Day of UNIversiTY – United for free education! Appel de Graz (Autriche) pour une journée d'action le 17/12/09
Voir aussi: Education is not for sale: un mouvement international.
Message des étudiants en lutte de l'université de Graz (Autriche):
Appel pour une journée d'action le 17 décembre 2009.
Dear friends and occupants,
We are still here, thosecr iticalstudents who are not prepared to accept the current situation at ouruniversities. The sale-out of education, access barriers and thede-democratization, which is going on at our universities, still need to bestopped, since the people in charge haven't yet realized thatit's high time they reacted to our claims and angle off 180 degrees into theonly right direction there is: the direction of free education withoutbarriers.
Thus, the struggle against those whowant to take us for fools a nd wantto sell out our education, must continue – even before,during and after Christmas holidays.
Many people in Austria and other European countrieshave no idea about the fact that there are many more universities occupied thanonly the ones in their country. Many people don't have the slightest idea thatthere are more than 100 universities either occupied or somehow involved inthe protests. You cansee the occupied universities under: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=de&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&source=embed&msa=0&msid=116283369278129786033.0004778dfa81fb402d565&ll=49.781264,12.348633&spn=11.357555,23.291016&z=5
Many people have not yet realized that thousands ofstudents all over the world are standing up for their rights, and not onlyfight for themselves, but also for the next generation and for a better futurein general. It is now our job to stop the ignorance!
The people out there should realize that the protestsare not only a “local” problem of each country, but that the whole society allover the world is affected by the grievance which we, the students, arepointing out and which against we are defending ourselves. Therefore, we wouldlike to invite you to participate in the
DAY OF UNI(versi)TY– United for free education!
on Tursday, 17th Dezember 2009
Especially before Christmas, the majority of the consumption-oriented population is busy with shopping, instead of getting concerned about the real problems, whose solving is long overdue! Let's wake up those people and let's show them that we are standing behind our claim for a free education in unity and that this issue concerns each and every one of us.
The "International Day of Action“ was yesterday. Tomorrow, we will appear before the public in unity under the slogan DAY OF UNI(versi)TY, far beyond our own country borders.
There are some universities which are not yet as widely mobilized as universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. That is why we have come up with the idea to plan a common operation/campaign/activity, which can or even should be carried out by all participants of the protest movement for free education in their cities. Of course, it would be great if this could happen simultaneously, in order to demonstrate our unity, despite spacial distances.
Our ideas:
On the 17th of December 2009 at 11o'clock in the morning, students go out on the streets in numerous cities inEurope and worldwide. We will be equipped with signs, posters or banners whichcarry the names of all occupied or involved universities. The signs might say: “Weare Heidelberg”, “We are Paris” or “We are Vienna”. Thepeople should see in which cities universities are occupied and in which citiesthere are student protests.
At the same time, flyerscan/should be handed out to passer-bys to inform them about the currentsituation. In the centre of each city a flashmob or different activity shouldtake place. Thereare no limits as far as creativity is concerned!
Possible actions could be, for example, a“reading-demo”, which is a silent demo where all participants sit or lay downon the street and read or study something. Another possibility would be to actout some kind of choreography with the signs or to form a certainfigure, like a country or a university. Another idea is to act out a scene inthe style of a street theatre. Or what about a big pillow fight?
Anyway, it is important that we all havethe signs with the occupied universities in common in order to demonstrate unityand solidarity. The more we are, the less they can ignore us!
Let's not hidebut stand up for our rights together!
The actions should, if possible, be video-taped.Afterwards we will put the sequences together and create a small documentaryabout the “Day of Unity”, including all the activities from the participatinguniversities, which we will publish on YouTube.
Please let us know, whether you are interested inparticipating in the “Day of Unity” If yes, then please organize yourself,mobilize and join the united movement. Inform the peopleout there, whether the media, friends, acquaintances, relatives, students ofhigh schools, etc. Invite everybody to participate in solidarity in the event.
Everyoneshould know that and why we are here and that we won't be gone too soon!
If you have any further questions or just want toestablish contact with us, please do so under:
skype: international.unigraz email:internationalunigraz@gmail.com
We are looking forward to communicating with you aboutprojects, news, reports, etc.
Solidary greetings,
Work group „Internationalization“ –
Occupantsof Graz University
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DAY OF UNIversiTY report and pics
Dearfriends and colleagues,
after some days of intensive preparation, today we had some worrying moments inthe morning whether enough people would come and participate. But in the end wewere around 30 people (according to police sources 20 ^^) and after some groupphotos we left our occupied building and the university campus and headed tothe city centre of Graz. It was a very chilly (around -3°C)but clear and sunny day. On the way we got some really bewildered and surprisedsmiles because of the signs we carried, which said “Wir sind Istanbul”, “Wirsind Berkley”, “Wir sind Berlin” etc. (“Wir sind” means “we are”). In the mainshopping area of the centre we distributed the group all over the length of itand started giving out our leaflets with informations about the internationaldimension of this protest.
We had somereally interesting discussions with the passengers and after 45 Minutes we gatheredagain and started chanting, one calling the name of a city and the rest of usresponding “Besetzt!” (occupied).
Then we satdown on the pavement for a short flash-mob reading our self-publishedprotest-newspaper silently which we distributed to the passengers directlyafter getting up.
Then we allwent to the main square of Graz and started using our megaphone: First weexplained to all the passengers why we were there and talked about the factthat students protests are going on in so many countries. Then we passed aroundthe megaphone, and the Human Rights article No. 26 about the Right to Educationwas read in English, German, French, Croatian, Hungarian, Italian, Greek,Swedish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Latin, Esperanto and Portuguese. Itwas also presented in the Austrian Sign languages at the same time. One of themost moving moments of this day was the Turkish girl and the Kurdish boystanding side by side and reading a Human Rights article.
After thatwe went back to our occupied lecture halls to warm our frozen bodies again andhave a hot soup.
It hasreally been a funny day with interesting experiences and talks and a strongfeeling of solidarity with all the other protesting students.
We hope youcan enjoy the pictures and we are looking forward to hear about yourexperiences!
Insolidarity
Occupantsand activists at University Graz