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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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!

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!