March 1, 2012: All Out for Education Rights!

Students for a Democratic Society is circulating the below statement and unites with the call for students internationally to take action on March 1st of 2012. We believe that education is a right, not an economic privilege for the advantaged. We demand and fight for a university that is for everyone! We believe big administrators on campus should cut their own pay checks instead off raising our tuition. We say “Chop from the Top!”; cuts should be made to the bloated salaries of those on top. Front-end staff should not have to endure layoffs and furloughs. We want student, worker and faculty control over our universities; we should be in control of our own futures and lives.

SDS is calling on chapters throughout the country to organize and take action on March 1st, 2012. When people come together and demand change, a better world is possible. Strike, rally, walkout, occupy, sit-in, teach-in, leaflet, or table! Whatever you’re doing we want to hear about it! Make March 1st a day to remember. Education is a right, now is the time to fight!

**SDS Chapters & affiliates please email Stephanie Taylor at taylo574@gmail.com or students4democraticsociety@gmail.com to send your endorsement**

March 1st, 2012: National Day of Action For Education

We refuse to pay for the crisis created by the 1%. We refuse to accept the dismantling of our schools and universities, while the banks and corporations make record profits. We refuse to accept educational re-segregation, massive tuition increases, outrageous student debt, and increasing privatization and corporatization.

They got bailed out and we got sold out. But through nationally coordinated mass action we can and will turn back the tide of austerity.

We call on all students, teachers, workers, and parents from all levels of education —pre-K-12 through higher education in public and private institutions— and all Occupy assemblies, labor unions, and organizations of oppressed communities, to mobilize on March 1st, 2012 across the country to tell those in power: The resources exist for high-quality education for all. If we make the rich and the corporations pay we can reverse the budget cuts, tuition hikes, and attacks on job security, and fully fund public education and social services.

This is a call to work together, but it is up to each school and organization to determine what local and regional actions—such as strikes, walkouts, occupations, marches, etc.—they will take to say no to business as usual.

We have the momentum, the numbers, and the determination to win. Education is not for sale. Let’s take back our schools. Let’s make history.

Initial Endorsers:

New York City Student Assembly
Occupy Education Northern California
Occupy Chicago Education Committee
Occupy Colleges
Occupy Education
Students for a Democratic Society – National Working Committee
Students United for a Free CUNY
University Professional and Technical Employees – CWA 9119 (University of California)
Cal State East Bay Chapter of CFA (California Faculty Association)
CACHE (Coalition Against Corporate Higher Education) 
Occupy University
San Francisco Labor Council, Executive Committee
Save our Schools Coalition, Rhode Island
Occupy Boston Students
CUNY-Wide General Assembly, City University of New York

*** For more information visit www.occupyed.org***

New Members Meeting: Thursday, January 26th @ 6pm | Peik Hall 335

SDS Holds 6th Annual National Convention, Student Movement Growing

By Chris Getowicz |
Milwaukee, WI – Students gathered over the weekend of Nov. 12 for the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) 6th annual National Convention at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Over 150 students from across the country gathered to participate in workshops, share organizing skills, and exchange experiences about campaigns and strategies practiced on their respective campuses. For over half the students in attendance, this was their first SDS convention.

The host chapter, UW-Milwaukee SDS, led a walkout of over 4000 students in the spring of 2011 during the famous occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol to protest Governor Walker’s anti-union, anti-education and anti-people attacks.

On the campuses, there is an awakening of consciousness and opposition to the corrupt and oppressive economic system and to institutional racism, sexism and homophobia. SDS has risen nationally by building opposition to cuts to education as well as opposition to FBI raids against activists and the wars and occupations abroad. As students respond to the Occupy Wall Street movement, SDS has celebrated new chapters and chapter growth across the country.

SDS chapters traveled from Oklahoma; Milwaukee and Stephens Point, Wisconsin; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Rutgers and Montclair University in New Jersey; UIC and Wright College in Chicago; Charlotte and Ashville, North Carolina; Gainesville, Tampa and Tallahassee, Florida and many other places.

Students participated in a variety of workshops and breakout sessions that provided space for education, skill sharing and constructive criticisms. Workshops included “Capitalism 101 for the 99%,” “Sexual and Gender Liberation,” “Coalition and Movement Building” and “Immigrant Rights.”

In the plenary, students discussed and voted on proposals to fight FBI repression, organize against racism and national oppression and to protest the Democrat National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. SDS is looking forward to joining protests at the NATO/G8 Summit in Chicago and they endorsed the Coalition to March on the Republican National Convention 2012 in Tampa, Florida. There are plans being made for a student day of action in the spring of 2012.

“All of the students who attended the conference are now deputized fighters in the struggle for higher education. The politicians and administrators who tell us to cut back are already organized. This weekend, students organized themselves to fight back together,” said Dave Schneider of University of Florida – Gainesville’s SDS.

SDS was honored to host speakers Carlos Montes and Stephanie Weiner, who were recently hit by FBI repression. Montes, a founding member of the Brown Berets, founder of Latinos Against War and a national organizer during the 2008 RNC is facing trumped up felony charges from a coordinated FBI and Los Angeles County sheriff raid. Weiner is a Chicago-based activist who organizes with the Palestine Solidarity Group, is an active member of AFSCME 3506 and is an advisor to SDS at Wright College in Chicago who was raided last September by the FBI and is subject to an ongoing grand jury investigation in Chicago. SDS has stood in solidarity with both throughout the last year and participated in national call-ins and days of action in solidarity with these activists and others who have been the subject of FBI attacks.

Kait McCintyre of University of Illinois-Chicago SDS said of the convention, “Overall, the convention illustrated the vitality of the student movement and we are excited to rise in these radical times.”

SDS is a multi-issue national student organization with chapters around the United States and can be found at www.newSDS.org or contacted at students4democraticsociety@gmail.com.

Students to head OccupyMN march to protest TCF Bank and Wells Fargo on Wednesday

For immediate release

October 18, 2011

Students to head OccupyMN march to protest TCF Bank and Wells Fargo on Wednesday

Hip hop artist Guante to perform at People’s Plaza to kick off the marchOn Wednesday, October 19 at 5:00 p.m. there will be a student-initiated rally at People’s Plaza (a.k.a. Government Plaza, 300 6th St S, Minneapolis) and then a march to nearby Wells Fargo and TCF Bank. Students from several local colleges came together last week at OccupyMN to initiate this march.

At the 5:00 p.m. rally, local spoken word and hip hop artist Guante will perform as well as other speakers and performers.

The march will then leave from People’s Plaza and march to nearby Wells Fargo and TCF Bank. It will be led by students and young people who have been working with OccupyMN and will highlight particular concerns students & youth have with the big banks: outrageous amounts of student debt, the disappearing right to an affordable education, and the corporatization of education.

According to Steph Taylor of Students for a Democratic Society at the U of M, “Today, students are facing sky-rocketing tuition and attending universities that are more corporation than school. Most of us can’t afford an education, and either don’t go to college, or go and graduate with a lifetime of debt. Either way, students and young people are entering an economy with soaring unemployment and many are struggling to survive. The big banks are rolling in profits while the rest of us get deeper in debt. We say, “make this economy work for us! Bail out students, not banks!”

The march is not just for students — students will be joined on the march by many other people who are also outraged at the growing inequality in our society, as banks and the super-rich make record profits while the rest of us fall further behind. The march will echo the general theme of the Occupy movement: people over profits.

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National SDS: This October, Protest 10 Years of War in Afghanistan

Students and Youth,

This October will mark ten years of the U.S. and NATO war and occupation in Afghanistan.  Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) is calling on you to join SDS and the antiwar movement in demanding an end to the U.S. wars and occupations.

Ten Years in Afghanistan- Ten Too Many

October 7, 2001, the U.S began bombing Afghanistan.  Since that day, tens of thousands of Afghan civilians have died – men, women and children killed as a result of the war.  In the first six months of 2011, 1,462 civilians were killed.   Sixteen hundred  U.S. soldiers have died, with many thousands more returning wounded, missing limbs, or suffering from PTSD.

Recent polls have found that most Americans are opposed to the war.  The Obama administration talks of troop withdrawal, but air strikes are increasing, and there are twice as many troops in Afghanistan as when Obama took office.   The people of Afghanistan have a right to determine the fate of the government- and the majority of Afghans want the U.S. and NATO forces out of their country.  The puppet regime the U.S. and NATO are propping up is corrupt and has no legitimacy in the eyes of the majority of Afghanis.  After ten years, the so-called “War on Terror” has shown itself to be merely an attempt to expand and strengthen U.S. empire across the globe.

 

Fund Education, Not Occupation

The war in Afghanistan has cost a staggering $459.8 billion, with billions more being spent every month the war continues.  Military spending takes up a huge chunk of the federal budget.  Yet while the U.S. government spends billions on unmanned drones and planes, in the U.S. our educational system is in crisis.   Lacking funds, our schools have opted to pass responsibility of funding education to students, faculty, and staff.  Boards of Trustees vote to hike tuition and fees, to impose furlough days on teachers, and to cut much-needed programs and services.  In places like California, top administrators make no secret of their plans to privatize the universities.   With the rising cost of school, an education becomes harder and harder for many young people to pursue.  We need funds for our education, not for war and occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

SDS: OUT OF YOUR DESKS, INTO THE STREET!

Since SDS was founded in 2006, it has organized and participated in protests against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq annually.   On the anniversary of these wars, chapters across the country take action.  We are calling students make their voices heard in October.  Whether you join a demonstration taking place in your city, organize a rally on your campus, or hold an informational event that educates people about the war, we are asking you to join with SDS and the national antiwar movement to say NO in October to U.S. wars and occupation!

• There will be an ongoing protest in Washington D.C. starting on Oct. 6, which will include non-violent ‘civil resistance’ actions in the capitol.
• A Midwest regional anti-war march has been called for Chicago on Saturday,Oct.8.

SDS can help you network with nearby chapters, publicize your event, help with materials such as literature and flyers, and brainstorm creative ways to protest.  To get involved with SDS, visit our website at http://www.newsds.org/.   To send in your plans for October, email us at  students4democraticsociety@gmail.com.

No to War and Occupation! Troops Out Now!

Sept 24th, 2011 March Against FBI Repression