The New University in Amsterdam.Ah you loved me as a loser, but
\nnow you're worried that I just might win
\nYou know the way to stop me, but you don't have the
\ndiscipline
\nHow many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin
\nFirst we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin<\/i><\/p>\n
Leonard
\nCohen, \u2018First we take Manhattan\u2019<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The university movement in the Netherlands
\nhas just won its first victory; a victory for democracy and academic freedom
\nagainst the commercialization of higher education. <\/p>\n
On April 1, representatives of staff and
\nstudents from the occupied Maagdenhuis at the University of Amsterdam (UvA)
\ncame to an agreement with the
\nUniversity\u2019s Executive Board (CvB) concerning the formation of two independent
\ncommittees, one to investigate UvA\u2019s finances and another to investigate
\npossibilities for decentralization and democratization. In an unprecedented
\ndevelopment, the committees will have the authority to make binding
\nrecommendations that promise to transform life at the University. <\/p>\n
No one could have predicted this a few weeks Even though the mood is festive on central This pathology has to do with chronic The Dutch minister for Education, Jet Indeed, a constant sticking point in the It follows that, while the Amsterdam The New University has a life of its own, The New University is therefore the natural If you enjoyed this article then please consider liking Can Europe Make it?<\/strong><\/em> on Facebook and following us on Twitter @oD_Europe<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The New University in Amsterdam.Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you're worried that I just might win You know the way to stop me, but you don't have the discipline How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin Leonard Cohen,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nago. Our victory vindicates the choice to step up the pressure by engaging in
\ngrassroots extra-institutional activism \u2013 including an occupation and other
\ndisruptive tactics \u2013 to force the attention of those who have been wilfully deaf
\nto the discontent and frustration that has accumulated in the lecture hall for
\ndecades. The coming weeks will see intense debate on the shaping
\nof those committees, as well as on the future of the protest movement that
\nhas made the (still) occupied Maagdenhuis into a bustling cultural venue \u2013 a
\nsymbol of what the university could<\/em>
\nbe: a space of collaborative learning open to everyone \u2013 hosting events from
\navant-garde electronic music concerts to talks by intellectuals like David Graeber, Gloria Wekker, Jacques Ranci\u00e8re, and Wolfgang
\nStreeck.<\/p>\n
\nAmsterdam\u2019s Spui \u2013 the Maagdenhuis\u2019 address, now prankishly renamed Red Square
\nin an allusion to the symbol of the red square introduced during the 2012
\nQuebec student protests \u2013 the structural maladies afflicting Dutch higher
\neducation are not receding. Indeed, the preliminary victory for the protest
\nmovement at the UvA is a j\u2019accuse<\/em> against these maladies as a whole, that is, against
\nthe neoliberal pathology that caused them. <\/p>\n
\nunderfunding in light of increasing student numbers, creeping
\nmicromanagement of research and teaching, and growing authoritarianism from
\nuniversity management \u2013 all made possible, indeed foisted on universities, by
\nnational and EU policies. Our Winter Palace is therefore not in Amsterdam, but
\nin The Hague, the seat of government in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
\nBussemaker, has so far been good at playing UvA\u2019s staff and students against the Executive
\nBoard. There is an element of self-reproach to that, given that Bussemaker was
\na member of UvA\u2019s Executive Board until 2012. Moreover, as minister, Bussemaker
\nappoints the members of the university\u2019s Supervisory Board that is supposed to
\ncontrol and advise the Executive Board. She is therefore at least partly
\nresponsible for the unfolding crisis. No matter: the Executive Board has now
\nreturned the compliment by pointing to the Dutch government as the ultimate
\nculprit for the bureaucratic commercialization of the university. <\/p>\n
\nforthcoming negotiations is likely to be the content of Dutch law pertaining to
\nuniversity administration. And this is where the plot thickens: short of
\nchanging a set of 1997 laws (the
\nauspiciously labeled Modernisering
\nUniversitaire Bestuursorganisatie<\/em>), staff and students cannot get full democracy
\nat their place of work\u2014at least not without transgressing the spirit of these
\nlaws.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ncommittees start their work, the movement for university self-government must
\nincreasingly look towards The Hague. The Maagdenhuis occupiers cannot win this
\nwider fight alone: fighting a single university bureaucracy is one thing,
\nfighting the Ministry of Education \u2013 until recently a driving force behind the
\nneoliberalization of Dutch society \u2013 is another. Thankfully UvA is not alone.
\nStudents and staff from other Dutch universities already stand behind it and have
\nstarted developing their own protest platforms, addressing problems from within
\ntheir own academic communities that significantly overlap with the agenda of
\nthe movement in Amsterdam. This is the movement for a New University (named after the student component of
\nUvA\u2019s movement), which spread like a fire
\nthroughout the Netherlands in February. <\/p>\n
\nwell beyond the Amsterdam occupation and the concerns of each member
\ninstitution\u2019s local remit. Like the global movement of
\nuniversity occupations and protests that has sprung up in recent weeks, the
\ndifferent cells of the New University have supported each other in a spirit of
\nsolidarity. <\/p>\n
\nvehicle for taking the fight beyond Amsterdam. In order to be successful, this
\nstruggle will have to proceed according the same dual approach that has
\ninformed the protest movement in Amsterdam: build up \u2013 keep up \u2013 pressure
\noutside established institutions and procedures and at the same time<\/em> maintain secure and organized control over
\nprocedures and committees, such that the movement does not simply disintegrate
\nand evaporate over time. It is now time to take the struggle to another level: and
\nthen we take The Hague.<\/p>\n