The strike began April 20 after two months of protests against the university administration's unilateral announcement of tuition and other fee increases. The strike has continued since then, despite attempts to isolate the strike through a media smear campaign, police intimidation, and physical attacks on protesters. "The fact that we have been on strike for almost eight months shows that we are strong, despite all the state power that has been used against us," one student striker told the Militant.

On April 19 the General Strike Council (CGH) issued its "Manifesto to the Nation" that outlined the students' six demands:

• elimination of tuition and a multitude of other university service charges;
• cancellation of measures adopted in 1997 that limited how long students can remain enrolled and ended automatic passage of students from UNAM's high schools to its undergraduate programs;
• a direct, public dialogue with all members of the university community in order to solve its problems and the formation of a student council that has powers;
• no reprisals against strikers or supporters;
• making up for academic time lost due to the strike;
• and cutting ties with the national testing service CENEVAL.

University officials retreated on the tuition hike June 3, making it "voluntary." But the students surprised them by insisting on the complete adoption of their demands before they lift the strike.

The duration and firmness of the strike forced the resignation of the former UNAM rector, Francisco Barnés de Castro on November 12. The new rector, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, came directly from a governmental post as the secretary of health in the administration of President Ernesto Zedillo and is taking a more outwardly conciliatory approach. The CGH is now in negotiations with a committee of the administration, headed by de la Fuente.  
 

'The right to education will be won'

The huge campus is surrounded by barricades. Notably empty parking lots stand in contrast to university buildings ablaze with banners and red and black flags. The Ernesto Che Guevara auditorium, renamed following the 1967–68 student struggles and government massacre of hundreds of students on Oct. 2, 1968, is the site of the majority of the student strike assemblies. On one wall of the auditorium and over the remnants of an official university seal, students are painting a striking mural with the image of Guevara, an Argentine-born revolutionary who was a leader of the Cuban revolution.

A popular strike poster reads, "The right of education for everyone is not negotiated, it is won and we will win, we will never forget!" All over the university, classrooms have been converted into dormitories and work rooms; offices, phones, and computers are put to use for the strike; brigades are cooking meals in the kitchens; printing presses are churning out strike materials; and "Pirate Radio" is broadcasting strike news. The government has tried several times to shut off the electricity, water, and phone lines in the school. But the engineering students have put their studies into practice and reinstated these services.

The student strikers see themselves in the forefront of the struggle against the increasing privatization of the country's patrimony, including state-owned factories and banks, and against government attempts to roll back social gains such as free access to public education through the university level.

"If they are going to close the public university and raise the tuition, it is our duty not to permit it," said Socari, 20, a student of Latin American studies and member of the strike finance committee who, like many students, requested only her first name be used.

"We need free education for all," she added. "If we don't stand up now, who will? Many died for this right in a series of student struggles. Our fighting flag stands for the people who can not pay—and they are the ones who are supporting us the most."

David, 20, a member of the strike outreach committee, spoke to us from an office he now calls "home" in the Liberal Arts school, where a couch doubled as a bed. He explained that more than 85 percent of the students voted in a referendum for the strike. In huge student strike assemblies, students voted to form a 120 member General Strike Council, with representatives from the different schools within the university, its high schools, and extension campuses.

The students at the Liberal Arts school sent us to the School of Chemistry to talk to some of the students who are running the printing presses. Some of the chemistry students were outside, ready to escort us in when we got there. Their school has had a tradition of being more conservative than Liberal Arts, and it took longer for the strikers to develop self-confidence there. The students told us that while some immediately occupied their academic buildings, others, like at the Law School, camped outside in tents. It was the rainy season that drove the law students inside, they said, laughing, and now they are some of the most resolute in the fight.

The protests have "transformed us," said Pavel, a chemistry major now working in the strike printshop. "Before we concentrated almost exclusively on chemistry, but now we have to learn new skills and read a wide variety of material in order to know about what's going on in the world."  
 

Teachers and parents join in fight

The strikers have organized brigades of students to fan out over the country to spread the word about their fight and help in social causes, they said, including medical students who are providing free health care in the countryside. They have sent several brigades to Chiapas, and are solidarizing with the struggle of peasants there. They also sent representatives to the International Seminar of Youth and Students on Neoliberalism, held in Havana, Cuba.

Professors, high school teachers, and parents are also participating in the strike, and have their own organizations, assemblies, and newsletters. Our reporting team attended a negotiating session between the students and university officials in downtown Mexico City December 2. We talked to professors and teachers who were protesting the fact that they had not received their pay for several months. Though they are not formally fired, the university and high schools have hired replacement teachers. "Since we did not participate in giving the scab classes organized by the administration outside the university walls, we are examples of the political repression," said Lilia, a teacher at one of the preparatory high schools. "Our union is not helping us at all," she added.

At this negotiating session, broadcast live on a closed circuit TV outside the government building where it was being held, one of the student negotiators demanded that the teachers receive their back pay and be reinstated immediately, to the cheers of the 500 people present in the street outside.

Many parents of the students were there to support their children. "We want to let them know that they are not alone," said Rafael, one such parent.

One of the students' main demands in the December 2 round was for the negotiations to be public, open to all students and others, and for them to be held in the Ernesto Che Guevara auditorium on the UNAM campus. Government and university officials do not recognize this name for the auditorium, and said they were reluctant to meet there for "security reasons." The students were quick to point out that it is their safety that has been constantly threatened by the cops and extralegal gangs for the last eight months. If the negotiations were held at the university, the students themselves would guarantee everyone's safety.

Since the beginning of the strike, students faced harassment, threats, infiltration, frame-ups, and kidnappings. Police helicopters constantly hover and fly over the university, and on occasion military tanks have been driven past the school.

None of the major political parties have stated an official position on the strike. "We know they have a plan for us but no one wants to take responsibility for it in this election period," said Victor, a student striker. Many students especially criticize the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) for not taking a stand in favor of the strike and offering active support. Forces around the PRD are among those pressing to negotiate a settlement to the strike.

While there is popular support for the strike among the students, there are various debates on the way forward for a resolution of the strike, and whether to make concessions on any of the students' demands.

More than 26,000 workers at the university are also affected by the strike. Many are supporters and participate in the protests. We spoke with two who wholeheartedly support the students, José Luis Urbin and Andrés Rodríguez, university technicians and members of a dissident group within the STUNAM, the workers' union at the university. They stated that the union officialdom is saying they support the strike, but doing nothing.

Urbin said, "Workers are being oppressed more than ever, and also weighing us down are the political parties with their politics of privatization. We need good salaries, better contracts, and to really have productive industries workers need to take power in all countries."

They told us that students have participated with the Mexican Electrical Union, SME, in demonstrations against the sell-off of the electrical industry. Many demonstrations against the privatization process, where the Mexican government is turning over state entities one by one, are continually taking place, and the UNAM strikers are part of them with their banners.

A 17-year-old high school student escorted us out of the university. He said he it was an honor to be a striker, and that the students are not afraid.  
 
 
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