[mgj-discuss] OECD in Washington DC....FW: May 23-24 Global action days

[David Levy]

>To: StopWTORound at yahoogroups.com
>From: "schuijlenburg" <eustudenten at gmx.net>
>Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 11:43:33 -0000
>Subject: [StopWTORound] May 23-24 Global action days!

To all students on the globe:

OECD meeting about trade and education: 
May 23-24 Global action days!

Deregulation, studyfees, budget cuts, , privatisation, lack of 
democracy... In all countries of the world education is changing 
rapidly. A change in education policy is also what we want, but not 
the neo-liberal changes that are being pushed forward by global 
corporations, the World Trade Organisation and its member states. 

In Germany there were positive reactions about the idea of the 
2 Global action days (also on May 23-24) during the OECD meeting 
about education and trade in Washington DC and we will discuss it 
further on Thursday at a meeting of the studentgroups in the German 
state of Nordrhein Westfalen. We will also discuss the global action 
days at the international Forum about education and culture in 
Salamanca,Spain (March 17-19) and we think it would be good to 
discuss the idea at a local/national level in the various groups in 
Europe and other continents. In Germany there are even ideas for a 
week of protests during the OECD meeting. Most of these protests will 
be on a dezentralized level and we want to use it to build-up the 
German student movement further: attention through protests and 
giving information about neo-liberal (education) policies and the 
GATS treaty. But in Germany there is still a lot to do as well. Not 
only several European groups are involved: we know some groups in the 
US are preparing for protests as well. 

We should also plan some joint protests at bordercrossings or 
bordertowns in the EU with speakers from both countries, for instance 
from the Netherlands,Belgium and Germany at the Belgian/German/Dutch 
Bordercrossing or in Aachen, in Spain/France etc. etc.... We could 
organize a forum and a demonstration to the forum that would cross 
the border. It would help us to getting to know eachother, to learn 
and hear about the educational policies in other countries and to 
show the that this is not just a national problem with some 
government. A kind of "little" international protests as a warming-up 
for the international studentblock during the EU summit protests in 
Sevilla (June 2002). But ofcourse we also nee to do decentralized 
protest in the protestweek, to bring the protests to all those towns 
and universities...

One of the items at the OECD meeting about education and trade is the 
impact on education of the GATS treaty. Several politicians from 
Europe, Canada, Australia, New Sealand, Asia, Africa, Latin America, 
Worldbank officials and host country USA will attend at the OECD 
meeting.

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Information about the European campaign and GATS and education:

http://int-protests-action.tripod.com

http://www.antilou.org/index.php?newlang=eng

In solidarity
René Schuijlenburg
EU Students