Open World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
INVITATION TO PREPARE INTERNATIONAL LABOR CONFERENCE IN DEFENSE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION (JUNE 2003)
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
We would like to invite you to join us in building an International Labor
Conference in Defense of Public Education that we are organizing for June
2003 -- tentatively in Paris, France. The proposal to organize such a
conference was made at -- and adopted by -- the February 2002
International Conference Against Deregulation and For Labor Rights For
All, which was held in Berlin, Germany, at the initiative of the OWC
Continuations Committee, the International Liaison Committee (ILC) and the
German Trade Union Preparatory Committee. [See documents in this section.]
It is obvious that public education is under attack all over the world. In
the United States this attack takes the form of vouchers (just ruled
constitutional by the Supreme Court!), charter schools, and the
corporatization of higher education. In the community college system in
California, for example, two-thirds of the faculty are now part-time. They
usually have only minimal medical and retirement benefits, and very little
academic freedom, given that they have no security of re-employment beyond
semester to semester contracts. These part-time faculty are paid something
like $0.57 on the dollar of what full-time faculty are paid to teach the
same class.
The International Conference Against Deregulation held in Berlin was the
follow-up to the Open World Conference (OWC) that was held in San
Francisco in February 2000, and sponsored by, among others, the San
Francisco Labor Council. Well over 500 participants came to Berlin from 56
countries. There was a workshop on education issues convened at the Berlin
Conference.
It was the consensus of the workshop participants that the same policy of
destroying the right to education and training is being implemented
throughout the world under the auspices of various international
institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the
International Monetary Fund. These plans are leading to the dissolution of
traditional institutional forms of schooling through the privatization of
public education. There was also agreement that these plans are
accompanied by a threat to the conditions of employment for teachers
everywhere. This policy also tends to seriously degrade the quality of
education.
At the same time, in December 2000, in the GATS negotiations, U.S.
officials submitted a broad proposal to reduce international barriers to
trade in higher education. It is clear that this proposal reflects the
interests of for-profit education providers, including distance-education
institutions in particular. This proposal is an attack on quality public
education systems everywhere in the world. It represents one more effort
at privatizing education around the world, of attempting to turn education
into just another commodity to be sold in the marketplace.
The Berlin education workshop participants proposed that teachers' unions
around the world oppose any plans of the World Bank, IMF, and WTO to
privatize and destroy public education and teaching. Out of the Berlin
Conference an on-going committee was set up to work towards the organizing
of the International Labor Conference in Defense of Public Education that
is now set for June 2003. We ask you to join us in preparing this
conference by distributing the documents in this section and contributing
TO the Conference Preparatory Bulletin.
Looking forward to hearing from you and working with you to build this
important labor fightback campaign in defense of public education in the
United States and across the globe,
In unity,
Dan Kaplan, Executive Secretary, AFT Local 1493, and Public Education
Coordinator, OWC Continuations Committee, San Francisco Labor Council
(AFL-CIO)
Jim Hamilton, Political Action Director, AFT Local 420, St. Louis,
Missouri
Marc Rich, Executive Board, AFT Local 1021 (UTLA) and Exec. Bd., United
Teachers for a Labor Party (Los Angeles)