[E-rundbrief] Info 899 - European University strike, March 2010

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 899 - Call for European University strike on 11 and
12 March 2010; Demonstration „10 Jahre Bologna - Kein Grund zum
Feiern!“, 11.3.2010, Wien; Alternativgipfel u. a. mit Workshops, 12. -
13.3.2010, Wien.

Bad Ischl, 7.3.2010

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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On the occasion of the counter-summit of vienna against the bologna
process, you can find attached a call for a european university-strike,
it is currently supported by the austrian studentspotest
(http://bolognaburns.org) and by the french network of mobilised
students (http://reseau-europe.eu/).

Thank you if you can spread this call so that it could be supported by
other networks


  Call for European University strike on 11 and 12 March

Mobilisations are extending throughout Europe against the increasing
commodification of knowledge. As the EU member states prepare to
commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Bologna process in Vienna and
Budapest on 11 and 12 March, student networks call for action and get
ready for a militant counter-summit. Calls to go on strike have
multiplied in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe and an
alternative summit will be organised on 25 and 26 March to coincide with
the European Council meeting that will assess the outcome of the Lisbon
strategy.

While claiming that they aim at 'harmonizing' higher education systems,
those who launched the Bologna process actually prepared the way for the
competitiveness and privatisation, which are the official objectives of
the Lisbon strategy. Lisbon declared that it aimed to achieve the 'most
competitive and dynamic knowledge economy in the world' by creating a
European market of higher education and research. Recent reforms
implemented in various European countries fit into this context.

In the name of competitiveness, these reforms force universities to turn
to private sources of financing and raise registration fees. They also
increase inequality as more and more students have to contract heavy
loans and consequently of the less affluent give up on further studies.
Thus education as a public service is sacrificed to return on
investment, while on the 'knowledge market' students are selected on the
basis of their economic resources. With the implementation of private
management methods, the threat on employment and the increased power of
the private sector, knowledge is hijacked by economic interests instead
of functioning as a necessary part of social development and study
courses that are deemed to be of little economic interest may be
scratched off.

Still in the name of competitiveness, the Lisbon strategy has undertaken
to undermine any kind of social protection since its general objective
is deregulation. What is under attack is not only the world of knowledge
but the labour market, with flexible and conditional employment; the
major public services such as energy or transport, now open to
competition, disorganised and privatised; the systems of solidarity and
redistribution, nibbled away by social and fiscal dumping policies; and
the environment, systematically destroyed by the productivist logic of
what goes under the name of 'sustainable economic growth'.

While justifying reductions in social protection and environmental
disasters as 'necessary adaptations to globalisation', European
governments and the European Commission itself have developed free trade
as a way to limit the scope of public decisions. The aim of these
policies is to further increase incomes and profits for the ruling
classes and to consolidate their power, both in the cultural and
economic spheres. When the European Commission claims that it wishes the
enterprising spirit to be stimulated from primary school onward, it is
advocating that not only knowledge but also our minds, and indeed
society as a whole, be controlled by the minority who hold economic power.

Resistance and mobilisation must converge, here and everywhere in
Europe, against all such attacks, against unstable jobs and
unemployment, against measures that jeopardise solidarity and public
services, against the plundering of the environment and against the
commodification of knowledge.

We, European mobilised students, therefore call together to participate
in the Vienna counter-summit and in a European university strike during
the Summit on Bologna-Process on 11 and 12 March, as well as in two
weeks of local action from 11 to 26 March between the Vienna
counter-summit and the alternative summit in Brussels to connect our
struggle against the commodification of knowledge to the larger
implications of the Lisbon strategy, which does away with social rights
in the name of competitiveness. We must reclaim public forums, through
militant action and debate in lecture halls and in cafes, in the
underground and in the street, to make it clear that there is another
Europe, which resists these changes and is motivated by different values.

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11.3. ab 15:00 WIEN (Broda-Platz vor Westbahnhof zur Ringstr.):
Demonstration „10 Jahre Bologna - Kein Grund zum Feiern!“ (Infos:
http://bolognaburns.org/about/demonstration , http://unsereuni.at)

12. - 13.3. WIEN (Campus Uni Wien/Altes AKH, Spitalg. 2):
Alternativgipfel u. a. mit Workshops zu: "Gender und Bildung" - "Lehre
und Forschung in der Krise" - "Internationale Bildungsproteste" -
"Bildung und soziale Ungleichheit" - "Bildung. Demokratie. Gesellschaft"
- "Neoliberalisierung der Bildungspolitik" u.a. (Infos:
http://bolognaburns.org/de/about/alternative-summit)

-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at
Spenden-Konto Nr. 0600-970305 (Blz. 20314) Sparkasse Bad Ischl,
Geschäftsstelle Pfandl
IBAN: AT922031400600970305 BIC: SKBIAT21XXX