University Students' Unions of Athens:Dozens of Student Unions of Athens denounce the attempt to ban the holding of the Festival of KNE–“Odigitis” at the NKUA University Campus

Thirty-five Student Unions and Student Residence Associations of Athens denounce the attempt to ban the holding of the Festival of KNE–“Odigitis” at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) University Campus in Zografou. They demand that the unacceptable decision of the Rectorate be withdrawn immediately and that the Festival of KNE take place as scheduled on the premises of the NKUA University Campus.

We publish the statement:

We denounce the administration of NKUA, which is rushing to be the first to make use of the government’s authoritarian legal framework by banning the holding of  the KNE–‘Odigitis’ Festival at the University Campus in Zografou.

More specifically, the Council of Administration of NKUA rejected the request to make the space available for the holding of the Festival, invoking ‘security and civil protection reasons’ and its opposition to the holding of festivals, cultural events and concerts by any ‘non-university body’!

The ND government bears huge responsibility! It is revealed that the reactionary legal framework, which it inherited from previous governments and has further strengthened, is not about the so-called ‘lawlessness in universities’, but about censorship, the restriction of the circulation of ideas, and the restriction of political and even cultural intervention. What is being targeted is not only the Festival of KNE, but every political and trade-union activity that does not align itself with the university-as-a-business and government policy, every young man and woman who fights for their rights. The more the university is distanced from social needs and is dressed ‘in khaki’, the more repression and the silencing of every voice that resists will intensify!

It is provocative that they have gone so far as to ban the Festival of KNE, which has historically been associated with the NKUA University Campus, has attracted and been embraced by hundreds of thousands of people and youth, serving as a ‘breath’ of culture, sports, knowledge, inspiration and creativity, and leaving its mark for decades. It has given the floor to hundreds of well-known and young artists and constitutes a steady meeting point of the youth with progressive Art and culture. The Festival of KNE has always been connected with the concerns, problems and quests of students, with the demands for an exclusively public and free university, for science and research in the service of the people’s needs.

We demand that the unacceptable decision of the Rectorate be withdrawn immediately and that the Festival of KNE take place as scheduled on the premises of the NKUA University Campus.

The Student Unions that sign the statement:

• School of Philosophy, NKUA
• School of Dentistry, NKUA
• Department of Sociology, NKUA
• Department of Mathematics, NKUA
• Department of Geology, NKUA
• Department of Physics, NKUA
• Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, NKUA
• Department of Biology, NKUA
• School of Law, NKUA
• Department of Political Science and Public Administration, NKUA
• Department of Communication and Media Studies, NKUA
• Department of History and Philosophy of Science, NKUA
• Department of Primary Education, NKUA
• Department of Early Childhood Education, NKUA
• Department of Russian Language and Literature and Slavic Studies, NKUA
• Panteion University
• University of Piraeus
• Agricultural University of Athens
• Athens University of Economics and Business
• School of Engineering, University of West Attica (UNIWA)
• School of Health and Care Sciences, UNIWA
• School of Food Sciences, UNIWA
• School of Applied Arts and Culture, UNIWA
• Athens School of Fine Arts
• School of Civil Engineering, NTUA
• School of Chemical Engineering, NTUA
• School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA)
• School of Rural, Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering, NTUA
• School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NTUA
• School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, NTUA
• School of Applied Mathematical and Physical Sciences, NTUA
• School of Architecture, NTUA

And the Student Residence Associations:

• • New NTUA Student Residences
  • Student Residence of the University of Athens
  • Athens Student Residence