More than seven thousand students, lecturers and researchers gathered in Amsterdam on Tuesday to demonstrate against the budget cuts on higher education. The participants in the demonstration marched from Dam Square through the city centre.
(Photo: HOP)
Around noon, Dam Square in Amsterdam begins to fill with demonstrators. They wear green caps or red hats, which are handed out by the trade unions. They carry banners, flags and protest signs.
Delft, Wageningen, Groningen, Leiden, Utrecht… The demonstrators have come here from all over the country. A seven-piece student band welcomes the crowd with cheerful pop music.
‘I don’t like slogans’
“I don’t like protesting at all”, says Jeroen de Kloet, professor of media studies in Amsterdam. “I don’t like slogans and I get bored. But sometimes you just have to do it.” He wants to make his voice heard against the cuts in higher education and research.
‘Education is not even a topic of discussion in the coalition talks’
These budget cuts are still in the national budget for the time being. The elections have not changed that. The pro-education party D66 is negotiating the formation of a new cabinet, but the protesters remain cautious. If only because the VVD is also involved in the talks.
A Ukrainian student has travelled from Groningen to Dam Square. He keeps a close eye on Dutch politics and does not dare to trust that the cuts will be reversed. “Education is not even a topic of discussion in the coalition talks,” he says.
‘Not everything is about immigration’
Representatives of the FNV and AOb education unions, various action groups and local student unions speak on stage. “Don’t forget us,” one of them says to the parties forming the coalition. “Not everything is about immigration, defence or housing.”
Three politicians from the SP, GroenLinks-PvdA and D66 also take to the stage. There are boos when Member of Parliament Ilana Rooderkerk (D66) takes the floor. Only when she says that D66 wants to invest in education and research do those present seem to thaw a little. She poses next to a sign that the organisers bring out: ‘We are reversing the cuts to higher education’, it says.
Several speakers say they are critical of what they refer to as the ‘militarisation’ of higher education. So much money is being spent on the army – including in the D66 plans – that it will be at the expense of the public sector, various speakers fear. Education must show solidarity with, for example, healthcare and public broadcasting, they warn. “No bombs, but books!”
In one fell swoop, some activists shout ‘Free Palestine’ and call for severing ties with Israeli institutions, the fossil fuel industry and American tech companies. They also argue that universities should become more democratic. “We will choose your successors,” one of them shouts as a message to education administrators.
‘Delighted’
Among the protesters (but not on stage) is Maaike Krom, chair of the National Student Union. She is ‘delighted’ with the turnout. She believes there could have been even more people if everyone had been given time off. “Some students were simply not allowed to be absent from their classes!”
After all the speakers have finished, a long procession sets off. Somewhere, a brass band is playing, further on there is the sound of drumming, and at the very front, loud dance music is blaring from the speakers. The march also passes the Maagdenhuis building of the University of Amsterdam, which has been occupied regularly since the 1960s but remains intact today. A small group of demonstrators climb the steps to the front door and wave flags, but that is all. There are no disturbances.
HOP, Bas Belleman
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