On January 16th, the festival ‘A Farewell to Shell’ was organized by numerous student organizations at the University of Amsterdam. Specifically, the issues targeted were the links of the university to the dutch fossil fuel company Shell. The protest included a day of speeches, marches, spoken word performances and live music.
Activists from UvA Rebellion, among other groups, demanded that UvA terminate its ties with Shell. Specifically, this was due to the company’s role in the climate crisis, human abuse and the abuse of Indigenous rights. The university currently relies on Big Oil companies for research funding, as well as other partnerships. The protest took the form of a march from one academic building to another, followed by an occupation. Therefore, reasons given for the clearing and arrests of the protesters surrounded the act of trespassing.
In the evening, evacuation of the protesters was deemed necessary and protesters resisted. Student organizations themselves wrote on social media that “the police is beating people with battons [...] they clearly do not care about our safety”. Thirty individuals were arrested, and many more were the victims of police violence. The wellbeing of students was treated with complete disregard, and officials reverted to criminalization. University officials later released a statement declaring that they had conversed with the activists, and agreements were made. These include future discussions between staff and students on such subjects, and a further look into ties with Shell by the Advisory Committee on Cooperation with Third Parties.
Chloé M
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