Saturday 16 July 2011

The New College of Resistance - EAN Conference on October 29

The government wants to divide students and education workers in order to impose its austerity measures.

But from the UCU picket lines on 24 March to the coordinated strikes on June 30, students have stood alongside staff in defece of education, just as lecturers have supported their students since the occupation of Millbank on November 10.

Demonstrations, occupations, and strike action have turned our universities into bastions ...of resistance against the Con Dem Coalition.

Cameron, Clegg amd philosopher-profiteers like AC Grayling want to turn our universities into ivory towers, bastions for the wealthy and privileged. The government has scrapped EMA, trebled fees and is cutting jobs, pensions and courses as it seeks to privatise education.

The Education Activist Network is organising a one-day conference under the banner of 'The New College of Resistance'. It will equip activists, educationalists, and trade unionists with the tools and knowledge to tackle and fight the assault on further and higher education and put forward an alterbative to elitism and austerity.

Workshops include: Crimes against Humanities - from London Met to AC Grayling; The movement one year since Millbank; Alternatives to austrity; Organising casual workers; Protest and the police; Gender inequality in education; Building universities of international solidarity; ESOL, EMA and the fight for FE; Points-based immigration and the racist clampdown; Jobs, pensions, pay and the defence of education; Exposing the new managerialism

workshops include: Crimes against Humanities – from London Met to AC Grayling, What would democratic universities look like?, The movement one year since Millbank, Alternatives to austerity, .Zero hour contracts = Zero future: Organising casual workers, Protest and the police, Building universities of international solidarity, Cuts, EMA and the fight for FE, We Are Not Your Spies: points based immigration, prevent and the racist clampdown
speakers include: Ilan Pappe, John McDonnell MP, Laurie Penny, Peter Hallward, Alex Callinicos, Liam Burns NUS President, Alfie Meadows, Mark Campbell, Jacqueline Rose, Albert Toscano, Katy Clark MP, Owen Jones, Guy Aitchison, Zita Holbourne

initial supporters: UK Uncut, UCU Left, NUS Black Students', Action for Esol, SBL, Woodcraft Folk (16-21s), Golsdmiths SU, Birkbeck SU, Sussex Stop the Cuts, Manchester University against Cuts and Fees, Defend the Right to Protest as well as Stop kettlin

Acknowledgements Martin Francis

No comments:

Post a Comment