Comités Abertos de Faculdade (CAF, ''Open Faculty Committees'' in English) was a student organization of

Galiza Galicia ( ; or ; ) is an autonomous community of Spain and historic nationality under Spanish law. Located in the northwest Iberian Peninsula, it includes the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense, and Pontevedra. Galicia is located in A ...

. Formed from the union of different faculty assemblies. The main goals of the CAF were defending quality and the

Galician language Galician ( , ), also known as Galego (), is a Iberian Romance languages, Western Ibero-Romance language. Around 2.4 million people have at least some degree of competence in the language, mainly in Galicia (Spain), Galicia, an Autonomo ...

public education. It was an assembly-based organization. The CAF were considered the heirs of the

ERGA Erga Edizioni, is a publishing company based in Genoa, Italy. It was founded on 1964 by Marcello Merli. History Erga started publishing some books about the history and culture of Genova. Over time his production embraced much more areas of inter ...

Composition

The CAF traditionally incorporated almost all of the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

organizations operating at the university (

Galician Nationalist Bloc The Galician Nationalist Bloc ( , BNG) is a political party from Galicia (Spain), Galicia, formed with the merger of a series of left-wing Galician nationalism, Galician nationalist parties. It is self-defined as a "patriotic Popular front, front" ...

, Galician Socialist Party-Galician Left,

MCG The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the el ...

, Communist Party of the Galician People...), but with the integration of most of these groups in the

the organization ended being formed mainly by militants of Galiza Nova and people without party affiliation.

History

During the effervescence of the student struggles at the

University of Santiago de Compostela The University of Santiago de Compostela - USC (, ) is a public university located in the city of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. A second campus is located in Lugo, Galicia. It is one of the world's oldest universities in continuous o ...

, in the early 1980s, a number of Assemblies of Center emerged and united around the year of 1986 in the ''Comités Abertos'' (''Open Committees'', although some, such as the CAMAE, will remain semi-autonomous ). Although theoretically the CA covered the whole university, in practice it was an organization with a very strong presence in

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...

and marginal in the other campus. It was only from the segregation of the universities of

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

and

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when the organization began to have presence in all the (seven) campus. The origins worked at the Faculty Assembly and a coordinating body (Campus Council) made up of two people from each school. Since its establishment, with the dissolution of

, in 1988, the CAF grew and became the most important

student union A students' union or student union, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizatio ...

, present in almost all of the academic institutions with student representation. In the 90's the CAF suffered the split of the Movemento Estudantil Universitario (MEU), in reaction to what they denounced as the

Galician People's Union The Galician People's Union () is a Galicia (Iberian Peninsula), Galician nationalist and communist political party, and is one of the registered political parties of Spain. The party publishes the magazine ''Terra e Tempo'', and the secretary gene ...

control of the organization. The CAF managed to recover its presence slightly, specially after the disappearance of the

MEU MEU may refer to: * Marine Expeditionary Unit, a military task force * Model European Union, a politics education exercise * ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'', the style guide by H.W. Fowler (or any of its posthumous editions) * meu, ISO 63 ...

. In 2008 the internal crises of CAE and the CAF lead to their unification in a new project, the Comités.

References

* Beramendi, X.G. (2007): ''De provincia a nación. Historia do galeguismo político''. Xerais,

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comites Abertos de Faculdade Secessionist organizations in Europe 1988 establishments in Spain Galician nationalism Socialism