The Global Women's Strike welcomes the Shut Down of Higher Education on March 1st 2001, against student fees
All Africa Students Union Joins
Strike! On 8 March 2001, women in 70 countries and around the UK are striking ‘against low pay, no pay and too much work’. We are protesting that while at least $800 billion a year is spent on military budgets worldwide, less than $80 billion -- just 10% -- would provide the essentials of life, clean water, health, sanitation, basic education/literacy. Winning back the right to student grants for all is part of reclaiming this wealth – to invest in the enrichment of every life, beginning with women and girls who work hardest and get least, everywhere. Free education is a fundamental right. Access to education should not be determined by wealth any more than by sex, race, class, religion, health/disability, sexuality, nationality, age . . . If forced to live off bank loans, women suffer more than male counterparts, since pay inequities (the government admits that women's full-time earnings are 72% of men's – less if we are Black or immigrant women) may force women to work up to eight years longer than men to pay off the same debts. Student mothers already face many more day-to-day problems than other students; tuition fees introduce untold strain for them and their families, and for many it shuts the door to higher education. If faced with years of debt repayment, Black, immigrant and other low-income students can’t even consider higher education. Lesbian and gay students may be less able to 'come out' because they are more financially dependent on families. But any student may have to choose between freedom of expression and the risk of losing financial support. Students were active in the first Global Women’s Strike last year. Studying is work: courses are tailored to give you skills which will benefit employers and profits. Tuition fees, cuts in grants, welfare, and benefits cuts the social wage students are entitled to, reducing studying to completely unwaged work. Debts force students into courses which will be profitable later on, including learning to be management over others.
The Global Women’s Strike will highlight this Shut Down on our Website. We have to take higher education back from the hands of the money-makers and return it to the students and to all of us. We welcome all women and men to join in the Strike, next Thursday 8 March 2001, to demand more money and less work, beginning with those of us with least. For more info see our website: http://womenstrike8m.server101.com International Wages for Housework CampaignCrossroads Women’s Centre, 230a Kentish Town Rd, London NW5 2AB Tel: 0207 482 2496 Fax: 0207 209 4761 Email: womenstrike8m@server101.com |