occupying the director's floor in the building of the university
administration of Helsinki University in Finland. This happened as an
offshoot of a demonstration against a new draconian "reform" soon to be
presented to the Finnish parliament. The new laws (more below) would change
the choice of the governing councils of the university, essentially
depriving the universities of autonomy, likely putting non-university board
members in key positions (business people and politicians) and importantly,
introducing the possibility of charging fees for non-EU students.. which in
Europe is used as a back-door precedent followed by demanding tuition fees
from everyone - the failed free-market model.
Many words were heard in reference to other movements to Greece, France,
Italy, India and ... and then the news came in that students at New York
University (
same sort.
Below is the statement from Helsinki.
=========================
Solidarity from the University of Helsinki to the occupants at NYU
Today on Thursday, February the 19th, we occupied the administration
building of our university.
This took place after our demonstration against the new Universities Act
proposed by the Finnish government. The parliament will decide about the law
this Spring. We demand the law to be withdrawn. We want to reform our
university from a totally different, more democratic perspective.
We are also protesting against the university leadership which has given its
support to the law despite our opposition.
The law we are opposing would significantly increase the influence
corporations have on our university and thus our science. We are defending
the autonomy of knowledge and the freedom of research. We are also defending
the free access to higher education as stated in the Finnish Constitution.
We are not defending our university as it is, we want to create autonomous
spaces for producing and sharing information.
Our demonstration today was participated by 1500 people. It was organised
autonomously by students and university staff, independently of their
unions. After the demonstration, a group of more than 100 demonstrators
occupied this building. Today we have made our voices heard and we will keep
doing so until we win!
We want to send you our solidarity. We share your struggle!
Opiskelijatoiminta
