A democratic form of government, a democratic way of life, presupposes free public education over a long period; it presupposes also an education for personal responsibility that too often is neglected.

A university should not be an adjunct of business, nor of the military, nor of government. Its curriculum should teach change, not the status quo. Then ... it might possibly keep us all from being victims of the corporate state.

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The Democratizing Education Program works to unite student associations, labor unions, faculty organizations, and grassroots student, parent, and community groups in a national movement against the corporatization of education, and for the democratization of schools, colleges, and universities. This program raises up student, staff, faculty, and community unionism and industrial action, including industrial strikes, as essential parts of effective education organizing.

Initiatives

• Democratizing Education Network (DEN)
  The new network of students, staff, faculty, and community members dedicated to education of, for, and by the people.

Events

• Learning Democracy by Doing (October 16, 2008 - October 18, 2008)
  An international conference organized by the Transformative Learning Centre (TLC) addressing issues of participatory democracy and citizenship learning.
• Peer to Peer EXTRAVAGANZA for Youth Jobs (April 30, 2008)
  Students from youth organizations across the city are going on strike to demand city funding for youth jobs.
• Rethinking the University: Labor, Knowledge, Value (April 11, 2008 - April 13, 2008)
  This conference is about further developing both our intellectual and organizational capacities to effectively address the crisis facing higher education.
• Midwest NLG Conference (February 29, 2008 - March 1, 2008)
  Liberty Tree convenes two panels at the regional Midwest meeting of the National Lawyers Guild.
• DEN Fall Retreat: Building a U.S. Student Unionism Movement (October 19, 2007 - October 22, 2007)
  Student organizers from across the country will be traveling to Montreal at the height of a provincial-wide student strike protesting skyrocketing tuition increases. Retreat attendees will participate in strike activities, learn about Canadian student unionism from the strike organizers and strategize ways to build a student unionism movement in the U.S.
• National Convention: Students for a Democratic Society (July 27, 2007 - July 31, 2007)
  The second SDS National Convention will take place July 27-31 at Wayne State University in Detroit.
• 2007 Democratizing Education Convention (June 27, 2007 - July 1, 2007)
• Democracy Track at the U.S. Social Forum (June 27, 2007 - July 1, 2007)
  The Democracy Track is a series of sessions and community spaces at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, Georgia, June 27-July 1, 2007. The purpose of these sessions is to centralize democracy in all of our everyday struggles.
• April Mobilization for Higher Education (April 1, 2007 - May 1, 2007)
  Join the April Mobilization. Demand full public funding for higher education; a rollback and eventual phaseout of tuition; the democratization of higher education in the USA.
• Democratizing Education Convention
• Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions Conference
• Ottawa Retreat on Democratizing Education
• Democracy & Education Conference
• Meeting for Campus Organizers
  Over the weekend of Sept 22-24, 2006, we will gather in Chicago some 40-60 campus organizers from a score colleges and universities, to compare experiences, recent advances and setbacks, and to plan coordinated action for the coming year. You, or people you work with on your campus, could be among those organizers. The idea is to bring the campus communities together, and get ready to fight for higher education, and a democratic society, in '06-'07.

Publications/Talks

• Campus Organizer's Guide to Democratizing Education (February 22, 2007)
  An organizing guide for students, faculty, staff, and community members interested in promoting democracy in higher education, and a higher education system in service to a democratic, inclusive, society.
• Prospects for Participatory Democracy in the U.S.
  "The task . . . is to facilitate the growth of an aggressive democracy movement in the United States."
• Understanding Student Unionism: A Canadian Perspective
  Canadian lessons for U.S. organizers of student unions.
• Report on the Ottawa Retreat
  A report by Mishy Leiblum and Jed Murr on the Campus Organizing Retreat in Ottawa, Ontario.
• We are on the offensive: Make the most of it!
  Ben Manski responds to Independent Politics News' question, "How can progressives get off of the defensive in 2006?"
• Corporatization: An Internal Clash of Civilizations
  Corporatization: An Internal Clash of Civilizations by Ben Manski and John Peck Published in "Beyond the Market: The Future of Public Services"

Democracy News

• Kennedy Fights for Teaching and Research Assistants Collective Bargaining Rights (April 17, 2008)
• The Nation: Liberty Tree MVP! (January 1, 2008)
• John Nichols on Liberty Tree's essential function (July 4, 2007)
• Looking Out for Number One: American students are great at advocating for others, but do very little advocacy for themselves (June 20, 2007)
• 11 Stanford Students Arrested for Taking Over President's Office: Demand University End Its Use of Sweatshops in Making University Apparel (May 22, 2007)
• State of the Student Union (Feb 1, 2007)
• Education Reformers Demand More Action on Spiking Tuition (October 19, 2006)
• Excerpts from a speech by Howard Zinn
• Midwest Social Forum, July 6-9 in Milwaukee! (June 21, 2006)
• Tent State Universities sweep country (April 28, 2006)

Urgent Action

• National Days of Student Action (Students for a Democratic Society)
• Don't let the WTO Undermine Higher Education in the United States (Midwest Peace & Justice Caucus/Public Citizen)
• Don't Let Missouri End Secular Public Higher Education! (American Association of University Professors, UMKC Chapter)
• April Mobilization for Higher Education (Democratizing Education Network)
• Week of Action for Higher Education (Democratizing Education Network)
• Support the Miami hunger strikers! (Democratizing Education Network)
• Stop government surveillance of student activists (http://www.StandUpfortheLaw.org)
• NYU Strike: Speak up for the right to unionize! (Liberty Tree Democratizing Education Program)
• Administrators move to expel campus organizers (United Students Against Sweatshops & Campus Anti-War Network)