Collectif Printemps 2010, "We Do Not Want Any 'Market of Knowledge'! Call for a European Mobilisation against the Lisbon Strategy in Higher Education and Research"

We Do Not Want Any "Market of Knowledge"!
Call for a European Mobilisation against the Lisbon Strategy in Higher Education and Research
by Collectif Printemps 2010

In march 2010, the spring summit of the heads of state and governments of the European union will mark the 10 years of the Lisbon strategy, which frames the policies currently engaged in the Member States so as to "modernise" the national research and education system (primary, secondary and higher education, lifelong learning).

The declared ambition of a "knowledge‐based society" should be encouraged, as far as it consists in a collective ambition to promote education and research as public goods, a guarantee of democratisation of access to knowledge, and allows citizens to perform a reasoned critical analysis of scientific and technical choices which are proposed to them. But the current orientation is different, and reduces this prospect to the building of a "common market of knowledge" whose harmful influence can be observed everywhere, with consequences such as the weakening of the scientific independence, the disintegration of the public research system and the strengthening of the private sector, the increase of precarious conditions for workers and students, the deepening of inequalities in the access to knowledge and the increase of the disinvolvement of citizens in technical and scientific choices.

For a few years, large‐scale mobilisations of increasing intensity have been initiated by students, workers in education and research, and by social movements in general, all around Europe. These protests strongly express a demand for a public sector of education and research which would not be built without democratic debate, nor driven by the laws of the market.

That is why we call for a counter-summit in march 2010
Let's join our forces and built it together
AGAINST the marketisation of scientific and educative activities,
AGAINST the organized competition of people and territories,
FOR an emancipating and democratic public service of higher education and research.

« Collectif Printemps 2010 »

Attac
Fac verte
FERC Sup-CGT
Fondation Sciences Citoyennes
Sauvons La Recherche – SLR
Sauvons L'Université – SLU
Sud education, Sud étudiants, Sud recherche
Syndicat National des Chercheurs Scientifiques – SNCS-FSU
Syndicat National de l'Enseignement Supérieur – SNESUP-FSU
SNTRS-CGT
Union Nationale des Étudiants de France – UNEF
Union des Familles Laïques – UFAL

To sign: <sign@spring2010.eu>.

For more information, visit <spring2010.eu>.

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