The march was greeted by thousands of people expressing support for the
students' demands. The 250,000 students at the National Autonomous
University of Mexico,UNAM, have been on strike for more than six months now.
The main demandof the movement is against the introduction of tuition fees
of about 210 US dollars, an amount of money which would effectively prevent
all students from working class families from enrolling.
The students occupy the university premises where they hold weekly mass
meetings which elect representatives to a Central Strike Committee,CGH.
So far, the students have resisted all attemps of the authoritiesto break
the strike through slanders in the press, repession, etc. In two separate
occasions the university authorities have used the'porros', gangs of thugs
paid by the authorities, to expell the students from the occupied schools.
On both occasions the students,with the support of the local population
managed to repel them.
In a new attempt to try and put an end to the movement, the rector
haspresented 350 court cases against leading activists of the CGH. Some
ofthem have already other pending court cases. This is for instance the case
of the Students' Committee in Defend of State Education, CEDEP, Pablo
Ramirez
We appeal to all youth and student organisations and to the labour movement
in general to send protest messages demanding the withdrawal of all court
cases and the immediate opening of negotiations with the student
representatives to:
Rectoría de la UNAM
e-mail address: www_unam@serpiente.dgsca.unam.mx
http://serpiente.dgsca.unam.mx/rectoria/htm/opinion.html
with copies to:
Comite General de HuelgaComité Estudiantil en Defensa de la Escuela Pública
militan@mail.giga.com
and to the newspaper, La Jornada:jornada@condor.dgsca.unam.mx
comradely,
Students' Committee in Defence of State Education,
CEDEP Mexico,
November 12th, 1999
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