org.

 

Endorse the call at the bottom of the page or by sending an email to march4nation...@gmail.com.

 

Find us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=213637229312.

 

To join the national discussion, please visit the March 4th Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/march4thaction.

ENDORSED BY (list in formation):

 

Organizations

 

All Nations Alliance
Animas Students for a Democratic Society (Durango, Coloardo)
Bail Out the People Movement
Chicago Students for a Democratic Society
College Park Students for Democratic Society (University of Maryland)
Community Organizing Center for Mother Earth (Columbus, Ohio)
Connecticut Students Against the War
CUNY Campaign to Defend Education
Education For All (San Diego)
Fight Imperialism, Stand Together
Georgia State University Progressive Student Alliance
Graduate Student Employees Union (SUNY Stony Brook)
The Kennebunks Peace Department
Massachusetts Students Uniting
Mayis Coalition for Workers and Immigrant Rights (New York City)
Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society
National Assembly to End the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars & Occupations
Network to Fight for Economic Justice
New School in Exile (New York City)
NYC Anti-War Coalition
Peoples Video Network
Progressive Democrats of America-Ohio
Radical Student Union (Bard College)
Recreate ‘68 Alliance
Socialist Alternative
Socialist Organizer
Socialist Party of Connecticut
Solidarity
Students Promoting Engagement Through Activism and Knowledge (SPEAK) at Georgia State University
Student/Farmworker Alliance
Students for Educational Rights (City College of New York)
Students for Quality Education (Cal Poly Pomona Chapter)
Students Taking Action to Reclaim our Education (University of Maryland)
University of Massachusetts-Lowell Coalition for Social Reform
UNC-Asheville Students for a Democratic Society
UNC-Chapel Hill Students for a Democratic Society
UTLA/Project Great Futures/CAMS
UW-Milwaukee Education Rights Campaign
Workers World Party

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National Call for March 4 Strike and Day of Action To Defend Public Education

 

California has recently seen a massive movement erupt in defense of public education — but layoffs, fee hikes, cuts, and the re-segregation of public education are attacks taking place throughout the country. A nationwide resistance movement is needed.

 

We call on all students, workers, teachers, parents, and their organizations and communities across the country to massively mobilize for a Strike and Day of Action in Defense of Public Education on March 4, 2010. Education cuts are attacks against all of us, particularly in working-class communities and communities of color.

 

The politicians and administrators say there is no money for education and social services. They say that “there is no alternative” to the cuts. But if there’s money for wars, bank bailouts, and prisons, why is there no money for public education?

 

We can beat back the cuts if we unite students, workers, and teachers across all sectors of public education — Pre K-12, adult education, community colleges, and state-funded universities. We appeal to the leaders of the trade union movement to support and organize strikes and/or mass actions on March 4. The weight of workers and students united in strikes and mobilizations would shift the balance of forces entirely against the current agenda of cuts and make victory possible.

 

Building a powerful movement to defend public education will, in turn, advance the struggle in defense of all public-sector workers and services and will be an inspiration to all those fighting against the wars, for immigrants rights, in defense of jobs, for single-payer health care, and other progressive causes.

 

Why March 4? On October 24, 2009 more than 800 students, workers, and teachers converged at UC Berkeley at the Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education. This massive meeting brought together representatives from over 100 different schools, unions, and organizations from all across California and from all sectors of public education. After hours of open collective discussion, the participants voted democratically, as their main decision, to call for a Strike and Day of Action on March 4, 2010. All schools, unions and organizations are free to choose their specific demands and tactics — such as strikes, rallies, walkouts, occupations, sit-ins, teach-ins, etc. — as well as the duration of such actions.

 

Let’s make March 4 an historic turning point in the struggle against the cuts, layoffs, fee hikes, and the re-segregation of public education.

 

- The California Coordinating Committee