It is another day in the seizure of the UNAM Rectory Tower [administrative building of the National Autonomous University of Mexico]. In front of the building, the weekend "truce" has concluded, and the endless debates resumed in the forms of university student struggle. At times there was an exchange of positions; at times, the intensity of their defenses turned into screams. Yesterday, the differences threatened to come to blows that didn't materialize.
At dawn, when the protesters were barely out of their tents for another day of ''struggle'', again they returned to the endless ideological defense of their movement. It is a defense that is not viewed as justified by dozens of university students who approached during the day to challenge what they see as an excessive protest.
Hundreds of students and teachers from various departments and members of several groups have signed a document rejecting the seizure of the Rectory
"as an act that is undemocratic and contrary to the historical traditions of the student movement based on mass, open meetings.''They expressed their opposition to the conflict being resolved by using the police and criticized "the double standard''' of Rector [President] José Narro, because
''on the one hand, he assures that the problem will be solved with 'intelligent and democratic' methods, while at the same time he files a criminal complaint with the Attorney General's office.''But they also denounce the attack on workers at CCH Naucalpan.
MV Note: High school student protests against proposed curriculum changes began in February at the Naucalpan campus of the College of Sciences and Humanities, a high school that is part of UNAM. In the process, five students were charged with physically attacking staff and expelled. The present protest seeks their reinstatement, as well as stopping the curriculum changes.The statement, which was distributed on social networks, is signed by members of some of the CCH campuses and some of the faculties [schools or departments] of Science, Economics, Political Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Law, among others, and groups such as the Student Club of Atzcapotzalco CCH, the Workers Revolutionary Party, the Metropolitan Student Committee, the Movement of Applicants Excluded from Higher Education, CGH-Ho Chi Minh, and a few more.
''We believe that dialogue between students, faculty and staff is the ideal mechanism to prevent outcomes that would favor the more conservative sectors of the country and those who seek, through the bureaucracy, to re-install authoritarianism, the use of thugs and a climate of repression experienced in other times.
''We call on all students to organize local assemblies to discuss the major issues affecting our communities, in order to fully exercise our university autonomy and find for ourselves a space that includes all of us in a democratic, pluralistic and inclusive environment,'' they conclude.At noon, after hours of endless and fruitless attempts at mutual convincing, the dialogue became intense and, with screams, a law student confronted one of the occupants of the Rectory.
''Are you university students?'', he repeated as a way of challenging the seizure.
"Here the argument is between those who defend the struggle and the disgusting, reactionary students who condemn it,'' said one of those holding the offices.There was pulling and punches in the air, while others around them called for a return to "student dialogue''.
A young medical student challenged the conditions in which the Rectory building is being held and appealed that it is a UNESCO world heritage site. The protesters screamed in order to disqualify his statement, which expressed concern about the David Siqueiros mural [above the entrance]. Their answer was: ''If Siqueiros were alive, he would be with us.'' At the same time, other building occupants disqualified the UNESCO statement, saying that the UN is an international organization penetrated by ''the oligarchy''.
MV Note: David Siqueiros was one of the three leading Mexican muralists, along with Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. A Stalinist and member of the Mexican Communist Party, he participated in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Leon Trotsky in May 1940 in Mexico City. UNAM has a long and still active tradition of Marxist thinking.Moments later, Primitivo Rodriguez, a former employee of the Cultural Department of the UNAM, who said he resigned in 1995 because he refused to sign a letter requesting admission of the police to the campus, tried to mediate between the two sides with "an open letter'' which he read in front of dozens of students.
''With modesty and with the solidarity that your just demands deserve, I invite you to transcend the situation (...) I invite you to leave the Tower peacefully and join with generosity and intelligence to build movements that can contain the deterioration of Mexico.''Later, at a press conference in a cafe in the Historic Center of the city, teachers from CCH South, East and Vallejo campuses criticized the lack of consensus regarding the seizure and the forms of struggle, which ''paints a regressive political landscape for UNAM''. They felt that it would be unfortunate if police intervened and called on the parties not to direct the conflict toward a dead end, because that would jeopardize the UNAM as a democratic space.
This Monday marked the 11th day since the march that ended with 15 youths with covered faces separating from the main contingent and, after breaking one of the windows of the Rectory Tower with a hammer, succeeding in occupying it. Their demand: re-enroll the CCH Naucalpan students expelled for assaulting workers.
University officials have not changed their original position that they will not talk with the students until they have freed the facilities, that they will not give in to pressure based on ''violence'' and that the conflict will not be resolved by force. Spanish original