#occupylse

Our demands have been translated into Mandarin by some amazing Taiwanese students at LSE and National Taiwan University 

Message of Support to the protests in Amsterdam, at the LSE, at King’s College, at UAL, and elsewhere

We write to express our support for, and solidarity to, the pacific and nonetheless revolutionary actions of students and staff occupying and appropriating spaces in their universities in Amsterdam, London and in many other cities around the world. Students and staff members - whether in the role of researchers, professors, technicians, and even administrators - demand a radical change in the way universities are managed. They especially argue against:

1. The idea that academia must work like a firm and run for profit;

2. The view of students as “resources” and “clients”, which forces them to take debts to satisfy their right to study, fosters an education that complies with mainstream views only  and does not encourage critical thinking;

3. The increasing burden of bureaucracy at the expenses of quality of teaching and research;

4. The position of academics in the institutions, shifting dramatically from permanent to temporary positions. Such a shift exposes teachers and researchers to the unsustainable pressure of short-term goals imposed by the “God Market”.

In this appropriation of spaces in their universities, students and staff are taking the first, concrete steps towards the creation of alternative spaces of study, research and conservation of culture and science. The objective is also to question a top-down model of management and put the academics in charge of the organisation of teaching and research.

Following the debatable goals and methods decided during the Bologna process, in recent times Italian academia has undergone several changes after the neo-liberal reform of 2010 (the so-called “Legge Gelmini”). The effects of such a blind and narrow-minded neo-liberal reform of academia are now widespread. Evaluation criteria not inspired by the scientific communities, the cancellation of national funds, the paradox of students winning scholarships with no money, etc., are just some examples of such effects. It is time to radically change direction and let staff and students, in their respective roles and within their responsibilities, claim back the guidance of academia.

We wish the occupiers success in their struggle and recognise the key role such struggles play in battling the wider neo-liberal assault upon society in favour of a multicultural, open, and democratic approach. We wish that this effort will not be confined within the local borders of individual institutions or countries, but rather will establish links among the occupiers and their supporters so to shape a different view of the world. The academic communities of Amsterdam, London and elsewhere are actively building a new view of the world. They deserve our fullest support and we hope that the movement will continuously grow.

Signed (in alphabetical order):

Stefania Arcara, Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche, Università di Catania

Alessandro Arienzo ([email protected]), Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II"

Marco Benini ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia, Università degli Studi dell'Insubria

Margherita Benzi ([email protected]), Universita’ del Piemonte Orientale

Alberto Giovanni Biuso ([email protected]), Università di Catania

Gianluigi Boca ([email protected]), istituto di fisica, Universita' di Pavia

Francesca Boccuni,([email protected]), Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano

Jelle Bruinsma ([email protected]), European University Institute, Florence

Dino Buzzetti, formerly Department of Philosophy, University of Bologna

Calogero Cammalleri, Associato di diritto del lavoro, Università  di Palermo, Presidente nazionale CoNPAss

Fulvia Caruso ([email protected]), Università di Pavia

Elena Casetta ([email protected]), Università di Lisbona / Università di Torino

Dario Cecchi, ([email protected]), "Sapienza" Università di Roma

Angelo Cei ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Filosofia, Comunicazione e Spettacolo, Università di Roma Tre

Alessandra Chiricosta ([email protected]), University Roma 2, Tor Vergata

Sergio Ciuchi ([email protected]), University of L'Aquila

Roberta Corvi ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Filosofia - Università Cattolica Milano

Daniele David ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza, Università degli studi di Perugia

Salvatore De Martino ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Ingegneria Elettrica, e Matematica Applicata, Università di Salerno

Monica de Simone, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche- Istituto Officina dei Materiali, Trieste, Italia

Giuliano Di Bacco, ([email protected]) Musicology Department & Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature, Indiana University, Bloomington USA

Antonino Drago ([email protected]), retired Naples University Dept. Phys. Sci.

Francesca Ervas ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Pedagogia, Psicologia, Filosofia, Università di Cagliari

Laura Felline ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Filosofia, Università Roma Tre

Marco Fenici, ricercatore indipendente

Alessandro Ferretti ([email protected]), Università di Torino

Miriam Franchella ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Filosofia Università degli Studi di Milano

Isabella Gagliardi ([email protected]), Università di Firenze

Francesca Gambetti ([email protected]), Università di Roma ‘Tre’

Giuliano Garavini, Università di Padova

Sebastiano Ghisu, Università di Sassari

Dario Generali ([email protected]), Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Antonio Vallisneri

Federico Gobbo ([email protected]), Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Francesco Guerra, [email protected], ex Università di Pisa e IISS, ricercatore indipendente

John-Erik Hansson ([email protected]), European University Institute, Florence

Gianluca Introzzi ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Fisica, Università Pavia

Luca Labate ([email protected]), Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche

Edoardo Lamedica, ([email protected]), dottorando Università di Urbino/ Université de Liège

Maurizio Lana, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università del Piemonte Orientale

Federico Laudisa ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Scienze Umane, Università di Milano-Bicocca

Paolo Liverani ([email protected]), Università di Firenze

Federico Luisetti, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Luca Manunza, ([email protected]) PHD Research in Sociology, Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benicasa di Napoli

Giuseppe Martini ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e dell'Informazione, Università di Pavia, Italia

Alfredo Mazzamauro ([email protected]), European University Institute, Florence

Giuseppe Merlati, University of Pavia - Italy

Alessio Moneta, Istituto di Economia, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa

Luisa Montecucco ([email protected]), DAFIST, Sez. di Filosofia, Università di Genova

Matteo Morganti ([email protected]),Università di Roma 'Tre'

Teresa Numerico ([email protected]), Dipartimento Filosofia, comunicazione e spettacolo, Roma Tre

Francis O Connor COSMOS/European University Institute

Valentina Onnis, ([email protected]), Università di Cagliari

Laura Pavia, Dipartimento delle Culture Europee e del Mediterraneo, Università della Basilicata

Gianni Piazza ([email protected]), Università di Catania

Gino Roncaglia ([email protected]), Dipartimento DISTU, Università della Tuscia, Viterbo

Federica Russo ([email protected]), Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam

Enrica Salvatori ([email protected]), University of Pisa

Stefano Salvia ([email protected]), PhD and Research Assistant in History of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Pisa

Matteo Slataper, Università di Trieste

Mattia Sorgon ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Filosofia, Comunicazione e Spettacolo, Università degli Studi Roma Tre

Lorenzo Spezia ([email protected]), Istituto Teologico di Assisi

Jan Sprenger, Department of Philosophy, Tilburg University

Laura Stancampiano ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche Veterinarie - Università di Bologna

Giorgio Tassinari ([email protected]), Università di Bologna

Federica Timeto, Accademia di Belle arti di Palermo

Emanuele Tredanaro ([email protected]), Universidade Federal de Lavras MG, Brasil

Francesco Verde ([email protected]) Sapienza Università di Roma

Gianluca Verrucci, PhD e cultore della materia, Università di Parma

Marco Flavio Michele Vismara ([email protected]), Dipartimento di Medicina Molecolare, “Sapienza” Università di Roma.

Since March 17th 2015, students of LSE have occupied the university’s Vera Anstey Room in rejection of the marketisation, bureaucratisation and commodification of our university. In the UK, LSE is leading the way towards a US-inspired, privatised ‘business model’ of higher education. We’ve transformed the Vera Anstey into a space for education and knowledge and critique, renaming it the Free University of London.

From the outset, Occupy LSE has been proactive with negotiations and has met with LSE management four times. We engaged in these proceedings in good faith, believing that these were genuine negotiations, with the aim of collaborating on common ground to meet our demands and better the current university structure. Yesterday morning (March 27th), LSE management released a letter, which puts an end to current negotiations. LSE authorities threatened that unless the occupation ends immediately, they will “escalate this to legal proceedings”.

The threat of legal action is in direct contrast to the school’s public assertions so far, which claim that “LSE was founded on the principles of open discussion and fervent debate” and that Occupy LSE is part of “dynamic and vibrant campus life”. Given this openness to student protest, the occupiers demand a public guarantee that no student’s continuation of education at this institution will be jeopardised by their participation in this occupation. We believe that this kind of intimidation is unwarranted and unbecoming of LSE, particularly given our willingness to engage in negotiations and dialogue, and our peaceful and non-confrontational actions. We are reclaiming our education, learning for free and learning freely, but the school is aggressively trying to close this space down.

The statement fails to meet any of the detailed demands that were put forward by Occupy LSE. It contains no concrete proposals, but instead resorts to vague references to existing processes and structures, thus confirming management’s unwillingness to genuinely consider our demands. The only discernible proposition in the document is a tripartite meeting with the SU and the Provost of the school, which falls far short of our demands and will only be granted if we vacate immediately. Rather than engaging in negotiations and collectively building genuinely democratic processes within the university, their response merely directs us back to the existing formal and undemocratic channels. Directly challenging such ineffective and exclusive avenues was a core motivation for the initial occupation.