A goal of the imperialist lackey Fujimori and his fascist military allies has been to jail the ideas, to stifle the culture and to chain the youth, all in an attempt to annihilate the People's War. In his desperation, looking for a social base among the youth, his "intelligence" services (SIN) recruit mercenaries disguised as university students; many of them are from religious sects financed by imperialism, who along with the military launch campaigns to erase "the fresh PCP red graffiti that make the walls of the university ugly."
They paint the walls green to replace the red PCP slogans. But whichever way one looks at it, it is a reactionary military action to confront a revolutionary military action. The agents of the genocidal government working inside the universities vainly try to convince the people that their letterings are good and those of the students are bad.
However, they have been unable to obtain the participation of the students in these counterrevolutionary actions for any length of time. What they do is to get involved in the institutional life of the University by coercing school authorities and committing despicable crimes on campus such as the one committed at the dormitory of La Cantuta University (where 9 students and 1 professor were murdered on July 18th, 1992).
The military occupation in the universities is similar to the "civic actions" being conducted in the urban settlements (shantytowns), but during the six years of occupation at the University of San Marcos for example, the only thing they have been able to show to the world is to expose the nature and extent of the fascist occupation of the universities, which by its own logic and dynamics has generated powerful resistance from the student movement in Peru. It is in this context that the reactionary attempt to privatize the universities and eliminate free education by increasing the tuition have been fought and resisted heroically by the students.
"Against the fascist militarization of the universities! COMBAT AND RESIST!" is the main slogan of the youth of San Marcos, who have been rejecting the intervention of the military. The combativeness and resistance is expressed in belligerent internal and external mass mobilizations.
There are have been many great struggles of the student movement, for instance the mobilization carried out by the Law and Medical students at San Marcos, courageously demanding the withdrawal of the troops and the resumption of classes. These students were not afraid at all of the shots fired against them by Fujimori's henchmen, and in mass rallies armed with stones and bricks they were able to kick the murderous army out of their school.
In the heat of the struggle workers and faculty of the schools (many of them young themselves) joined the students, mobilizing jointly in stunning marches, blocking main avenues and government buildings of Lima, thus putting pressure on the regime and its appointed school authorities to remove their henchmen from campus. This is happening in Peru's schools despite the fascist curfew imposed by the armed forces (from 10 PM to 5 AM)for the criminal purpose of arresting, murdering and disappearing university students, professors and workers.
The actions of Fujimori and his military on campus are like the flailing arms of someone who is choking; they have shown their criminal character: the low morals of the so-called "forces of order" who rape students, steal the merchandise of street vendors and, since they are cowards, go around with their faces hooded, snooping around the classrooms, cafeterias, student meetings and around the sports fields.
"This state of siege currently ruling within the perimeter of our university cannot and will not intimidate the revolutionary effervescence of the students, but will empower it," a San Marcos female student asserted.
Another youth, a mathematics student, stated:
"José Carlos Mariátegui, founder of the PCP, tell us that these times belong to the youth, therefore, he sets forth that it is the responsibility of the youth to build the new society. He says that this generation will develop ever cleaner and more immune to stupid prejudices and servile tastes.
"This helps us to strike on the head those certain revisionist student leaders, who as supporters of this old order, support this occupation in deeds. Their opportunism before the masses has been gutted and crushed, since the facts show who the real defenders of our schools are."
As the class hatred of the university students against their oppressors continues to build up, the reactionaries vainly dream of containing the fury of the youth with their military intervention. The UNI has experienced this situation. For example, the Research Center, which was controlled previously by the Japanese (who left in a panic as a result of the Maoists' actions), now is managed by the repressive forces themselves.
Since they took over the campus in September 1991, they have ransacked the laboratory equipment. At night, the military has stolen the computer equipment and copying machines, and have raped female students. The university's rector and the National Association of Rectors (ANR) were accomplices to these crimes because of their cowardly silence.
In December 1993, three UNI students were arrested on campus, taken to the Dincote headquarters, and one of them was tortured to death. "Neither the university authorities nor the groups manipulated by revisionism made any statements about those blatant crimes; rather they denied that the victims were students. When the relatives of the victims requested student verifications, the cowardly authorities refused to grant them, for fear of being arrested themselves," revealed one of the student comrades.
The revisionists, to numb the consciousness of the students, raise the banner of self-help (asistencialismo) for the purpose of boosting themselves up on the needs of the masses. They have been trafficking in some university schools (facultades) by giving courses in computers and English, and demanding payment in dollars from students and workers.
It is also well known that "free education" in the national universities exists in name only; the truth is that the students themselves must carry the cost of their education on their own shoulders. For example, the library in the Program (facultad) of Sciences, has imposed fees on students and professors.
Chairman Mao taught us: "The youth is the most active and vital force in society. Young people are the most anxious to learn, and the least conservative in their thinking." It means that the new generation are not passive but active, dynamic and fearless fighters in defending their rights. In the universities, the youth fight and resist in defense of the university and for a scientific, democratic and popular education.
Amidst countless hardships and difficulties, the sons and daughters of the people, of the urban proletariat and lower middle classes, attend the schools to forge themselves as professionals. The revolution has won the minds and hearts of many of them.
And despite the sinister actions of the government, the students' struggle has been emboldened even further. Not a day goes by that posters, leaflets and graffiti do not appear hailing the PCP and President Gonzalo, right under the noses of the uniformed goons; nor is there a moment in which issues like the need to defend the universities are not discussed and debated in the classrooms, trying to ignore the SIN snitches roaming around them. In the mass rallies, the students maintain an ironclad class spirit, not allowing themselves to be cowed by the bullets of the occupying forces.
Finally, even as the fascist military interventions occur in the universities, the People's War continues to advance, and its repercussion and prestige grow. The respect and solidarity for the PCP, President Gonzalo, the Central Committee, the Peoples' Army of Liberation and People's Committees are growing more and more not only in Peru but in the entire world; that can never be erased with whitewash nor with reactionary bayonets! It is a sign of the strong contradiction being forged by the people in arms in our country, through more than 16 years of their unstoppable path toward the conquest of power and the building of the People's Republic of Peru, future base of the World Proletarian Revolution.