Do not accept that your university is being used for destruction and war. It’s time for a civil clause!
The militarisation of society is continuing. The UvA must not go along with this, write Jasper Fico and Oona Lakso. The UvA Committee for Peace is therefore demanding that the UvA implements a civilian clause, for which the committee has drawn up a petition.
The risk of a generalised war rises while the militarisation of society subordinates education to the economic interests of rival monopolies and political forces. The result: increasing exploitation of the students and ordinary working people. Therefore, peace committee UvA voor Vrede demands the UvA to adopt a civil clause, a commitment to never use its resources for military purposes.
It is our conviction that peace comes from the bottom up. From ordinary people who, together with their colleagues, neighbours, fellow students, and community, call a halt to militarisation, independent of the economic interests of any particular geopolitical player. While the universities and ordinary working people are being plundered by budget cuts, money is going to the war industry and knowledge institutions are opening their doors to military investments as a so-called “solution”. In a time where a generalised war looms ahead, the UvA chooses to aid the war economy by increasing military collaborations.
Partnerships
Just a few weeks ago, the Faculty board of the Faculty of Science (FNWI) released a report stating their willingness for increased military partnerships, at the same time that partnerships like these and investments in the military sector are rapidly intensifying all across the university and society.
As a committee, we demand with a petition that the UvA adopts a so-called “civil clause”. This would mean that the university may never use its resources for military purposes or interests. Civil clauses already exist at several universities and knowledge institutions in different countries, such as at the University of Bremen and of Kyoto. This makes the demand for a civil clause a tangible and achievable goal to put a stop to the militarisation of education and research.
Billions of euro’s
While affordability and quality of education are decreasing in importance for the government, knowledge production and other public services seem to be increasingly judged by whether it contributes to the geopolitical strategy and economic competition with rival international players. Therefore, it is not surprising that the military sector gains billions of euros extra while the budgets of public sectors and services that are not profitable enough, are cut.
For both staff and students at the UvA, this means higher cost of rents and groceries, unstable job positions with higher workloads, decreasing quality of education, and all-round higher living expenses. Underlying the decreased stability in life is the upcoming war economy that seeks to find profitable investments, both here and in competing markets and spheres of influence. Consequently, the hunger for profitable investments, and the violence used in this game played by competing monopolies and politicians, pushes the world day-by-day closer to a generalised war.
Battlefield
It needs no explanation that the working people and youth will be sent to the battlefield to die, and not the bosses and politicians. From all sides of the political spectrum, the social rights and incomes of ordinary working people are attacked, while they are made to believe that the only way out is war against ordinary people on the other side of the world, who face the same exploitation and instability.
Our struggle against militarisation is therefore more necessary than ever. Similar to the dockworkers and railway workers worldwide who refuse to deliver weapons to war zones, we demand that the UvA adopts a civil clause to stop the militarisation of the university. Our call is: Do not accept that your university is being used for destruction and war! Sign our petition demanding the UvA to adopt a civil clause! Fight for peace and join committees or unions that are doing the same!
Jasper Fico is a political economy student at the UvA. Oona Lakso is a sociology student at the UvA. Both are members of peace committee UvA voor Vrede.
Check the petition here.
