Occupy everything, Zagreb edition

I opened up an email about Performance Studies International (the conference V and I are going to in Zagreb) the other day and it said that the conference has been relocated: "Due to the recent five-week long student sit-in at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, the panels&papers program had to be relocated at a short notice. The sit-in, the goal of which was to ensure the right to free education for all (more info here: http://slobodnifilozofski.org) made the Faculty extend classes for a couple of weeks, and they would thus clash with the conference program."

I was, needless to say, super excited. A five week sit-in?!? Get it, Zagreb. I was even more excited when I went to the website to check out what they actually did.

"one world, one struggle, education is not for sale"

From their site:

On Monday, April 20th 2009, an independent student initiative for the right to free education started a peaceful occupation of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, Croatia. They organized this action demanding the right to free education for all and the elimination of all tuition fees, at all levels of higher education: undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate. During the occupation, everyone is free to enter and leave the Faculty building, but regular classes will not be held. Instead, students have organized an alternative educational program, which consists of lectures, public discussions, workshops, movie screenings and other happenings. Everyone is free to attend these happenings, whether they are students or not.

Every evening, students will hold a plenary session (”plenum”) at which they will discuss the situation and decide whether they will continue with the occupation the next day. Everyone is free to attend these sessions, participate in discussions and vote, whether they are students or ordinary citizens. The issue of the right to free education is not one that concerns only the students, it is an issue of relevance for the future of the entire society, therefore every member of the society has the right to participate in decision making at the plenary sessions.

I wanted to meet these students, to hear about how they carried this off, what they were thinking, what they learned and gained, etc. As luck would have it, a few days later Tatjana came to the infoshop in Rijeka. Tatjana is a very lovely anarchafeminist, artist, musician, zine distributer, etc, and a student at the University. I didn't know she had anything to do with the occupation when I called her, I just knew that she sounded wonderful and that she lived in Pula (about 100km from her) and that perhaps V and I would visit her (we got her contact from our friends here.)

She recently moved to Pula from Zagreb, and she said she was so happy that she got to leave Zagreb on such a good note. The occupation was a huge success from her point of view, certainly a mental success (as she put it) even if they did not achieve their stated goals. She joined the occupation after it was underway (over a thousand students participated, more than 600 attended the daily plenums!)



She was pleased that anarchist politics seemed to be at play through the whole action, even though it was not explicitly an anarchist action and of course the goal was to have the state pay for the education, so... (stencil says "free education, not free market!")

As it began, every morning students would block the classes, until eventually students stopped going to the classes, some professors cancelled in support, and many exams were cancelled, although later a few went on to let people finish their schooling. They also tore down all of the advertisements on the campus and replaced them with banners and signs. Yeah!

banner says knowledge is not a commodity

While the occupation went on, they held lectures and workshops and discussions and film screenings, etc. Anyone could come and present something. Tatjana said this was important for many reasons, including the fact that it made the kind of education they wanted to see rather than just asking for it and it counteracted the idea that these students are just young, lazy people who don't actually want to learn. Professors and college administrators, community folks and others participated in these sessions. One benefit they had is that police aren't allowed on university campuses here, unless the dean authorizes it (which Tatjana said they would not do). What a difference from the police state of UNC in which the cops are ready on hand to carry out the repression of the administrators and to arrest people at the first sign of dissent.

Anyway, I could go on and on because we talked to Tatjana for hours about this and the difference between students here and in the US and the expectations of education and much more, but perhaps instead I will upload an interview with her later, because she will say it much better than I have been. And also because the sun is beckoning.

For more info in the meantime, check out their site:
http://slobodnifilozofski.org/
FAQs http://slobodnifilozofski.org/?p=397
FAQs 2 http://slobodnifilozofski.org/?p=361
Public letter http://slobodnifilozofski.org/?p=934