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  • Struggling To Get United. Contemporary Student Movement in Poland As A Part of International Networks.

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    Year 2009 has been a very active time for student movements in Europe. Many universities have been occupied and numerous student movements appeared as response to the Bologna Process and reforms commercialising higher education. In Poland students were not very active, partly because of the characteristics of the reforms and partly due to the cultural and socio-political context. However, two major student movements appeared in Wrocław and in Gdańsk (OKUPÉ - Open Commitee for Liberation of the Educational Space). Using international student networks as background for our analysis, we focus on OKUPÉ, which we were active participants of. The movement had an active beginning and managed to gather a considerable number of people demanding changes at the university, including relations of power, survaillance policy, equality issues, lack of participation in decision-making processes and spacial planing at the new campus. However, the promising beginning has not yet led to a continuous mobilisation and the movement had to face internal conflicts, burning out of the members, fragmentalisation of interest and problems with decision-making and communication. The methods of decision-making brought from other European movements have not worked properly in the local context. In our paper we take into consideration the cultural, socio-political and educational context and compare OKUPÉ to other student movements in Europe, e.g., the Icelandic movement which two of us took part in. We hope that these perspectives will allow us not only to analyse OKUPÉ's life-cycle and the possible reasons for the organisational crisis we faced, but also to contribute to better understanding of social movements in Poland and East-Central Europe.

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    Year 2009 has been a very active time for student movements in Europe. Many universities have been occupied and numerous student movements appeared as response to the Bologna Process and reforms commercialising higher education. In Poland students were not very active, partly because of the characteristics of the reforms and partly due to the cultural and socio-political context. However, two major student movements appeared in Wrocław and in Gdańsk (OKUPÉ - Open Commitee for Liberation of the Educational Space). Using international student networks as background for our analysis, we focus on OKUPÉ, which we were active participants of. The movement had an active beginning and managed to gather a considerable number of people demanding changes at the university, including relations of power, survaillance policy, equality issues, lack of participation in decision-making processes and spacial planing at the new campus. However, the promising beginning has not yet led to a continuous mobilisation and the movement had to face internal conflicts, burning out of the members, fragmentalisation of interest and problems with decision-making and communication. The methods of decision-making brought from other European movements have not worked properly in the local context. In our paper we take into consideration the cultural, socio-political and educational context and compare OKUPÉ to other student movements in Europe, e.g., the Icelandic movement which two of us took part in. We hope that these perspectives will allow us not only to analyse OKUPÉ's life-cycle and the possible reasons for the organisational crisis we faced, but also to contribute to better understanding of social movements in Poland and East-Central Europe.

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    59 views17 pages

    Struggling To Get United. Contemporary Student Movement in Poland As A Part of International Networks.

    Uploaded by

    satkow
    Year 2009 has been a very active time for student movements in Europe. Many universities have been occupied and numerous student movements appeared as response to the Bologna Process and reforms commercialising higher education. In Poland students were not very active, partly because of the characteristics of the reforms and partly due to the cultural and socio-political context. However, two major student movements appeared in Wrocław and in Gdańsk (OKUPÉ - Open Commitee for Liberation of the Educational Space). Using international student networks as background for our analysis, we focus on OKUPÉ, which we were active participants of. The movement had an active beginning and managed to gather a considerable number of people demanding changes at the university, including relations of power, survaillance policy, equality issues, lack of participation in decision-making processes and spacial planing at the new campus. However, the promising beginning has not yet led to a continuous mobilisation and the movement had to face internal conflicts, burning out of the members, fragmentalisation of interest and problems with decision-making and communication. The methods of decision-making brought from other European movements have not worked properly in the local context. In our paper we take into consideration the cultural, socio-political and educational context and compare OKUPÉ to other student movements in Europe, e.g., the Icelandic movement which two of us took part in. We hope that these perspectives will allow us not only to analyse OKUPÉ's life-cycle and the possible reasons for the organisational crisis we faced, but also to contribute to better understanding of social movements in Poland and East-Central Europe.

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    of 17

    Struggling to get united.

    Contemporary student
    movements in Poland as a part of international
    networks.

    Piotr Kowzan
    Małgorzata Zielińska
    Magdalena Prusinowska (absent)

    Institute of Education, University of Gdańsk, Poland


    ISA, 16.07.2010
    RC47.12: United We Stand? Social Movements in Eastern and Western Europe
    Goals & methods
    ● Discussing one “student” movement in Poland
    in the context of global actions and the
    International Student Movement (ISM)
    ● Authors were participants and founders of the
    movement, have experienced it's crisis
    Student movements in the global
    context
    ➔ International Student Movement (ISM)- an independent platform uniting
    groups struggling for free and emancipatory education.
    ➔ Originating in Germany
    ➔ Against neo-liberal reforms
    ➔ “International Day of Action against the Commercialization of Education”
    (5/11/2008) - a series of coordinated protests in over 25 countries
    ➔ “Reclaim your Education - Global Week of Action” (20-29/4/2009)
    ➔ massive demonstrations and occupations (especially in Spain, Germany,
    Croatia, Austria and the USA)
    ➔ violent police repressions
    Bologna Process
    ● In Europe protests had often
    “Anti-Bolognian” character,
    ● For Poland B.P. meant: mobility,
    different structure of studies, and
    in contrary to e.g. Germany, more
    choice for students
    ● But the new reform plans that
    introduced some elements of
    commercialisation (more
    dependency on business) were
    presented in spring 2009, when
    student movements in Poland
    had already been mobilised.
    Student movements in Poland
    ● Polish activists hearing about ISM and expecting that something should go on in
    Poland too
    ● Independent movements in Gdańsk and Wrocław with clear alliance to ISM,
    focusing on local issues
    ● Later also actions in Lublin, Poznań, Warsaw
    ● Mostly block recruitment of PhD students and former exchange students; multiple
    membership
    OKUPÉ

    ● Gdansk: lack of scholarships for PhD students, who first (in November 2008) decided to
    act within the available organizational framework – first-year students “took over” the
    PhD Student Council.
    ● need for an active and open organisation empowering students' voices and articulating
    their grievance against the security policy at the university (increasing number of cameras
    inside buildings, fencing of the previously open campus, and security guards controlling
    everybody who enters the library).
    ● first meeting - March, 11, 2009, around 50 people turned up and there was a heated
    discussion about everything that should be changed at the university.
    ● Otwarty Komitet Uwalniania Przestrzeni Edukacyjnych – Open Committee for the
    Liberation of Educational Spaces
    Organizational structure
    ● Based on:
    ● Consensus decision-making
    ● Working groups for particular issues
    ● Sign language at the meetings
    ● Online discussions between meetings
    The fence around UG

    Photo: Dominik Krzymiński


    Issue Actions Results
    Fencing the previously an open letter to the rector + discussion panel + = no changes with the fence; but a lot
    open campus
    Issues and actions
    a clandestine direct action + a film + interviews
    in the media
    of discussion at the university and in
    media
    Police-like control in the research + petition + meetings with the = some minor changes
    library administration 
    Lack of scholarships for coordinated international flash mob + T-shirts 2 scholarships + at least 2 more
    PhD students with slogans + letters from the student council to promised in year 2010/11
    the dean
    Cameras and over-reactive fake cameras installed = no changes, minor repressions to the
    university police members of the movement
    New reforms – more demonstrations, banners, discussions, T-shirts difficult to evaluate
    commercialization of with slogans
    public universities
    Solidarity solidarity letters + meetings/conferences some degree of unity, a new
    with other movements together+ coordinated film screenings organization on the national level is
    being established
    Cars parked on the grass discussion with the rector university guards started to deal with
    and sidewalks the problem
    Autonomy of the letter to the rector, legal research, individual more awareness about the autonomy
    university vs. police control interventions at the university
    Zombie Flæsh Mob
    Reactions
    ● Some support (petition, protesting against the
    reform)
    ● OKUPE as a collector of complains
    ● Lack of interest from most of students
    ● Destroying the elite image of the studies
    ● Activism in the cradle of “Solidarność”
    The life-cycle of the movement
    A lot of energy in the beginning, 50 members

    Many left, dissatisfied with aggressive discussions


    National/Common Education Congress – separate group
    Latency, communication limited to a minimum
    Occurring problems and their
    possible explanations
    ● Consensus vs. different goals
    ● Membership crisis
    ● Incoherent group
    ● Different understandings of power (Weber vs.
    Foucault)
    ● Polish authoritarianism
    ● Academic culture of criticism (Graeber D.,
    2009, Twilight of Vanguardism)
    Other conclusions
    ● Small group managed to attract a lot of
    attention but not to mobilise masses
    ● Struggling to unite with other groups in Poland
    and abroad – some successful, some not
    ● Western – (Central) Eastern Divide?
    ● Copying methods and goals from the West or
    addressing universal needs?
    ● Local vs. global/Western know-how
    Thank you!
    Any questions or comments?

    Contact to the authors:


    malzi745@gmail.com
    dokpko@ug.gda.pl
    m-prusinowska@tlen.pl

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