Civil Society Network for Public Education in the Americas - CSNPEA

A Formal Adoption of the IDEA Documents
The following IDEA documents were approved with the modifications and recommendations added and approved at three previous corresponding plenaria.

1. The Effects of 15 Years of Neoliberal Changes to Public Education in the Americas
2. Responding to the Globalization of Education in the Americas: Strategies for Defending Public Education
3. Alternatives for Democratic Education in the Americas
4. A Necessary but still Distant Relationship between Education and Gender Perspectives in Latin America
5. The Teaching Profession and Labour Health
6. A Brief Report on Indigenous Education in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Guatemala

The conclusions from the working plenaria and working groups were also ratified.

B Resolutions for follow-up activities of the Network
Resolution Number 1
Whereas it is important that the information discussed and the conclusions reached at this assembly be made accessible to as wide a range of people as possible: 

Be it resolved that;
1. The documents, proposals and proceedings of the Hemispheric IDEA conference be published as a single document and;

2. A briefer synthesis of this document be published and circulated to participating organizations so that they may distribute it to broader sectors of their membership and; 
Whereas the governments of the Americas will be convening in Quebec City, Quebec, in May 2001 the third Summit of the Americas and;

3. That the reports of the Civil Society Network and of participating organizations be posted on the IDEA website. 

4. That the Civil Society Network publish a magazine based on the themes examined at this 
conference.

Resolution Number 2
Whereas at this Summit heads of state and their ministers will be discussing issues of hemispheric integration, including education, that affect all the peoples of the Americas and:

Whereas the Canadian organization Common Frontiers, which is a coalition of unions, Non-governmental and community organizations, and its counterpart in Quebec are organizing a parallel Peoples’ Summit to coincide with the Quebec Summit of the Americas;

Be it resolved that: the Civil Society Network for Public Education in the Americas participate in the People’s Summit and, in cooperation with other Education organizations of the Americas, ensure that a conference on education issues be an integral part of this summit.

Be it further resolved that a series of regional conferences (for example in: the Caribbean, Central America, the Andean Region, the Southern Cone and through the Trinational Coalition that  brings together educators organizations from Mexico, Canada and the USA), be convened prior to the Summit in Quebec; and that, taking as its point of departure the final report of the Hemispheric IDEA Conference, the objective of these conferences be to elaborate an alternative proposal for education to be presented both at the official Americas and in the Peoples Summits.

Resolution Number 3
Whereas the proponents of policies that have a negative effect a on democratic, just, free and universal public education system have at their disposal armies of researchers and think tanks to justify their measures and;

Whereas the problems that education faces are similar in many countries of the region and:

Whereas many organizations supporting public education do not have the resources to contract their own researchers:

Be it resolved that the Civil Society Network coordinate research to support democratic alternatives for education in the Americas;

Be it further resolved that such research focus on the following themes:
1. Literacy for all;
2. Universal access to all levels of education;
3. The participation of  teachers, parents and students in decision-making processes (including issues regarding decentralization);
4. The working conditions of teachers;
5. The financing of public education;
6. The use of information technology and;
7. Education reform and evaluation.

Be it further resolved that a gender analysis be an aspect of all these topics.

Resolution Number 4
Whereas free trade agreements in the region have a significant impact on education issues;

Be it resolved that the Civil Society Network publish an analysis of the impact of trade agreements on public education and distribute it widely.

Resolution Number 5
Whereas the next round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization, scheduled to take place in Seattle, USA next November 30 - December 3 will include the topic of education and other services and;

Whereas the inclusion of education as commodity in these negotiations threatens national sovereignty and the concept of education as a universal, equative and free social right;

Be it resolved that participant organizations in this conference carry out on November 30, 1999, in conjunction with other popular organizations, a Continental Day of Action en Defense of Public Education to protest and publicize the negotiations to expand neoliberal policies in education and other service sectors.

Be it further resolved that this day of action take the form of simultaneous demonstrations in front of Trade Ministry offices in every one of our countries.

Resolution Number 6 
Be it resolved that the current coordinating committee be expanded to include representatives from the Quebec Educators Central (CEQ) and the Continental Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Students (OCLAE) so that Coordinating Committee Representation consist of: the National Union of Educators, CTERA, SUTEP, the CTF, FOMCA, CUT, the Trinational Coalition to Defend Public Education, OCLAE and the CEQ.

The term of the existing Coordinating Committee shall continue until January, 2000 at which point Organizations of the Committee shall be asked to ratify or name new representatives for the period leading up to, and including, the People’s Summit in Quebec in May 2001 with the understanding that efforts be made to strike a greater gender balance when replacing Committee representatives. 

Special Resolutions:
1. Whereas at the International Pedagogy Congress in Havana in February, 1999 it was resolved to hold a meeting of union to discuss strategies for confronting the effects of neoliberalism on education at the Pedagogy Congress in February 2001;

Be it resolved that the Civil Society Network send at least one representative to this congress and help to promote and organize the union meeting at this congress.

2. Whereas the SNTECD will convene in Havana, Cuba the 2nd International Convention of Post-secondary Education “University 2000;”

Be it resolved that the Civil Society Network participate in this convention and promote the participation of Post-Secondary organizations represented at the IDEA Conference.

3. Whereas proposals to modifiy Convention 103 and Recommendation 95 of the International Labour Organization threaten the right of female workers to maternity leave;

Be it resolved that the Hemispheric IDEA Conference pronounce itself for the maintenance and oppose the modification of Convention 103 and Recommendation 95 which refer to the right to maternity leave for female workers.

4. Whereas the USA military bases in Panama have left some 7,300 hectares contaminated with unexploded bombs and toxic, chemical and radioactive residue left form weapons tested there;

Be it resolved that this assembly pronounce itself in favour of the full compliance of the United States government with the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 and its responsibility to clean abandoned bases to the same standards as employed for bases within the United States;

Be it further resolved that this assembly oppose plans by the United States government to transfer its military bases to Ecuador, Peru, Colombia or any other neighbouring country.

5. Be it resolved that the Hemispheric IDEA Conference pronounce its support for the students on strike at the Autonomous University of Mexico, who are struggling to defend the public and free nature of education: and that we express our interest in a rapid solution to the conflict that allows dialogue to prevail over violence.

6. Whereas, it is important to construct unity between teachers and students in the struggle for democratic, universal and free public education in the Americas;

Be it resolved that the representation of student organizations be broadened in future activities of the Civil Society Network.

7. Be it resolved that the Hemispheric IDEA Conference pronounce its support for the Continental Day of Struggle for a Free, Democratic and Popular Education, organized by OCLAE, which will take place throughout Latin America October 20, 1999.

8. Be it resolved that the Civil Society Network participate in the XII Latin American Student Congress which will take place in Havana in April of 2000.

9. Be it resolved that the IDEA Conference assembly endorse and direct the Red SEPA Coordinating Committee to write and distribute the following two communiqués: 
a) that the Ecuadorian State guarantee and education budget that fulfills the financial needs of all levels of public education in the country and assures a process conducive to the improvement of teaching and contributes to the development of Ecuador. In this manner the IDEA assembly supports the struggle of teachers, students and popular organizations for the allocation of 30 percent of the national budget to education - as stipulated in the country’s constitution, and;
b) that this assembly exhort the Ecuadorian Congress to approve the new bill on Higher Education that guarantees the full exercises of university principles and encompasses the aspirations of professors, students and workers of the university.

10. Be it resolved that the IDEA assembly condemn any kind of military intervention in Colombia by the United States or a Multi-national force as a flagrant violation of national sovereignty and to right to self determination.

Universidad Central, Quito, Ecuador, October 2, 1999