CALL FOR SOLIDARITY TO THE ISTANBUL BILGI UNIVERSITY TRIAL!
14.November.2011, at 2pm., Çağlayan Palace of Justice, ISTANBUL
WE DEFEND THE VALUES OF THE UNIVERSITY, SOCIAL RESPONSABILITY OF UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS, ACADEMIC AUTONOMY AND SOLIDARITY AMONG LABORING PEOPLE!
CALL FOR SOLIDARITY TO THE ISTANBUL BILGI UNIVERSITY TRIAL!
The institutions listed below call you to support the 14 university members who have been dismissed from Istanbul BILGI University in Turkey in June 2011 and sued BILGI on the grounds of unlawful dismissal of its UNIONized employees. The second court hearing will take place on Monday, 14th of November in Istanbul. These young scholars have been all dismissed as a by-product of the ‘takeover process’ of the university by a for-profit university corporation, namely the Laureate Education, Inc.
They have been dismissed because they have defended the academic autonomy, stood up for an independent position of academia from short-sighted profit/loss calculations and fought for job security by initiating the first UNIONization movement in a foundation university in Turkey in 2010. They were seen as concrete and ideological obstacles to the plans of the university administration of cutting of personnel costs by introducing various precarization measures. They were fired and their posts at the Departments of Turkish Language, Sociology, History, Mathematics, Law, Comparative Literature, Economics and Cultural Studies have been or will be now filled with young precarious ‘disposable’ academics.
The whole process of ‘corporatization of the Istanbul BILGI University’ with its new ruling elite with a business terminology sets an example of how the university landscape in Turkey, now summing up to around 200 public and foundation bodies, could look like in terms of the academic job security and the working conditions of the young generation of university scholars in near future. Yet the publicly secured job security at universities constitutes the basis of academic freedom and independence of scientific thinking. The prospective Law on Higher Education gives signals that it will soon allow for the entry of for-profit corporations into ‘higher education market’ in Turkey. What kind of knowledge, science, education and scholarly community will be created within the prospective ‘higher education market’ ? Whose words would count in determining the priorities of higher education? We have to define and defend that what is dear to us now in order not to be swept away by a more market-authoritarian, more elitist, more unicolor and intellectually poorer university structure against our own will.
Strengthen our voice when we say, ‘we want to continue producing knowledge, science and education independent from immediate profit-orientation and in defense of public interest!
Please join and spread our word about the press declaration that will be held by joint-call of the following trade UNIONs, professional chambers and university associations on Monday, the 14the of November, 2011 at 1.30 pm. in front of the Çağlayan Justice Palace in Istanbul.
Press coverage in English on dismissals:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=academics-protest-university-2011-08-08
For more information on the violation of trade UNION rights in Turkey:
2009 ITUC Annual Survey of violations of trade UNION rights: Turkey (2010)
