The protest organized this week by #WOinActie has brought urgent issues to the fore. Discussions in the media have taken up multiple aspects of the current situation.
This morning our students have occupied an #UvA building, the P.C. Hoofthuis, now renamed as the Post-Colonial House of the Autonomous University of Amsterdam. They thereby underline the urgency of the ongoing protests and increase the pressure on government, parties, and the decision-makers at the UvA. Past experience has shown that political gains are only achieved if different forms of protest combine.
Additionally, the students have formulated a list of demands which goes beyond the ones which were at the heart of this week’s WOinActie protest. They demand very specific, and reasonable, measures which could alleviate the unbearable workload and demoralization at Dutch
universities, and which would simultaneously contribute to a more democratic and more inclusive academic culture. So the students also remind everybody of some of the key concerns of the 2015 Maagdenhuis protests, which are still not appropriately taken up
or even taken seriously by management, despite their promises and rhetoric.
One might disagree with some of the students’ demands or with the form or timing of their action. We think, however, that there is sufficient reason to support their action, in order to broaden the discussion about a better university, and to increase the pressure
on all those who are responsible for cutting our budgets, multiplying our bureaucratic tasks, and heightening competition and hierarchies. The Hague is only one, however important, target for these pleas. Therefore we strongly hope that, this time, the UvA
CvB, which says they are in solidarity with the demands of students and staff, will refrain from using brutal police action against legitimate protest. For our part, we pledge to closely monitor and, where possible, prevent any such unwarranted repression.
In solidarity,
–-> signé par des personnes dont je ne sais pas si ils/elles veulent que leurs noms soit affichés.
–-> reçu par email d’une collègue aux Pays-Bas
#université #résistance #Amsterdam #Pays-Bas #enseignement_supérieur
Et il y a aussi de la #toponymie dans la revendication des étudiant·es :
“This morning our students have occupied an UvA building, the P.C. Hoofthuis, now renamed as the Post-Colonial House of the Autonomous University of Amsterdam.”