Personally I am a student activist myself.

Are there also groups/movements against the commercialization/privatization of public education and/or tuition fees?

Only 20 days ago groups in more than 20 countries on 5 continents organized protests and events as part of the “International Day of Action against the Commercialization of Education”: http://www.emancipating-education-for-all.org/content/record-protests-part-international-day-action-so-far

The same groups are now considering to call for a global week of action next year.

Greetings from Germany~

For those who can’t read Chinese the comment from buffalo is about a sit-in protest by students at the Democracy Hall in 2004. Ma Ying-jeou who was then the mayor visited the protest and offered support. Police later removed the protestors under orders from the central government and Ma expressed his displeasure at this to reporters.

就讓2004年的馬英九來譴責馬英九吧！

台北市長馬英九昨天（2004年四月五號）罕見地以嚴厲的口吻，指摘民進黨中央政府不尊重地方政府，越權驅逐在中正紀念堂靜坐抗議的學生，執法方式也有違法之嫌。

警政署前晚直接指揮台北市中正一分局員警驅離學生一事，令馬英九震怒，馬英九也在前晚11時30分前往中正紀念堂探視絕食靜坐的學生，表達慰問之意。

馬英九昨日被傳媒詢及此事時，明顯流露不悅的態度，“我說了，不要碰學生，結果警政署還是下令要驅離，這一點我非常不滿意，第一，它不尊重地方政府，第二，執法方式也有違法之嫌，動不動就驅離，真的把自己搞得像警察國家”。

馬英九表示，10多年前的野百合學運，學生在中正紀念堂靜坐達1個多月，他還曾經代表政府前往探視，這次學生沒有妨礙交通，也沒有制造噪音，實在不須警政署大動干戈，這樣的做法不尊重地方政府，也有違法之嫌。他很無奈地說，中央政府不尊重地方政府，“這不是第一次了”。