Small protest at Woudestein, new demonstration planned for 25 November

The trade unions are planning to take to the streets again on Monday 25 November, to protest against budget cuts in higher education, this time in The Hague. Last Thursday, labour unions FNV and AOb cancelled the protest under pressure from the mayor of Utrecht. Despite this, protests still took place in Utrecht, in the House of Representatives, and at universities.

At 1.00 pm in Rotterdam, around sixty staff members and students gathered at Erasmus Plaza, where union representative and ESHCC lecturer Ana Uribe Sandoval addressed the group. The group then moved to the theatre in the Erasmus Pavilion, where they followed a livestream of speeches in the House of Representatives on the big screen. In a committee room of the House of Representatives, many union leaders and university board members had gathered, including representatives from Erasmus University. At the same time, groups of staff and students in Wageningen, Maastricht, Leiden, and other university cities also watched the livestream.

Discontent

However, the speeches in the House of Representatives were delayed. During a Q&A session led by Uribe Sandoval in the meantime, the level of dissatisfaction with FNV and AOb’s decision to call off the protest became evident. “I find it incomprehensible that the unions cancelled it themselves instead of letting it be banned,” said one of the staff members present. “We completely agree,” Uribe Sandoval replied. “If it had been banned, we could have taken legal action to assert our right to protest. Now that it’s been cancelled, that’s not possible.”

This ‘cancellation’ was relative, however, as thousands of demonstrators, including staff and students from Erasmus University, had already gathered in Utrecht.