English

Opiskelijatoiminta is an autonomous student collective at the University of Helsinki.

Update 16/3/2010

Coming up:

The Revolution Eve

Helsinki celebrates free studies!
Wednesday 17.3.2010 at 19.00
Academic anniversary!
Gathering at the lobby of the University Main Building (new side).

Come celebrate free studies and anniversary of the Paris commune.

Preparing for the demonstration and searching for good life!
Tomorrow is today!

“I’d never imagined experiencing this kind of party at the university!”

Program includes:
● festive speeches and party atmosphere
● drinks and music
● workshop for the demonstration on Thursday
● hat workshop take your student cap with you!
● late night movies from behind the barricades
● workshop for guaranteed basic income: 1000e/month

Music will be provided by DJ Marcos Almeyda (Autogestion Project) and DJ Cybred.

“When I entered Porthania’s revolving doors my life took a radical turn!”

Come and bring your friends too!

Reception at the lobby of the University Main Building (new side) at 19.00
opiskelijatoiminta.net

UPDATE 07/09/2009
Squat for homeless students!

[The squat has been evicted!]

A group of Opiskelijatoiminta network members took over a building located on the grounds of the former Lapinlahti hospital on Friday, September the 4th.

The aim of the activists is to provide temporary accommodation for students who have not been able to find it themselves. The building in question is owned by the City of Helsinki and has been empty for years.

There is a shortage of affordable rental accommodation in Helsinki metropolitan area. Exchange students in particular have encountered major difficulties in finding apartments this autumn. Local universities strive to become increasingly international, but they are not ready to accommodate the exchangestudents. Student Union of the University of Helsinki HYY has provided emergency accommodation for some students by leasing two flats from the City of Helsinki, but they are already fully booked.

Sleeping on a friend’s couch or in emergency housing facilities makes it difficult to concentrate on studying. In a situation where the rents continue to rise in the capital region and students are living on temporary solutions the Student Action network supports taking empty buildings and other unused real estate into residential use.

There are plans for renovating the building now squatted to make it suitable for supported living for disabled people. The squatters fully support this but hope the house could be used for other purposes until the renovation work actually starts. According to the information from Helsinki City this will not happen before next year.

The squatters have no intention of damaging the property. They just want to live in the house peacefully until either HOAS (the foundation for student housing in the Helsinki region), City of Helsinki or the various student unions are able to offer a solution for housing the exchange students now reliant on temporary accommodation.

Opiskelijatoiminta network will participate in the Opening Carnival of the University of Helsinki at Porthania on Monday September the7th from noon till 5 pm. Students without apartment can get more information about the housing squat from there.

_________

UPDATE 27/04/2009:

COMING UP: RUPTURE THURSDAY!

We will organize a demonstration in Helsinki on 30 April 2009 as a part of the MURROSTORSTAI 2009 (“Rupture Thursday”) protest.

Gathering at 17.30 in front of Porthania Building (Yliopistonkatu 3).
CAPITALISM OUT OF THE CAMPUS!
feat. Misf*ts dj’s, Tuomas Toivonen and Mesak

Against the new university law and for better income – let’s reclaim our future!

Demonstration on April 30 at 17.30. Meeting at the front of Porthania
Building.

The economic crisis affects people in different ways. Students and
academic part-time workers are often the ones who lose: the current
economic situation implies that the means of subsistence are increasingly
deteriorating. Less and less part-time jobs and summer jobs are being
offered, while students’ financial aid is inadequate to cover the cost of
living. Students are simultaneously expected to graduate as fast as
possible and work under adverse agreements. Increasing control results in
anxiety among the students and the university staff and creates fear
towards the future by limiting the possibilities to live autonomously.

At the same time universities are being privatized and commercialized, and
as a result the freedom to learn and teach is reduced to the possibility
to select among predetermined alternatives. Fiscal year by fiscal year our
future is being taken away from us.

Because of the structure of capitalism some people get richer and reap the
benefits while others are impoverished. Inequality between classes
increases. Desperation and hate grows. Workers, especially low-income
workers, young people, immigrants and homeless are suffering most under
the current situation. Student or researcher can belong to any of these
groups, perhaps to every one of them: our struggle is shared by everyone
living under precarious conditions. We must get rid of politics based on
antagonisms between different interest groups and understand what is
common to people living in different situations.

We are opposing the limiting of our possibilities in the name of profit,
efficiency and innovations. We refuse to play by the rules dictated by the
capital. We refuse to live for the markets. For these reasons, the action
week organized by Opiskelijatoiminta will culminate in a May Day
demonstration. On Rupture Thursday 2009 we will work together with others
living under the sway of capitalism.

Join the protest, its time to reclaim our future!

Capitalism out of the campus -carnival on April 30 at 17.30 at Porthania

Misf*ts dj’s and Tuomas Toivonen and Mesak will be performing at the
demonstration, which will start at the front of Porthania Building
(Yliopistonkatu 3).

……………………………..

NO to the new Universities Act!

We want to invite everyone to protest against the new Universities Act, proposed by the Finnish government. The parliament will decide about the law this Spring. We demand the law to be withdrawn: we want to reform our university from totally different points of departure!

We are collaborating with autonomous groups of students, researchers and employees in other cities in  Finland. In Jyväskylä for example, there’s a group called The Common University Network – see here (pdf).

On February 19, with demonstrations and walk-outs all over the country, and an occupation in Helsinki, we voiced our discontent about the University Reform – but the struggle has only begun!

FRIDAY THE 13TH, MARCH 2009: DEMONSTRATION IN HELSINKI
-> Strike against the new Universities Act!

Opiskelijatoiminta organized a general assembly (29.1.) and a discussion event (3.2.) concerning the current reform process of the Finnish Universities Act.

We came to the conclusion that the current law proposal still contains many disagreeable aspects. At its worst passing the law could have disastrous consequences for the Finnish university system. According to the proposal, funding of the universities will be based on questionable systems of measurement; power within the university will be centralized to the head master, chancellor, deans and cabinet; the majority of the cabinet, which is the highest decision-making organ in the university, will consist of outsiders, non-academic members.

The law reform also allows universities to start charging tuition fees from students coming outside EU/EEA countries. This is supposedly going to increase the competitiveness for international research funding and to diversify the Finnish university system.

UPDATE 20.2.2009: Our demonstration on Thursday February 19 was participated by 1500 people. It was organised by us, autonomously: by students and university staff independently of their unions. After the demonstration, a group of more than 100 demonstrators occupied the administration building of the University of Helsinki. The sit-in continued until the morning. Finally, we have made our voices heard and we will keep doing so until we win!

WHAT WE WANT: We demand the new Universities Act to be withdrawn. We want to reform our university from a totally different, more democratic perspective. We are also protesting against the university leadership which has given its support to the law despite our opposition.

We send our full support and solidarity to struggles of students, researchers and precarians world-wide! Our struggle is common! Together we can win!

You can find some information and post comments in English on our online forum on this discussion thread.

See news:
Chto Delat: Helsinki University Occupied!
Helsingin Sanomat: Demonstrators offer chilly reception to new Universities Act
Monthly Review: Finland: Students Defend Universities from Capitalism

Materials published by the Ministry of Education:

Proposal for the new Universities Act in Brief (pdf)
Main points of the university reform (pdf)
University Reform. Brochure (pdf)

Some general information about the Finnish University reform:

A new law changing the functioning of Finnish universities is being rushed through the Finnish parliamentary system at a reckless pace. Meanwhile the management and decision-making system of the University of Helsinki is being changed in the next few months, even before the Finnish parliament votes on the approval of the new law. Are the frequent one-sided hearings a real and the only chance to influence on the imminent changes that will influence us, our university and our ways of learning?

What do we academics really know about the law and the renewing process that is associated with it?

In recent years, state power has put immense pressure for change on universities all around Europe: universities are to be made into quasi-corporate entities. The production of information taking place in universities is being increasingly bound with requirements for productivity, and the share of corporate funding in university budgets is increasing. The same form of development is taking place in the renewing of the Finnish university law.

The law change will transform ‘autonomy’ into a freedom to beg funding where it can most easily be acquired from.

The basis of university funding is being increasingly founded on systems of measurement that have been developed for measuring economic productivity. This change is analogous to a more general form of change taking place in modern society: all institutions are being forced to enhance their operational efficiency. The rhetoric for increasing university autonomy is essentially the same. But what in fact is being promoted is economic autonomy: universities will be made into corporate-like judicial entities that are responsible for their own profitability. Even this form of autonomy is questionable, as the state can arbitrarily shift the amount of funding that it provides.

The law change will centralise power within the university and place outside, non-academic members into governing bodies.

The law change will centralise power significantly to the headmaster, chancellor, deans and cabinet. More than half of the members of the cabinet are to be outside members. The current principle for distributing power in universities, the tripartite model, has been achieved by common struggle. Instead of practically abandoning the tripartite model, democracy within universities must be strengthened. Power must not be centralised to the headmaster, chancellor, the deans or representatives of corporate influence. The democratically distributed power of students, professors, researchers and other staff must not be decreased – it must be increased on all levels of university government!

Public access to research information will not be guaranteed.

One of the core principles of the scientific community, public access to research information, is being threatened as corporate and state influence increase. We demand that the openness of research information be guaranteed and written clearly into the new Universities Act.

The law change will give universities the possibility of charging tuition fees.

The charging of tuition fees from foreign students is the first step towards a situation where all students will have to pay tuition fees. We say NO: education must be free of charge for all, now and always!

contact us: opiskelijatoiminta(a)gmail.com