Does anyone else see a pattern here?

Centre for Latin America Solidarity & Studies

The National University of Mexico, still free 10 years after the students strike

On the 20th of April, 10 years ago, black and red flags placed by students covered the doors of the most prestigious University in the Hispanic world and the biggest in Latin America, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM by its Spanish acronym). In Mexico the black and red flag is a symbol of strike action. Students from high school and university formed a movement and occupied the university for nearly a year to defend free education against the neoliberal strategies the government (and the authorities of the University) tried to implement, as part of the agenda of the IMF and its plan of privatisations.

The movement started when the university authorities approved the introduction of higher fees to be paid by the students from high school to postgraduate. The introduction of fees added to the many changes in the curriculum, leading to the technical oriented and private education in Mexico. The students organised and occupied the various campuses around Mexico City to protest those measures and to demand more participation of the students in the decision making of the institution, not willing to let go of one of the most important achievements inherited from the 1910 Mexican Revolution: free, secular and universal education.

Mural on the wall of the auditorium Che Guevara. The mural was erased after the strike

This student’s mobilisation, the biggest since at least a decade, occurred a few months before the massive Seattle mobilisations, becoming an icon for young people.

Each faculty set up its own assembly that in turn responded to a general assembly of the General Strike Council, in an attempt to create a democratic structure.

The strike was carried out in Mexico´s finest tradition of festivities: parties, cultural events, concerts and marches. Many popular kitchens were set up to feed thousands of striking students, with food coming from trade unions and from the Agricultural University (CHAPINGO).

From the beginning the government invested massive resources to break the strike, using the media, paying thugs to infiltrate the movement and setting up “alternative” classes outside the university campuses. Throughout the strike the police also used all its power to violently attack, bash and jail students.

The strike was long and, debilitated by internal fragmentations and deep differences, the constant attacks by the mass media, the federal government and political parties, was finally broke violently by the Military police –in violation of the autonomy of the university—and the incarceration of hundreds of students.

The violent end to the strike did not break the student movement which continued to mobilise and to this day ensure that the university is still free for thousands of low-income Mexicans that otherwise would not be able to afford tertiary education.
Viva la Universidad!
Viva la educación gratuita y popular!

By Lourdes García Larqué

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