[P2P-F] Fwd: [NetworkedLabour] Fwd: University protests around the world: a fight against commercialisation

Thu Apr 2 18:45:59 CEST 2015

dear Kevin,

could we serialize this overview on our blog, as you did for the urban
commons thing ?

at the end oriana or her students could then offer an update on the firenze
experience, which his not mentioned here,

Michel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: peter waterman <peterwaterman1936 at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 8:59 AM
Subject: [NetworkedLabour] Fwd: University protests around the world: a
fight against commercialisation
To: "<networkedlabour at lists.contrast.org>" <
networkedlabour at lists.contrast.org>, WSFDiscuss List <
WorldSocialForum-Discuss at openspaceforum.net>

   1. 2014. From Coldwar Communism to the Global Justice Movement:
   Itinerary of a Long-Distance Internationalist.
   <http://snuproject.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/1987-e-reader-ed-by-peter-waterman-on-labour-social-movements-and-internationalism-the-old-internationalism-and-the-new/>http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/from_coldwar_communism
   _to_the_global_emancipatory_movement/
   <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/from_coldwar_communism_to_the_global_emancipatory_movement/>
(Free).

   2. 2014. Interface Journal Special (Co-Editor), December 2014. 'Social
   Movement Internationalisms'. (Free).
   <http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/>
* <http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/>*
   3. 2014. 'The Networked Internationalism of Labour's Others', in Jai Sen
   (ed), Peter Waterman (co-ed), The Movement of Movements:
   <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/the_movements_of_movements/>Struggles
   for Other Worlds  (Part I).
   <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/the_movements_of_movements/> (10 Euros).
4. 2012. EBook: Recovering Internationalism
   <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/recovering_internationalism/>.  [A
   compilation of papers from the new millenium. Now free in two download
   formats]
   5. 2013. EBook (co-editor), February 2013: World Social Forum: Critical
   Explorations http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/
   6. 2012. Interface Journal Special (co-editor), November 2012: *For the
   Global Emancipation of Labour  <http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/>*
   7. 2005-?
   <http://interfacejournal.nuim.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Interface-1-2-pp255-262-Waterman.pdf>
   Ongoing. Blog: http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman.???. Needed:
   a Global Labour Charter Movement (2005-Now!)
   <http://interfacejournal.nuim.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Interface-1-2-pp255-262-Waterman.pdf>
   8. 2011. Under, Against, Beyond: Labour and Social Movements Confront a
   Globalised, Informatised Capitalism
   <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/>(2011) (c. 1,000
   pages of Working Papers, free, from the 1980's-90's).

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sid Shniad <shniad at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 8:18 PM
Subject: University protests around the world: a fight against
commercialisation
To:

*http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/mar/25/university-protests-around-the-world-a-fight-against-commercialisation
<http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/mar/25/university-protests-around-the-world-a-fight-against-commercialisation>The
Guardian       25 March 2015University protests around the world: a fight
against commercialisationAcademics and students in Canada, the Netherlands
and the UK explain why they are taking a stand against their
institutionsRebecca Ratcliffe*

Students at University of the Arts, London, took over their university’s
reception area last Thursday
<http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/24/students-occupy-central-st-martins-in-protest-against-cuts>
to protest against proposed cuts to some of its course programmes. This
makes UAL one of the latest institutions around the world to be hit by
occupations and strikes by staff and students. The causes of such protests
vary: some are concerned about working conditions facing graduate students,
others point to a lack of transparency about how universities are run. A
key issue is the commercialisation of higher education, which many feel has
led university leaders to prioritise financial goals over the needs of
staff and students.

We speak to academics and students in Canada, the Netherlands
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/netherlands> and the UK to find out why
they’re taking a stand.
‘Graduate students should be guaranteed a minimum amount of funding that
sits above the poverty line.’ Photograph: Lennart Maschmeyer University of
Toronto, Canada

*What’s happening?* Graduate students at the University of Toronto have
been on strike for three weeks.

*What prompted the strike? *Graduate and teaching assistants are essential
to the University of Toronto’s teaching. But they are paid a minimum
financial package of C$15,000 – far less than is needed to meet the cost of
living.

 The basic graduate student funding package has not seen any increase in
more than seven years, leaving graduate students doing teaching and
research to live more than C$8,000 below the poverty line. Sessional
faculty, course instructors and teaching assistants do more than 60% of the
teaching at the University of Toronto, but only 3.5% of the university’s
budget is allocated to them.

To address this, graduate students should be guaranteed a minimum amount of
funding that sits above the poverty line and increases as inflation and the
cost of living rises.
Instead, management have sought to increase undergraduate and graduate
student enrolment – particularly international students – in order to
increase profits to the university. Rather than addressing the serious
financial needs of its students, the university administration team spent
weeks refusing to return to the negotiating table. A recent offer failed to
address the negative impacts of precarious work in academia that have
allowed for the exploitation of lower level and non-tenured academic staff.

To prevent further labour action and disruption for all students across
university campuses in Canada, university administrators will have to
address these serious structural deficiencies that have decayed the quality
of education and research at public universities in Canada
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/canada> and across North America.

   - *Omar Sirri is a PhD student studying political science at the
   University of Toronto.*

 ‘LSE is the epitome of the neoliberal university. It is managed and
organised around corporate interests, which promote elitism and perpetuate
inequality.’ Photograph: Alex Kurunis
*London School of Economics and Political Science, UK*

*What’s happening?* A central administration room has been occupied by
students since 18 March.

*What caused the protest?* The occupation is a reaction against the
marketisation of education.

 LSE is the epitome of the neoliberal university. It is managed and
organised around corporate interests, which promote elitism and perpetuate
inequality. OccupyLSE proposes that students, lecturers and workers should
run a university – and we have named this project the Free University of
London.

We are occupying the main administrative meeting room to symbolically
disrupt the management of the school, which is responsible for the
neoliberalisation of our education. We have used the space to reclaim our
education and encourage political participation by teaching and learning
from each other. This is a rejection of the commercialisation of education
– we are learning for free and we are learning freely.

The space and workshops are being used to focus and refine the demands we
are making as a movement on issues of free education, workers’ rights,
university democracy and governance, liberation and ethics. The power of
occupations is that they create a domino effect: this is only the
beginning.

   -
*Natalie Fiennes is an MSc student studying political sociology and Ellen
   Lees is an undergraduate student studying social anthropology at LSE. *

 ‘As PhD candidates... we pay for the “privilege” of our precarious jobs.’
Photograph: Alex Felipe York University, Canada

*What’s happening?* Teaching assistants, graduate assistants and contract
faculty at York University have been on strike since 3 March.

*What prompted the strike?* Staff and students participating in the strike
have a number of demands including: more funding for graduate and research
assistants and better employment rights for LGBTQ workers. They also want
to “strengthen the tuition indexation language”, which means that any rises
in tuition for graduate students will be met with a rise in their funding.

 Once considered a radical institution, York now pursues aggressive
divide-and-conquer strike-breaking tactics. On March 9, the university made
a ‘final offer’ that largely appealed to senior contract faculty, a clear
attempt to split the union. Teaching assistants and graduate assistants
rejected the offer and remain on legal strike.

York is now reconvening courses despite the strike, putting students in a
position to cross increasingly tense picket lines to get to class, and has
even invited striking workers to scab. Despite these moves, both faculty
and undergraduate solidarity is growing, with many exercising their right
not to cross pickets.

As PhD candidates, we are not only tuition-paying students, but also
frontline teachers. In short, we pay for the ‘privilege’ of our precarious
jobs. We couldn’t pursue our careers without full funding.

What does this mean for student-workers? One international student recently
tweeted a Kafkaesque image of a pay cheque from the university for C$0.00,
all that remained of their funding after paying international tuition. At
the university, we call this “getting York’d”.

   -
*Jessica Lee is a fourth-year PhD student in the humanities and Darren
   Patrick is a fourth-year PhD student in environmental studies and the York
   University. *

<https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgu.com%2Fp%2F46p9t%2Fsfb%23img-3&ref=responsive>

<http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?description=University+protests+around+the+world%3A+a+fight+against+commercialisation&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fhigher-education-network%2F2015%2Fmar%2F25%2Funiversity-protests-around-the-world-a-fight-against-commercialisation&media=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.guim.co.uk%2Fsys-images%2FGuardian%2FPix%2Fpictures%2F2015%2F3%2F25%2F1427280329831%2Fb6925c8f-d512-4190-bef0-68f619d45f04-2060x1545.jpeg>
‘We have joined with our students on a weekly basis to think through the
effects of managerialism and financialisation.’ Photograph: Julie
McBrien University
of Amsterdam, Netherlands
  Dutch student protests ignite movement against management of universities
  Read more

*What’s happening?* Students <http://www.theguardian.com/education/students>
are occupying Maagdenhuis, the university’s main administrative building,
calling for a democrastisation of the institution.

*What prompted the protest?* Protesters want to increase the transparency
and accountability of the university decision-making processes and to pause
and reconsider its programme of restructuring, cuts and sell-offs.

 How do you protest bureaucracy? How do you work against the
financialisation and managerialism that has seeped into the university,
forcing us to prioritise ‘rendement’ (efficiency), harmonisation, and
profit, rather than creativity, education, and critical thinking?

In Amsterdam we started by occupying symbolic university buildings ,
organising public rallies and taking to the streets en masse. We wrote
articles, appeared on television and the radio and published open letters.

But resistance takes many forms. As a mode of critique and change we have
taken back our workspace. We have marked the very corporate-like
environment we work in – all straight lines, uniform spaces, impenetrable
concrete, unbending steel – with signs of alternative voices,
thoughts-in-the-making and issues up for debate.

We have joined with our students on a weekly basis to think through the
effects of managerialism and financialisation and how, when there is no
other way, we can disobey in everyday acts of resistance.

In resonance with Bertold Brecht’s famous phrase ‘Stell dir vor, es ist
Krieg, und keiner geht hin’ (just imagine, there is a war and nobody
joins), we imagine what comes of bureaucracy when nobody fills out the
forms. When we refuse to cooperate with the system that has hijacked our
university, we make a step towards reclaiming and recreating the
university. It’s not visible to most, but these forms of protest play a
part in recreating the university as a space for learning and discovery.

   - *Julie McBrien is an assistant professor of anthropology at the
   University of Amsterdam.*

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