Preview: Richard Berg Speaks on December 2nd, 7pm

UWM Education Rights Campaign

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We're students, faculty, and staff fighting back against the unjust budget cuts, pay cuts, and tuition hikes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Justice for students and workers at UWM!

1) Chop from the top!

We want the Chancellor and high level administrators of the university to take a pay cut from their six-figure salaries before deciding to cut salaries of faculty and staff. Currently, the Chancellor is making $307,000, a 3% pay raise from last year. The Chancellor is also accepting other benefits that include money to pay for his million-dollar condo, a car, and $20,000 a year from the UWM Foundation. The Chancellor accepts all this and more while cutting all faculty and staff pay by 3%, a net 5% loss after a 2% salary increase was canceled.


2) Transparency now!

“We will address issues relating to the university’s budget with openness and transparency,” stated Chancellor Santiago on December 1, 2008. So where is the transparency? After the Chancellor called for all Deans to cut their departments by five percent, we demand to know exactly what is being cut and who is making these decisions. We demand that staff, students and faculty be part of the decision making process. We demand this information be easily accessible to the public. Who does the university work for?


3) Education first!

Students are continuing to pay a greater percentage of their educational costs. The university is raising tuition by 5% for the next two years. This leaves thousands of students struggling to figure out a way to remain in school. On average, students at UW-Milwaukee work at jobs for more hours than all other students in the Wisconsin university system. We demand a tuition freeze and increased money for need-based scholarships. An urban university must reflect the urban community.


4) Academic freedom!

We demand free, fair and open discussion of issues on campus. Students and employees have the right to organize unions and other associations at the university. The university administration must not try to influence or interfere with the rights of students and employees to share information and perspectives on issues affecting us.

Campaign sponsors:
Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association (MGAA), The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals (TAUWP), Students Equalizing Rights Forever (SERF), Students United for Immigrant Rights at UWM (SURFRIR), Progressive Students of Milwaukee (PSM), UWM Association of South American Students (ASAS), Black Student Union (BSU), Jews for Justice, Systematic Peace Project, Colombia Action Network at UWM, Latin America Solidarity Committee, Latino Student Union (LSU), Black Graduate Student Alliance, National Society of Black Engineers at UWM (NSBE)

http://www.educationrightscampaign.com

Editorial: The War on Students

When I was 17 I signed a four-year contract with the U.S. Air Force, for a chance to go to college without incurring a paralyzing amount of student debt. I was able to meet young men and women from all walks of life, but the one thing we had in common was that we were from modest backgrounds, searching for opportunity. Young people join the military for the chance to go to college or to receive other basic needs that their lives in civilian society just didn’t offer them. By far, the biggest opportunity these young people desire, is higher education. These are the working class and oppressed nationality youth who are offered a “way out” if they will serve on the front lines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The United States spends $750,000 per year for each soldier sent to Afghanistan by President Obama. In comparison, a student can attend a public university for an average of $7,300 a year. Yet, this economic system enlists poor and oppressed people to fight its wars instead of sending them to school. This system saves the real opportunities for corporations that are built to profit from war. While wealthy families seldom worry about paying their child’s tuition, working students have to earn their higher education through military enlistment, or piles of debt to banks that are making record profits on student loans.

The banks who are making profits on low-income students are also robbing hard-working people through hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts. This has pushed many students to drop out, move back in with their parents, or even join the military. Many university students are forced to juggle education with part time jobs, when they can find them. Corporations and universities take advantage of working class students’ cheap part time labor, so they can cut good union jobs with benefits. This contributes of course, to unemployment and a downward spiral of debt and desperation.

With so much joblessness, the prospects are not looking good for recent college graduates. We all probably know a few college graduates who have been out of school for a couple years and are still unemployed or underemployed. This has contributed to record enlistment numbers for the U.S. Military this year, as university students and high school graduates scramble to stay afloat in a backwards economy. Clearly, this is not a formula for the peaceful, sustainable society we desire. It is no surprise therefore, that the United States is in an economic crisis.

The gross mismanagement of national priorities is leaving working class and oppressed nationality, and immigrant youth with shrinking access to higher education. This incredible rate of debt spending on two occupations, and billions of dollars squandered on greedy banks and the wealthy elite is leaving us, the working class youth and future of this country with little opportunity. Past generations have left us with the largest debt in the world, ever. We cannot ignore this problem for our children to deal with.
Without the right to education, this pattern will continue to dismantle our future, piece by piece, hitting low income, immigrant, and oppressed nationality students the hardest. If the ruling class had their way, universities would become private corporate training grounds for the children of the wealthy. We can’t accept education for the privileged any longer. We have to demand education for everyone!

All people should be able to learn important skills in college, regardless of class, gender, or race. Young people don’t deserve to be sent to war, or indebted to banks simply for seeking essential knowledge. If President Obama sends just ten soldiers home from Afghanistan, he can send 1,000 to college. Fund Education, Not Occupation! Bailout for Education, Not for Corporations!

Jacob Flom is a member of Students for a Democratic Society

Thursday: A Report on the Conditions of Palestinian Political Prisoners

November 10th - National Day of Action for Education Rights

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Video from Rally for Equality

After the rally, students marched to the Chancellors office, and occupied his building to demand the administration condemn racism in the student government.  Although the Chancellor's office was contacted, they refused to send anyone to talk to the anti-racist coalition.

Full story to come soon!

Rally For Equality

Time:
THURSDAY, October 29th
12:00pm - 1:00pm

Location:
Spaights Plaza at UWM


Come out and show your solidarity against ignorance, hate, racism and sexism on campus.

This university needs to be a safe space for EVERYONE to feel like they are accepted and equal to everyone else despite their race, sex, gender etc...

So show your solidarity and help us put pressure on the administration to do something about the hateful tension on campus. Let your voice be heard. Let it be known that students will not tolerate inequality on OUR campus and the senators and students in the student government need to start representing us.

Join the National Day of Action for Education Rights - Nov 10th

Protest on Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Join students and youth across the country on Tuesday, November 10 as we raise our voices to demand an end to budget cuts, layoffs, and tuition hikes, and to say loud and clear: "Education is a right!"

Universities across the country are in a serious crisis. Many universities are responding to economic shortfalls by cutting vital university programs such as scholarships, women’s centers, and even jobs. Administrators are raising already unmanageable tuition and fees, while forcing staff to take furloughs.

Rising tuition, textbook prices, and extra fees, have made access to education even more challenging for poor, working class, immigrant, and oppressed nationality students. Many of these students depend on financial aid, or loans from bailed out banks that are now refusing to help low-income students pay for education. These attacks on working people are unacceptable, and must end.

We will not stand by while the rich are bailed out on the backs of students and workers. It is time for our generation to stand up to the plate and build a better future for ourselves and our children. Across the country, campuses are fighting back: from the historic walkouts and ongoing mass mobilizations at the University of California, to the Save our School campaign at the University of Minnesota, to the struggles against education cuts at Middle Tennessee State University, and at all points in between. Now is the time to carry the momentum forward into a nationwide movement for education rights.

We need to fight for the right to earn a living wage, the right to housing and healthcare, the right of self-determination, and the right to higher education for all people.

Send us your endorsements and let us know what you'll be doing on November 10. Organize a local action, teach-in, protest, or march, or contact us to find out what actions are happening near you.

Contact us at edurtscampaign@gmail.com, or visit our blog: http://educampaign.wordpress.com/

Campaign for Education Rights
Network to Fight for Economic Justice
October 25, 2009

In Solidarity with the California Campaign to Save Public Education

The following statement was sent by the National Working Committee of Students for a Democratic Society to the California Campaign to Save Public Education, in solidarity with their October 24 assembly.

Sisters and brothers,

On behalf of the National Working Committee of Students for a Democratic Society, we send our warmest greetings to this assembly.

The UC walkouts on September 24, and the movement that continues to carry that spirit forward, is an inspiration to students, youth, and campus workers across this country.

At a time when our backs are being pushed up against the wall; when the rich tell us we have to pay for their economic crisis; and when the wealthy are moving to take away the necessities we need to survive — at a stormy time like this, your walkout lights the way forward: the path of struggle and resistance.

As Students for a Democratic Society, we realize that we do not, in fact, live in a democracy. What we have is democracy for the few — for the rich and powerful. But we organize and struggle for a world where “democracy” is not a empty word. We believe that democracy must be transformed to serve the overwhelming majority of people, the working-class and oppressed nationality communities. And we believe that education must be revolutionized towards this end.

We believe in, and fight for, a world where knowledge is not enslaved to corporate profits, but is used to improve the condition of humanity; where higher education is not a means for climbing the ranks of society, but a means for the liberation of the oppressed; and finally, where education is no longer the privilege of the few, but is recognized as a universal and fundamental human right.

In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, we must stand our ground and fight for what we believe in. And we must stand together, as students, campus workers, and faculty, for when we are united, there is no force that can stop us.

We have the power to change the world. Our organization extends its deepest solidarity to your movement, and inspired by your actions, we will continue our work on campuses and in communities across the country in the struggle for education rights.

Education is a right!
Chop from the top — make the rich pay for their crisis!


National Working Committee
Students for a Democratic Society
October 22, 2009

Students Participate in Economic Fight Back Movement

   Since the near collapse of the banking system, Americans have paid billions to banks that are now making record profits. Meanwhile, students, workers, and homeowners are facing unforgivable unemployment, homelessness, and debt. In spite of this, the Obama administration continues to escalate the occupation of Afghanistan and maintain troops in Iraq, adding trillions to our country’s deficit and financial crisis. It is the working people who will pay for these wars, just as we are paying for bailouts to greedy banks.

If we are to see the “Change” Obama promised, we need to organize and fight for it. Students and youth are a powerful political force. It is not the rich politicians who make change happen, it is the real working people who fight for, and win change. Students and youth are especially successful in winning radical social change and building mass movements. The right to vote, the right to organize, the right to public education, and the right to the 8 hour work day were won through years of organization, struggle, and sometimes death. Generations before us have taken the streets in the face of brutal repression to win the liberties we enjoy today.

In the past year, people across the globe have organized mass movements confronting all kinds of economic injustices. Last month, Rosemary Williams of Minnesota refused to leave her home when a bank seized her home, and sent the police to evict her. Last December, workers in Chicago occupied their factory when U.S. Bank cut funding to their operation, after receiving a federal bailout. This month, tens of thousands of students and faculty at California universities participated in walk-outs and sit-ins against the budget cuts that are crippling universities across the country. Two weeks ago, over 25 college campuses participated in protests and direct action against the 8th anniversary of war in Afghanistan. Just days ago, Puerto Ricans shut down their island with a general strike protesting huge layoffs, unemployment and budget cuts. These are just a few of the struggles people are organizing to fight for social and economic justice.

It is time for our generation to stand up to the plate and build a better future for ourselves and our children. If we want that future, we need to fight for the right to higher education, the right to earn a living wage, the right to housing and healthcare, and the right of self-determination. This November 10th, students will participate in a national day of action for education rights.

Students refuse to pay for failing corporations and imperialist occupations with cuts to education. We refuse to fight their wars to pay for school. We demand a student bailout, an end to budget cuts, layoffs and tuition hikes. Education is a Right!


Jacob Flom is a member of Students for a Democratic Society