FNV kicks off strike week UvA, hundred in attendance
About a hundred UvA students and employees gathered in front of the entrance of REC-ABC on Monday morning at the initiative of union FNV. They want the UvA to suspend collaborations with Israeli institutions and broaden the right to demonstrate in the house rules.
Protest actions, public lectures, silent sit-ins, a demonstration march: it is a full programme that union FNV has announced for its members on the UvA campuses this week. The union is embarking on this ‘week of strikes’ because the UvA has not complied with an ultimatum, which was about suspending collaborations with Israeli institutions and expanding the right to demonstrate. College president Edith Hooge expressed “surprise” at this turn of events.
On Monday morning, around a hundred UvA staff (students and employees, some of them FNV members) stood out in the cold for the first part of the programme. Right in front of the entrance to REC-ABC, they demonstrated against the UvA and informed passers-by about the ‘negligent attitude’ of the Executive Board (CvB). 'The CvB can say a thousand times: we are working on it, we are working on it, we are working on it. But do you really think these students want to wait any longer?’ says junior lecturer in sociology Sam Hamer, also an FNV member.
Instead, the UvA points out that progress has indeed been made: in recent months, an independent committee has been working on drafting a new ethical framework regarding collaborations with third parties. It was announced this afternoon that the framework is almost ready to send to the participation councils, but Hamer does not expect much from it. “That committee is not democratically elected,” he says, “the CvB itself has decided who sits on that committee.” In addition, he finds it incomprehensible that the UvA did not suspend ties during the investigation, but instead kept them on.
Text continues after the photo
FNV-tent
Hence on Monday morning, he relentlessly whipped up the crowd via a microphone with the now customary slogans, including “Disclose, divest; we will not stop, we will not rest”, “What time is it? Solidarity!” and “Right, right, right; demonstrating is a right”. Things are peaceful; under an FNV tent, sandwiches, coffee and tea are ready for those present, who stand for hours in the inclement wind.
That the union is so closely involved in these protests does not strike Hamer as strange. “Traditionally, unions are there for better pay or better working conditions, but they are also there for our right to demonstrate. And as employees, we have the right not to be complicit in human rights violations. We want to be able to demonstrate against that, without students being beaten by the police. That is something we can also use the union for,” Hamer said.
