CNN iReport

VIENNA, AUSTRIA

STUDENTS FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHTS ON AUSTRIAN UNIVERSITIES

Student Protests in whole Austria

Everything started with a student occupation of the University of Fine Arts in Vienna. Two days later on Thursday last week a sudden turn happened after a spontaneous student protest at the Main University of Vienna (Hauptuniversität Wien).  Hundreds of students invaded and finally occupied the biggest lecture hall of Austria (Audimax).  At the end of the afternoon a storm of students flooded the lecture hall. Thousands of present students of the Main University present at the Audimax agreed to form a plenum.

The plenum is based on a „grassroots democracy“. Every day two plenums are hold in the lecture hall.  For that the present students elect two moderators twice a day. On this platform discussions are hold about the current state of the movement and „task-forces“ present their achievements during the day.

The movement is participatory and volunteers form and join „task-forces“. Those task-forces have the purpose to tackle certain administrative problems within the occupation. Although they also concentrate on their postulations.  In a few days a web of almost 40 task-forces reflect the complexity and the will of this movement.

Daily, thousands of students  participate euphorically in the occupation and a new critical also political atmosphere can be sensed among the Viennese student's community.

As a matter of fact, this motivation has jumped on several other universities in Austria and attracted a lot of attention in other universities around the world. Students in Graz, Linz, Klagenfurt and Innsbruck, which are other major university cities in Austria are protesting and occupying their universities.  Solidarisation messages and visits of professors from around the world are legitimizing the occupation in the Main University of Vienna.

After a week of prospering occupations around Austrian universities, major protests were hold in whole Austria today.  More than 30 000 students were on the streets of Vienna demanding their rights and their nonnegotiable postulations.

Among a long list of demands, students want mainly better study conditions on their universities. They also ask for a reform of the Bachelor-Master-System (Bologna Process), which seems to make the studies to an off-the-job-training instead of a scientific study. Their political propensities are pluralistic and impartial in any extend.

For further interests on this movement:

Read the postulations on the given link at the bottom. More information can be found about the movement also on the posted links at the bottom.

Here the postulations in English:

http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2009/10/25/reclaim_your_university.pdf

Update Wed, 11.04.2009:

Universities in Germany occupied:

Heidelberg occupation is confirmed

Berlin TU and Freiburg confirmation pending

Update Fri, 10.30.2009:

Link to Euronews in English

http://www.euronews.net/2009/10/29/austria-s-students-demand-reforms/

Student protests are starting to spread across Germany:

Uni Campus - Marburg, Germany

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rot-blog/sets/72157622682918748/     -- PHOTO GALLERY

Berlin, Germany

Further Protests are planned in Germany’s capital.

Universität Hamburg - Hamburg, Germany

Banners were hanged on the façade of the university, supporting Austrian universities.

http://de.indymedia.org/2009/10/264440.shtml  -- PHOTO GALLERY

Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg – Halle, Germany

http://media.de.indymedia.org/images/2009/10/264394.jpg

Update Wed, 10.28.2009:

Student protests in whole Austria.

Update Tue, 10.27.2009:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tustudentgraz -- NEW LIVE STREAM FROM THE OCCUPATION IN GRAZ, STYRIA

- NEW OCCUPATION AT THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY VIENNA

- NEW OCCUPATION AT THE JKU (Johannes Kepler Universität) IN LINZ UPPER AUSTRIA

- NEW OCCUPATION AT UNI CAMPUS (HS 1) (VIENNA, Altes AKH)

Boston Herald:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/europe/view/20091026austrian_students_protest_poor_conditions_reforms/srvc=home&position=recent

Update Mo, 10.26.2009:

Organized flash mob by the student occupation! one of many actions today:

http://ichmachpolitik.at/questions/531

You are free to read this file ;) of the guest lector on last Saturday:

http://www.europeanstudentforum.org/IMG/pdf/Universities_in_a_Neo-Liberal_World_by_A_Callinicos_1_.pdf

(The pdf file is from Alex Callinicos a Brittish Prof. for European studies at the University King’s College London and former Prof. for political science at the University of New York, who came to visit our occupation on Saturday.)

http://audimax.ie.bagru.at/  -- LIVE STREAM AND HOMEPAGE (AUDIMAX)

http://twitter.com/Unibrennt

http://twitter.com/TUbrennt

http://www.freiebildung.at

PLEASE FORM PART OF THE DISCUSSION ON FACEBOOK

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=audimax&init=quick#/pages/Audimax-Besetzung-in-der-Uni-Wien-Die-Uni-brennt/158948343468?ref=ts                                                       

http://www.facebook.com/unigrazgehoertuns

www.malen-nach-zahlen.at         -- University of Fine Arts

http://tu-brennt.soup.io/                           --Technical University of Vienna