By Joe Rukin
Iranian students have been protesting for over a month now after a death sentence for apostasy (renouncing his religion) was passed on a university lecturer, Hashem Aghajari. Student leaders have been in and out of jail for denouncing the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and the hard-line right-wingers who operate in his shadow. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that those who raised slogans accusing the regime of despotism and violation of human rights, he said, were either among the country's enemies, or had been deluded by the enemy - by which he meant the United States.
Student protesters have ignored official warnings and continued to demonstrate against the death sentence and to demand freedom of speech and political reform, chanting "The execution of Aghajari is the execution of the university.", with protests springing up in the provincial cities of Tabriz, Isfahan, Urumiyeh and Hamedan. Khamenei has been making not-very-veiled-threats, saying
"The day the three branches are unable or unwilling to settle major problems, the supreme leadership will, if it thinks it necessary, use the popular forces to intervene. I hope that will never happen."
Meysan Yousefzadeh, a member of Tehran University student council said;
"We hope the government and parliament defend the people's vote, otherwise the only option is the resignation of the parliament and president."
42 students and lecturers were arrested in night raids in Italy on 15th November at the University of Calabria, under post 11th September 'Anti-terrorist laws'. The Ros, a special group of police, masked by black balaclavas, burst into houses and halls taking them to be jailed in solitary, after confiscating computers and research materials which were alleged to be "subversive". The anti-globalisation protesters were arrested for "political conspiracy to disturb government activity through subversive propaganda against the economic order".
A supporter who did not wish to be named (can you blame him?) said
"I know personally 4 of the prisoners. To my knowledge none of these people has ever been involved in acts of violence or criminal attacks. They have been accused of "thought crimes". They are imprisoned for their deep political
and social convictions. Their crime has been to denounce social injustice and the power of the Mafia in southern Italy."
"The raid has been supported by the "ethical obligation" of the mainstream
media who have published the names and personal details of the accused. This
kind of operation points the finger at all people who dissent. These arrests are a clear example of the vagueness of the new anti-terrorist laws which makes them applicable to anyone who disagrees with the current social and political status quo. Similar anti-terrorist laws have been passed
around the world in the wake of September 11. It is only a matter of time before similar arrests are made in other "democratic" countries."
Last week, the head of every single university in Italy resigned, claiming the government is aiming to bankrupt them after further cuts in education funding were tabled.
The same day as the NUS Demo in London, students in East Timor had been protesting. The result there was slightly different, with the capital Dili being placed under a virtual state of emergency after riots in which five people died and the Prime Minister's house was burnt down. Violence erupted when police shot dead a demonstrator, one of a group of 500 who was protesting against the arrest of a student involved in a 'poverty' protest earlier in the week. The United Nations confirmed at least one death after 16-year-old student who was shot in the head.
The University of Khartoum in Sudan has been closed indefinitely after clashes between rival groups of students, who support and oppose the Sudanese Government respectively. The flashpoint here was postponement of student union elections from September to January next year, after the University had said that so many students had gone to fight rebels in southern Sudan, the elections could not be fairly conducted.
Mayor Deetman of the Dutch city, The Hague, refused to give students permission to demonstrate on the streets. Not deterred by this, 50 decided to still go ahead with a silent march, with their mouths taped shut, unfortunately seven got arrested for handing out leaflets, which said why the march had been banned! The main march was moved to Amsterdam, where about 7000 students demonstrated against budget cuts (378 million Euros in the coming 4 years) and higher tuition fees.
Four students were left dead in the Afghani capital Kabul after students began a protest against poor conditions in the university's dormitories. The day after, dozens of police in riot gear and carrying rifles surrounded a campus compound in the southwest of the city after a crowd of over 500 students had been prevented from marching on government buildings. Hamid, a student in Kabul said
"Last night, some of our friends were killed in a demonstration. Today we wanted to march peacefully to the presidential palace and look what has happened. For the last three or four days we have had nothing to eat and no electricity in our hostel."
Deputy Interior Minister General Hilal said only one student had died and that the involvement of al Qaeda in the protests could not be ruled out.
In Bogota, Colombia, classes were suspended at Medellin college when admin buildings were occupied by refugees. Over 500 refugees rushed the offices at the University of Antioquia. Police said the refugees came from Comuna 13, a Medellin district that has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks as leftist rebels, right-wing militias and government forces battle for control.
On Wednesday 11 December 2002, members of the European Parliament, ATTAC, the Belgian Postal Workers Union and of the world-wide union federation Public Services International delivered
more than 200 gift parcels to the Brussels headquarters of European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy. Groups from all over Europe sent the parcels, decorated with campaign materials denouncing the General
Agreement on Trade in Services [GATS] in order to "compensate" the Commissioner for all the gifts he is giving in the name of Europeans to our trading partners, while informing neither parliamentarians or
citizens themselves.
The Commissioner was presented with a
parliamentarian's call signed by 105 MEPs demanding transparency in
the GATS negotiations and the protection of European public
services. They were accompanied by Susan George, Vice-President of
Attac France and by Jan-Willem Goudriaan,
representing Public Services International, all of whom arrived with
a sample "gift" in hand. Commissioner Lamy in turn gave them a
gift-parcel which he said contained "reliable information" but which
unfortunately contained only documents they already had, not the ones
they had called for
again and again, to no avail--which was precisely the reason they were
there.
The GATS mandates a "series of negotiations" which must always move
towards greater market opening, i.e. "progresive liberalisation".
The GATS definition of public services is so narrow that its
"disciplines apply to all public services if they are supplied "on a
commercial basis" [from the postage stamp to the train ticket] or "in
competition with one or more services suppliers [e.g. private schools
or hospitals].
Commissioner Lamy, while claiming that he intends to preserve
European public services, categorically refused to communicate to
parliamentarians or citizens the basis for the forthcoming GATS
negotiations. The "requests" for market access were sent out to
trading partners on 30 June;
these partners also addressed their "requests" to the EU. Thanks to
leaks, it is known that the EU has asked its major partners for total
or partial liberalisation of many public services including the post
office, supply and treatment of water, energy, transportation, and
scientfic research. At this rate, Southern countries will never have
an opportunity to develop their public services.
In the present phase of "offers", each country must, on the basis of
the "requests" received, tell its trading partners which sectors it
is prepared to open to the transnational corporations of other
countries. These "offers" will also be kept secret.
Parliamentairians will be allowed to say "yes" or "no" in 2005 when
the negotiations have been completed.
The Belgian Social Forum has called for a mass
demonstration in Brussels on 9 February; other European countries
will follow with activities planned for 13 -16 March 2003. Europeans
believe they are fighting not just for themselves but for citizens
the world over.
And just to finish off, here's another cautionary tale of privatisation and higher fees experienced in the education system in Korea called 'Liberalisation of Education by GATS = Public Education Collapse' by Kang Shin-Hyun, a Researcher at the Progressive Education Research Institute.
The wave of WTO-led globalisation knows no end. It has only been seven years since its establishment, but it is trying to commodify everything that forms the cultural identity of a nation and those areas that form the most basic rights, such as education, medical services etc. By 2005, all countries, after individual negotiations, will be required to liberalise services all at once, around the world. Thus, each country has to hand in its commitment schedule that opens the markets of the public sector by 31st March 2003, just as it does with rice.
University entrance records 495 in every 10,000 persons in Korea (UNESCO, 1998). So many students go onto university; however, the quality of education is poor. Also, universities' intellectual subjugation is severe -enough to directly import knowledge from abroad and use it in their courses. This is the result of total deterioration -ever since the modern university began after liberalisation from Japanese rule- that was borne out of government officials looking at education solely as tools to promote competitiveness and modernity, out of undemocratic education practices, and education policies that failed as those to enhance scholarship.
This total deterioration led to a society in which profit-seeking private schools flooded, while the abrupt expansion of universities and emigration of population into the capital made university problems worse.
Despite all these problems that seem to know no end, the government recently argued that education can only improve in quality through its liberalisation to the world market. However, the reality facing liberalisation is like looking at a fire with your arms crossed. The Ministry recently produced a report that told us the foreign schools showing interest in the Korean education system have private ownership, and that in the US alone, there are more than 700 corporate schools. Also, during last year's inspection on the matter of liberalisation of education, the government had proclaimed that the State had the right to regulate according to its education policies since there are social and cultural differences. However, the government suddenly changed its mind after the Doha Development Agenda meeting.
However, what has come of the public sector that has been liberalised to the world market? The WTO-led globalisation sidelines the socially weak. It has a doublesided face of Janus, but the government merely talks about inevitable trend, competitiveness etc while it is simply trying to commercialise education.
Malaysia is an example of what happens when education is liberalised. Malaysia not only sends out Malaysian students through foreign education institutions, but also experiences heightened subjugation in production of knowledge. There is no competition.
Also, because education has become private property, education fees have inevitably risen. The most dangerous thing is that the right to control education falls into the hands of the WTO, which only protects the freedom of the market. The result will be that people's right to education will be sacrificed by foreign and private capital that will be trading university diplomas. Right now, in the face of the wave of liberalisation, universities are in a mess. There must be a resistance -just as in Europe- against the WTO that considers education to be a product. This is the way to resist globalisation of poverty and destruction hidden behind the face of Janus.
http://www.petitiononline.com/gats_en/petition.html
Independent, East Timor in flames after five die in student riots
BBC, Haitian students storm university
BBC, Sudan university closed after riots
RTE, Two students dead in Kabul
BBC, Iranian student activists face charges
BBC, Iranian leader denounces unrest
Reuters, Students protest in Tehran
Reuters, Violence at Kabul student protests
Guardian, Afghan Police Kill Student Protester
Guardian, Refugees Invade Colombia University
