Student protest
Encyclopedia
Student protest encompasses a wide range of activities that indicate student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

 dissatisfaction with a given political or academic issue and mobilization to communicate this dissatisfaction to the authorities (university or civil or both) and society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...

 in general and hopefully remedy the problem. Protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...

 forms include but are not limited to: sit-ins, occupations of university offices or buildings, strike
Student strike
A student strike occurs when students enrolled at a teaching institution such as a school, college or university refuse to go to class. This form of strike action is often used as a negotiating tactic in order to put pressure on the governing body of the university, particularly in countries where...

s etc. More extreme forms include suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 such as the case of Kostas Georgakis
Kostas Georgakis
Kostas Georgakis , was a Greek student of geology, who, in the early hours of 19 September 1970, set himself ablaze in Matteotti square in Genoa as a protest against the dictatorial regime of Georgios Papadopoulos.- Early life :Georgakis grew up in Corfu in a family of five...

' protest against the Greek military junta of 1967–1974.

Student Protests in the United States in 2011

When the Occupy Movement
Occupy movement
The Occupy movement is an international protest movement which is primarily directed against economic and social inequality. The first Occupy protest to be widely covered was Occupy Wall Street in New York City, taking place on September 17, 2011...

 started in July 2011 it was inspired by the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...


and world wide longings for democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

. Although the protesters focused their attention initially on their dissatisfaction with Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

 it spread to issues like fighting tuition increases that cause social inequality
Social inequality
Social inequality refers to a situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social status. Areas of potential social inequality include voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the extent of property rights and access to education, health care, quality housing and other...

.
On November 9th the Berkeley campus Police beat Occupy protesters that were peaceful but refused to leave the Berkeley university campus. The brutal act of the police was filmed by an observer and published on YouTube which lead to more public awareness and coverage by local and especially national media.
On November 15th the police shot a student who carried a gun in his hands. The suspect was later transferred to a nearby hospital. Although this shooting is not related to the protest movement students became terrified by this incident.
Since the Protests of 1968
Protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests, largely participated in by students and workers.-Background:Background speculations of overall causality vary about the political protests centering on the year 1968. Some argue that protests could be attributed to the social changes...

 there have not been similar enduring protests by students that were very largely discussed and covered by the media.

Student Protests in China

Probably the best known, and in the Chinese media, most censored student protest and democratic movement was the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...

 also known as the Tiananmen Square massacre where hundreds of protesters were killed in China.

Student Protests in Europe

In recent years in Europe students in the UK, Germany, France and Austria protested against social inequality caused by rising
tuition fees. In Germany the massive nationwide protests were organized through social media sites and blogs. The recurring protests led to a political debate between the leading coalition in Germany consisting of two parties the Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

 and the Free Democratic Party (Germany)
Free Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...

 on the on side and the opponents consisting of the Alliance '90/The Greens
Alliance '90/The Greens
Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...

, the Social Democratic Party of Germany
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

 and the The Left (Germany)
The Left (Germany)
The Left , also commonly referred to as the Left Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The Left is the most left-wing party of the five represented in the Bundestag....

 on the other side. As a consequence in one German federal state, in Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

, study fees were repealed and in another federal state in North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

 a repeal will take effect this upcoming winter term 2011.

See also

  • Academic Crisis
    Academic Crisis
    The Academic Crisis is the name given to a Portuguese governmental policy instigated in 1962 by the Portuguese dictatorial regime entailing the boycott and closure of several student associations and organizations, including the National Secretariat of Portuguese Students. Most members of this...

  • Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989
  • Student strike
    Student strike
    A student strike occurs when students enrolled at a teaching institution such as a school, college or university refuse to go to class. This form of strike action is often used as a negotiating tactic in order to put pressure on the governing body of the university, particularly in countries where...

  • Kent State shootings
    Kent State shootings
    The Kent State shootings—also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre—occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970...

  • Protests of 1968
    Protests of 1968
    The protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests, largely participated in by students and workers.-Background:Background speculations of overall causality vary about the political protests centering on the year 1968. Some argue that protests could be attributed to the social changes...

  • Bucharest student movement of 1956
    Bucharest student movement of 1956
    The events in Poland which led to the elimination of that country's Stalinist leadership and the rise to power of Władysław Gomułka on 19 October 1956 provoked unrest among university students in Eastern bloc countries. The state of unrest in Poland began to spread into Hungary...

  • Athens Polytechnic uprising
    Athens Polytechnic uprising
    The Athens Polytechnic uprising in 1973 was a massive demonstration of popular rejection of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974. The uprising began on November 14, 1973, escalated to an open anti-junta, anti-US and anti-imperialist revolt and ended in bloodshed in the early morning of November...

  • 1996–1997 protests in Serbia
  • Iran student protests, July 1999
  • 2005 Quebec student strike
    2005 Quebec student strike
    The 2005 Quebec student strike occurred between February 24 and April 2005. Part of the opposition to the Charest government, it was led by students of CEGEPs and universities of Quebec, on strike to protest budget cuts of $103 million in the Grants and Loans program.- Background :During the 2003...

  • 2006 student protests in Chile
    2006 student protests in Chile
    The 2006 student protests in Chile were a series of ongoing student voice protests carried out by high school students across Chile from late April to early June 2006...

  • 2006 student uprising in Iran
  • 2010 UK student protests
    2010 UK student protests
    The 2010 UK student protests were a series of demonstrations that began in November 2010 in several areas of the United Kingdom, with the focal point of protests centred in London. The initial event was the largest student protest in the UK since the Labour government first proposed the Teaching...

  • The Great Butter Rebellion
    Butter rebellion
    The Great Butter Rebellion, which took place at Harvard University in 1766, was the first recorded student protest in what is now the United States...

  • Civil disobedience
    Civil disobedience
    Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...

  • Strike action
    Strike action
    Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

  • East L.A. walkouts
    East L.A. walkouts
    The East Los Angeles Walkouts or Chicano Blowouts were a series of 1968 protests against unequal conditions in Los Angeles Unified School District high schools. The first protest took place on March 6...


External links

  • Bloodiest Student Protests - slideshow by Life magazine
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/us/occupy-wall-street-protests-shifting-to-college-campuses.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=berkeley&st=cse
  • http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/11/10/us/AP-US-Occupy-Universities.html?scp=1&sq=berkeley&st=cse
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