If these budget cuts go through, whether it’s 2 billion or a compromise of several hundred millions, it will be a demolition of higher education and research. 0.7 knows who will carry the burden. It will be the teachers, and not the managers. It will be the students, although they might not know it. It will be those without permanent contracts, those at the bottom of the academic ladder. It will be the workers. Those we rely on to teach our kids, and keep academia running. Don’t be fooled, Dutch academia can easily do without star academics, their contributions are minor. Without the VSNU, without Marcel Levi or Geert ten Dam we would be better off actually. However, without our teachers, disproportionately women, non-white, international, and precarious scholars, Dutch academia cannot survive.
Obviously, these budget cuts will mean more unpaid overwork, more burn out for students and staff, less education, less research, lower quality, lower quantity, and even less workers and money for Dutch society if you care about such things. Through a liberal lens, these budget cuts don’t make sense. And can we say to all those fools who wanted more Dutch language at our institutions, but didn’t care enough to actually engage with the root causes of why our dutch education was disappearing (psst its the neoliberal manner in which we finance our universities) and therefore sided with nationalist and far-right forces, you’ll get what you wish for. With the exodus of international students & staff, Dutch academia will enter a self imposed winter. But at least we will be enjoying the leopards eating your face.
These budget cuts are an attack by the far-right. We ask you not to cower. They are a demolition job. The government refuses any democratic process, any negotiation with the sector, and lacks any real policy plan. They don’t care, because the damage is the objective. And Bruins tries to hide behind his crocodile tears, but make no mistake Bruins is fully committed to our execution. He will soon be gone of course, and another vain fool will take his place. Because the demolition job will continue. This government will hit all public sectors, again and again, and all pillars of democracy and an open society again and again. And each time we will be weaker. This is why we should unite. We cannot be opportunistic (we see you CDA and CU, appeasing fascism), we cannot be divided, we have to show solidarity, courage, and resilience.
Because of the threats to democracy, because our dear university managers won’t defend us but rather use this crisis to cut the humanities, because the precarity will trickle down to the bottom of the academic ladder, there is no other option than to strike. 0.7 is fully committed to a strike until the budget cuts are completely off the table. And we encourage all students and staff to prepare accordingly (we are also in full support of the strikes at the UvA. Free Palestine!). Any excuses not to strike cannot hold up in the face of the consequences we will endure if we don’t strike. If we accept cutbacks without a good democratic process, we will be a perpetual victim. We could lose our sector. Therefore, we cannot yield.
0.7 has three suggestions;
- We strike, until the budget cuts are completely off the table! For all our sakes.
- Join 0.7! Over the past 3 years the academic action groups from the bottom have dispersed. It’s time to reassemble and form a block once more, and force the change that is needed.
- Because we are a constructive partner in the negotiations surrounding the education budget, if our colleagues are not willing to strike with us, we are willing to accede Geert Wilders room, the new ‘Torentje’, and propose that all full professors from now on will receive a 0.7 tenure with a retention of tasks.