The Socialist Party encourages students and trade union activists to attend the Rouge Education Conference being held at Trades Hall in Melbourne on the 14th - 16th September 2007. This conference will be based on three major themes: Institutions, Capitalism & Dissent.

Campus based political landscapes are shifting. Over the past ten years, government funding cuts and the incremental introduction of up front fees has radically changed the nature of Universities. Thirty years ago, university education in Australia was free. What has happened to the vision of an education system accessible to the working class and the poor in the intervening years?

Classrooms are overcrowded. Student unions, once a hotbed of agitation, have been gutted by Voluntary Student Unionism and conservative political cultures. Academics and students are silenced by a nebulous “war on terror”. International students are simply an unending income stream and not valued contributors to an engaged society.

From Friday 14th - Sunday 16th September, a gathering will take place at Trades Hall in Melbourne where people can critically examine this profound shift and build networks to resist it. We want to share stories, build networks, learn, argue, and inspire. We want to create a space that breeds engagement and resistance outside of elite institutions known as “Universities”.

INSTITUTIONS - students’ experiences of education institutions that have been radically altered under a right wing political system

CAPITALISM - all they taught you at school was how to be a good worker/ boss

DISSENT - we can learn a lot from campus based struggles and alternative approaches to education, both nationally and internationally

For more info or to download the full program click here