They should be understood as part of the more gradual process of
what George Caffentzis, in his analysis of the international
situation, calls the 'breakdown of the edu-deal'; the inability for
capital, and therefore the state, to pay for the costs of producing
a well educated workforce or to guarantee that investment in
education will result in a more vigorous economy and increased
living standards for those with qualifications. This breakdown, and
the dogmatism of free market economics which seeks to alleviate it,
has seen the imposition of a business rationale onto what
previously had been regarded as the provision of a public service,
sometimes even a public good in the UK and across Europe. From the
investment of endowment funds on the market, to the conversion of
students into (badly ripped off) consumers, to the no-frills
fixed-term contracts being doled out to staff, to the speculative
purchase of the future IP generated by scientific and technical
departments, to the intended exchangeability of all qualifications
under the Bologna Process, education is being ever more deeply
determined by free market principles. With the ground changing this
fast under staff and students' feet, the ability for collective
action to fight the savage rounds of cuts has itself suffered as a
result of a generalised precarity and fragmentation. Mute's
interview with two organisers of last summer's strike at Tower
Hamlets College reminds us that attacks on education workers and
students are not soley motivated by financial concerns, but also
comprise an attack on our working culture (our rights, values and
expectations more generally). Despite the hostile conditions, we
have nevertheless seen a persistent and recently growing wave of
strikes, actions and occupations, both wildcat and union
co-ordinated, breaking out around the world. Sixth formers,
students, staff and those with a less personal stake in education
are uniting in a new plane of struggle. However, a number of the
reports included here stress the growing tension between the
particularity of the cuts to the education sector and the more
general 'public sector fight back' that is emerging. Despite the
need to recognise the distinctions within the education sector
itself (between academic staff and students on one hand, and
non-academic staff on the other) there is a distinct danger of
forming a coalition solely amongst students and workers who used to
be students. The student occupation at Middlesex University over
the summer of 2010, as well as the more recent spate of occupations
and sit-ins in universities, schools, art galleries and other
public spaces across Britain, have nevertheless ushered in a moment
full of potential. Not only have they sought to be inclusive, but
they have also shown the growing irrelevance of student leaders and
old style mass-organising. Heidi Liane Hasbrouck's piece on the
NUS's denunciation of the Millbank riot highlights this moment of
self-realisation. There is a widening recognition of a need to
self-organise and continually push at the borders of the possible.
This is not '68 redux; and a better thing for it. All of this begs
the question, will this fight-back be enough to save any residual
quality and equality within education and its institutions? Mute
began compiling a mini-dossier of reports, questionnaires and
analyses on the crisis and struggles within education in May 2010,
as it was unfolding in the UK and beyond. Since the magnificent
occupation of the Tory headquarters at Millbank on 9 November -
which seemed to jolt people out of their despair or slumbers - many
more reports on education struggles have been published in Mute.
Here we present you with a selection of some of the most urgent.
General
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