International Student Movement / Call for a dutch anti-neoliberal movement

[革命者]

Hi all,

What started with occupations of university buildings in Croatia, has sparked an international student protest against the adverse effects of neoliberalism on (higher) education—making education an object of trade and fit for competition and commercial exploitation, through standardisation of teaching practices, tests and exams, credit systems, university organisations after standards for big business, and aligned with big business, through commodification by imposing tuition fees and lowering student grants, and through debt—making education fit the neoliberal economy of low wages and high profits.

Student strikes and occupations have swept through Europe and are now reaching The Netherlands, a country which has since its conception been hard to unite for (any) change—a country since the '80s and take-off of neoliberalism absolutely dominated by neoliberalist and christian parties, a country with a government which has since then been the first to jump on the bandwagon of neoliberalist reform, making the market king of our country. All without a strong force to resist it.

Neoliberalism has been codified in our laws, in treaties and declarations. Now, they want to codify it in our minds! We have to preserve and restore what is ours—we have to preserve and restore our educational system!

I ask all people on this forum to actively support the struggle which has been going on for months throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

Please, visit http://www.onderwijscrisis.nl/wiki/ for information about the Dutch student movement and student movements worldwide and show your support by leaving a personal note (name/username/signature/e-mail address) under the 'supporters' caption on the main page.

If you want to support the movement in any other way you may do so by adding content to the wiki (mild restructuring permitted/is fine) and/or contacting me via my user page (User:Sos) or via email (see my user page on the wiki).

I hope we can count on your solidarity and support.


Best wishes,

æ (http://www.revleft.org/vb/member.php?u=8032)

[Искра]

Hi, I'm active in student movement in Croatia.

I want you best wishes! :)

[革命者]

Hi, I'm active in student movement in Croatia.

I want you best wishes! :)
Thank you!

Best wishes and solidarity, to you!

[Random Precision]

In the United States we are dealing with some similar things. There have been occupations at the California public schools UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and San Francisco State against tuition increases.

At my school, Vassar College in New York, there are two student groups organized against faculty and staff reductions, we have been having protests and vigils, and one of them just went off a hunger strike.

Solidarity to our comrades in Europe. :)

[Q]

When is the first student strike happening? If possible I'd like to update our webpage (http://offensief.nl) to announce demo's and such. If possible I'm interested in publishing an interview. Please pm me :)

[ellipsis]

Also in the US Hampshire College divested from Israel. Not an occupation but definitely a blow against Empire the cousin of Neo-liberalism.

[革命者]

In the United States we are dealing with some similar things. There have been occupations at the California public schools UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and San Francisco State against tuition increases.

At my school, Vassar College in New York, there are two student groups organized against faculty and staff reductions, we have been having protests and vigils, and one of them just went off a hunger strike.

Solidarity to our comrades in Europe. :)
Thanks for your (moral) support!

Good to hear that that (even) in the US students are protesting bad education policy! And it's even more promising that it spreads to other colleges than those of UC, as well!

Are the protests in the US like most in Europe (for total abolition of tuition fees, when already in place and against (further) marketisation / "postneoliberalism"), i.e. is there a uniting agenda on (more) fundamental grounds?

Also great that more and more students protest the situation in the Middle-East, and reckon it's basically us that legitimise the unjust there!

In the UK, after the war/attack on Gaza, students have protested Western/UK support of Israel and have occupied many universities, including Cambridge and Oxford! And what is happening now is called a start of a new 1968.

I am confident that we can get this off the ground in The Netherlands, as well.

Solidarity to the students in the US!

æ (http://www.revleft.org/vb/member.php?u=8032)

[革命者]

When is the first student strike happening? If possible I'd like to update our webpage (http://offensief.nl) to announce demo's and such. If possible I'm interested in publishing an interview. Please pm me :)
NL is a small country, but with many disillusioned and apathetic students, as you are probably aware of. We have started efforts to get local student platforms off the ground, but this approach seems workable in only a few cities.

I will try to get in touch with as many as possible and when there are enough people start meetings in public places on university campuses. By holding every meeting in a different city I hope to amass enough people to meet in a large lecture room and continue with meetings and debate from there (all with permission of the universities, of course).

The epicentre of the "movement" now still lies with a informal subsidiary of the most-leftist national student union: "Comité SOS", which tries to reinstill a sense of urgency in the local student unions.

[Random Precision]

Are the protests in the US like most in Europe (for total abolition of tuition fees, when already in place and against (further) marketisation / "postneoliberalism"), i.e. is there a uniting agenda on (more) fundamental grounds?

In the United States we are much further behind the gains of most European education. Tuition even at public schools is skyrocketing. The protests at the U of C system are over a 33% increase in tuition the board of trustees just voted on. I go to a private school, tuition is something like $45 000 a year, but mine fortunately is very heavily subsidized by the school itself and federal loans

All across the board though we are fighting against neoliberalism. Vassar is a very small college (2 400 students I think) and the administration has been taking a meat axe to food, administration and upkeep staff, and is now moving onto faculty positions for the last two semesters. In response we are trying to organize protests that show unity of students, staff and professors. Unfortunately many of our most experienced activists disagree with the approach of organizing a mass movement and have preffered elitist methods like a hunger strike, which accomplish nothing and alienate people from being a part of the struggle. The U of C struggle has had similar problems, for example some groups have pushed forward occupations etc without the backing of a mass force, and to pre-empt attempts to build one. We will have to see how things go, I am cautiously optimistic.

[Delenda Carthago]

can I post a lil supm supm from our (two years)student occupations and riots?:)

[革命者]

can I post a lil supm supm from our (two years)student occupations and riots?:)
On our wiki, you mean? As long as it is related to education, you may!

I would suggest anyone who wants to post stuff to create an account, though... your ip is visible to all, otherwise, and you only have to provide a screen name and e-mail address (which isn't publicised).

Are the protests and occupations now in Greece linked in any way to reforms to the education system/effects of neoliberal politics/the Bologna Process?

Excuse my ignorance about the situation in Greece. In our educational system only the top 5% gets to learn (ancient) Greek :-p

[革命者]

In the United States we are much further behind the gains of most European education. Tuition even at public schools is skyrocketing. The protests at the U of C system are over a 33% increase in tuition the board of trustees just voted on. I go to a private school, tuition is something like $45 000 a year, but mine fortunately is very heavily subsidized by the school itself and federal loans

All across the board though we are fighting against neoliberalism. Vassar is a very small college (2 400 students I think) and the administration has been taking a meat axe to food, administration and upkeep staff, and is now moving onto faculty positions for the last two semesters. In response we are trying to organize protests that show unity of students, staff and professors. Unfortunately many of our most experienced activists disagree with the approach of organizing a mass movement and have preffered elitist methods like a hunger strike, which accomplish nothing and alienate people from being a part of the struggle. The U of C struggle has had similar problems, for example some groups have pushed forward occupations etc without the backing of a mass force, and to pre-empt attempts to build one. We will have to see how things go, I am cautiously optimistic.
Yes, I can see how students in some countries are difficult to mobilise and easily alienated. The US and UK are now the model for education reforms/"harmonisation", and people are less likely to oppose it than in countries like Germany, where the influence of people like Von Humboldt (and the many (pre-)Enlightenment and Romanticist philosophers) have really shaped a different kind of university—more disposed to the Humanities/'Geisteswissenshaften'.

The problem with The Netherlands is that it has become (for same time now) the first country to gradually implement these "harmonising"/anglo-saxon changes to its education system. That makes it doubly hard to now restore what we have lost. The memory of students is only that long.

The real problem then is that other countries can easily hide behind us when they are critised.

And to make matters worse, most institutions of higher education have only been founded in the '80s here. Only one university dates back to the Renaissance and is rather elitist.

So, no picnic here, either :-)

But as we have just started doing the ground work and since a momentum can easily spread in such a tiny country, I am not at all pessimistic.

2010 is going to be a new 1968 for Europe and hopefully for the US and the rest of the world as well, since 1968 plus the answer to life, the universe and everything is.... 2010 :-p (which thus must be the year that real socialism and soon after communism starts :-s , socialism only being short and pre-paradigmatic, for sure—people now really must come to terms with reality).

And we all lived happily ever after!

[革命者]

And it indeed always starts with economising on stuff like food and administrative or cleaning staff.

And then they figure that's not going to be enough and they lobby for more money from the government, which the governments seeks for elsewhere and... boom!... all student grants are abolished (that's what they intent to do here now).

You can always get a student loan, but it creates an economy of debt, where wages/government expenditure is low and profits/salaries at the top high.

How much does an average president of an executive board in public education make in the US?

They'd tried to abolish public education altogether a few years ago by giving students higher grants (which certainly soon were to be replaced by loans), but they wimped out.

How does the federal loans system in the US work? Is it that you only have to start paying the money back when you earn above a certain amount?

[Delenda Carthago]

On our wiki, you mean? As long as it is related to education, you may!

I would suggest anyone who wants to post stuff to create an account, though... your ip is visible to all, otherwise, and you only have to provide a screen name and e-mail address (which isn't publicised).

Are the protests and occupations now in Greece linked in any way to reforms to the education system/effects of neoliberal politics/the Bologna Process?

Excuse my ignorance about the situation in Greece. In our educational system only the top 5% gets to learn (ancient) Greek :-p

no,i want to post it here,but i ask if someone thinks its irrelevant with the subject,cause we been through it all 2 years ago.

about my ip,i dont give a fuck,if cia wants to keep an eye on me,it wont be cause of a link i posted.i mean cmon man...this is athens!

yes,the protests and occupations (and other,legal or illegal moves)where connected with all that Bologna/neoliberal shit.But,although it got voted,we kept it a "dead law",its not being used.

nevermind the ancient greek.even we are learning on a top 5% for real!:blushing:

anyway,firstly i would like to post this video from that period,it shows riots,occupations and some artwork students did mostly for the prime minister and the ministers of education and public safety.it makes me remember what a cool period that was!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH401yPQw24

[Random Precision]

How much does an average president of an executive board in public education make in the US?

Um I don't know what exact position you're talking about (dean, president etc), but it varies all across the board, and there's a huge drive to push up salaries to keep them "competitive" and swipe people from other schools


How does the federal loans system in the US work? Is it that you only have to start paying the money back when you earn above a certain amount?

No. It depends on what kind of loan, there are a few different kinds, but you have to start paying them back after graduation, on a fixed interest rate, like 5% or something. So if you want to go to a good school here (even a good public school), you better be from a rich family, get a ton of scholarships, or financial aid. Like I lucked out, I have $33 000 a year financial aid coming directly from the school and some of the rest coming from federal loans, and some I will owe to my mom.

[Delenda Carthago]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcnPiNpt7bE

another one!

the subject of the movement was some laws that the New Democracy goverment wanted to change,including:

-no more asylum in universities.
-deleting students that have more than (their cememsters)+(half of them),which was making imposible for the poor students that was also working to ever finish with their schools.
-no more free books from the university.everything students need,had to buy it themselves.

plus the creation of private owner universities.

PS.the song was made by some students and talks about the situation!very funny song!the chorus goes "marieta yanakoy(education minister) listen to the occupations and ask Arsenis(ex minister that was resigned after students movement) what is ahead of you"

[Delenda Carthago]

i hope i didnt fuck up the thread!:confused:

[ellipsis]

No comrade why would you think that?

[Delenda Carthago]

well,because its kind of irrelevant,since we are talkin about 06-07.

[ellipsis]

It wouldn't have been irrelevant if you were talking about 1807 just as long as you were talking about student movements.

[Delenda Carthago]

DAMN!Yesterday I read an article about an 1900's occupation of some ARMED WITH GUNS students that declared that "if a cop steps his foot in the asylum,they gon take him out dead"!Too bad its in Greek!:D

[革命者]

i hope i didnt fuck up the thread!:confused:
Indeed, as the red son said: no, problem, as long as it is about student movements.


DAMN!Yesterday I read an article about an 1900's occupation of some ARMED WITH GUNS students that declared that "if a cop steps his foot in the asylum,they gon take him out dead"!Too bad its in Greek!:DYou are militant :-p doesn't that alienate students in Greece? Is the attitude towards the police so aggressive across the board?

I can imagine that shooting at people is not gonna make you be invited at many birthday parties, but is the attitude towards police still so hostile? Was the shooting dead of a 15-year-old last year an incident, do you think?

[革命者]

Um I don't know what exact position you're talking about (dean, president etc), but it varies all across the board, and there's a huge drive to push up salaries to keep them "competitive" and swipe people from other schools
Sorry I meant a president of a public university or a chair of a board of trustees (don't know who earns most or even if those are two separate people).

In The Netherlands we have a clear separation between a board of trustees and an executive board/committee, where the members of the latter, including the president, earn the most. The executive committee has full control and the board of trustees meets only once every year and pretends to keep oversight.

The president of a university gets payed around 170,000 euro here and there are many high payed managers working in an "office of the president", they would be called in the US, possibly. There isn't a lot variation between universities (tiny country, much "harmonisation").

Clearly I am not very much aware of how a university in the US is typically governed :-).

How much money do you think goes to overhead, compared to teaching/core processes, at your university? What is the trend at other universities in the US? Do they try and implement innovative new teaching methodologies/progressive education/outcome-based education? And, if so, do these attempts have the desired effects? What is the impact of No Child Left Behind on universities? Does it have any effect? Do they have to lower their standards?

Excuse me for my curiousity :-) those are a lot of questions.

[革命者]

Oh, and maybe I haven't made clear that any dutch members of this forum can PM me as well, if they want to support the effort in any way (that includes moral support via PM :-) or some advice, or whatever).

If you are a student at VO, MBO, HBO or Universiteit and you have a critical opinion about onderwijsvernieuwingen/innovations in education, like there are: competentie-gericht onderwijs, portfolio's, persoonlijke ontwikkelingsplannen, het studiehuis, activerend leren, natuurlijk leren or any other variety of administrative progressivist education and social constructivist learning or any other forms education with extreme egalitarian views of knowledge and learning, please leave me a private message.

Since these types of innovations are instrinsically linked with neoliberalism and postmodernity, I think any opposition to (government imposed and financed) projects to "innovate" in education (with reduced government spending on the actual education taking place now) is a strong pillar for a movement against the dismantling of public education.

[Wanted Man]

There is definitely a demand for a stronger movement on campuses everywhere. At Groningen, we made a good start: the occupation of the university directorate building. This led to improved contacts between several organisations, and this should definitely continue into the future.

One major problem, from what I've gathered, is that there is usually some kind of students' union or movement at universities, but HBO and MBO institutions are often overlooked. Obviously, these institutions have a more school-like mentality (which the bosses must be quite happy with: pay for your studies, learn a trade, and shut the fuck up!), but they are also a great target of the neo-liberal "innovations" that you mentioned. I wonder if a more organised student movement will develop in the future there.

Anyway, it's good to see these initiatives.

[革命者]

There is definitely a demand for a stronger movement on campuses everywhere. At Groningen, we made a good start: the occupation of the university directorate building. This led to improved contacts between several organisations, and this should definitely continue into the future.

One major problem, from what I've gathered, is that there is usually some kind of students' union or movement at universities, but HBO and MBO institutions are often overlooked. Obviously, these institutions have a more school-like mentality (which the bosses must be quite happy with: pay for your studies, learn a trade, and shut the fuck up!), but they are also a great target of the neo-liberal "innovations" that you mentioned. I wonder if a more organised student movement will develop in the future there.

Anyway, it's good to see these initiatives.Not only that, but the students at MBO institutions are more rebellious as well, they just aren't good at organising themselves (also because they're of course not supposed to, as opposed to preppy uni students who have to form the new elites) mainly because of their diversity and the aforementioned lack of support to get organised.

Not suprisingly, the "innovations" are made to make these people more docile (started in Germany (if I am correct at the Fachhochschulen; one is near Groningen), where workers are mostly regarded as cattle) so that they can work behind a desk in big bureaucratic organisations (few learn a real trade, nowadays).

More reason to intervene before they are made docile and convince them to support a student movement (they are far more easily mobilised than HBO student, and even easier than most university students (save maybe in Grûnn :-) ) are.

Recently a single location of an MBO institution was completely occupied (not just the president's office/bestuursgebouw) for some days.

That doesn't mean that I don't applaude what you did in Groningen. How big do you think the movement (if it can be called that) is at the moment? Are these people willing to protest not just the side-lining of student participation and the BSA, but what has been going on for years and years? Is there a single platform uniting these organisations? Could this platform play a role in further mobilising people? Are you willing to work with other organisations in NL to come to a nationwide movement?

[Wanted Man]

Thanks for the response. Of course, from universities, there has always been a kind of disdain for "lower" institutions. This is really a shame, because from what you say, it's not silent there at all. Out of curiosity, where did this occupation happen? And is there anything else on the cards? These are things that cannot be ignored. I did not at all mean to say that the MBO and HBO students are docile or uninformed, but the problem is that the largely university-based organised students are sometimes a bit unaware or apathetic about what goes on over there. If any movement is to be successful, it needs to reach out to those who are hit hardest by neo-liberalism, both in their "innovative" institutions and in the fact that they'll be doing the work in the future.

As for your question on Groningen: well, mobilisation is the main problem. 40 people joined the occupation, and 100-200 went to the demonstration in front of the academy building. However, when asked in a poll, thousands of students said that they are against the BSA and against the sidelining of students. There is a very clear disconnection here. If this bit of consciousness about the BSA and university "democracy" can't be turned into something substantial, then how to spread consciousness about cuts, about neo-liberalism, etc.? Certainly not simply discussing it in abstract terms...

So any meaningful "movement" (I do not think one can speak of that yet, when most participants are familiar faces from the usual activist circles...) will have to be built from the ground up. Surely most students feel that something is going wrong, or are angry about something, but who is asking them what they think? Well, the activist organisations should do that a lot more, form a larger base, and spread out from there. How can this be done? I certainly don't claim to have an answer ready. It ain't easy.

In the meantime, the organisations involved in Groningen are clearly interested in cooperating more closely in the future, and students from other cities were also present in Groningen when it all went down. The occupation was a significant event, but with this momentum, it's not the time to pause. I hope that when the shit (massive cuts) hits the fan next year, there will be much better mobilisation. It is not good enough to simply have several "platforms" of different organisations existing "past each other" (langs elkaar heen, to put it in Dutch) with only the people who are already activists anyway. What do you think of this?

[革命者]

Thanks for the response. Of course, from universities, there has always been a kind of disdain for "lower" institutions. This is really a shame, because from what you say, it's not silent there at all. Out of curiosity, where did this occupation happen? http://headlines.nos.nl/forum.php/list_messages/16180

It isn't much, and they clearly had some problems with mobilising students, but for what it's worth (frankly, I didn't remember that it was so specifically aimed at the OV-kaart).

The only organisation acting as a union (JOB) for MBO students has tried to do something about the quality of education at MBO, together with the LSVb and LAKS, and it has had a role in the debate about it in the quality newspapers. At that time, there was also lots of talk about it among students. The only problem with (even major) changes within education is that the change is only remembered for 4 years, then students leave the institution (or before that if it really gets them down), and the new generations think it has always been such and will never change (and what's the alternative?).

HBO students on average are less critical of their situation, and those that are quickly go to university at the first opportunity (after their first year).


And is there anything else on the cards?I think it goes for all of us that there will be no action unless somebody tells us how to go about doing it. Especially at HBO and MBO institutions which have never had an activist tradition (none existed in the '60 or '70).


These are things that cannot be ignored. I did not at all mean to say that the MBO and HBO students are docile or uninformed, but the problem is that the largely university-based organised students are sometimes a bit unaware or apathetic about what goes on over there.No, I didn't think you meant that. I meant to say that the teaching practices/methods used at MBO and HBO institutions are designed to make them a docile workforce, who perfectly fit todays big businesses.

I completely agree that the organisations that historically have only had to (or felt they only had to) represent the university students now overlook what happens at HBO and MBO. I couldn't agree more.

And this same tendency exists at the Ministry; they are largely apathetic about these institutions, which makes them even more prone to reforms (from within the institutions or government-led and lobbied for by different interest groups (pedagogues, education sociologists or scientists and interim managers and last but not least, employers) ).


If any movement is to be successful, it needs to reach out to those who are hit hardest by neo-liberalism, both in their "innovative" institutions and in the fact that they'll be doing the work in the future.I fully agree.


As for your question on Groningen: well, mobilisation is the main problem. 40 people joined the occupation, and 100-200 went to the demonstration in front of the academy building. However, when asked in a poll, thousands of students said that they are against the BSA and against the sidelining of students. There is a very clear disconnection here. If this bit of consciousness about the BSA and university "democracy" can't be turned into something substantial, then how to spread consciousness about cuts, about neo-liberalism, etc.? Certainly not simply discussing it in abstract terms...I honoustly think that it is far easier to mobilise people with the broader (maybe abstract) picture, than with talks about specific measures to increase the rate-of-return (you have to pinpoint the why of such business practices anyways).


So any meaningful "movement" (I do not think one can speak of that yet, when most participants are familiar faces from the usual activist circles...) will have to be built from the ground up. Surely most students feel that something is going wrong, or are angry about something, but who is asking them what they think? Well, the activist organisations should do that a lot more, form a larger base, and spread out from there. How can this be done? I certainly don't claim to have an answer ready. It ain't easy. But not that hard either; for example, people saw the campaign of Obama as something which offered them hope, and that was mainly because of that one person (the Democratic party being hopeless as ever). On a smaller scale this kind of optimism played a role in the SP winning the amount of seats as they did. It has always, under any circumstances, been possible to activate people to fight for a cause. And as only 10% of the worlds population (according to the BBC) believes in capitalism anymore, I think now is the time to rise up as students, for a postneoliberal (hopefully postcapitalst, but I don't believe that is within reach) world.

1968 has shaped the economy (and leading ethic) of our day (although the result was a perverted version of that what people fought for), and 2010, 2011 or 2012 could shape the future. It might not be what we now envision, but it is a step forward (not necessarily better; but Marx didn't say it would be, ey :) ).


In the meantime, the organisations involved in Groningen are clearly interested in cooperating more closely in the future, and students from other cities were also present in Groningen when it all went down. The occupation was a significant event, but with this momentum, it's not the time to pause. I hope that when the shit (massive cuts) hits the fan next year, there will be much better mobilisation.[/QOUTE]Oh, I am confident that there will be, but the question is: will there be thousands or tens of thousands who join in. And more importantly, join in what. We have to do the ground work now: pave the way. But we will have our share of activism then, most likely.

[QUOTE]It is not good enough to simply have several "platforms" of different organisations existing "past each other" (langs elkaar heen, to put it in Dutch) with only the people who are already activists anyway. What do you think of this?Well, since most protests begin locally, it wouldn't hurt having some kind of platform in order to mobilise people more effectively. See it as a banner to unite people under, and a way to create a network between organisations and individuals.

And if possible, I think it is wise to have regular contact with a nationwide centre. Wherever that may be at any given time. Now, what would be Comité SOS, backed by most organisations.