Urgent appeal from Striking Mexican Students 2/1/00 Fri, 4 Feb 2000 08:20:22 -0500 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Aaron ________________________________________________ A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E http://www.ainfos.ca/ ________________________________________________ The situation is extremely tense, the army is in our classrooms. Today, February 1st, the military police burst into one of the schools on strike of the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). Thereby, the government of our country shows its clear intention to resolve the conflict by means of force. It seeks to resolve it using the army; we have more than 400 companheros arrested and beaten. We, the students, don't want violence. For more than nine months we have been resisting the violence with which the government and the university authorities have tried to defeat the young people of the UNAM. They have used it against the students who want a free education for everybody. The repression against the student movements isn4t new. We know that in every place in the world it has existed and because of that we write this call, because of that we ask for the support of all the international community by demonstrating their repudiation of the militarization in the UNAM and by making their opinion count by protesting at the embassies and consulates of Mexico in their countries. We need your support, our fight for a free education marks one of the many wars against neoliberalism. We don4t want this fight to be only ours, it will have to be of all, of all the nations, of all the races. Because of this, we continue resisting, we continue fighting for a dream that we intend to become reality. We send you a fraternal greeting. General Council of Strike. National Autonomous University of Mixico. ------------------------- Stop the repression! Today, 1 February, in Preparatory 3 [one of the high schools of the university], students who support and who are against the strike engaged in a dialog to reach agreements with the aim of finding a solution to the strike. According to the reports, when the antistrike students left, a group of goons arrived, among them members of UNAM auxiliary [police], to try to evict by force the strikers that would remain in the school. There were several confrontations, and the control of the school oscillated between the strikers and the goons. Later, around 7:15 PM [CST=GMT -0600] members of the Federal Preventive Police armed with shields, helmets and oarlocks, entered the school and took control of it. There are several people hospitalized. A rumor circulated that one person was dead, but so far it has not been confirmed. Elements of the grenadiers [riot police] and police initiated a persecution in the neighborhood of the school, indiscriminately beating all the people who were there, including students, parents and people who were found in the area. The grenadiers arrested 400 students and put them in trucks. It is not known where they are taking them. We hold responsible for this repression: the Rector of the UNAM, Juan Ramsn de la Fuente who used the results of the university plebiscite to instigate the students to "retake" the facilities, with acts of provocation; the PRD government of the Federal District, that has repressed students on several occasions on not being able to impose its interests on the strike; and the federal government headed by Ernesto Zedillo who initiated this strike when trying to impose his neoliberal policies and has prevented its solution by not wanting to resolve the points of the petitionary sheet. We make a call to all the population in general that it demonstrate against any type of repression of the members of the General Council of Strike. The dialogue is the only possible way out of the present conflict in the Independent National Autonomous University of Mexico. 1o of February 21:30 hrs Internet Commission General Council of Strike ******** The A-Infos News Service News about and of interest to anarchists ******** COMMANDS: lists@tao.ca REPLIES: a-infos-d@lists.tao.ca HELP: a-infos-org@lists.tao.ca WWW: http://www.ainfos.ca INFO: http://www.ainfos.ca/org To receive a-infos in one language only mail lists@tao.ca the message unsubscribe a-infos subscribe a-infos-X where X = en, ca, de, fr, etc. (i.e. the language code) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-02.04.00-08:20:20-31290