Strikers on Dam Square call on Rob Jetten to save higher education
While coalition talks are in full swing, the higher education sector is already putting serious pressure on the future government. During a strike on Dam Square, lecturers and students are demanding that the parties involved in forming the coalition – with D66 leading – scrap the planned budget cuts for good. “Otherwise, D66 will lose the student vote forever.”
The incoming government must not only reverse the cuts, but should in fact invest more in education and research. That was once again the demand during the nationwide strike held on Tuesday afternoon. But while that message has remained unchanged for the past eighteen months, the political context has by now changed drastically.
It was, after all, the Schoof government that introduced the hefty cuts to higher education, provoking anger and indignation among many students and lecturers. But now that that government has fallen and coalition negotiations are in full swing, the demonstrators sense their opportunity. The swearing-in of the Jetten I cabinet appears to be coming closer by the day, making this the perfect moment to put pressure on the incoming government – led by D66, the self-proclaimed party of education – right in the middle of the formation process.
And so, despite the drizzly weather, the atmosphere on Dam Square on Tuesday afternoon is fairly upbeat. A student band – its members dressed in white shirts and colourful ties – warms up the crowd. As people begin to gather, the aptly chosen song Money for Nothing by Dire Straits starts playing. The message: nothing comes for free, money must be put on the table. The well-filled Dam (around seven thousand people, according to the organisers) sways along enthusiastically.
No bombs but books
Organising bodies such as FNV and the General Union of Education (AOb) are visibly present with stalls and flags, and red and green caps are handed out in the crowd to help people cope with the intermittent drizzle. And of course, the many banners with punchy slogans such as “No bombs but books” are present at this strike.
Asva chair Sahand Mozdbar takes on part of the presenting duties, delivering the first speech of the afternoon; a fiery address in which he targets “the war economy, record profits for corporations and the high salaries of politicians”, which he argues are the reason money is being taken away from universities.
He is not the only one striking a critical tone on what they call the “militarisation of higher education”. SP politician Sandra Beckerman asks: “How can you talk about bombs so much more often than about books?” The audience also makes its disapproval loudly known when the Defence minor offered at several higher education institutions is brought up.
Education party
But more than the anti-military sentiment, the clearest thread running through the entire afternoon is the call on D66 to live up to its reputation as the education party. The party is frequently mentioned by name on stage, and in the crowd there are placards with encouraging messages such as “Come on, Rob” and “Jetten, don’t abandon education.”
Among several speakers, there is a palpable sense of scepticism about the party’s reliability. Can universities and universities of applied sciences simply assume that Jetten’s “reached out hand” will actually lead to concrete results? One speaker captures the mood: “If this doesn’t happen, D66 will lose the student vote forever.”
When Ilana Rooderkerk, an MP for D66, steps onto the stage, there is some cautious booing from parts of the crowd. She does not seem keen to make firm promises, but she does emphasise that D66, “as an education party, believes that we should be investing rather than cutting.” Although the party is being watched with suspicion and appears far from popular among some of the strikers, her remarks are met with a modest round of applause.
For many on Dam Square, the real danger does not seem to lie in a potential U-turn by D66, but rather in the prospect of the VVD joining the coalition talks. The demonstrators have by no means forgiven the liberals for their actions in the previous government; one speaker even calls them the “number one education-wrecking party.” A spokesperson for FNV adds: “The Schoof government may be gone, but the incredible mess they’ve left behind certainly isn’t.”
