The International Union of Students (IUS) was joined by regional students\' organizations from around the world for the September 13, 2003 Global Student Day of Action to Defend Public Education. The action was aimed at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Students around the world are calling for all levels of education to be removed from the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), a set of rules about international trade in the service sector adopted by the WTO. GATS forces developing countries in particular to open public services, health care and public education to privatization by giant corporations.
\"The International Union of Students and the major regional students\' organizations in each of the five global regions continue to mount opposition to the trade agenda in education,\" said Frage Sherif, Secretary General of the International Union of Students. \"Students worldwide are demonstrating in Cancún and many countries around the world on the occasion of the September 2003 ministerial meetings of the World Trade Organization,\" said Sherif. \"The message is the same everywhere: our governments must defend and develop public education systems, and the World Trade Organization must leave education out of all trade deals.\" The Ministerial Conference of the WTO met September 10-14 in Cancún, Mexico.
Added Sherif: \"Education at all levels is becoming more costly, less diverse and less accessible to people as it is included in trade regimes such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services. Our public education is not for sale, access to education is a right of all people.\"
The International Union of Students, whose headquarters is in Prague, Czech Republic, is also concerned about other features of the WTO and its trade regime, including its exclusively market-oriented development agenda, closed-door decision-making structures, support of World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies and programs, unfair dispute settlement mechanisms, lack of integration of social and economic rights, and interference in the distribution of affordable medicine.
\"Students around the world face many of the same issues—rising fees, under-funding, privatization, repression of their rights,\" said Elizabeth Carlyle, IUS spokesperson in the Americas for the day of action. \"In Cancun and around the globe, we are working together, challenging our governments to build access to public education at all levels, for all people.\"
To cement this common message, the International Union of Students and the following organizations have signed onto to a Global Student Statement entitled \"Public Education Is Not For Sale\":
- All Africa Student Union (AASU)
- Asian Students Association (ASA)
- Canadian Federation of Students (CFS)
- General Union of Arab Students (GUAS)
- International Youth and Student Movement for the United Nations (ISMUN)
- Mouvement des Étudiantes et Étudiants du Québec (MEEQ)
- National Unions of Students in Europe (ESIB)
- Organización Continental Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Estudiantes (OCLAE)
- United States Student Association (USSA)
For more information:
www.ius-uie.org
International Union of Students (IUS)
www.usstudents.org
United States Student Association (USSA)
www.globalizethis.org
Mobilization for Global Justice
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