April 20th, 2021, 7 pm
English
ZOOM link:
Topic: University Protests in Athens, Budapest and Munich
Time: April 20, 2021 7 pm, Vienna
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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85088942489?pwd=SmU2aE1SZXBtOHYxZnlrUTJpVnRFUT09
Meeting ID: 850 8894 2489
Passcode: iEf4zx
In our last discussion in this event series, we brought together positions from the current university struggle against the new universities law in Austria (with participants from AK non-EU Students / bildung brennt) as well as participants from the university struggle from ca. ten years ago in Austria. In an attempt to share experiences, we highlighted some of the similarities and differences as well as the successes and failures of each movement in order to learn from each other and strengthen current actions. One recurring subject was how communication with people involved in similar struggles in other localities was a key element for strengthening struggles in the older protest wave. This translocal exchange was tremendously important for, on the one hand, seeing how similar neoliberalizing reforms had been implemented in more advanced stages in other localities, and, on the other hand, for learning from the successes and failures of other struggles in order to apply those practices locally.
Therefore, in this next event, we want to focus on exactly this practice in a discussion with activists from current university struggles in Athens, Budapest and Munich. Around a decade ago, one key similarity in university transformations was the role of the global financial crisis and the austerity measures imposed in formerly public sectors as a reaction of the failing welfare state. A decade later we see the reverberations of these processes in parallel to other political shifts. Therefore, the commonalities and singularities of these different struggles will be a central focus of this discussion, where we will also attempt to build a toolbox for continuing struggles. We will thus approach, among others, the questions of how to organize political actions during a pandemic, which forms of differential treatment/discrimination exist in the local contexts, and how we can most effectively communicate our experiences throughout translocal networks for future actions.
Participants:
Aliki Angelidou, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens
Judit Gárdos, Hungarian Academy Staff Forum (board member)
Eduard Meusel, Spokesperson of the Initiative Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften and the GEW Bayern
Moderation: Lina Dokuzovic (eipcp / transversal texts)
A cooperation between eipcp (https://transversal.at) and ÖH Akbild (https://www.oehakbild.info)