[p2p-research] cancellation of alternative summit at UEL

[Athina Karatzogianni]

 Dear Friends,

I have just read and signed the online petition:

  "To the Corporate Management Team (CMT) of the University of East London"

hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition
service, at:

  http://www.petitiononline.com/openUEL/

I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might
agree, too.  If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider
signing yourself.

Best wishes,

athina karatzogianni

below is the text as well


To:  University of East London

To the Corporate Management Team (CMT) of the University of East London


We are writing to you to express our anger following your decision to cancel
permission to hold the planned UCU (University and College Union) sponsored
alternative summit and close down the university on Wednesday 1st and
Thursday 2nd of April 2009. We are urging you to reconsider both of these
decisions.

In the last 15 years, anti-g8/g20/WTO/debt etc. protests have been held
across the world; often to coincide with the meetings of the powerful,
taking a stand of dignified rage against decisions that have led to
increased poverty and inequality, ecological devastation, war, the violation
of human rights, and a global economy that is now imploding after huge
wealth has been concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The very vast
majority of these protests have been peaceful. In the case of the Genoa
demonstrations in 2001, as has been reported by a variety of sources -
including leading newspapers in the UK - the police were found to have been
responsible for the violence that ensued.

On these occasions, universities around the world have often played a
crucial role in hosting fruitful debates between individuals and civil
society organisations, in a common effort to develop strategies and visions
to put the world on a better course. Alternative summits have often been
held in university spaces, as occasions open to a wide public. There is a
reason for this. The life-blood of democracy is the meeting and sharing of
hearts and minds, and the university is one of the best existing
institutions that can facilitate this: in fact, this is the university�s
only fundamental purpose. A university like the University of East London
(UEL), proud of its open access policy and of its commitment to inclusion,
even more than others, must take a stand to defend its public role of
facilitating dialogue and promoting social justice. But in order to do so,
the university has to be open. It is the responsibility of its management to
defend the historic role of the university as a sanctuary for open debate;
not to collude with those who are responsible for the present crisis in
depriving it of that role.

Yet, a few days ago, senior university management of UEL decided to cancel
the alternative summit that was sponsored by UCU, citing �security�
considerations (the classic excuse for every historic attempt to curtail
free speech). Now it even proposes to close the campus for normal academic
activity. So instead of opening up to the world, UEL shuts down and closes
in on itself. Instead of seizing the opportunity to become a common space
thriving with creative energies, it plans to become an empty shell for two
days.

It is time for the university management to become accountable not only to
the government funding bodies, but to the wider public to whom it owes both
its livelihood and a duty to fulfill its role as a part of civil society.
The past 3 decades have seen public spaces such as universities hollowed out
by the state and by corporations, as more and more of our common resources
are transformed into sterile commodities, valued only in cash terms. In
universities this has led to a policy regime which increasingly sees
�employability� in the �creative industries� or in �business and finance� as
the only benchmark of success by which a university education can be judged;
which sees research separated from teaching; which sees �knowledge transfer�
to the commercial sector as the only legitimate destination for the fruits
of inquiry.

There is a deep connection between this process and the ones that have led
the world to its current state of social and economic injustice and climate
chaos. In all such cases, the real collective creativity that generates
value of all kinds - from the factory to the seminar room, from the
laboratory to the orchestra, from the field to the home - is channeled into
the endless, mindless production of commodities. This connection between
social creativity and commodification must be weakened, if we want to meet
the challenges of our times. But this cannot be done if spaces for debate,
questioning and social invention are closed down.

We can all see where such neoliberal dogma has led the global economy. Now
is the time to decide whether UEL will carry on following the rules of this
discredited programme, becoming a part of the deepening problem; or whether
it will start to become part of the solution, as a university should.

We urge you to reconsider your decisions and take this unique opportunity to
open the university as a crucial centre of democracy, since democracy is now
the only safe path for the world out of the current multifaceted crisis. We
must keep our university open to staff and students, rejecting the claims
and �risk assessments� that reproduce fear instead of promoting dialogue. We
urge you to take responsibility for enabling the university to act as a
truly public space for debate in a time when nobody can doubt that radical
new ideas are needed. The alternative summit must go on; classes and
lectures must go on. We would feel ashamed of UEL if this institution - to
which its staff is so committed - were to become known as the university
that had closed its doors to democratic debate and education in times of
crisis such as these.




-- 
Dr Athina Karatzogianni
Lecturer in Media, Culture and Society
The Dean's Representative (Chinese Partnerships)
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The University of Hull
United Kingdom
HU6 7RX
T: ++44 (0) 1482 46 5790
F: ++44 (0) 1482 466107
http://www.hull.ac.uk/humanities/media_studies/staff/athina_karatzogianni/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20090331/42b434b2/attachment.html>