Saturday 6th November, in front of Novara prefecture, from 3pm onwards, the committee of teachers and teaching assistents with non-secure contracts and the students union held a protest with the slogan:'No to war, yes to culture', opposing the cuts to schools, universities, and research made by Minister of education Gelmini, at the same time as the ministry of defense is planning to buy 131 F35 fighter bombers and annual military spending amounts to 20 billion Euro.
In the midst of an economic crisis, the Berlusconi government has launched the greatest attack that any government in the history of the republic has made on the future of young people.
7,3 billion euro - thats the figure that the Minister of Education wants to cut. One billion, six hundred million in 2010 alone.
The same fate awaits universities and research, which must reduce spending by 810 million euro this year.
And then there are the 232 cultural institutes for which the ministry of culture has already cut funding.
And while savings ar
e made on the backs of students and workers, the 2010 budget for the ministry of defense will be 20 billion, while in the coming years 13 billion will be spent on buying 131 F35 fighter bombers.All this despite the fact that according to our constitution: “Italy repudiate war”.
The start of assembly work on the F35s just at the beginning of this difficult year of new cuts is a curious coincidence. The area of Cameri airport, near to Novara, is only one of the places designated for this work.
What future do we want?
To oppose all of this, the committee of teachers and teaching assistents and the union of students state firmly:
NO to the teaching of use of weapons and the military culture, as poposed by the protocol of ministers Gelmini (education) and La Russa (defense)
- Yes to quality schools with: laboratories, safe classrooms, classes that are not overcrowded, modern teaching methods.
- NO to the purchase of the F35 fighter bombers and to every other useless military expenditure;
- Yes to quality universities and to funding of research;
- NO to the culture of fear and to the false rhetoric of security that creates useless armies;
- Yes to an army of conscious citizens who are educated in the culture of legality and non-violence;
- NO to theatres of war that leave behind them dead and displaced people and ruins;
- Yes to theatres, to music, and to all that nourishes the civil consciousness of society and the people;
- NO to schools that cut off support abandoning disabled students and their families;
- Yes to schools that teach the value of integration and of dialogue between peoples.
