Call to Action

We are Students not Customers
Global Week of Action
Nov. 17th – 22nd 2014

We are calling for a Global Week of Action to reclaim education. The International Student Movement (ISM) is a platform consisting of many individuals and groups from different parts of the world. A group of students associated with the ISM came together during a series of chat meetings and decided to call for a coordinated action worldwide. We will UNITE in solidarity, because no matter where we live, we face the same struggle against profit-driven interests and their hold on education. Budget cuts, outsourcing, school closures, climbing costs of living and tuition fees among other phenomena, are all linked to an increasing commercialization and privatization of education. Uniting globally is our answer to these obstacles – fighting for emancipatory education for all.

Students across the globe are drowning in debt. These debts, supported by the individualistic notion of “investing in one’s own future”, must be re-paid by selling our future labor. The increasing pressure to perform is sickening; the restrictions on access to education must be resisted! Everyone should have equal access to education, regardless the socioeconomic status.

The logic of the market and corresponding nation-state requires that conformity, competitiveness and profits take priority over developing the capabilities for emancipatory thinking. Both depend on consumers, cheap labor and “consent of the governed” – not individuals living self-determined lives. Hence, this is not only a student’s issue, everyone is affected! The present system educates us solely within the boundaries of what is compatible with the capitalist paradigm.

As a result, education systems primarily consist of knowledge factories which seek to reproduce the logic of the market with all its consequences. This leads to the commodification of knowledge, precariousness, and fosters the ideas of consumer culture among students.

We are all struggling against symptoms of the currently predominant economic system and will only be able to overcome it by uniting our efforts.

For more details on the aims that unite us on the global level, we refer to this international joint statement.

Let’s reclaim education – worldwide.
#1world1struggle

→ Send an email to the ISM Admin Collective [ism_admin@lists.riseup.net], if we can add your group to the list of supporters for this call to action or you can contribute statistics/ resources that underline the call!

→ Make sure to subscribe to the global ISM mailing list and consider participating in the next chat meeting, if you want to connect with fellow activists around the world and get involved in the co-ordinations of the global week of action.

→ Main pad: etherpad.mozilla.org | Pad used to coordinate translations: pad.riseup.net