International Student Movement

Call of Solidarity from Cairo:
26 Students fighting
for an Independent Student Union expelled

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UPDATE - March 24th:
After signing a "code of conduct" the suspension for the students was lifted. To calm down the situation the administration also promissed to allow elections for a student union in 2 weeks from now. The constitution should be adjusted within 6 months.
Nontheless activists feel humiliated. They were treated like criminals and are convinced that their actions were right. No words of regret were expressed by the administration.
Activists at GUC (and elsewhere) will follow the developments closely. The whole case once again showed how important a strong global network of groups/activists fighting for democracy at universities/schools and for free education is.

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Report sent in by one of the 26 students expelled from the German University of Cairo (Egypt) on March 21st, after a sit-in to protest for an independent student union.

We were expelled from the German University of Cairo (GUC) for making demonstrations and asking workers to demand for their rights. We were prevented from both food and blankets, buildings were closed. We stopped our sit-in next day because the security were going to get fired because they took orders not to enter blankets. Next 2 hours we got expelled. We need support from you. We want a strong Stuntent Union, we want to know where our money is going. We want to know why the head of the University of Ulm is supporting the GUC adminstration against the students. We may have to drop our courses because of attendance just because we spoke our for student rights. Is this fair? Don't we have the right to speak our opinions? Don't we have the right to ask where our money is going? Don't we have the right to get angry when the president of our uni threatens us with bringing the army saying that it is a private uni and if we don't like it we should leave?

Fellow activists in Cairo, fighting for the democratisation of their university, are calling for support!
The army now came up with a law punishing those taking part in demonstrations with sentences of up to 1 year imprisonment. This makes the struggle even more difficult.

One way to support the students at the German University of Cairo is by pressuring the members within the board of trustees of the institution.

The board of trustees has 7 German members:

• Prof. Karl Joachim Ebeling, President of the University of Ulm
• Prof. Peter Frankenberg, Minister of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg
• Prof. Dieter Fritsch, Former Rector of the University of Stuttgart
• Prof. Wolfram Ressel, Rector of the University of Stuttgart
• Michael Bock, German Ambassador to Egypt
• Dr. Arend Oetker, President of the Donors' Association for the Promotion of Science and Humanities
• Prof. Hans Wolff, Former Rector of the University of Ulm

"The GUC is a private Egyptian university that is financed by Egyptian investors. The partnership with the Universität Stuttgart and Universität Ulm is based on a cooperation agreement. Other partners are the Universität Tübingen and Universität Mannheim.

The chairman of the Board of Trustees is Prof. Ashraf Mansour, vice-chairman is Prof. Hans Wolff.
The rector of the GUC is Prof. Mahmoud Abdelkader."

Source: guc.uni-stuttgart.de (II)

It is important to show these guys (yes, all of them are male) that we - around the world - are watching them. Therefore I believe it makes sense if everyone drops these people a line or gives them a call.
I will also try to get in touch with the local student unions in Stuttgart, Ulm, Tübingen and Mannheim!
Let's turn global solidarity into reality!

The protests will continue in the coming days, every day hundreds of students are gathering on campus in support of those expelled and for a student union. This is just beginning.

Meeting between student activists and upper management on March 20th:

Fellow activists trying to provide blankets in support - the university is in the desert, therefore it is very cold at night:

Rally one day after the 26 were expelled:

Some media reports:

~ english.ahram.org.eg ~ academic.aucegypt.edu ~ almasryalyoum.com ~ english.ahram.org.eg (II) ~
The army tried to calm down the situation at GUC on March 10th: youtube.com

To get in touch with activists at GUC the group on facebook is probably the best tool: facebook.com

blog: gucian-voice.blogspot.com + the-story-behind-a-bataneyya.blogspot.com

twitter: #guc #gucprotest

channel on youtube: youtube.com

~ one world - one struggle ~