November 17th

2014

Declaration of the Commission of Europe and North America of WFDY

...on the International Student Day

17th

of November, is a day which marks the

constant struggle of the student movement all

over the world for democracy, freedom and social

justice, for the right to Education. It reminds to us

the heroic resistance of Students in Prague against

Fascism in 1939 as well as the heroic sacrifice of

students during the anti-imperialist popular

uprising of Polytechnic in Athens 1973.

The International Student's Day, is celebrated in

honor of the students who were victims of the

Nazis in Czechoslovakia when on November 17,

1939, the occupying armies invaded in the

dormitory of the University of Prague killing 9

students while other 1200 students were sent to

the fascist concentration camps.

It's been 75 years since the sacrifice of students in

Prague and 41 years since the sacrifice of the

students of the Athens Polytechnic University. The heroic struggle of students for freedom,

democracy and social justice as well as the fight against fascism and imperialism, remains

extremely topical in our days.

Commission of Europe and North America of WFDY, note that:

• Today, the global student movement achievements in many countries are under

attack by the monopolies and the capitalist governments whose policies promote the

sell-off of the public and free education. Students all around the world are facing an

institutionalized attack to the right of Education

• In several countries, what was considered a right to Education has become a

privilege for some, while at the same time class barriers are put in every aspect of

the Educational structure. At the same time the field of Education is considered to be

a profitable market for the monopolies, therefore it becomes commerce.

• The context of the offered education is directed in the creation of cheap labor

force, in the preservation of the capitalist system. The European Union together with

the USA are in the frontline of this direction and their aggressiveness is followed by

countries all around the World. IMF and World Bank are used as tools to promote

these policies.

• The ideology offensive keeps being aggravated, with the falsification and distortion

of the historical truth, namely with the erasing of the achievements of the workers'

and peoples' struggle and with the most aggressive anti-communist propaganda. At

the same time, the anti-scientific content of education is promoted together with the

attempt to spread individualistic values among the youth.

• The connection of the education to the needs of capital is enforced by the

implementation of policies which promote the privatization of the higher education.

Such a policy is the implementation of the Bologna Process carried by the EU.

Taking into consideration all the above, the Commission of Europe and North America of

WFDY, declare that:

• The youth and the students will not become a bystander as the monopolies deprive

them from their rights and throw them into misery, preparing them for

unemployment and as cheap labor force.

• We will not stand the attempts to turn Education into commerce. We will resist the

antiscientific and undemocratic methods of teaching that result in the distortion of

history and the reproduction of the system itself.

• Our goals for Free and Public Education for all go hand in hand with our struggle for

peace, solidarity and the overthrow of imperialism. It is the system that gives birth

to exploitation, oppression and withdrawal of rights, but it is the youth that through

its struggle will achieve the permanent and universal conquest of their rights.

• WFDY salutes all the students' struggles in every country against such attacks, for the

right to a Free and Public Education for all, as an important contribution to the anti-

imperialist struggle of the youth, and we appeal to the students' struggle

reinforcement!

In this framework, the Commission of Europe and North America of the World Federation of

Democratic Youth decides to launch the “Week of Action on the Students Struggles”. We

have chosen the 17th

of November, the International Students Day, as the starting point of

this activity.