Last day of strike week FNV: sit-in and march to Maagdenhuis
The strike week of the FNV at the UvA concluded with a sit-in and a march. Hundreds of people were present at Spui, both students and employees.
Hundreds of UvA employees are on the march on Thursday afternoon for the last day of the strike week, organised by union FNV. In the morning, staff and students already gathered in front of the ABC building at Roeterseilandcampus. They then organised a sit-in inside, which included music and speeches. This time, the reason for their demonstration was written on white papers.
According to the union, employees are “outraged” by the university’s assumed refusal to guarantee the right to demonstrate and make agreements to end cooperation with third parties who may be complicit in human rights violations.
After the sit-in, the group of attendees, which by now had grown to over four hundred people, walked in a march from Roeterseiland to the Maagdenhuis, past the Bushuis and the Binnengasthuis grounds.
Posters
Once they arrived on the Spui, the crowd chanted, among other things, “Shut it down, shut it down” and “UvA, UvA, UvA: fuck you!” Three posters are stuck on the balustrade of the Maagdenhuis and one on the monumental wall lanterns next to the main portal.
On both sides of the Spui, police kept a close eye on the protesters. Meanwhile, they listened peacefully to speeches by UvA lecturers and students. The programme ended around 3.30pm.
There was also criticism of the strike week organised by the union. For instance, the UvA itself called the actions “unnecessary” and college president Edith Hooge said she was “surprised” by the previously issued ultimatum, to which the university also failed to respond. Thereupon, the union started actions last Monday. Folia columnist Han van der Maas also thinks a boycott of Israeli scientists is unnecessary and called it “a gross self-aggrandisement” that a boycott would have any effect on the war.
