The rooms for the conference "We Want Our World Back," which is scheduled for the Easter weekend (April 7–9) and expected to host 1,300 attendees, including prominent scientists, intellectuals, and activists such as John Holloway and María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, have been revoked for political reasons.

The conference is part of the series "Challenging Capitalist Modernity", in which three other conferences have already taken place at the University of Hamburg in the last 10 years.

In a joint statement, the The General Students’ Committee (AStA) of the University of Hamburg and the Network for an Alternative Quest said that: "the President of the University, Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren, has decided not to make the premises available after having received a non-public letter from the Büro für Verfassungsschutz Hamburg, the Hamburg state agency responsible for domestic intelligence, accusing the conference of political extremism."

The statement added: "The General Students’ Committee (AStA) of the University of Hamburg, who are the organizers of the conference “We Want Our World Back” with the support of the Network for an Alternative Quest, condemn this political decision, which is obviously directed against academic freedom, the autonomy of the student body and the critical intercultural discourse at the university.

This decision by the university administration is completely unjustified and a critical intrusion into the necessary exchange of ideas among students about perspectives on how our future world can be shaped. This interference represents an attack on academic freedom and contradicts everything the University of Hamburg, our university, stands for."

Out of necessity, the AStA said it will "take legal action against this decision by the university administration. Despite the administration‘s ongoing refusal to engage in talks with us, the AStA remains open to dialogue. Furthermore, we have published the declaration linked below, calling on the university to make its premises available for the conference. It has already been signed by hundreds of professors, academics and initiatives, with most of the signatures arriving within a few hours. The current list of signatories is available on the AStA’s and the Network for an Alternative Quest’s respective websites."

The statement continued: "Furthermore, we will be introducing a resolution under participation of multiple status groups (students, professors etc.) at the next session of Hamburg University’s Academic Senate (Akademi­scher Senat). The resolution is directed against attempts by the Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz to influence the content of academic conferences and activities at the University of Hamburg.

In addition, the AStA is planning a series of critical seminars and talks on the history and role of the Verfassungsschutz, as there is an obvious need for awareness-raising with regard to the political function of the domestic intelligence service."

The organizers confirmed that the conference will take place in Hamburg during the planned period and invite those who have any questions to contact them either by phone on +4915216198732 or by e-mail at [email protected] and [email protected].

The first signatories of the petition are 

Noam Chomsky, Laurate Professor of Linguistics and Professor Emeritus

Dr. Nazan Üstündag, Boğaziçi University

Dr. Mechthild Exo, Hochschule Emden/Leer

Prof. Norman Paech, Universität Hamburg

Dr. Iris Mendel, Universität Graz

Prof. Christine Löw

Prof. Jason W. Moore, Binghamton University

Michael Albert, Economist

Prof. Andrej Grubačić, Department Chair California Institute of Integral Studies

Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Professor Emeritus University of Coimbra

Prof Priyamvada Gopal, Postcolonial Studies, University of Cambridge

Dr Raul Zelik, University of Vienna

Raul Zibechi, journalist and political theorist

Dr Hannes Jung, Science4Peace Forum