Workers Solidarity Movement

To mark the International Day of Action Against the Commercialisation of Education , Free Education for Everyone (FEE) will be hosting a public meeting and discussion on Thursday, 6th November at 5pm in UCD, room F101.

This interview with a Zapatista Educational Promote was carried out in the autonomous and rebel Zapatista community of Morelia, Mexico. 

This area of Chiapas have been in rebellion since the 1st of January 1994 and during this time the rebel movement has constructed a new education system. The interviewer is a WSM member who lives outside of Ireland.

The world seems about to end. The markets are convulsing, the banks are tumbling, the entire island is about to become some sort of black hole off the coast of Europe.

Never fear though, we’ve got a brilliant political establishment to shepherd us through the economic wilderness, and in the Budget on Tuesday 14th they revealed their master-plan, carefully crafted, as Mary Hanafin said, to ‘protect the vulnerable’. Unfortunately, it seems like they’ve got a different understanding of who exactly ‘the vulnerable’ in Irish society are.

Somewhere in the region of 15,000 people took part in the INTO protest at the Dail Wednesday evening. From the crowd it was obvious that as well as teachers many parents, secondary school pupils and college students had turned up to show solidarity.
The Gardai prevented access to Kildare street and the mounted riot police were on standby at the gates of the Dail. An elaborate filter barrier had been installed across the top of Kildare street

Part of a series of regional demos against the cuts

Part of a series of regional demos against the cuts

Part of a series of regional demos against the cuts

Part of a series of regional demos against the cuts

The pensioners and the students have shown the way. Now teachers and parents are set to take on the government in response to education cuts announced in the Budget. The two Brians should get ready for another climbdown.

On Wednesday 22 October, something over 10,000 students marched in the centre of Dublin to protest the proposed introduction of fees. The student members and supporters of the WSM were in attendance and distributed thousands of leaflets which discussed the origins of the attack and argued that students will need to build a mass movement across the education sector to defend and improve equality of access to education.