11 mrt University of Utrecht – The Netherlands
Protesteren kun je leren (‘learning to protest’)
Rik Huizinga
In a series of protests across various university cities in the Netherlands, my university is next, the University of Utrecht. For one whole day, university employees are going on strike in this national relay strike, and are protesting shoulder to shoulder with students and unions against the government’s hostile attitude towards education. We are protesting in particular against the government’s austerity measures within higher education, but you could also place the underlying motives for protesting in a broader context. Not only is the university in danger, but the cuts are also affecting fundamental mechanisms of society, if not now then in the future.
Stop the cuts, stop the cuts!
It makes me proud to read that thousands of people are currently participating in the protests in Utrecht. These are colleagues, students, union employees and other sympathizers who recognize the danger described above. Photos shared in app groups show flags being waved, a sea of protest signs colouring the square while various protest songs are being sung. The protesters are making a tour through Utrecht, attracting a lot of attention. It is good to see that the protest has been prepared and coordinated down to the last detail in recent weeks. The protest therefore testifies to solidarity and the collective conviction that we can all make a meaningful statement and in this way exert political influence as active citizens.
I write ‘we are protesting’, but to be honest I am not at the protest myself because of an international project meeting and that hurts. Ironically, I am away for a project that is concerned with active citizenship and how we can motivate young people to participate in society for example through protesting. My absence makes me feel like I am leaning on the shoulders of others while a protest stands or falls with attendance. Moreover, the austerity measures also apply to me. In the most ‘favourable’ case, the workload will increase in the coming years, there will be less budget for research and we will be forced to provide lower-quality education. This will affect the social cohesion among colleagues within my department, the quality of research-driven education as well as the relationship between teacher and student (which was already under tension). But the consequences of the austerity measures could also affect me directly. I might lose my job.
Higher education austerity measures
What exactly is going on? The educational landscape in the Netherlands is under fire. One of the spearheads of the current government is to cut back on education. In total, the government wants to cut back on 1.1 billion euros in the coming years. This means that universities are forced to cancel entire courses, close (parts of) departments and lay off employees. The House of Representatives has already approved this proposal, but the Senate still has to give its opinion on the proposal. And that is exactly why the demonstrations are so important at this time and call for people to make use of their democratic right to protest.
In addition to standing up for higher education, the demonstrations also have to do with emphasizing and defending democratic values, and seeking social change. A democratic society only functions when it is possible to express dissatisfaction in a peaceful manner and to fight against decisions you disagree with. After all, everyone has the right to demonstrate on the basis of Article 9 of the Dutch Constitution. Although the number of protests in the Netherlands has increased in recent years, the Netherlands does not seem to be a demonstration country. When push comes to shove, few people appear to take to the streets themselves, despite a self-proclaimed willingness to protest. For many university staff and students, today’s protest, or one of the previous demonstrations against budget cuts in recent months, is also the first time. So you can learn to protest, but the urgency of it apparently needs to be aroused first. And this should start as early as possible.
Training active citizens
This is exactly what we are doing during the international project meeting in Cadiz, which is why I cannot attend the protest. In the ERASMUS+ project Active Citizenship Compass, we are investigating active citizenship knowledge, skills and attitudes among young people in various European countries (Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, the Czech Republic and Turkey), and are mapping how different national education systems integrate active citizenship into education in different ways. After all, an important aspect of active citizenship is the willingness to intervene in one’s own environment in order to change it. This can take the form of participation in formal local, national or global decision-making bodies, but this is not always possible or is even made impossible. An important part of active citizenship is therefore also protest as a way to address injustice, even if this sparks controversy with other members of society.
Just like some university staff, Dutch young people also seem to have a difficult relationship with protesting. The insights from our project show that the will among young people to protest is not self-evident and perhaps should be encouraged more. The results from the different countries show a diverse picture in which young people from Northern Europe in particular are less prepared to protest than young people from Greece, Spain and Turkey. Although our survey research shows that Dutch young people attach great value to democratic values and democracy as a form of government, Dutch young people seem less prepared to express these democratic values themselves, for example by actively participating in the form of a protest. This is worrying as it fits in with a trend in which young people seem to be more concerned about what concerns them as individuals than about social problems.
The above worries me. We often say that the youth are the future, but what exactly do we mean by that? Can I even say anything about it while I am not here today? I would like to believe that if I were in the Netherlands I would have attended the protests. I wonder if we have not been lulled to sleep. Have things been going too well at the university in recent years, which is why we could not have foreseen the current developments.
Today I think of my colleagues and thank them for their efforts. Solidarity.
Photo: Utrecht University employees striking against budget cuts. Made by: Ilse van Liempt.