After the cancelled nationwide education protest in Utrecht, unions FNV and AOb plan to hold another protest on Monday, November 25, this time in The Hague. The University of Groningen (UG) is once again granting permission for staff and students to attend.
The UG administration is encouraging employees and students to make their voices heard, they announced. As with the cancelled November 14 demonstration, participants are allowed to miss work or classes for this purpose, provided they coordinate with supervisors or instructors and ensure that any missed tasks are completed later.
Whether the university administration will attend remains uncertain. ‘They’re doing their utmost to be there, and significant effort is being made behind the scenes’, a university spokesperson said
Largest protest in years
The demonstration on Thursday, November 14, was expected to be the largest nationwide education protest in years. Thousands of employees and students from across the country were set to gather in Utrecht to protest the government’s sweeping budget cuts for higher education under the Schoof cabinet.
However, the unions cancelled the protest the evening before, following advice from Utrecht’s mayor and police. Authorities cited ‘concrete information’ that a pro-Palestinian group intended to ‘hijack’ the demonstration and potentially resort to violence.
Anger and disappointment
The unions described the cancellation as a ‘de facto ban’ on the protest. FNV expressed anger and disappointment, stating that the action they had ‘worked so hard to organise’ could not take place. Nonetheless, some student organisations ignored the threat and went to Utrecht on Thursday anyway.
It remains unclear whether Organize the RUG, which had planned to send 180 people in three buses to Utrecht on Thursday, will arrange buses for Monday. As before, union members can have their train tickets to The Hague reimbursed by the union.