Education is not for sale!

Forum education & Demonstration at september 13 & 14 in Cologne (Germany)

13.09.2002
Education forum
Neo-Liberalism and the worldwide assault on education

Tuition fees, budget cuts, deregulation, privatisation, lack of democracy - all a coincidence? Why should education be a commodity for sale? Why are we denied our basic right to a state-funded education?

GATS, the General Agreement on Trade in Services, is a World Trade Organisation treaty that will open up public services - like education and healthcare - to market competition and ultimately privatisation. Anyone concerned with putting people before profit must oppose it 100%.

Are study fees and the removal of democratic structures measures designed to build a completely new, fully commercialized educational system? Who is intrested in this? How are the GATS negotiations organized? Who is negotiating? What are they negotiating? Which developments are currently happening in Germany and other countries? What kind of resistance is taking place? Can we resist together with people in other countries?

What is education? What is it good for? Who should education serve? Should education have a function at all?

These, and other questions, are those we (i.e. students, pupils and other intrested people) want to ask ourselves and discuss with each other. We view this forum as a preparation for the European Social Forum in Florence (6.-11. November 2002)

14.09.02
Down with privatisation! Down with GATS!
Free education for all!
Demonstration against tuition fees, privatisation and GATS

On the day of action called by the trade union youth sections and ATTAC, we aim to organise a series of peaceful protests around education, as part of the main demonstration against neo-liberalism. We want to protest against the introduction of tuition fees in Germany, for free and equal access to education for all and for the abolition of all fees everywhere. We are also
protesting against the General Agreement on Trade in Services and the privatisation of education.

Meet at 2pm, Rudolfplatz, Cologne
Look for the purple banner: "Education is not for sale!"

Education forum at the FH Köln

12.09.02
doors open at 18.00 h, you can sleep here if you register yourself in advance (limited space)
13.09.02
10.00 h central opening discussion
11.00 h Workshop-Round I
13.30 h lunch
14.30 h Workshop-Round II
Round II are the same workshops as in round I so you can visit two workshops

17.00 h central discussion- presentation of the results of the discussions in the workshops

18.00 h stage discussion "Education in times of globalisation" with
Karl-Heinz Heinemann, free Journalist
Lars Hüning, media advisor of the CHE (neo-liberal think-tank)
Thomas Fritz, free worker of WEED, Berlin, and active in Attac
Torsten Bultmann, chairman of the BdWi (association of democratic scientists)
Ulla Lötzer, member of parliament
Markus Struben, coordinator of the ABS in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen (organised a lot of protests against study fees)

The Workshops take place from 11 until 13.30 h
And from 14.30 h until 17.00 h

1) Globalisation and education
What worldwide changes could the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) treaty have on education? How does GATS work? Besides these questions, the workshop will also consider the situation in other countries and their future.
Guests: David Hachfeld (Attac, student of political science at the Free University Berlin) and Heiner Fechner (fzs, kind of student union)

2) Pilot projects from the Bertelsmann corporation - The beginning of the end for public education?
Is the so called autonomy of schools introduced to let private capital get a grip on our educational system? Which goals are the Bertelsmann corporation trying to achieve with its pilot project "independent school"? Is the main purpose for education to make us fit for the labour market?
Guest: Karl-Heinz Heinemann, free Journalist, writes for the School and university section of the national newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau

3) European protests of pupils and students
This workshop will provide an overview of developments of the protests of pupils and students in Europe. We also want to discuss about a political strategy for the fight for free education
Guest: Ole Erdmann of scudag (Network for a union for pupils and studentst), economics student at the university of Cologne

4) Democracy in Schools and universities
What do governing bodies look like at the moment? What will change as a result of commercialisation? How can we achieve more democracy in our schools and universities?
Guest: Sarah Stockmann, Landes-SV NRW & scudag-Netzwerk

More Information at:

http://www.education-is-not-for-sale.org

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