17th of November, is a day which marks
the constant struggle of the student movement all over the world for democracy,
freedom and social justice, for the
right to Education. It
reminds to us the heroic resistance
of Students in Prague against Fascism in 1939 as well as the heroic sacrifice
of students during the anti-imperialist popular uprising of Polytechnic in
Athens 1973
The International
Student's Day, is celebrated in honor of the students who were victims of the
Nazis in Czechoslovakia when on November 17, 1939, the occupying armies invaded
in the dormitory of the University of Prague killing 9 students while other
1200 students were sent to the fascist concentration camps.
It's been 75 years since
the sacrifice of students in Prague and 41 years since the sacrifice of the
students of the Athens Polytechnic University. The heroic struggle of students for freedom, democracy and social
justice as well as the fight against fascism and imperialism, remains extremely
topical in our days.
Commission of Europe and North America of WFDY, note that:
·
Today,
the global student movement achievements in many countries are under attack by
the monopolies and the capitalist
governments whose policies promote the sell-off of the public and
free education. Students all around the
world are facing an institutionalized attack to the right of Education
·
In several countries, what was considered a right to Education has become a privilege for some, while at the
same time class barriers are put in every aspect of the Educational structure.
At the same time the field of Education is considered to be a profitable market
for the monopolies, therefore it becomes commerce.
·
The context of the offered education is directed in
the creation of cheap labor force,
in the preservation of the capitalist system. The European Union together with
the USA are in the frontline of this direction and their aggressiveness is
followed by countries all around the World. IMF and World Bank are used as tools
to promote these policies.
·
The ideology
offensive keeps being aggravated, with the falsification and distortion of the
historical truth, namely with the erasing of the achievements of the workers'
and peoples' struggle and with the most aggressive anti-communist propaganda. At
the same time, the anti-scientific content of education is promoted together
with the attempt to spread individualistic values among the youth.
·
The connection of the education to the needs of
capital is enforced by the implementation of policies which promote the privatization
of the higher education. Such a policy is the implementation of the Bologna
Process carried by the EU.
Taking into consideration all the above, the
Commission of Europe and North America of WFDY, declare that:
·
The
youth and the students will not
become a bystander as the monopolies deprive them from their rights and throw
them into misery, preparing them for unemployment and as cheap labor force.
·
We will not stand the attempts to turn Education into
commerce. We will resist the
antiscientific and undemocratic methods of teaching that result in the
distortion of history and the reproduction of the system itself.
·
Our goals for Free and Public Education for all go
hand in hand with our struggle for peace, solidarity and the overthrow of
imperialism. It is the system
that gives birth to exploitation, oppression
and withdrawal of rights, but it is the youth that through its struggle
will achieve the permanent and universal conquest of their rights.
·
WFDY salutes all the students' struggles in every
country against such attacks, for the right to a Free and Public Education for
all, as an important contribution to the anti-imperialist struggle of the
youth, and we appeal to the students' struggle reinforcement!
In this framework,
the Commission of Europe and North America of the World Federation of
Democratic Youth decides to launch the “Week
of Action on the Students Struggles”. We have chosen the 17th of
November, the International Students Day, as the starting point of this
activity.
No comments:
Post a Comment