Student gathering to declare: ‘Retaking our schools, remaking our society!’

The North Carolina Student Power Union will convene a statewide organizing conference in Raleigh, N.C., Feb. 16 under the banner of “Retaking our schools, remaking our society!” The conference will bring together students from most of the state’s 16 public universities, along with fighters from other youth and student struggles in the state. Included are high school students organizing to stop the school-to-prison-pipeline and undocumented youth who are launching a major campaign to win in-state university tuition. Representatives from various other worker and community organizations will also  participate.

A student organizer from Quebec, where hundreds of thousands of students went on a months-long strike to defeat a massive tuition hike there, will deliver the keynote address at the conference.

Discussions throughout the day will focus on developing a strategy to fight back against austerity measures, budget cuts and attacks on basic rights that are being proposed by the new Tea Party governor, Pat McCrory, and the legislature. The conference will conclude with a march on the Civitas Institute, one among a network of far-right think tanks directed by multimillionaire Art Pope. He financed Tea Party victories in the last two elections and provides the financing for most right-wing groups in the state.

For more information on the conference, visit studentpowernc.org/conference, and look for more coverage in the next issue of Workers World.

— Report by Zaina Alsous, a conference organizer