Date: Thu, 28 May 1998
Gente, aquí les envío la info. de la Universidad en Londres, en la que
se jodió a unos estudiantes que estaban protestando por unos recortes
presupuestarios. Ellos piden que todo el que pueda se una a la campaña y
envíe e-mails a la Universidad expresando encabronamiento con la
situacion y solidaridad con ellos. Tambien se debe establecer contacto.
Aquí lo tienen. Portense bien, los quiere, R2D2.
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From: uel98@london.com
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****APPEAL TO ALL INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS***
FIGHT BACK ON THE CUT BACKS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON
Financial cuts have been made at the University of East London, England. This means
courses and services will be shut down (including mathematics and health services),
lecturers and staff have been intimidated into forced and 'voluntary' redundancies, and
therefore, of course, the standard of educationfor students will fall.
UEL is one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the U.K. A large percentage of its students come from unconventional backgrounds: overseas students (mostly European, African, Asian), students with no formalqualifications (mature students), and many local students from the deprived East London area. The University takes pride in such unconventional student body and in the fact that many of its departments have achieved high national recognition, both for teaching and research (often in spite of insufficient investment in the infrastructure, such as library, IT services and so on).
The main campus of our University is currently under occupation by students and lecturers
in protest against £2.4 million of cuts. The occupation began at 7pm Monday 18th and has
continued to escalate until today. After twenty years of anti-union laws and UK brand of
austerity policies, students and staff have said enough is enough. We have started to
build bridges among ourselves in the belief that student struggles are also staff
struggles and viceversa.We are writing in the certainty that this situation will not be
completely unfamiliar to you. It is our view that our protests are relevant not merely to
London, England or even Europe. We believe that our particular struggle at this time may
reflect struggles and problems faced by you - yesterday, today and probably tomorrow.
The commercialisation and 'rational' restructuring of education is part of those strategies designed to increase competitive pressures among peopleworking and studying in colleges around the world. These strategies go under many names - neoliberalism, capitalism, globalisation etc., yet they all have the same meaning. This is that colleges around the world are increasingly turned into "brain factories" and education is increasingly turned into a work process quantified by the 'right' student-staff ratio and paid by student's poverty and staff's underpaid work. This is what we have started to fight against. And this is what many people both within and outside education are doing around the world.