Battle continues at UNAM: Student strike in Mexico forces 
government concession

by MC17

In early January, the Rector of the National Autonomous University 
of Mexico (UNAM), Juan Ramon de la Fuente, proposed overhauling 
the bylaws of the university in an attempt to end the nine-month 
strike by students which has shut down the campus since April. The 
strike started as protest against increased tuition and expanded 
to demands for more inclusive education at the University.

The latest move by the UNAM Rector demonstrates that the student 
strikers have pushed the administration and government to the 
wall. They have been forced to bend to the students' pressures. 
But the proposal is still far from a truly autonomous university 
of the people. The strikers rejected the offer, holding out for 
more far reaching university changes.

Students and workers fight privatization

At root this strike attacks the increasing privatization of public 
institutions in Mexico. The World Bank and other imperialist 
institutions are pushing for privatization in Mexico as this 
increases the potential for imperialist countries to steal 
resources and exploit labor. A 1997 memorandum signed with the 
World Bank requires Mexico to modify its offer of a free 
university education to all of its citizens in exchange for $180 
million in educational credits from the bank.(1)

In April 1999, then Rector, Fransciso Barnes de Castro, announced 
tuition and fee hikes which raised costs from a few cents to $280 
per term for the 280,000 student institution. UNAM students voted 
overwhelmingly to reject the increase. When Barnes refused to back 
down students declared a strike, occupying the buildings on campus 
and shutting down the school. By May, protesters had staged 
marches in Mexico with more than 200,000 people to support the 
strike.

In early June, the Rector made a partial retreat and announced 
that the new tuition and fees would be voluntary. But strikers, 
recognizing their position of strength and seeing the overall 
trend away from educational opportunity for all, demanded 
relaxation of entrance requirements and other reforms.

The UNAM workers union (STUNAM) has supported the strike with 
financial donations and with its members joining the barricades. 
On International Workers Day, May 1, students and unionists 
marched through the streets of Mexico. President Zedillo is also 
privatizing the electrical industry so the connections between the 
issues are clear to students and workers.

As the LA Weekly reported: "The tuition-hike issue, which sparked 
the strike, could be easily resolved if the UNAM's annual budget 
were fattened by $60 million in federal appropriations, a solution 
rejected by the Zedillo administration, which pleads budget 
shortfalls as the result of low petroleum prices earlier this 
year. Nonetheless, Zedillo and the PRI just pushed a bank bailout 
through the Mexican Congress that would allocate about $65 billion 
in budget and tax moneys to cover bad bank loans from which both 
bankers and the PRI profited. According to UNAM economics 
professor David Lozano, the bailout is equivalent to 97 times the 
UNAM's budget for the next 16 years -- the time it will take to 
pay off the banks' bad loans."(1)

Recent actions lead to repression

On December 11, 500 students of the UNAM demonstrated in front of 
the u.s. embassy. Demonstrators demanded the freedom of Mumia Abu 
Jamal and protested the repression at the Seattle WTO 
demonstrations. The protests were peaceful until riot police 
charged the students. Police chased and beat protesters and 
attacked two journalists.(2)

Amerikan embassy representatives filed a claim against the 
protesters for the broken windows and graffiti on the property.(3) 
The Federal District government pressed charges against 73 of the 
students for rioting, injuring DF police agents, and damaging 
property. The students were released on bail on Dec. 15.(4) Two 
lawyers, Juan de Dios Hernandez Monje and Pilar Noriega Garcia, 
who are defending these students have received anonymous death 
threats.(5)

Striking students suspended talks with the administration after 
the arrests but resumed talks on December 20th. One day after 
talks were resumed the five police agents who pressed the charges 
asked the court to pardon the arrested students on two of the 
charges: injuring the agents and damage to property. The students 
are still being charged with rioting.

On Dec. 29th, the police on the university campus arrested Roberto 
Espinosa (Rocco), a student actively involved in the struggle. The 
police charged him with possession of drugs and arms (which the 
protesters state unequivocally is a lie) and are keeping him in 
prison.

In response to these police actions against the demonstrators the 
CGH called for urgent action "demanding the liberation of Roberto 
Espinosa Rocco and all political prisoners in Mexico" and 
protesting the arrests of other student activists.

Small reforms are not enough

In November, Juan Ramon de la Fuente replaced Francisco Barnes de 
Castro as Rector. De la Fuente has proposed the election, by the 
end of February, of a 500 member congress of faculty, students, 
researchers and workers. This congress would be responsible for 
revising the bylaws of the University. The 120-member University 
Council (which only includes faculty representatives) approved the 
Rector's plan.

The Rector's plan also includes reverting back to the old tuition 
and a guarantee that striking students will not be punished. 
Although the plan appears to address all of the demands by the 
Consejo General de Huelga (General Strike Council -- CGH) in some 
form, the reforms offered would result in only small changes at 
the University.

Education for all

Over the past nine months, as the students dug in their heels and 
set up for a protracted strike they engaged in long struggles over 
the important political issues facing their movement and the 
country of Mexico in general. Students occupying the university 
stayed up many nights debating these important issues. And far 
from missing out on education, they learned more from this 
struggle than they could hope to get from a few University 
classes.

The expansion of the students' demands from the rejection of 
tuition increases to reforming the university and making education 
more accessible to all reflects a correct understanding that it is 
not only money that keeps people from having access to education.

Regardless of the reforms that the UNAM students win, the 
reactionary government led by President Zedillo will still control 
the university. And the people who truly need access to free 
education will be unable to take advantage of it because they need 
to work to support families and can not afford to leave home.

MIM stands firmly behind the striking students in their demands 
for reforms to the Mexican university system. On the UNAM campus 
many slogans calling for socialism can be seen. Although it 
appears that the students favor anarchism to communism, it is 
clear that many of the UNAM activists understand that the reforms 
they are fighting for will only provide a band-aid on a problem 
that requires much bigger change.

Without an end to imperialism there will never be access to 
education for all. A system that is based on bourgeois 
dictatorship will always require schools like UNAM to adjust their 
curriculum and produce workers for surplus value extraction. Until 
imperialism is demolished, it will keep the majority of the 
world's people in poverty so that they can not afford an 
education.

Notes:

1. LA Weekly. July 16-22 1999.

2. Weekly Update on the Americas Bulletin.

3. Agencia EFE S.A., December 12, 1999 

4. La Jornada, 20 Dec 99

5. Amnesty International Urgent Action Bulletin, Jan 6, 2000.

See MIM Notes #189 (July 1, 1999) for further information on the 
UNAM

student strike.