Category Archives: Protests

World University News: UGANDA: Students protest ‘discriminatory’ fees
Writer: Kayiira Kizito
Date: 25 January 2009

Late last year, Kenyan students enrolled at Makerere University, Uganda’s most famous institution, protested against ‘discriminatory’ foreign student fees and other charges. As with many other universities around the world, Makerere charges differential rates for domestic and international students with those from East Africa pay around 1.5 times the local rate.

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Inside Higher Ed: Israel Boycott Movement Comes to U.S.

The movement to boycott Israeli academic institutions has largely been centered in Britain (where in 2007 the University and College Union dropped the call). In response to the conflict in Gaza, calls for academic boycotts have crossed the Atlantic, surfacing first in Ontario, and now in the United States.

The U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel, launched last week, enumerates five goals. These include: “Refraining from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions that do not vocally oppose Israeli state policies against Palestine,” “promoting divestment and disinvestment from Israel by international academic institutions,” and “supporting Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.”

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CAUT releases open letter protesting Canada’s refusal to allow Dr. William Ayers entry into Canada

(Ottawa, January 21, 2009) The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has written an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper protesting the refusal by Canada to allow Dr. William Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois-Chicago, entry into Canada.

Professor Ayers had been invited by the Centre for Urban Schooling at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto to give a public lecture at the University. He was also scheduled to meet with Toronto District School Board principals and senior staff, with youth community workers at a school in Regent Park, and to be interviewed on CBC. He was refused entry to Canada on Sunday, January 18.

“It is wrong for the Government of Canada to decide which scholars universities can invite to their campuses,” the letter says. “Too often, in recent years, this has been practice of the Bush Administration in the United States – a practice we and our American counterpart – the American Association of University Professors – have denounced… It is with shame that we now find our government is behaving in the same manner.”

CAUT is calling for a public investigation into Professor Ayers’ denial of entry into Canada, and wants the Prime Minister to advise the University of Toronto that should it invite Professor Ayers again, the government will allow him to enter Canada.

CAUT’s letter to Prime Minister Harper is available here [html] and here [pdf].

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ContraCosta Times: Antioch teachers hold peaceful protests

Dozens of Antioch Unified School District teachers clad in blue to show union support gathered before and after school Friday in protest of the district’s positions in ongoing contract negotiations.

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Green Left Weekly: Israel — the case for a union boycott

The horror of what is unfolding in Gaza is forcing more people to come out to support Palestine. People are coming out onto the streets in tens or hundreds of thousands all over the world.

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Tallahassee Democrat: Bill Ayers talk at FSU drawing protests

He was Sarah Palin’s favorite punching bag.

Now Bill Ayers, a 1960s anti-war activist and co-founder of the early 1970s protest organization the Weather Underground, is raising the hackles of some conservatives in Tallahassee.

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Inside Higher Ed: The Gaza War… on North American Campuses

The military conflict that’s likely to spark campus protests in the coming weeks doesn’t involve U.S. forces in Iraq or Afghanistan. Rather, Israeli attacks on Hamas forces in Gaza have stirred sleeping campuses, and rallies and petition drives may gain momentum as more colleges resume full operations. The efforts, involving students and professors, supporters of Palestinians and Israelis, raise sensitive issues about whether academics are too quick or too slow to question Israel, what methods are appropriate for expressing opposition to another government’s actions, and why Israel’s actions are more likely to generate protests than outrages committed by other countries.

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The Chronicle News Blog: MLA Contemplates Taking a Stand in Support of Scholars of Palestine

The Modern Language Association’s executive council is considering whether the organization should vote on a resolution expressing solidarity with scholars of Palestinian literature and culture.

The MLA’s Delegate Assembly overwhelmingly passed the resolution at the group’s annual meeting last week, following a debate in which it rejected an alternative measure that would have expressed support for both Israeli and Palestinian scholars and called for the organization to remain neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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World Socialist Website: Mass demonstrations in Ireland to counter attacks on education

Between 40,000 and 70,000 people protested in Dublin on December 6 against spending cuts in education in what is believed to have been the largest demonstration in the capital since protests against the Iraq war. The protest formed part of a growing number of demonstrations against recent government policy announcements.

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Jakarta Post: Protests mar passage of education entity bill

Thu, 12/18/2008 7:38 AM

EDUCATION FOR SALE: Students from various universities stage a boisterous rally outside the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Wednesday in protest at an education bill that will turn universities into legal business entities. Despite the protests, the House passed the bill later in the day. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)EDUCATION FOR SALE: Students from various universities stage a boisterous rally outside the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Wednesday in protest at an education bill that will turn universities into legal business entities. Despite the protests, the House passed the bill later in the day. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)

Critics and education experts are up in arms after the House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill on educational legal entities, which detractors say will lead to the commercialization of education in the country.

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Santa Cruz Sentinel: UC Santa Cruz tree-sit demonstration ends peacefully

SANTA CRUZ — The 13-month-old tree-sit demonstration at UC Santa Cruz ended peacefully Saturday morning after protesters voluntarily abandoned redwood platforms above Science Hill just days after mediation designed to dissolve the demonstration ended without resolution.

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The New York Times: Protest at the New School Turns Unruly

Security guards and police officers collided with students at the New School on Thursday morning in a shouting and shoving confrontation, after an overnight sit-in at a university cafeteria organized to protest the leadership of Bob Kerrey, the university’s president, among other issues. The sit-in has continued into the afternoon.

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Santa Cruz Sentinel: UC Santa Cruz tree-sit demonstration ends peacefully

SANTA CRUZ — The 13-month-old tree-sit demonstration at UC Santa Cruz ended peacefully Saturday morning after protesters voluntarily abandoned redwood platforms above Science Hill just days after mediation designed to dissolve the demonstration ended without resolution.

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