«¡Hemos Ganado!» Es el mensaje de la Copenhagen Free University en su manifiesto de despedida, que ha llegado a mis manos a través de la lista de correo Nettime. La CFU era una universidad atípica: libre, amorfa y autogestionada, sin titulaciones, sin un programa lectivo ordenado, pero con voluntad de exploración y conocimiento sin deudas con las exigencias del mercado. La idea era simple, sin exigencias materiales y fácil de exportar: desde Los Ángeles a Londres, pasando por Barcelona, donde surgió la (¿efímera?) Universidad Pirata.
During our life at the CFU we have encountered the way in which the authority of the word ‘university’ works on many levels. On a very practical level, people from across the globe started to write to us, applying as students and lecturers; people were using the CFU as a means of getting into increasingly privatized archives, people were using the CFU to obtain job references, people were using the CFU as a means to get into the fortified first world . . . These and other incidents make plain how embedded the authority of institutions is in the global imaginary. But it also tells us how fragile ruling power is when you play with its language and its basic definitions. The drive to self-determination despite the neoliberal knowledge economy was also demonstrated by all our sister self-organised universities that have mushroomed everywhere in parallel to our own development. It has never been about joining the CFU, or any other university, but about opening your own university.
¿Y por qué han ganado? Porque han logrado durante seis años cuestionar la institucionalización del saber y poner en práctica sus propias ideas del conocimiento como compartición y como negación del poder que emana del conocimiento que poseen sólo unos pocos durante el tiempo que ellos han querido. El adiós no es más que un acto de coherencia con sus propias ideas.
The Copenhagen Free University has never wanted to become a fixed identity and as a part of the concept of self-institutionalisation we have always found it important to take power and play with power but also to abolish power. This is why the Copenhagen Free University closed down at the end of 2007. Looking back at the six years of existence of the CFU we end our activities with a clear conviction and declare: We Have Won!