Young people demand – FREE EDUCATION FOR ALL

Belfast SY Public Meeting on why you should fight for socialism

Thousands of secondary school students awaited A-level and GCSE results anxiously last month. Again it was another record-breaking year for Northern Ireland students who again improved on the previous years results. But even pupils who have achieved top grades will be forced to compete for the miniscule amount of university places on offer. This, and the fact that the education budget faces cuts of 25% this year, leaves tens of thousands of young people in the North without any access to education or a decent job.

By Patrick McGeown, Socialist Youth Lurgan

Come to the Socialist Youth Summer Festival

SY Summer Festival Brochure

Friday 22nd August – Sunday 24th August

Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow

All Welcome

Cost: €65/£50 (Cost includes accomodation, food and travel)

To download the brochure please click here.

If you would like to book your place please send your name, address, phone, e-mail and any special food requirements you may need to:

Socialist Youth Dublin
P.O. Box 3434, Dublin 8

Socialist Youth Belfast
13 Lombard St
Belfast
BT1 1RB

The Real Miss UCD!

Elisa O’Donovan, Dublin Socialist Youth

UCD Socialist Youth last week set up the Students Against Sexism campaign to protest against the Miss UCD beauty pageant sponsored by UCD Students Union. This beauty pageant is part of the Miss University competition and apart from being sexist, it bans mothers, wives and women under 5ft4 from entering!

The protest held was enormously successful with over 70 students and staff showing their support, along with messages of solidarity from other universities where the pageant had taken place.

The protest began with a speaker from the UCD equality department, highlighting the huge effects beauty pageants have on young women with regards to body image. Second speaker, Ailbhe Smyth, spoke of how acceptable sexism has become in society and how Miss World encourages this as it allows women to be viewed as just objects. The Socialist Youth representative spoke of how the union’s role was to fight for women’s rights on campus, particularly highlighting the lack of decent child care facilities and health facilities on campus. Each speaker was met with a rousing response from the large crowd of students.

Following the speakers there was the Real Miss UCD pageant. All contestants were immediately disqualified as one was too short, the other had two children and the other was too masculine! Eventually a sheep was crowned the real Miss UCD to signify the union following the flock and not standing up for women rights on campus. “There was a great feel about UCD today, students were standing up against discrimination. It was empowering and shows how successful direct action can be” said Sophie Grenham after the demo.

UCD Socialist Youth will now continue its campaign against sexism in UCD and continue the fight to ensure equality for all on campus.

North: Scrap fees – Free education for all

Conor Barr, Belfast SY

Student fees in the North are set to rise from £3,000 to £3,145 in the new university semester. But some university bosses are still not happy with that, threatening they want to raise fees to as much as £10,000 a year.

Before the Assembly was established the main sectarian parties said they opposed tuition fees. But they have suddenly dropped their opposition to fees since they got their hands on power.

Education is a right not a privilege. Economic background should not be a factor in deciding who should be “entitled” to education. Tuition fees are clearly an attack against working class young people. Most working people now cannot afford to finance their sons and daughters through university. This increase in fees will further cut off working class youth from being able to continue their studies. Recent figures show that the amount of people applying to study at universities in Northern Ireland is falling.

Socialist Youth fights for the scrapping of student fees, free education for all and a living grant for all students. Capitalism can’t deliver education for all, it is only interested in making profit. That is why the fight for free education also needs to be a fight for a socialist future.

Manchester Students occupy university building

Over 300 students from the University of Manchester yesterday organised an occupation of the Arthur Lewis Building on their campus after being confronted by police. The Arthur Lewis Building costing millions of pounds was an example of the university’s commitment to big business over the needs and interests of students.

Police attempted to stop students protesting before the occupation but instead were forced to seal off the area using a special riot unit. The occupation ended yesterday at 6pm after police allowed students to leave. However students held a 3 1/2 hour meeting to discuss their demands against fees and for quality education.

Students in University of Manchester had complained of libraries not having up to date textbooks and a lack of student facilities, issues that students in Northern Ireland know all too well.

Socialist Students (the sister organisation of the Socialist Society in England and Wales) were involved in the protest and were arguing for the complete abolition of all fees and the implementation of a living grant for all students. Tomorrow (Thurs 24th April) Socialist Students are organising a meeting on the future of education to co-incide with the Teacher’s and Lecturer’s strike.

This protest shows how a fighting leadership of Student Union’s can give an important fight back against the effects of fees. A united campaign involving fighting student’s across England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as education workers could force the government to scrap fees.

For footage of the occupation you can visit:

http://www.channelm.co.uk/video_4×3.html?bcpid=1213934526&bctid=1517402038

The demands of the student occupation:

1. The President / VC will write a monthly column about the goings for the UMSU newspaper Student Direct, that will also be published on the UMSU website.
2. The President / VC will also be interviewed by Student Direct, using questions sent in by students, once a semester.
3. The current public Q&A session that the President / VC takes part in once a semester will be publicised to staff and students by the University. All staff are welcome to attend.
4. Students and Staff must have representation on all steering panels, including Building Design. Staff and Student must have input into the selection of the new President / VC.
5. All first-year Course Welcoming lectures must include a talk on avenues of student participation in University decision-making processes and explain what the “2015 Vision” and “Capital Plan” will mean practically-i.e. building plans; department moving plans; axing of course module options.
6. A minimum cap of 12 hours per week must be introduced for face-to-face contact hours. Courses with more contact time must not use this as a reason to cut hours.
7. Online and Distance Learning are only to supplement this cap-they are not a substitute for contact time. Core modules must have non-online learning alternative options so as to be accessible to all students.
8. The Personal Tutor system should ensure that all students have a one-to-one contact at University. Students must have good access to health and disability support staff.
9. The university ends staff cut-backs now. No dependence on Temporarily Contracted Staff.
10. Stop investment in and from unethical industries, including the arms trade. Investments must be made transparent and open to Staff/Student discussion. The Freedom of Information Act must be respected.
11. The resources of recently closed libraries must be re-instated. In future, new library buildings should be built before the old ones are closed.
12. Increase in use of University-based talent, such as in-sourcing from the Architecture Department. This increases Student participation in University decision making.
13. The University will join students and staff in our fight for a free education. The President / VC will be open in their support for a free education.

For more informartion visit www.socialiststudents.org.uk

School water charges: Don’t pay the flat rate charge!

By Kate Relihan, INTO Dublin North West, (personal capacity)

The government has backed down from imposing compulsory metered water bills on schools after anger and opposition from the teachers unions and parents to bills, some of which were as high as €10,000.

However, the government is determined to impose water charges on all schools and is implementing an incremental flat rate fee per pupil from 2007 until the full charges are imposed in 2010.

The fees for 2007 are €3 per pupil, €3.50 for 2008 and €4 in 2009. Minister for Education Mary Hanafin had promised a doubling of the schools’ capitation grant at last years INTO conference. Instead the government increased the grant by a miserly 20% – but even this small increase will be wiped out by the water charges.

This is an outrage as most primary and secondary schools are already crippled by decades of neglect and under-funding. Primary schools only receive €6,000 a year for running costs, and are wholly dependent on parents’ contributions to make up the shortfall, which for some schools runs into thousands. Parents are already forced to contribute to a litany of fundraising events to fill the gap between paltry state funding and real expenditure. This will inevitably have a huge impact on pupils, who will now have even less funding for crucial educational resources.

This inordinate stealth tax, which parents shall inevitably have to pay, is an absolute disgrace and the government‘s attempts to use the EU Water Framework Directive as an excuse for imposing water charges on schools is even more nauseating. The government also claims that it is the best way to improve water conservation in schools. What utter nonsense. The best way to improve water conservation in schools is by educating our children, not by financially penalising their parents!

Implementation of these charges should be met with outright opposition. An organised, nationwide campaign of teachers, parents and pupils against the water charges can defeat them. Schools should refuse to pay the charges, including the flat rate charge. This is the best way to force the government to scrap them.

If Fianna Fail and their Green partners get their way we will all be paying water charges and as Mary Hanafin said herself – “If we had water rates in Ireland families would be paying €700 to €800 per annum”.

SuperValu ‘Kids in Action’ rip off

By Garrett Mullan

SuperValu have been criticised by teachers and principals for operating a scheme that cynically exploits the lack of sports equipment in primary schools.  

Supported by the Irish Sports Council with the endorsement of the Department of Education, Supervalu is one of a number of companies operating schemes that purport to assist schools. In their publicity blurb, Supervalu claim the scheme is school-centred and worth €2million over two years.

What it is in reality is a company loyalty scheme and it is worth a lot more to SuperValu than it is to schools. This scheme is founded on the principle that the more you spend the more resources for your child’s education!

Schools are once more invited to promote a supermarket brand to students, their parents, relatives and neighbours in order to implement the P.E. curriculum which the government no longer provide equipment grants for. A brief example of the parental spend required at SuperValu illustrates plainly what is expected of schools and how “free” this equipment it.

Gaelic Football = €3,950 worth of shopping / Online retail price €18
Rugby Ball = €2,690 worth of shopping / Online retail price €13
Tennis Racket = €3,090 worth of shopping / Online retail price €25

Tesco have also been running a “Computers for Schools” programme, exploiting the underfunding of schools IT resources.

The scheme offers a “FREE” Apple 17inch iMac (Retail price = €1,400) to schools who spend €261,600 at Tesco! The Campaign points out that the actual contribution to schools from each €10 spent by parents at Tesco is approximately 0.04 cent – 4/100th of a cent!

UCD right to protest victory

By Cillian Gillespie, Dublin Socialist Youth

At the end of November two UCD students – Socialist Party member Darren Cogavin and Enda Duffy – faced victimisation by UCD authorities for participating in a peaceful protest organised by the Shell to Sea campaign in UCD.

The protest took place in October when Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan paid a visit to UCD. This is the same minister who has stood over Shell’s criminal decision to build a potentially lethal and environmentally hazardous pipeline and refinery in Rossport, Co.Mayo.

Both students were summoned in front of a kangaroo court organised by the college authorities to face the possibility of being fined. This was undoubtedly part of a broader attempt to clamp down on the right to protest on campus.

However before this took place, much to their astonishment, the authorities were bombarded with over 100 emails and phone calls from members and supporters of the Socialist Party and Committee for a Workers International from across the world.

These included Greek trade unionists, American students and Socialist councillors from Sweden. Faced with this pressure the authorities were forced to back down and a victory for the right to protest was secured.

Solidarity Needed: US anti-war student suspended in attack on activism

By Angie Jobe Cuba (Foster Student Action) & Ramy Khalil (Youth Against War & Racism)

Overturn antiwar student’s unfair suspension!
Hold the Tukwila School Board accountable!
Keep the teachers hired next semester and next year!

Last Friday, December 7th one of the students at Foster High School in Tukwila, WA involved in Foster Student Action was given a 9 DAY suspension supposedly for “having an Ipod out in class.” However, the real reason she was suspended was because she and other Foster Student Action activists dared to collect petition signatures at lunch period the day before requesting that teachers who allowed the November 16th antiwar student walkout to happen get to keep their jobs.

Who ever heard of someone being suspended for 9 days for having an Ipod out in class? None of the consequences listed in the Foster Student Handbook for having electronics out in class even mentions suspension – only confiscation of the device (see here). And this is the first time this student Bailey Davidson has ever been punished for having electronics at school. So school administrators have blatantly violated their own school rules here.

Many students were using Ipods and cell phone text messaging in the class at the same time as Bailey because the class had a substitute teacher with no lesson plan and students were told simply to do their homework, but many had finished their homework. Yet none of the other students got in trouble. Only this student activist was singled out.

Not only does Vice Principal Wright’s 9-day suspension keep Bailey out of Foster until winter break, but school administrators are also trying to drive her out of the school altogether. They claim that, since she moved residences, she now lives “outside the school district.” However, she recently moved closer to school, not farther from school. She now walks only one mile to school every day. How could this be “outside the school district”? There are around 150 other students who live outside the school district, so why is the administration singling out this one student?

Seventy-one percent of Foster High School students are low-income and qualify for the free and reduced-cost lunch program, and it is a racially diverse school. Thirty percent speak English as a second language. Military recruiters target these students because they are ethnic minorities or come from working-class families with fewer college and career opportunities. Administrators have gotten used to bossing these students and teachers around, but this is the first time these working-class students and teachers have started to speak out against the war’s effects on their communities.

If the administrators get away with this abuse of power, there is nothing to stop them from targeting other students and teachers. This is not just an attack on one student or some teachers, but all of students and all workers — and our Constitutional right to petition local government officials.

Bailey has done better educationally and socially at Foster than at any other school, and she really wants to stay at Foster because Mr. Rogers and a few teachers here have really helped her focus on her studies.

The followinga re teh demands of the campaign:

1. Overturn Bailey’s suspension, and let her stay at Foster!

2. Keep the teachers who allowed or supported students in the walkout hired – not only next semester but also next year!

3. Drop the investigations against teachers now!

4. Remove military recruiters from our school or at least allow us to set up a literature table next to them when they are present!

PLEASE KEEP FLOODING THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS WITH CALLS AND EMAILS AND ASK THEM TO AGREE TO ALL OUR  DEMANDS!

And please forward this appeal widely!

Please send emails to Tukwila School Board members – (replace ‘[at]’ with @ – this is to prevent spamming). A model protest email can be found below:
mfertakis[at]comcast.net
pmaltsberger2000[at]yahoo.com
jasminkakujundzic[at]yahoo.com
wahlsea[at]yahoo.com

Please CC copies to:

Interim Superintendent, Ethelda Burke:
burkee[at]tukwila.wednet.edu

Foster High School Principal, George Ilgenfritz:
ilgenfritzg[at]tukwila.wednetedu

And tukwila.teachers.solidarity[at]hotmail.com so we can count how many protest emails have been sent in.

Thanks for your support,
Angie Jobe Cuba, Foster Student Action, Foster High School
Ramy Khalil, Youth Against War and Racism

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Model E-mail of protest Dear Tukwila School Administrator, I am writing to demand that the Tukwila School District support the initiative and moral fortitude of students who took a stand against the effects of the Iraq war on their communities. The student march and rally on November 16th were student-generated and entirely peaceful. With a “No Child Left Behind” Act of 2001 provision forcing principals to give up the private contact information of young people to military recruiters, students and teachers have the natural right to protest. With a bloody and illegal war, where the soldiers that are killed and maimed are disproportionately minorities and victims of the “poverty draft,” students and teachers of Tukwila have the natural right to protest. With more than $500 billion dollars and the lives of more than a million Iraqis having been utterly wasted on a failed war, with schools in marginalized areas falling apart, we should all be protesting with the slogan: “Money for Schools — Not For War!” With 75% of the American people polling against the war according to the latest Washington Post poll, and a Democratic Congress still making excuses for why it can’t cut off funding to bring the troops home, we must support the young people who speak out against their future being bombed away. These teachers only misconduct was making their lesson plans truly relevant to the lives of their students. On the Tukwila School District’s website, the Interim Superintendent posted the following message: “We believe in the historic mission of public education within our democracy… Our schools are expected to encourage and prepare students to be productive citizens. We believe the challenge is to transform every child – to give every student a chance to become an autonomous, thinking person and a self-governing citizen. We are all here to work together to provide the best education for the most prized commodity of our fine city – the students of the Tukwila School District.” Yet when the students participate in an act of peaceful civil disobedience in the best traditions of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement who challenged unjust segregation laws, now the school district is hypocritically trying to discourage students from being “self-governing citizens” and standing up for what is right? You should immediately: 1.  Keep the teachers who allowed or supported the student walkout hired not only next semester but next year! 2.  Overturn Bailey Davidson’s suspension! Let her stay at Foster High School! 3.  Drop the investigations against teachers now! 4.   Remove military recruiters from Foster High School or at least allow students to set up a literature table next to them when they are present! Please write me back saying that upon further investigation you realize that there is no need for disciplinary action against these students or teachers. Sincerely, Name Organizational Affiliations (if any)

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News Reports & Background:

Great Free Speech Radio News report:
http://www.fsrn.org/content/public-opinion-favors-teachers-wa-disciplined-alleged-involvement-student-anti-war-walk-out

NYC Indymedia:
http://www.indypendent.org/2007/12/08/student-antiwar-walkouts-spark-small-town-backlash/

KIRO 7:
http://www.kirotv.com/education/14714796/detail.html
(Click where it says “video”)

NorthWest Cable News:
http://www.nwcn.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=196453

Seattle Times: “Protesting teacher back at Tukwila school” November 29th
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2004041566_tukwila29m.html

Student-made Walkout Film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGSDzDF7xoY

Great report on antiwar student walkouts:
http://yawr.org/nov16/seattle.html

Articles on Youth Against War and Racism student victories against military recruiters in schools:
http://yawr.org/victory/victory.htm#tacoma
http://yawr.org/victory/victory.htm#kennedy
http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article13.php?id=611

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Nov. 16th Walkout Article:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/340003_peace17.html

For more information go to www.socialistslternative.org or e-mail Foster Student Action at foster.action[at]gmail.com.

SOLIDARITY NEEDED: UCD Students victimised for protesting against Shell and government ministers

 

By Paul Murphy

A member of the Socialist Party, Darren Cogavin, and one other student, Enda Duffy, are due to meet the Vice President for Students at University College Dublin (UCD), Dr. Martin Butler, in the next week. They face punishment for engaging in a peaceful protest against the giant corporation Shell and the Green Party Minister for Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan.

Two protests, organised by the campaign ‘Shell to Sea’, took place on 30 October in UCD, the biggest college in Dublin. They were opposing the giveaway of over 50 billion euro worth of gas for free by the Irish government to Shell, and the building of an unsafe onshore pipeline and refinery by Shell in Rossport, Co. Mayo, on Ireland’s west coast.

The first protest was outside a Shell recruitment fair, highlighting the role of Shell in Mayo and internationally. The second took place outside a lecture theatre where Eamon Ryan was due to speak at a debate. He was confronted by about 50 chanting protestors and he turned on his heels and left.

In the aftermath, the college authorities and some right-wing students tried to paint these as ‘violent protests’, which they were not. Three students have received letters from the college authorities, claiming that the protestors harassed students, intimidated staff and put the safety of others at risk.

One of the students has already met with the authorities and been given a fine of up to 100 euro. The Socialist Party says no student should face any disciplinary action, or have to pay any fine, for engaging in a peaceful protest.

The authorities’ action is clearly an attempt to criminalise protest on campus. Recently, general activity by students in the college has been at a relatively low level, and now the authorities are now attempting to set a precedent of punishing students for protest.

The college authorities can be made to step back, through pressure in the college (the Students’ Union President has supported the students) and from outside, with a campaign of emails and phone call protests.

Please send protest emails to:

Dr. Martin Butler: martin.butler@ucd.ie.
The protest emails should be also sent to

the UCD President president@ucd.ie

and cc’d to: paul@socialistparty.net

Phone calls will have a big impact

Please let the UCD authorities know about your protest by phoning Martin Butler on (01) 716 1280

UCD President, Hugh Brady, can be phoned on (01) 716 1618