The forum, chaired by UPR student Diego Negrao and attended by 20 students, was sponsored by the UPR Student Council, which has backed the campaign against the presence of the U.S. Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) on university campuses here. Many of the students at the meeting had been part of a one-day student strike October 7 against the suspension of Professor Héctor Rosario at the UPR campus in Mayagüez for his involvement in an anti-ROTC protest.

The students were interested in finding out about the Socialist Workers campaign and its revolutionary perspective. They listened intently as the SWP candidates described the working-class resistance in the United States to the bosses’ profit drive, from the successful union-organizing fight by garment workers at Point Blank Body Armor in Florida to the strike by textile workers in Massachusetts.

“What do you think of the Hugo Chávez government in Venezuela?” a student asked. Sarmiento said Venezuela remains a flashpoint in Latin America because of the confidence workers and farmers have gained there in fighting for their interests—including land, jobs, literacy, and decent medical care for all—and defeating attempts by U.S.-backed capitalist forces to overturn the elected government. She urged students interested in the developments in Venezuela and in the international fight against imperialism to attend the world youth festival scheduled for next summer in Caracas, Venezuela.

The socialist campaigners sold nearly 30 books and pamphlets on revolutionary politics to students on the campus.

Koppel and Sarmiento also joined a picket line by members of the Independent Authentic Union (UIA) on strike against the Water and Sewer Authority (AAA). Some 4,300 workers walked out October 4 after the bosses stopped paying into the union-run health-care fund and contracted with a private insurance company. The strikers have faced an intense propaganda campaign by the government and bosses, branding the UIA as corrupt and accusing the unionists of sabotage.

Picket captain Alberto Hernández told the socialists the “corruption” charges were a pretext to justify the anti-union attack. Gloria Martínez, with 25 years on the job, said the water utility’s equipment is old and in disrepair, and it’s not uncommon for entire neighborhoods to lose water service for days at a time.

The socialist candidates also met with leaders of the successful fight to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques, joined a protest demanding freedom for six jailed anti-Navy activists, and met with two well-known former independentista prisoners, Rafael Cancel Miranda and Luis Rosa.
 
 
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