The point, after all, is to change the world.
Around the world over the past decade students, teachers, parents, employees, and citizens have protested against the privatization of the public university. While the dismantling of public education has often been defined by tuition increases and reductions of government funding amidst fiscal crises, this forum reveals deeper political, cultural, and economic machinations. Comprised of a collection of essays and interviews by students on the front lines, the forum links local struggles with broader forces shaping the conflicts and opportunities on the ground.
Since 2009, students in Puerto Rico have mounted a series of campaigns against budget cuts and the corporatization of higher education. Their struggle reflects the particular challenges of organizing against American hegemony in the colonial context.
Around the world, students, teachers, parents and employees have been protesting against the increasing commercialization and privatization of public education.
Radical social movement unionism among UC academic workers represented by the UAW provides a model for connecting labor struggles with the fight to defend public goods.
Over the past academic year, students, faculty, staff, and communities have organized against efforts by the CUNY administration and the US military to increasingly privatize and militarize the university.
Students from universities across Ukraine played an essential role in generating the critical mass in what became the (Euro)Maidan protests, the most massive mobilization in the history of independent Ukraine.
In 2011, the biggest student mobilization in recent Chilean history began to pick up steam. Camila Vallejo and Noam Titelman were among the movement’s most visible participants. They reflect on strategies, tactics, organizing structures, and lessons learned from years of education activism.