Activists from the University Committee for Palestine Munich and Weapons of Criticism have occupied a lecture hall at the LMU. They demand that the university work for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to arms research.

　　They want to send a signal at the end of the semester and break the silence that prevails at Munich universities regarding the events in Gaza and the repression of the Palestinian movement. That’s why activists from the University Committee for Palestine have the lecture hall in the main building of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU). There is a banner on the board above the hall: “Solidarity instead of military research! Students against genocide in Gaza!” The Marxist university group Weapons of Criticism is also taking part in the campaign.

　　The occupiers are making specific demands to the LMU university management: they should join the demand for a ceasefire in Gaza and promote a discourse about it at the university. These demands were already decided by a majority of the student councils on December 6th, but so far they have not even begun to be implemented. The management of the convention has also so far refrained from making the decision public. Instead, he released a statement smearing the University Committee for Palestine’s protest as anti-Semitic.

　　They also support the demands of the Education and Science Union (GEW), which is calling for a civil clause. This means that the university should commit to refraining from military research. The Bavarian state government particularly wants to promote this research for military purposes . The cabinet recently passed a “Law to Promote the Bundeswehr”, which stipulates a requirement for schools and universities to cooperate with the armed forces. The spokesman for the university and research section of the Bavarian GEW, Eduard Meusel, called this initiative an “attack on the freedom of science and on the peace requirement in the Basic Law”.

　　If the university management meets the demands, the activists are ready to end the action, as the committee spokesman explained at the beginning. The Student of the university are calling on them to join the protest.

　　After a few minutes, representatives of the university management appeared and asked the activists to leave the room, but refused to listen to the demands.

　　The Marxist university group Weapons of Criticism proposes to combine the commitment against the genocide in Gaza with the fight against the right and against internal and external militarization. Both the blockade attitude of the management of the Convention of Student Councils and the repressive response of the university management to the legitimate demands of the protest show: “University democracy” is nothing more than a pseudo-democracy that is intended to make students believe that they have a say in the authoritarian LMU system. What is needed is a university under the democratic control of employees and students.

　　After the university management refused to talk about the demands of the protest and immediately called in the police, the activists decided to continue the protest in front of the LMU main building on Zwilling-Scholl-Platz. A spontaneous rally is now taking place there. We condemn the repressive response of the university management and the threat of police intervention on our university premises.

　　Editor: Zhong Yao Liu Tingting

　　From: https://www.klassegegenklasse.org/lmu-hoersaal-in-solidaritaet-mit-palaestina-besetzt/（2024-1-31）