Student Issues

During the past several decades, government funding for public education at all levels has declined and in some cases plummeted, leaving students languishing in overcrowded classrooms, housed in dilapidated buildings.  An examination into why this is happening offers a glimpse into the ugly mechanisms that fuel capitalism in its onward quest to plunge us all into a state of unmitigated barbarism.

The newly formed Student Union of Brown University (SUBU) held its first general assembly (GA) meeting on 5-03-07. This founding meeting took place during one of the busiest and most hectic periods in the school year, amid the lead up to finals and everything else which flows from the end of the academic year. Despite this, the meeting was able to sustain a quorum for over two hours, with members packed in, sitting on a hard wood floor.

After the successful demonstration to the presidential palace on August 8th, the campaign for the release of the student activists from the CLEP-CEDEP and the MENA arrested on August 6th while demanding more university places continued with more demonstrations and actions.

On Monday August 6th, a force of nearly 1000 police officers attacked a peaceful sit-in demonstration of students who were demanding access to university. The protest had been organised by the Movement of Non-Admitted Students, a campaign launched by the Committee in Defence of State Education - Committee of Student Struggle.

The Czech Ministry of the Interior recently banned the KSM (Communist Youth Union) simply because it "strives for revolutionary overcoming of capitalism and... removal of private ownership of the means of production and its replacement with collective ownership." Here we provide a letter from the Czech Young Communists, explaining the latest developments.

The 16th World Festival of Students and Youth has come to a close. As we have explained on more than one occasion, the task is now to gather our forces, take our experiences to heart, and forge forward to the world revolution. The bonds we made and the lessons we learned will never leave us. They will become our greatest assets in our individual roles in the collective struggle and also in passing on the knowledge we gained.