[News] UPR students resume strikes

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Analysis: Rossana Rodriguez



UPR students resume strikes

Student activists are organizing again after 
University of Puerto Rico administrators tried to 
undo the victory students won last summer, reports Rossana Rodriguez.

December 10, 2010

STUDENTS FROM six campuses in the University of 
Puerto Rico (UPR) system have held a series of 
48-hour strikes in the last week to oppose the 
imposition of an $800 fee that is scheduled to 
take effect at the beginning of the January 2011 semester.

Students at the Río Piedras campus were among of 
the first to go out after they held a December 1 
mass assembly and voted by an overwhelming 
majority to strike if the administration does not 
rescind the new fee by December 14.

The chancellor of the Río Piedras campus used 
every means possible to try to stop the students 
from gathering, including the canceling academic 
recess, freezing the bank account of the student 
council so that it couldn't pay for the sound 
system, and denying students the use of a space for their meeting.

But UPR students are already used to doing things 
the hard way, so the night before, they raised 
funds by approaching cars stopped at traffic 
lights so they could rent a sound system for the 
outdoor meeting that lasted five hours under the 
harsh rays of a sunny day at the university's athletic track.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THE WAVE of strikes in the last week is a 
continuation of the struggle against tuition 
hikes that began last summer with a two-month 
strike that shut down all 11 UPR campuses. 
Students ended their strike in victory when the 
administration agreed not to impose a $400 fee at 
the start of the fall semester. But UPR is now 
trying to undo that victory for students by 
imposing an $800 fee for the spring semester.

If imposed, the fee would place a college 
education out of reach of many working-class 
people. But students aren't ready to throw in the towel.

The 48-hour strike at the Río Piedras campus 
ended December 8, but not before the university 
took extraordinary measures to try to stop it from even starting.

First, the administration tore down the campus' 
historic gates to make it harder for students to 
control access to the campus. But students 
quickly built barricades in response to the 
administration's actions. Then the administration 
spent $1.5 million to hire a private security 
company managed by former professional wrestler 
Chicki Star (ironically, his character was known 
for using dirty tactics such as sucker punches and double crosses).

The former wrestler placed a "help wanted" ad on 
his Facebook page for 200 people to work as 
security guards during the UPR strike. Given the 
high levels of unemployment on the island, it's 
not surprising that many young working-class 
people desperate for work showed up. Almost 
immediately, there were clashes between the two groups of young people.

The guards were given batons and, in some cases, 
Taser guns to "protect" public property from the 
students. Some guards also carried knives, and at 
least one student was attacked and injured by a guard.

But what the administration and Chicki Star 
hadn't counted on was that the students knew 
better than to see the young guards as their 
enemies. On the second day of the 48-hour 
stoppage, strike leader Giovanni Roberto got 
things started with a short speech in which he 
explained why the student strikers were fighting 
for demands that also served the interests of the newly hired guards.

"If we win this strike, we all win--because we 
will have made this university more accessible to 
us, to you and to your brothers and sisters," 
said Roberto. "Everyone will have a chance for a 
[better] future." The episode ended with many 
students and guards shaking hands and hugging 
each other as they forged a peace based on their shared interests.

<http://www.prdailysun.com/news/Police-takes-over-campus-after-stoppage>According 
to Puerto Rico's 
<http://www.prdailysun.com/news/Police-takes-over-campus-after-stoppage>Daily 
Sun [1]:

Moments later, the young guards were replaced by 
a different--and evidently older--group of 
guards. An executive officer from Capitol 
Security Services, the independent contractor in 
charge of campus security, explained that the 
guards had been changed "because they suffered 
from Stockholm Syndrome," a psychological 
condition in which hostages tend to sympathize 
with their captors after an extended period of 
time. The man did not explain how such a 
condition could relate to the situation at the 
UPR or how he had reached that conclusion.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THE ADMINISTRATION is resorting to hardball 
tactics to try to intimidate, demoralize and 
isolate strike leaders. So far, there have been 
expulsions of students and arrests at several 
campuses. In Aguadilla, student activist Ovidio 
Efraín López Alers, a member of the Organización 
Socialista Internacional, was arrested and is now facing charges.

Though the university has tried to blame students 
for a couple episodes of violence and damage to 
public property, it's the administration that has 
done far more damage to the campus--by removing 
campus gates in Río Piedras and Bayamón, for example.

After students ended their 48-hour strike in Río 
Piedras, riot police occupied the campus, and it 
now remains under police control. This is the 
first time police have occupied the campus since 
the student strikes of the early 1980s, when riot 
police broke up a student assembly at gunpoint 
and then went on a rampage that left hundreds 
injured on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood.

After the police riot, the university adopted a 
non-confrontation policy that kept police from entering campus--until now.

But the university's attempts at intimidation 
have so far failed to stop the sutdents. Not only 
did the strike spread to a total of six campuses, 
but students already have pledged to begin an 
indefinite strike on December 15 unless and until 
the fee is rescinded. Public-sector unions are 
calling for a December 12 march to defend the university.

In addition, UPR professors held a December 9 
assembly and decided to stop performing any 
professional duties until police leave the 
campus. The professors also passed a resolution 
insisting that the administration place a 
moratorium on the fee and agree to negotiate with 
the students. However, they are also asking the 
students to postpone the strike so negotiations can take place.

But the university has shown that it has no 
interest in good-faith negotiations. Case in 
point: The administration has repeatedly lied to 
students about the university's finances as it 
made its case for the tuition hike, making it 
practically impossible to have meaningful dialogue about resolving the crisis.

The administration told students that the $800 
fee was necessary as collateral for a credit line 
of $100 million with Puerto Rico's Banco 
Gubernamental de Fomento (Government Development 
Bank, or BGF by its initials in Spanish). But a 
letter from the BGF now in the possession of 
student leaders directly contradicts this, 
stating that the collateral for the credit line 
is actually money owed to UPR by government 
agencies that have contracted with the university.

This is merely the latest in a series of lies 
told by the UPR administration--which explains 
why its credibility among students and in the 
broader population is practically nil.

The struggle of students in Puerto Rico is just 
one link in a chain of global protests against 
austerity measures. After bailing out the global 
financial system to the tune of trillions of 
dollars, governments around the world are trying 
to force students and workers to pay for the crisis.

Puerto Rico's government has imposed a $140 
million cut on UPR, showing that it feels no 
shame at making the workers and the poor pay for 
the government's own mismanagement. Now, it's up 
to students, faculty and university workers to 
refuse to pay for a crisis that they had no hand in creating.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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    * [1] 
http://www.prdailysun.com/news/Police-takes-over-campus-after-stoppage
    * [2] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0




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