AStA
StatementHouse search of AStA employee due to conference participation: Unprecedented attack on student self-administration
18 December 2024
Three weeks ago, police officers searched the home of a student who works for the student who works for the AStA at the University of Hamburg. The accusation: ‘Supporting a terrorist organisation’, due to her participation in the conference ‘We want our world back’. This was organised by the AStA from 7 to 9 April 2023 together with the network for an Alternative Quest. Over a thousand participants discussed pressing issues of our time on the basis of international panels and workshops such as the dismantling of democracy, the climate crisis, alternatives to capitalism and patriarchal violence. Accusations of terrorism because of a scientific conference? What sounds absurd is unfortunately reality, because Kurdish groups were also involved in the organisation and the German authorities are taking relentless action against them at the urging of the Turkish government. The basis for this is §129b StGB, which criminalises acts that are not punishable per se, if they are interpreted as support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is banned in Germany. This criminal provision is repeatedly used - entirely in the spirit of the Erdogan government - to place any political or cultural activity by Kurds under general suspicion.
Police search house of AStA employee due to conference participation: Unprecedented attack on student autonomy at the University of Hamburg
Three weeks ago, police officers raided the home of a student and employee of the AStA
(General Student Committee) at the University of Hamburg. The accusation: Suspicion of
"supporting a terrorist organisation abroad" namely the PKK, according to §129 due to her
participation in the conference “We want our World back”. The conference was organized by
the AStA together with the Network for an Alternative Quest from 7 to 9 April 2023. Over a
thousand international participants discussed pressing issues of our time such as the climate
crisis, alternatives to capitalism, the state of democracy, and patriarchal violence in panels and
workshops.
Accusations of terrorism after participating in a scientific conference? What sounds absurd is
unfortunately a reality - especially because of the participation of Kurdish groups in the
conference, the German authorities are taking relentless action at the urging of the Turkish
government. The basis for this is §129b of the Criminal Code, which criminalises acts that are
not punishable per se, only if interpreted as support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
which is banned in Germany. This ban is repeatedly used - in line with the interest of
Erdogan's government - to place any political or cultural activity by Kurds under general
suspicion.
All of this is happening while the global public witnesses the dramatic events in Syria.
Following the fall of the Assad dictatorship, NATO member Turkey is attacking the autonomous
cantons in the north-east of the country with the help of its jihadist proxy militias such as Hayat
Tahrir al-Sham. The self-government that emerged from the Kurdish freedom movement has
been the most successful model of a multi-ethnic and democratic social order in the entire
region for ten years. These achievements are now under acute threat. However, while there is
an open debate about pragmatically removing the Al-Qaeda successor HTS from the list of
terrorist organisations, Kurdish activists in Germany are being persecuted with renewed
severity under §129b. The house search reveals an unprecedented extent of this repressive
climate, which can only be explained by geopolitical considerations of the German state. The
mere participation of Kurdish groups is enough for a conference such as ‘We want our World
back’ - unique in its pluralistic character and international participation - to become a target for
state repression. A conference that brought together world-renowned academics such as John
Holloway, Mexico's first indigenous presidential candidate María de Jesús Patricio Martínez,
academics from Toronto to Turin and activists from the Brazilian Amazon to Pakistan to debate
emancipatory perspectives on pressing social problems.
While the first three conferences of the series ‘Challenging Capitalist Modernity’ sucessfully
took place at the University of Hamburg, the organization of the fourth conference in 2023
became a target of repression from the outset. University President Hauke Heekeren withdrew
the long agreed lecture halls at short notice. The main reason for this restrictive measure was
the so-called Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which accused the conference of
‘terrorist propaganda’. In line with the autocratic Erdogan, the commitment to global human
rights, against environmental destruction and patriarchal violence as well as for international
humanitarian law was thus delegitimized, only because these values are also upheld by the
Kurdish freedom movement. As is so often the case, efforts to realize social justice have
become the focus of repressive state authorities, which are more interested in maintaining the
state order than in the ideals that are used to legitimize their very existence.
A critical reflection on this can hardly be expected from the domestic secret service, but it
should be expected from the university presidency. However, instead of defending freedom of
opinion and academic freedom against interference by state authorities, University President
Heekeren bowed down to the secret service allowing it to dictate the character of an academic
conference.
Neither the prestige of prominent speakers at the conference series, such as David Graeber,
Elmar Altvater, Janet Biehl and David Harvey, nor the numerous declarations of solidarity by
international supporters persuaded the university management to take a stance against the
interference of the German secret service. The events are part of a series of attempts to ban
critical thinking from the public sphere which challenges the status quo.
The Academic Senate, the highest body of university self-government, subsequently
condemned this authoritarian measure by a large majority and recommended that ‘the
Executive Board of the University of Hamburg reject future attempts by the State Office for the
Protection of the Constitution to influence the content and organisation of academic
conferences and events at the University of Hamburg’. 4 Despite attempts to prevent the
conference by withdrawing the rooms, it was nevertheless able to take place as planned from
7-9 April 2023 elsewhere, thanks to an overwhelming solidarity from the citizens of Hamburg
and the support of numerous cultural institutions and cultural centres. Over a thousand
participants came together in the Bürgerhaus Wilhelmsburg, the Gängeviertel and the Rote
Flora, as well as the student-administered rooms of the AStA.
The fact that the Secret Service was unable to ban the event must have annoyed the
authorities in their eagerness to become vicarious agents of Turkey´s Erdogan regime, which
is why they subsequently deployed all means of intimidation: Three weeks ago, ten police
officers rang the doorbell of the AStA employee's shared flat at 6 a.m., searched and
ransacked it. In addition to confiscating electronic devices, bags containing clothing donation for refugees were torn up and distributed throughout the room, diaries and other private items were searched. Further, surveillance measures were carried out that deeply interfere with informational self-determination.
As early as 3 April 2023, we emphasized the appaling scope of this precedent as the president
chose to withdraw the rooms: ‘Nothing less than the freedom of science is at risk. Will it even
be possible to organise critical events at our university in the future? Or is only research and
teaching that accepts the social status quo desired?’
In view of the house search, we admit that our fears have been exceeded.
Apparently, organizing an academic conference and
supporting it by giving a speech is enough to be prosecuted under the charges of terrorism.
Again, we make clear that the conference took place perfectly legally. Thus, it is a clear signal
the state is sending by initiating 129b investigations: Anyone who calls into question the status
quo - such as the ban on the PKK in Germany - must expect repression, regardless of the
futility of such ‘investigations’ in a court case.
Meanwhile, the priorities of the investigating authorities are clear: even in the last 20 months,
there has been no attempts to finally investigate the involvement of the domestic secret
service with the right-wing terrorist group NSU in Hamburg. The latest repression against the
student body must be understood as part of broader political developments. The scope of what
can be said is increasingly being narrowed down to the premises of German foreign policy.
While migrant activists have always been increasingly affected by criminalisation, solidarity
with them has become a recent target of state repression. The intervention of the domestic
secret service based on insubstantial claims is thus part of a series of attempts to largely
banish critical thinking from the public sphere. A university should be a place that defends freedom of speech regardless of political pressure. Instead, we are witnessing how fundamental rights are being attacked across Germany, for
example when Berlin is considering cancelling research funding for academics who sign a
declaration 5 or as Brandenburg is planning to introduce regular enquiries to the Office for the
Protection of the Constitution as a recruitment criterion for civil servants. 6
In Hamburg too, freedom of speech and academia are increasingly contested as we witness an increasingly
restrictive interpretation of the regulations for the allocation of rooms and the restrictions
concerning the campus as a public space, as mere information stands have to be authorized
months in advance. While even the Hamburg Administrative Court doubted the usefulness of the investigation
against the employee of AStA and consequently refused to hand over documents to the police,
the university administration was not at a loss to assure its full cooperation and hand over all
available documents. A university administration that is already so willing to relinquish the
autonomy of the university and hand over its own students that willingly suggests even darker
times ahead in the event of a foreseeable shift to the right. Once again it proves that it is up to
us - the students - to defend the achievements of academic freedom and freedom of
expression from below. Not just at the university, but everywhere.
We will not be intimidated and critical thinking will not be banned. You can take a look at the
contents of the conference and see for yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/@networkaq/videos
If you would like to show us solidarity with your name, please enter your full name here:
4 Prof. Dr. Clement bittet darum, im Protokoll zu vermerken, dass er gegen diesen Punkt gestimmt habe.“
Aus dem Beschluss des Akademischen Senats vom 13.04.2023 ( https://www.uni-hamburg.de/uhh/organisation/gremien/akademischer-senat/protokolle/as-prot/as-prot-801.pdf )
6 https://www.gew-berlin.de/aktuelles/detailseite/wer-eingestellt-wird-bestimmt-der-verfassungsschutz