Students protest against Recruitment Days: ‘Education for liberation, not corporate domination’

About a dozen students gathered outside the Erasmus Pavilion on Tuesday to protest at the opening of the Erasmus Recruitment Days. The demonstrators, representing OccupyEUR and other protest groups, believe that the university should not collaborate with ‘destructive’ corporations.

Among the banners and chants in the protest were ‘EUR cut your ties’, ‘stop recruiting for planetary looting’, and ‘the students say no, killers must go’. Students and guests visiting the opening of the Recruitment Days seemingly ignored the proceedings.

The Erasmus Recruitment Days is a series of events aimed at helping students match and network with companies and organisations. Lasting until 7 February, hundreds of EUR students and 85 organisations are participating in this year’s edition. To the anger of the demonstrators, among the corporations involved were Amazon, Google, Nestle, Shell, ING, and Rabobank. The demonstrators criticised these companies on the OccupyEUR Instagram page, accusing them of ‘exploitative and deadly business’, referring to child labour, poor working conditions and other wrongdoings.

'Other ways'

While there were no formal demands, Philosophy student and demonstrator Anna (25) said the group wanted to ‘end the recruitment for these destructive industries’. Like the rest of the demonstrators present, she believes that there are other ways of ensuring a successful career after graduation. “I personally sympathise with students who are under a lot of pressure to have a succesful career or to perform, while having study debts. It’s understandable if they are looking for a way to have a good life. What we are saying, is that the good life doesn’t have to be built on death and exploitation.”

The protest went uninterrupted and lasted for an hour, ending shortly after the beginning of the Erasmus Recruitment Days opening ceremony at the Pavilion.