[News] World Day of Solidarity with UPR to Mark 40th Anniversary of March 11

[Anti-Imperialist News]

World Day of Solidarity with UPR to Mark 40th Anniversary of March 11
by RedAcción | Puerto Rico
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/upr160211.html

February 16, 2011 -- Networks of sympathizers 
with the ongoing student strike at the University 
of Puerto Rico announced today that they will 
stage simultaneous demonstrations in solidarity 
with the UPR in cities around the world on 
Friday, March 11, 2011, and invited all 
supporters to join them, coordinating their own 
activities in their respective towns.  Those 
interested in self-organizing demonstrations can 
email 
<mailto:redaccion at gmail.com>redaccion at gmail.com 
to sign the Declaration, or visit 
<http://redaccion-pr.net/>redaccion-pr.net for 
information on already scheduled 
activities.  Event organizers urged people to 
send in videos, and/or statements of support, 
from their demos.  The full text of the Declaration follows.

A Call to Conscience and Historical Memory
World Day of Solidarity with the UPR

"Antonia, peoples never forgive." -- 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSbu3p4OEVA>Antonio Cabán Vale "El Topo"

March 11, 1971 was one of the bloodiest single 
days in the history of the University of Puerto 
Rico.  The main campus at Río Piedras was 
occupied by the Puerto Rico Police, unleashing 
violent confrontations that ended the lives of 
two police officers, including the then chief of 
the notorious Tactical Operations Unit, and one student.

Barely one year before, on March 4, 1970, during 
a student demonstration, student Antonia Martínez 
Lagares was shot dead by police.  These tragedies 
influenced a series of decisions that helped 
reduce the intensity of on-campus conflicts 
during the following decades, including the 
removal of the United States' Army Reserve 
Officers Training Corps (ROTC), and an 
institutional commitment to resolving conflicts without police intervention.

Forty years later, the UPR community, led by the 
students, still struggles for a democratic and 
accessible institution, against the abusive and 
exclusionary policies of the latest colonial 
government.  Among these, aside from its clear 
intention to privatize higher education as much 
as it can, said government has laid off over 
25,000 public employees, and intends to build a 
gasoduct across the island that will displace 
entire communities and impact areas of high 
ecological and archeological value.

In this context, the Río Piedras Campus once 
again lived several months of police occupation, 
with the open support of the government and 
university administrators, in reaction to the 
strike democratically declared by the Río Piedras 
General Student Assembly, rejecting an unjust and 
arbitrary $800 hike in the cost of studying.  The 
eyes of the world watched as Puerto Rico Police 
officers tortured peaceful civil disobedients 
with impunity, sexually accosted and attacked 
women students, discriminatorily harassed student 
leaders, and savagely beat people, even under 
custody, all before the television cameras.

There can be no doubt that the recent decision by 
Governor Luis Fortuño to withdraw the bulk of the 
police force from the Río Piedras Campus is a 
partial victory for the students, who with their 
bravery and determination have raised the 
political cost of sustaining that level of 
repression way too high for the government to 
afford.  However, now is not the time to lower 
the guard.  It wouldn't be the first time that 
the Fortuño administration temporarily curtails 
its use of brute force, only to return even more 
violently under any pretext.  We are convinced 
that if the Puerto Rico Police is not removed 
immediately, completely, and permanently from all 
UPR campuses, it will only be a matter of time before another March 11.

In addition, we are united by the firm conviction 
that the demands of the UPR community are 
just.  The strike is still in effect, and the 
struggle (its current phase) will continue until 
the $800 hike is eliminated.  In the longer term, 
we support a real democratization of the 
decision-making process in the UPR, so that it is 
the community that determines the best way to 
handle the institution's financial and administrative problems.

For all of these reasons, Friday, March 11, 2011, 
the fortieth anniversary of that fateful March 
11, will be World Day of Solidarity with the 
UPR.  On that day we will hold, in our respective 
cities, simultaneous demonstrations together with 
individuals and organizations that support just 
causes.  At a time when the powerful voice of the 
brave Egyptian people and all Arab nations is 
still ringing around the globe, we are confident 
that the people of consciousness of the world 
will welcome this initiative and organize their 
own activities of solidarity on that day.

We enthusiastically urge you to sign on to this 
Declaration, and send us video, images, and 
statements of support from your World Day of 
Solidarity with the UPR demonstrations.

STRUGGLE YES, GIVE IN NO!
POLICE OUT OF THE UPR!
ZERO HIKE!

Contacts:
<mailto:redaccion at gmail.com>redaccion at gmail.com
<http://redaccion-pr.net/>redaccion-pr.net




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