APEC Protesters Occupy Student Union Building

Sign pasted on the doors of the student union building at UBC, accompanied by banners haning outside, and chalked graffiti throughout the building:

YOU ARE NOW ENTERING FREE UNIVERSITY

The Student Union Building has been reclaimed by students. We will be using the space to hold a series of information panels and discussion forums about issues relating to APEC.

APEC's presence on campus poses a significant threat to students. Not only are riot police, snipers, and elite 'leaders' taking over our space; the vision of corporate rule that underlies APEC is increasingly pervasive on campus. The corporate university that we attend views education as a commodity to be purchased and consumed; it is concerned with training students to fit into narrow predefined roles; it instills the values of a society where acceptance is promoted, and dissent suppressed.

It is necessary to reestablish the university as a place where open debate, dialogue, and critique are actively encouraged and engaged in. The Free University seeks to fundamentally challenge what education is about. It promotes a vision in which students are free from the constraints of narrow business interests, where democracy is taken seriously, and teachers and students govern themselves.

The Free University which is happening in the SUB is less a representation of the ideal of free learning and more an invitation to envision and begin creating it.

     ****** A-Infos News Service *****


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