The International Student Movement published the following call on their website: “We are calling for a Global Wave of Action for Free Education. The International Student Movement (ISM) is a platform consisting of many individuals and groups from different parts of the world. A group of students associated with the ISM came together during a series of chat meetings and decided to call for a coordinated action worldwide. We will UNITE in solidarity, because no matter where we live, we face the same struggle against the state and profit-driven interests, and their hold on education. Increasing tuition fees, budget cuts, outsourcing, school closures, as well as other phenomena are linked to an increasing commercialization and privatization of education. Only by uniting globally will we be able to overcome these obstacles and enable free emancipatory education for all.

We are all struggling against cuts in education. Most of us are drowning in student debt. These debts, constructed by the individualistic notion of “investing in one’s own future”, will have to be re-paid by selling our future labor. The increasing pressure to perform is sickening and the restrictions on education and ever-increasing tuition fees, among other barriers, have become predatory and must be resisted! Everyone should have equal access to education no matter their socioeconomic status.

As a result, education systems consist mainly of training factories which seek to produce human capital for the exploitation of the labour market as well as knowledge to be commodified. To point out these links and interrupt this mode of production we herewith call for students, staff, teachers and parents as well as everyone else identifying with the struggle to get organized and unite worldwide by participating in the Global Wave of Action for Free Education!