[ASA_PEWS] Appeal against the Italian Green Pass

Daniela Danna daniela.danna at unimi.it
Sun Nov 7 04:34:57 PST 2021


dear PEWS members,

some hundreds of Italian professors and researchers have mobilized against the obligation to carry a Green Pass in universities, an obligation from 1st September that has been extended since 15th October to all workplaces, private and public. There is a mobilization going on, defamed as being "fascist", and obscuring the fascistic character of the green pass requirement. We have already lived such an historical period, where the required document was the card attesting belonging to the Fascist Party. So we have translated the Italian declaration, asking colleagues from abroad to subscribe it.

This is the text.


International support of university teachers and intellectuals for the “no green pass” appeal in Italy  

 

 

 

To the President of the Italian Republic    

To the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic    

To the Speaker of the Senate of the Italian Republic    

To the Prime Minister of the Italian Republic    

To the Minister of Education of the Italian Government    

To the Minister of Universities and Scientific Research of the Italian Government    

To the President of the Conference of Italian University Chancellors - CRUI    

 

As university teachers and intellectuals,    

We are extremely concerned about the way the current pandemic emergency has been handled  , and about the consequences it has already had, and could have in the future, for the Italian people, starting with the world of universities and schools.    

We are particularly concerned about academic freedom  , which is a pillar of the rule of law and an expression of the highest human dignity. Academic freedom means the freedom to teach, study and learn without any kind of interference or conditioning.     

The handling of the emergency has led many European governments to introduce a health pass (or so-called “Green Pass”) for many activities (although the situation varies widely from state to state).    

Like many of our Italian colleagues, some of us have freely chosen to be vaccinated against Covid-19.   All of us, however, consider the social discrimination introduced with the Green Pass, which restricts many fundamental human rights, to be unjust and illegitimate.  The population is thus divided between upper-tier citizens, who possess a pass and can access basic services (transport, healthcare, catering, etc.) and lower-tier citizens, who do not have a pass.     

In Italy, unlike in all other European countries, the Green Pass has been extended to schools and universities.   As a result, students not in possession of a Green Pass are refused access to university facilities (classrooms, canteen, library, etc.): in short, they are denied the right to study. Likewise, teachers without a pass are suspended from teaching duties and receive no salary.This troubles and worries us enormously!    

The word “university” comes from universitas, from vertere in unum: “turning into one”, which means welcoming the plurality of knowledge, but also the multiple bonds that are created between people. Under an medieval, noble rule promulgated in Italy, the Authentica Habita, university teaching staff and students were granted a series of specific rights in terms of hospitality, immunity, protection, freedom, and movement. These achievements of about 900 years ago became a civil and cultural reference in other areas of society. Precisely for this reason, discrimination in Italian universities, a beacon of civilization for many, acquires a dangerous symbolic value for all of us.    

As a result of the Green Pass, Italian universities are no longer free and welcoming   for everyone, nor are they forums for free thought and discussion. With the adoption of the Green Pass, universities become a government tool aimed at inducing teachers and young people to get vaccinated. The Green Pass in fact encourages them to sacrifice their ideas and intellectual freedom, as well as to abandon critical thinking. Universities are thus disowning their fundamental values and principles, and undermining their objectives.     

We are shocked   that most of academic bodies – as far as we know – allow such discrimination, which also translates into socio-economic discrimination, if we consider that those students who cannot or do not wish to be vaccinated, but who intend to follow lessons in person (as they are entitled to), will have to sustain monthly Covid-19 test costs of about €200. It is clear that only students from well-off families will be able to afford the “luxury” of the right to education!    

For these reasons, we agree with the appeal made by Italian university teachers against the Green Pass  (  (France)(https://nogreenpassdocenti.wordpress.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://nogreenpassdocenti.wordpress.com  )and firmly support the teachers, administrative staff and students engaged in this battle of civil rights. We hope that this discriminatory mechanism will be abolished as soon as possible.    




To subscribe, send an email with your title to Daniela Poli < zazadig at gmail.com>  



First subscribers


Antoine Brès   professeur associé en aménagement et urbanisme, HDR, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (France)   

Pietro Elia Campana   , Associate Professor, Mälardalen University (Sweden)  

David Vera Candeas   ,   Associate Professor, University of Jaén (Spain)     

Francesca Capelli,    Associata di Grammatica Italiana, Università del Salvador - Buenos Aires (Argentina)  

Guillaume Faburel,    Professeur en Science Politique  - Université Lumière Lyon 2, et Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (France)  

Francesco Gervasi,    Profesor Investigador de Tiempo Completo Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación, Coahuila de Zaragoza (México)   

Ashwani Gupta   , Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland (MD), (USA)   

Simon Harvey   , Professor of Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden   

Daniele Joly,    P  rofessor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick Coventry CV4 7AL (UK), CADIS-EHESS, College d'etudes mondiales FMSH  

Paris (France)   

Valérie JOUSSEAUME,    Maîtresse de conférences   en géographie de l’aménagement,    HDR, Université de Nantes (France)  

Francisco Jurado   , Full Professor, University of Jaen (Spain)  

Markus Kraft,    Fellow of Churchill College and Full Professor, University of Cambridge (UK)  

Antonio Lecuona-Neumann,    Full Professor,  Universidad Carlos III de Madrid,   (España)    

María Pilar LISBONA-MARTÍN   , Associate Professor, Universidad de Zaragoza, (España)    

Béatrice Mariolle,    professeure en architecture et urbanisme, École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et de Paysage de Lille    

Alberto Matarán Ruiz   , Profesor  of Urban and Spatial Planning España(https://www.ugr.es/en/about/organization/entities/department-urban-and-spatial-planning" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener noopener noreferrer" style="line-height: normal;" target="_blank">,   Universidad de Granada (   

Rebeca    Merino del Río    , Ricercatrice a tempo determinato , Universidad de Sevilla (España)     

Jaroslaw Milewski   ,Full professorPolitechnika Warszawska (Politecnico di Varsavia)    

Robert Olinski,    M.Sc., PhD, Senior Scientist head of genomics team at Novozymes A/S headquarters (Denmark)  

Thierry Paquot   , professeur émérite à l'Institut d'urbanisme de Paris - université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne (France)  

Carlos Plaza    Ricercatore a contrato , Universidad de Sevilla (España)     

Sergio Porta   , Professor of Urban Design, Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde
Director of UDSU - Urban Design Studies Unit, Course Director MSc in Urban Design, Glasgow (UK)


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