Neither umbrella organization nor party are behind us. We are autonomous, but we are not alone. Our activists and supporters are organized in numerous left-wing groups, from unions to socialist youth organizations, from internationalist initiatives to anti-fascist groups.
We do not cook our own soup, our impulses and concerns come from movements. We see ourselves as a students’ political link between the extra-parliamentary left and the University of Kassel, we stand for movement instead of bureaucracy!
Although the autonomous departments and collectively managed structures should continue to be funded by the student body, they should be independent of the General Ctudents’ Committee (“AStA”) and students’ parliament in all aspects. An “autonomous” unit is not autonomous if it regularly has to go to the students’ parliament and in addition has to seek the blessing of that parliament for all major decisions. Besides that, the General students’s Committee should seek contact with the autonomous departments and structures and support them, for example, in the exercise of assrting their interests against the university administration.
Self-organized student initiatives also do important work on the campus and therefore deserve recognition from the university, senate and student body. They have to easily get rooms for meetings, storage and events. In the General Students’ Committee there should be a contact person for student initiatives and it should be ensured that the university administration creates a position only for the support of the student initiatives.
Decentralization also means that the university’s outer locations are sufficiently funded and gain autonomy. It can not be that at the university of arts it is, for example, almost impossible to study because of the lack of money and staff.
