White Light Black Light: DECLARATION OF THE AUTONOMOUS TRIBUNE FOR THE AUTONOMY OF THE UNIVERSITY

Saturday, May 26, 2007

DECLARATION OF THE AUTONOMOUS TRIBUNE FOR THE AUTONOMY OF THE UNIVERSITY

On the 21st of May a group of students occupied the main hall of the Faculty of arts (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia) with an intention of practicing autonomy and freedom of thought. We symbolically opened the Autonomous Tribune for discussion and debated the study problems, higher education reforms, privatization of the university and the question of autonomy. With this initiative we have joined the students in Europe and the World, who have already started the fight against neoliberal reforms of educational system and the submission of all aspects of social life to the logic of market economy. The Autonomous Tribune has come to the following conclusions: 1. We are objecting to the new draft of a bill regarding higher education. Not only was the bill written without involvement of those who should be involved in the first place, that is students and workers of the university, but also its content is a total failure. 2. We demand that any future legal arrangements of this field are based on the next premises: The University is autonomous! The University is not a corporation! Study is free and generally available to everyone! Knowledge must not be a matter of privatization and the capitalist profit-oriented logic! Knowledge should be a commodity available to everyone, serving the whole society and not merely the interests of capital. University is in the hands of the students and not in the hands of the rulers and the capital. Educational process must be collective, containing dialogue and is to be based on the interest and the needs of the future university graduates. It must encourage solidarity, spontaneity, imagination, critique and reflection. All programs that encourage militarization and subject the study to the market logic must be immediately removed from the University. 3. Instead of money being spent for destructive activities, it should be intended for social projects. So to begin with, we demand that both Slovenian soldiers withdraw from Iraq and the money spent on such actions is given to the socially handicapped families. We salute all, who have already publicly defended the existing social rights and we reject any attempts of further reduction of rights. Once again we are appealing to all individuals, formal and informal student organizations, clubs, initiatives, unions, movements and workers in higher education to self-organize and publicly defend basic and universal rights. STUDY IS OUR RIGHT! WE DO NOT NEGOTIATE ON RIGHTS! RIGHTS ARE GAINED, NOT GIVEN! Autonomous Tribune Main hall of the Faculty of Arts (University of Ljubljana) 21.5.2007 Send letters of support to: