WORLD WORLDWIDE POLAND News Journal Update - (en) Poland, FA: THEN THERE ALSO A VERY IMPORTANT COMMENT: ROZBRAT WITH JOWITA JOWITA WITH ROZBRATEM - INTERVIEW WITH WERONIKA (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

Protests related to the fate of the Jowita Student Dormitory have been
going on in Poznan for several months. The position of the Adam
Mickiewicz University authorities seemed to be irreconcilable and aimed
at closing the dormitory. The poor technical condition and the costs of
potential renovation seemed to be only a good excuse. There was no will
to stop this process on the part of the Adam Mickiewicz University
authorities, as evidenced by the many years of postponing the
renovation, but also by the vague explanations given after the first
protests by students.
The determination of people who wanted to defend both DS Jowita and
demand changes in the functioning of the Adam Mickiewicz University was
only growing. The result was a conference organized on December 8 on the
premises of the (partly no longer functioning) DS Jowita "Faces of
exploitation". After it ended, the students present at the site decided
to start a sit-in strike. It lasted until December 17, although the
protesters managed to reach a successful agreement on December 14. As
the protesters themselves wrote: After 6 days of engaging lectures,
classes and workshops, we forced a clear declaration from the Adam
Mickiewicz University authorities and the Minister of Science and Higher
Education: the renovation of "Jowita" will be financed from state funds!
Additionally, we were guaranteed that we would not face ANY legal
consequences for taking strike action!"

Below we present an interview with Weronika, one of the participants of
this protest

First, tell us something about yourself - what you study, in what mode
and in what year. What is your current housing situation?

I studied ethnology full-time and finished my studies in the third year.
Currently, I have been living in Rozbrat for half a year.

The success of a strike always has many mothers and fathers. Tell us how
you joined the sit-in strike and what its beginning looked like from
your perspective

I participated in a conference on the different faces of exploitation
and when, after Katarzyna Rakowska's lecture[Lecture "Exploitation at
work" as part of the "Faces of Exploitation" Conference], everyone went
out to the stairs in front of Jowita to protest against the sale of this
dormitory, I stayed inside. After a few minutes, the entire group came
back inside with smiles on their faces and it turned out that we were
staying for the next scheduled lecture. The atmosphere was tense, we
didn't know yet what the authorities' reaction would be, and the
employees at the reception didn't quite know what to do with us. They
tried to get us to stop and just go away. I also talked to one lady who
tried hard to convince us to do it somewhere else, because she needed an
exam room for "serious people", which was to emphasize that our protest
was childish. Unfortunately, she couldn't have been more wrong. The
chancellor also visited us -[Dr Marcin Wysocki]. We quickly developed
short demands that we could present to him[1) We demand a specific plan
for the renovation of DS Jowita and the restoration of the building to
the function of a public, cheap dormitory. 2) We demand a specific plan
for the development of the university's housing resources. 3) We demand
public canteens and break rooms at the faculties]. For me it was the
beginning of everything, because we had something specific to fight for.

What do you remember best from the strike days, what event stuck in your
memory the most?

I don't think there was one such moment, the protest in Jowita was a
continuous process where we adapted the space to our needs, we had long,
often stormy discussions, which were supposed to lead us to something. I
studied anthropology, so I paid attention to many things, but if I had
to choose one moment, it would be when the minister[Minister of Science
Dariusz Wieczore]left us and we started shouting the slogan "the
university is the common good" and I saw tears in the eyes of people who
then they started hugging each other with joy. After that, we went out
to the steps of Jowita, practically without any media, because they
meekly ran after the minister and the academic entourage. Behind me,
people were banging on pots and bowls with spoons, tapping samba
rhythms, and we were shouting that Jowita was staying, that this was our
home. I was aware that this was only the beginning of the fight, because
now the authorities would have to make sure that Jowita actually
remained a cheap, public dormitory, but I will never forget the sense of
community and solidarity.

Then a very important slogan was also mentioned: Rozbrat z Jowita Jowita
z Rozbrat. This is a paraphrase of the slogan: Rozbrat z Cegielski
Cegielski z Rozbrat, which accompanied the protests of Cegielski's
employees in the early 2000s. From this, the Workers' Initiative was
born, which actively supported the occupation. Rozbrat also helped us a
lot, this is another thing I will not forget: the multitude of
communities and initiatives involved in the entire protest. Rector
Kaniewska tried to depreciate our presence in Jowita by arguing that
they were not only students or not only students from Adam Mickiewicz
University, and for me the strength of this protest lay in its diversity
and common goal. Rector[prof.dr.hab. Bogumila Kaniewska]and the
chancellor[Dr Marcin Wysocki]will never be able to understand this...

During the occupation, numerous meetings and lectures were held - tell
us something about them, were you looking for people willing to give
lectures or maybe they volunteered, what did it look like from the
so-called behind the scenes?

Very quickly, the idea emerged that this protest should not be just an
idle sit-down in Jowita, but an active acquisition of knowledge and a
continuation of the conference. It took the form of a teach-in, lectures
and workshops were conducted by people who came to the conference, but
we also quickly started inviting others. We wrote e-mails and asked our
lecturers if they would like to get involved in some way or even
transfer some of the classes from faculty buildings to Jowita. Some
lecturers refused us, saying that they supported our protest, but for
logistical reasons, classes in the dorms would be too big an
undertaking. However, a whole list of ideas was created for what else we
could organize, and when we received a declaration about Jowita's
behavior, we decided to stay until Sunday so that all the lectures and
concerts could take place and we could finish it on our own terms.

Jowita is not the only dormitory that was threatened with closure, there
are at least two more dormitories in Poznan itself, the liquidation of
which was announced, probably not coincidentally, during the strike.
Have you received any signals from other cities or universities about
plans to liquidate university premises?

As for the announcement related to the dorms of the University of Life
Sciences, I perceive it as simple malice intended to create a narrative
that the fight for Jowita is insufficient. But we invited the local
students to join us because we will fight for dormitories for all
students. During the panel on outsourcing at universities, prepared by a
sociology student from Warsaw, we discussed closed dormitories and
student clubs in the capital. During the transformation, universities
massively got rid of buildings or reduced them to a terrible condition
to justify their sale, which was also what they wanted to do with
Jowita. The topic of closed or currently closed dormitories outrages
many students, which was heard during the talks in Jowita, and I think
that the university authorities must prepare for further protests or at
least be more careful in selling out the common good, because no one
will let them off the hook so easily. .

What prospects for activities of the academic community do you see in
the future, can you see involvement from other cities and academic
centers? For now, should we only be happy about "Jowita's win" and not
be overly optimistic?

If students and the academic community in general want to change
something, they need to organize from the bottom up and build bonds that
are the basis of this mythical academic environment, which, in my
opinion, does not really exist at the moment. During the occupation,
students from other cities wrote to us and came asking for support or
advice on how to start something like this in their cities. It was very
encouraging, because if people from Wroclaw found out about Jowit at
12:00, and at 15:00 they were already on the train to Poznan, it means
that they are really determined and that they care. I think that the
most important thing is the time after the end of the occupation, now we
can build a real student movement. I'm not sure about the rest of the
people associated with the university. They like to talk about the
protests, mythologize and romanticize them, but if, apart from trade
union committees at universities, they were not able to show us broader
support, I don't see it that well.

When it comes to winning, this is just the beginning. I and many other
people realize that there is still a lot of work ahead of us. Our
demands were broader than Jowita herself. We want dormitories for all
students throughout Poland, where prices will be regulated and will not
depend on the condition of the dormitory, we want cheap, public canteens
for everyone.

www.rozbrat.org

https://federacja-anarchistyczna.pl/2023/12/21/wtedy-padlo-tez-bardzo-wazne-haslo-rozbrat-z-jowita-jowita-z-rozbratem-wywiad-z-weronika/
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