Letter from Amsterdam

Friend of the institute dr. George Blaustein offers his view of the revolution currently taking place at the University of Amsterdam. “Is all this just a tempest in a Dutch teapot? Or are our grievances and our actions significant abroad? I think they are significant, otherwise I would not be writing this.”



One month after the appropriation of the Maagdenhuis, the administrative center of the University of Amsterdam, student and staff protests in Amsterdam are still in full swing—and spreading! Friend of the institute dr. George Blaustein offers his view of the protests and their international relevance. Blaustein: “I think they fit into the broader uproar throughout Europe, over universities in particular and austerity in general. Even as I write, similar antineoliberalization movements have cropped up at other universities in the Netherlands, in Oslo, at LSE and other UK campuses, in Macedonia, and at the University of Toronto.” Dr. Blaustein teaches American history and culture at the University of Amsterdam.

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