The End Fossil group demands that universities break relationships with highly polluting companies
The rectorate offers students a means of dialogue, but urges them to put an end to the occupation of the Barcelona building
a score of students of the youth movement End Fossil they have camped out this Wednesday in one of the patios of the historic building of the University of Barcelona (UB) to denounce the “passivity” of the institution in the face of climate crisis. Also, three people have been chained to the stairway leading to the rectory. The students demand that the university break relations with highly polluting companies Y remove the chairs that promote together. They also ask that students receive training in ecological transition. Since September, students from all over the world have been occupying other educational centers with the aim of expressing their discomfort towards the fossil economy. The students ask to meet with the parish priest.
Shouting “What do we want, climate justice!”, some twenty students have camped out in the gardens of the UB’s historic building with the idea of spending the night and keeping the protest for a few days or until they get answers from the university, as they have explained. Three of them have chained themselves to the steps leading to the rectory and, along with five other people, are locked in this hall. As they have explained, the university has closed access to this area.
The intention of the students is to deliver a letter to the principal of the University, Joan Guardia, with the claims and meet him. “They ask the universities to live up to the moment we find ourselves in,” he stated. sarah santanaone of the spokespersons for the movement, in statements to the media.
“Ecosocial education” in the curriculum
The students criticize that the university says that it is “committed to the environment and sustainability” on the one hand and, on the other, “hosts fossil companies, such as Repsol, with a chair, or Banco Santander, the bank that has financed the most fossil fuels in Spain”, said Santana.
The movement asks that the university break relations with these companies and, also, that it raise awareness about the climate emergency through the resume academically and teach students alternatives to current economic models. For End Fossil, it makes no sense that the university does not give a “eco-social education” in the context of climate crisis.
“Training in basic skills related to the ecological transition cannot be an exclusive matter for environmental scientists or an option for a minority of sensitized students. It makes no sense that degrees such as Economics continue to promote the unlimited growth of capitalism, which goes against the context current,” the students said in a statement.
against capitalism
The movement warns of the “structural crisis caused by the capitalism” and denounces “a system that promotes infinite growth based on the use of finite resources, such as fossil fuels.” The students denounce in the statement a collapse that includes “everyone” and for which they blame the companies that They work within the university centers.
From this concern, the End Fossil collective was born, an international movement led by students that invites them to occupy universities and educational centers. Occupations such as the University of Pennsylvania (United States) and Göttingen (Germany) stand out.
The rectorate offers dialogue
In a statement, the UB rector’s office welcomes the fact that students express their demands, “mobilizing as responsible, critical and committed citizens” and has announced its willingness to meet with a representation of the students to listen to their ideas and “open , if appropriate, a process of dialogue to reach points of understanding”.
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They warn, however, that the claims and protests “must be compatible” with the ordinary functioning of the university institution. The rectorate considers that the camping generates “economic and personal costs” for the UB and that it “hinders the work of its members”. That is why he asks the students “not to condition the negotiation process to the continuity of the action” of protest.
The UB recalls that the climate emergency is “one of the government priorities included in the UB2024 Plan” and that its first effects are included in the recently published sustainability report for the 2020-21 academic year.