The critical junctures that the country is experiencing today demands that citizens raise their sights and generate new themes for public discussion. First, it is necessary to overcome the racist and intolerant Manichean logic that divides the nation between "learned ones" and "neo-tribal vandals", between "true students" and "hooded, violent ones", and between "well-behaved, respectful" teachers and "resentful or criminal guerrillas". Beyond the visceral pronouncements in favor of or against specific actions taken by dissident groups, a thorough discussion of the underlying national situation is urgently needed.
The main problem confronting the country is not that a group of youths have broken a window in the Rectory Tower [Administration Building] of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), or that thousands of teachers betrayed by the government have attacked the headquarters of the main political parties in Chilpancingo, or that normalistas [Normal School, i.e., Teachers College students] have handed out soda and chips to passersby in Morelia. What has us prostrate as a nation is tight authoritarian and corrupt control by a handful of discredited politicians, unpunished monopolies and manipulative media. This tripod makes up the minority that has actually "hijacked" the country, and all our efforts should be channeled in an intelligent and peaceful manner to dismantling its domination of public space.
The good news is that the current situation of radical exclusion and injustice is not sustainable in a country like Mexico, with a sophisticated social conscience and a history full of struggles. The day will come when the electronic media that so looks down on the Mexican people that they [media] will be forced to give way to a new media committed to a high public debate. The day will come when the national political class will have to say their goodbyes to make room for new young leaders strongly committed to social causes.
But today the occupation of the UNAM's Rectory Tower, the attacks on party headquarters and the theft and distribution of products of the transnationals impair the needed national articulation of a social front that can challenge the political and economic elites more convincingly. These hasty actions facilitate the dirty work of the mainstream media in discrediting the popular resistance, of the governments in criminalizing social protest and of big business in privatizing public education.
What is needed today is not to radicalize the methods of protest, but to extend and articulate the diverse popular demands throughout the country. For example, we have argued in favor of the national projection of the just demands of the State Coordinating Committee of Education Workers in Guerrero (CETEG) for the defense of our constitutional right to a "decent and socially useful job" (see full review). According to Article 123 of the Constitution, all the youth of the country should be guaranteed the right to a decent job in their field of expertise.
According to recent studies by the National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education (ANUIES), today there is a huge shortfall in the supply of jobs for professionals. If the economy stays with its puny growth trend, the young people now studying for a university degree will have little chance of getting a job and almost null chance of having a worthy position in their area of expertise. Experts estimate that by 2020 only 44 percent of young graduates with [Bachelors] degrees will find any job, and only 6 percent will find quality work. Rightly then, today's university students are so willing to mobilize for social justice and against the neoliberal policies of the "new" PRI.
Regarding the UNAM, students of the College of Sciences and Humanities (CCH) should immediately lift their camp to prevent violent eviction and violation of university autonomy that both want. This show of goodwill on the part of students would also allow the initiation of building a broader movement toward full democratization of the highest seat of learning, including of course the CCH. Today all university officials from the president to the directors of the schools, colleges and institutes, are appointed by an opaque and undemocratic Board of Governors that also elects its own members. The "consultations" held regularly with the academic community are merely symbolic.
University students should have the right to elect their authorities directly or, where applicable, at least to take part directly in the construction of the lists of candidates for each position. An elected authority always has more legitimacy than an imposed authority, and it is far less vulnerable to blackmail by small groups that clash. It is not enough just to defend university autonomy, but it should also strengthen and complement it with greater accountability within the university.
University students should have the right to elect their authorities directly or, where applicable, at least to take part directly in the construction of the lists of candidates for each position. An elected authority always has more legitimacy than an imposed authority, and it is far less vulnerable to blackmail by small groups that clash. It is not enough just to defend university autonomy, but it should also strengthen and complement it with greater accountability within the university.
This is the way in which the current conflict of the CCH [occupation] will send a clear message not only to the university community, but to the entire country. Will the Mexico of Peña Nieto give priority to the club or to the proposal, to repression or to debate? Meanwhile, the university community should show the maturity needed to move from a visceral "no" to the "vandalism" to the articulation of a broader struggle for full democratization of the national university.
*John M. Ackerman, U.S. born and trained scholar (Ph.D. in political sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz), is also a Mexican citizen. He is a researcher in the Institute of Judicial Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico [UNAM] and editorial director of the Mexican Law Review. A columnist for La Jornada newspaper and Proceso magazine, Dr. Ackerman maintains a blog of his articles in Spanish, as well as some in English. Twitter: @JohnMAckerman Spanish original