Monday, 5.03.2012
50 people at the opening of the Alter-Globalisation Festival!
Approximately 50 people attended the first event of the Alter-Globalisation Festival at the University of Essex. The talk on neoliberalism and education managed to draw paralels between the student mobilisation for free education in Chile and the resistance of the British students against the rising fees and the attemps for privatisation and comodification of the higher education.
The three speakers focused on the ideas for public education outside the neoliberal model where its social role is sacrificed in the name of the market and the needs of the big business. Carlos Gigoux, professor at the Sociology dept, made an overview of the student revolution in Chile and the educational model in the country and gave examples of resistance that can be used by the students in the UK in their struggle for a fair and accessible higher education. According to him stuents and lecturers should unite and confront the governments since this is originally a political and a systemic problem.
Ted Benton, also from the Sociology dept, emphasized on the dangers in the marketisation of the universities and the social impact such policies can have. On behalf of the Education Activist Network, Dan Swain talked on the importance of student activism and radicalisation and shared his experience from organising anti-cuts protests, strikes and walkouts.
50 people at the opening of the Alter-Globalisation Festival!
Approximately 50 people attended the first event of the Alter-Globalisation Festival at the University of Essex. The talk on neoliberalism and education managed to draw paralels between the student mobilisation for free education in Chile and the resistance of the British students against the rising fees and the attemps for privatisation and comodification of the higher education. The three speakers focused on the ideas for public education outside the neoliberal model where its social role is sacrificed in the name of the market and the needs of the big business. Carlos Gigoux, professor at the Sociology dept, made an overview of the student revolution in Chile and the educational model in the country and gave examples of resistance that can be used by the students in the UK in their struggle for a fair and accessible higher education. According to him stuents and lecturers should unite and confront the governments since this is originally a political and a systemic problem.
Ted Benton, also from the Sociology dept, emphasized on the dangers in the marketisation of the universities and the social impact such policies can have. On behalf of the Education Activist Network, Dan Swain talked on the importance of student activism and radicalisation and shared his experience from organising anti-cuts protests, strikes and walkouts.
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