The Democratizing Education Program works to unite student associations, labor unions, faculty organizations, and grassroots student, parent, and community groups in a national movement against the corporatization of education, and for the democratization of schools, colleges, and universities. This program promotes student - staff - faculty - community unionism and industrial action, including industrial strikes, as essential parts of effective education organizing.
 

Democratizing Higher Education Charter:

1) Full Public Funding for Public Higher Education

2) Free Access to Higher Education and Abolition of Tuition

3) Affirmative Action to End Institutionalized Racism and Sexism

4) Full Recognition of the Right of Students and Workers to Organize

5) Democratic Self-Government of Higher Education

6) Service to the Public Welfare, Not Corporate Profits

7) Free Speech and Academic Freedom

8) Debt Forgiveness of Student Loans

9) Civic Education for a Democratic Society

10) Education, not war. Schools, Not Jails

Please contact us if you have questions about the Democratizing Education Program.

Events

• Peer to Peer EXTRAVAGANZA for Youth Jobs (April 30, 2008)
  Students from youth organizations across the city are going on strike to demand city funding for youth jobs.
• Rethinking the University: Labor, Knowledge, Value (April 11, 2008 - April 13, 2008)
  This conference is about further developing both our intellectual and organizational capacities to effectively address the crisis facing higher education.
• DEN Fall Retreat: Building a U.S. Student Unionism Movement (October 19, 2007 - October 22, 2007)
  Student organizers from across the country will be traveling to Montreal at the height of a provincial-wide student strike protesting skyrocketing tuition increases. Retreat attendees will participate in strike activities, learn about Canadian student unionism from the strike organizers and strategize ways to build a student unionism movement in the U.S.
• National Convention: Students for a Democratic Society (July 27, 2007 - July 31, 2007)
  The second SDS National Convention will take place July 27-31 at Wayne State University in Detroit.
• 2007 Democratizing Education Convention (June 27, 2007 - July 1, 2007)
• April Mobilization for Higher Education (April 1, 2007 - May 1, 2007)
  Join the April Mobilization. Demand full public funding for higher education; a rollback and eventual phaseout of tuition; the democratization of higher education in the USA.
• Democratizing Education Convention
• Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions Conference
• Ottawa Retreat on Democratizing Education
• Democracy & Education Conference
• Meeting for Campus Organizers
  Over the weekend of Sept 22-24, 2006, we will gather in Chicago some 40-60 campus organizers from a score colleges and universities, to compare experiences, recent advances and setbacks, and to plan coordinated action for the coming year. You, or people you work with on your campus, could be among those organizers. The idea is to bring the campus communities together, and get ready to fight for higher education, and a democratic society, in '06-'07.

Initiatives

• Democratizing Education Network (DEN)
  The new network of students, staff, faculty, and community members dedicated to education of, for, and by the people.

Publications/Talks

• Campus Organizer's Guide to Democratizing Education (February 22, 2007)
  An organizing guide for students, faculty, staff, and community members interested in promoting democracy in higher education, and a higher education system in service to a democratic, inclusive, society.
• Understanding Student Unionism: A Canadian Perspective
  Canadian lessons for U.S. organizers of student unions.
• Report on the Ottawa Retreat
  A report by Mishy Leiblum and Jed Murr on the Campus Organizing Retreat in Ottawa, Ontario.
• Corporatization: An Internal Clash of Civilizations
  Corporatization: An Internal Clash of Civilizations by Ben Manski and John Peck Published in "Beyond the Market: The Future of Public Services"
• Midwest Social Forum Workshop: Building a Democracy Movement in the USA
  Check out a short video from "BUILDING A DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES", a workshop by Liberty Tree Fellows Benjamin, Cobb, Manski, and Robinson, one of about 100 sessions at the 2006 Midwest Social Forum.