Occupy UGC's statement in support of Occupy SOAS. Our struggle is global!
Dear friends, We might be standing miles apart but it seems we are fighting a similar cause. We have heard how the students, teachers and staff at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London have been relentlessly raising their voices against the discreet proposal of cuts in funds at the institute, scraping of courses which are tagged as ‘less relevant’ for the market , subsequent job losses, undemocratic governance and the undue suspension of Sandy Nicoll, Unison branch secretary, in its wake. While it throws open questions about the specific situation at SOAS, it, at the same time, exposes how the sphere of public education is getting increasingly tied with the functioning of capital and the implicit linkage between the University and Industry. We not only extend our solidarity to such an exposure by the students and staff at SOAS, we also salute the grit with which the struggle has taken place in the face of constant monitoring by the authorities. Here, in India we also have been fighting the sell- out of research and education. Recently, University Grants Commission, the highest governing body of the Universities in the country, had announced the scrap of a fellowship which is granted to the researchers who are pursuing M.Phil and Ph.D (a mere Rs 5000 and Rs 8000 respectively per month, lower than the stipulated minimum wage of the country) in the Central Universities. With the demand of :1)Reinstatement of the fellowship; 2) Enhancement of fellowship and 3) Extension of fellowship to all State Universities, we are in the midst of a struggle where we have occupied the entrance street leading to the UGC Headquarters building in New Delhi and which is doing rounds by the name of #occupyUGC. The space is inhabited by students and teachers of different Universities in the capital city, with slogans, postermakings, open-classes with teachers and cultural performances. Not just this, the whole of country is witnessing a wave of such protests. Facing the constant repression by the state authorities, the brutal police lathicharge and arrest which had already happened twice within these 12 days, we have only grown stronger and more resolved to take this movement forward in a creative way. In its 12th day now, we derive inspiration and courage from Occupy SOAS and extend solidarity to the protestors there. As the forthcoming WTO summit in December at Nairobi is going to discuss the market opportunity of education as a ‘tradable commodity’, the global resistance of students-teachers-staffs-workers in education sector should grow stronger with slogans for inclusive and equitable education. One world, one struggle Education is not for sale! In solidarity, #OccupyUGC New Delhi 31-10-2015
