>From: "xica - sf bay area" <xicaj@hotmail.com>
>Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 18:55:31 GMT
>
>A Call to the Movement to Free Mumia to Support the Struggle of the UNAM
>Strikers!
>
>Recently, the movement to free Mumia received a statement of support from
>the student strikers of UNAM (National Autonomous University of México). The
>statement is very strong and inspiring. In it they call for working-class
>and student action to free Mumia. We should uphold and popularize this
>support from our sisters and brothers in struggle. (The statement can be
>found at the end of this document.)
>
>I URGE all organizations and individuals in the struggle to free Mumia to
>stand with these strong sisters and brothers in their struggle against the
>Mexican Government.
>
>In this document you will find:
>* A call for support
>* A letter of support of the strike FOR YOU TO ENDORSE
>* An article with background information about the strike at UNAM by Jing
>Yu Hsiang
>* The statement of support from the strikers to the movement to free Mumia
>
>THE CALL
>from Xica Jang
>
>One thing I have always admired about Mumia Abu-Jamal is that all this
>time,much of his writing, his commentary and analysis, addresses the
>conditionsof the oppressed from all over the world and exposes those who
>oppress them. Despite all the years that he has been sitting on death row,
>suffering the brutality of prison conditions, fighting tooth and nail with a
>system that wants to kill him, despite all of the personal atrocities he
>must be facing every day, he has trained his vision on the whole world and
>helped us to connect our struggles to those of other people internationally.
> We should take his leadership in this case and understand that the
>struggle of the
>sisters and brothers in México is also our own.
>
>The reason that this government wants so badly to kill Mumia is because he
>upholds this kind of rebellion and encourages us all to find the ways to
>challenge this oppressive system. This is the very thing that both our
>government and the Méxican government fear. They fear our ability to become
>a powerful force that could one day pose a threat to their way of life
>which, by nature, is built on the oppression of millions all over the
>world. In a time when both governments are cutting back on social services
>and public assistance, when the wealth gap is growing exponentially in both
>countries, the ideas of the opponents of these governments are that much
>more dangerous. More dangerous still is when we can unite from across the
>borders that the ruling classes created to serve their interests as they
>stole these lands from their original inhabitants.
>
>We must defend these students and give them our full support. We can start
>by sending them the following letter of support.
>
>==============================================
>
>The Letter of Support:
>FORWARD THIS TO THE WORLD but please ENDORSE as ORGANIZATIONS as or
>INDIVIDUALS and
>*** e-mail EACH endorsed copy back to xicaj@hotmail.com before you do your
>forwarding.
>*** Or just e-mail a short request to be added on the list of endorsements
>*** Or snail mail it to this address (after you collect all those
>signatures!!) Mumia Movement for UNAM, c/o AFSC, 65 Ninth Street, San
>Francisco, CA, 94103
>
>
>
>To Our Sisters and Brothers in Struggle at UNAM:
>
> As people organized to free Mumia Abu-Jamal - a man who our government
>would like to execute because of his inspiring, courageous and rebellious
>words, especially because of his exposure of the repressive actions of the
>police against oppressed groups in the US - we take great inspiration from
>your struggle against your government's effort to suppress the rights of the
>working class in your country. It is a most beautiful sight for those very
>brief moments when our news shows footage of hundreds of thousands of people
>protesting the theft of education from working class and poor people in
>México and the privatization of many of your public institutions.
>
> We thank you for your support of our cuase. We are all stronger because of
>the unity you have expressed against oppression in this country and we are
>writing in hopes of strengthening your fight against oppression in your
>country.
>
> It is an outrage that the rulers of your country should want to make
>college education more and more elite, reversing one of the gains of your
>1910 revolution. It seems that they are eager to reduce the number of
>educated youth in your country as they reduce public services and their
>attendant bureaucracies in the interests of NAFTA and IMF inspired
>privatization schemes. Zedillo, Cárdenas, Barnes, their lackeys and the
>police are making it very clear that they only want education to be truly
>public for as long as it serves their political and economic purposes.
>
> In your country in which half of the people live below the poverty line,
>most of the children in the countryside are malnourished and millions live
>without running water and electricity, it is especially shocking to think of
>what the increase in wealth gap is doing to your people because of the IMF
>and NAFTA. We are enraged that our government - and yours following it -
>finds it acceptable that millions of peasants are being displaced from their
>land as a result. Now they are trying to convert the universities to serve
>the type of workforce they need to create to support the changes being
>forced on your country.
>
> Here in this country, most of our poor - those who are not homeless - still
>enjoy running water and usually have electricity (though not always). But
>that "wealth" is built on the backs of the oppressed in countries like
>yours. Those who run this country try, as much as they are able, to make
>sure that even the horrible conditions some of our people face still aren't
>as horrible as the conditions the poor in your country face. They would
>like to keep us blind so that we don't become indignant at these
>arrangements. They would like us to remain ignorant of struggles like your
>own and that of the EZLN and others in your country. And they would like us
>to never see how the oppression in your country is directly connected to our
>own oppression and created by the very same people. That is why it is
>especially important for us, here in the belly of the beast, to show our
>support of your spirited rebellion and fiery resistance and to join you in
>your cause.
>
> Your movement has been under fierce attack by the government, the police
>and by backward forces from it's beginning. We join you in condemning
>those attacks. Terror tactics that attempt to intimidate and demoralize the
>movement are nothing but a continuation of the very same things you are
>rebelling against. When they attack you they are only confirming what we
>already know. We know that they will defend their interests against the
>interests of the people no matter what it takes. But we also know that when
>they attack, it means that we have given them something to worry about. We
>know that we have shaken up their plan and that we have threatened something
>dear to them. This is a very good thing since their plan is completely
>against the interests of the people and can only make the conditions of the
>people worse. Your brave resistance to these attacks is commendable and
>inspiring.
>
> Ultimately, it is only through struggles like yours, ours, Mumia's and
>others like us all over the world that we will be able to build something
>better than what we now have. Only through our struggles might we
>eventually throw all forms of oppression off of our backs. We hope that one
>day, the physical and economic border that our government has violently
>placed between us through bloodshed and plunder, will be removed forever.
>
>*Abolish the educational reforms!
>*Down with NAFTA and privatization!
>*Freedom for all Mexican Political Prisoners and POW's!
>*Freedom for all US Political Prisoners including Mumia Abu-Jamal and
>Leonard Peltier!
>*¡Ya Basta! ¡La lucha continua!
>
>In Struggle,
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Your Name or the Name of Your Organization or Both
>
>if for whatever reason you don’t want to sign this letter, WRITE YOUR OWN
>and get it to me - I will (get it translated and)pass it on to the strikers.
> The most important thing is that we unite as much as possible to support
>them!!
>============================================
>
>THE ARTICLE:
>
>Defend the Right of the Working Class to Education! Stop NAFTA and
>Privatization in México
>by Jing Yu Hsiang
>
>On March 12, 1999, Latin America's largest university, UNAM (National
>Autonomous University of México), in México City, was shut down by a 270,000
>strong student strike. The students have closed every building in the
>university to say ¡Ya Basta! to the future the government has planned for
>them and for México. Their message of resistance has inspired rebellion in
>many sections of the people.
>
>The students are demanding the abolition of educational reforms that attack
>free, public education - a gain won through the 1910 revolution and
>formalized in the Mexican constitution. For 51 years, there has been almost
>no tuition to attend UNAM. The decision of Mayor, and PRD Presidential
>candidate, Cárdenas, together with President Zedillo and University Rector
>Barnes to charge $65 (US) per semester sparked the strike. This is a huge
>expense in a country where the minimum wage is $4 (US) per day, 4 out of 5
>children in the countryside suffer from malnutrition, half of all Mexicans
>live below the official poverty line and one quarter of the population lives
>in extreme poverty. Even with virtually free tuition, many young Mexicans
>are denied access to UNAM because they can't pay for the cost of books,
>transportation and other expenses. The fee hike would exclude virtually all
>working class people.
>
>The government has attempted to throw water on the fire of this rebellion
>under the guise of "negotiation" by making the fees "voluntary" (pay if you
>can) but they have erected a barricade of red tape which maintains the
>exclusionary policies. When the "voluntary" fee process was put into
>practice, those who could pay were allowed to register, while those applying
>for free education had to register across town within a time limit
>physically impossible to meet using public transportation. Poor students
>still could not obtain the promised free education. Also, there are now
>time limits set on the completion of a degree, pushing out the 40% of the
>students who must work to support themselves while attending school. The
>entrance exams and graduation criteria are much more restrictive and are now
>being handled by a firm that works with Bill Gates. These changes insure
>that UNAM will become, more and more, a school for the elite.
>
>Opponents of the fee increase say that the World Bank and other
>international institutions have pressured México to raise tuition in public
>universities, create loan programs, and promote private colleges. UNAM
>denies any outside pressure. However, under NAFTA, it makes a great deal of
>sense that they would feel this pressure. The World Bank, the IMF and the
>WTO have all been calling for more privatization of public services in all
>of the "third world" in order to bring in competitive private industry,
>largely from the US. These organizations have also been calling for a
>"de-bureaucratization" in "third world" governments as well. IMF
>"restructuring" means lowering the cost of government by reducing social
>services and their attendant bureaucracies, thus creating lower taxes and
>therefore a "friendly business environment." This makes for fewer jobs for
>educated people and fewer educated youth. NAFTA has intensified and sped up
>this process in México. The free college education concession of the 1910
>revolution has allowed a section of the upper working class to participate
>in lower levels of government bureaucracy as well as a large number of
>state-owned companies and institutions. This is not compatible with the new
>private industries taking over in México. What the new privatization
>requires is a change in the work force. According to the president of
>Coparmex (Employers Federation of México) college students must "be prepared
>to join the labor market in a competitive economy and globalized world, and
>UNAM is not giving them that." Essentially, they want the colleges to
>prepare people to become management and professional personnel for the
>private companies.
>
>NAFTA is changing México's economy away from a plantation system. This
>means that agriculture in México is becoming more and more industrialized.
>In other words, the working class is growing by the millions as people are
>being kicked off their land and forced to look for work in industries.
>Surrounding México City are shanty towns filled with these people who have
>been and continue to be kicked off of their land. The population of México
>City grows by a number equaling the population of San Francisco - each year!
>The majority of those millions in shanty towns do not have running water or
>electricity and they have been demanding these services from the government
>through protests and court battles.
>
>So, the government is actually under pressure right now from TWO sides. On
>the one hand there is the economic pressure of the US and the international
>economic watchdog organizations as described above. But on the other hand,
>there is the resistance of the people which is taking forms like the EZLN
>(Zapatista Army of National Liberation) in Chiapas, other armed groups in
>Oaxaca and Guerrero (EPR), the anti-privatization movement, the student
>strikers and their supporters, and the pressure for government services from
>the millions of shanty town dwellers. As the government struggles to obey
>the increasing economic demands of staying afloat in today's global economy,
>they must also struggle to keep a lid on the volcano of people's resistance
>whose temperature is rising daily. One of the worst things they could have
>while making all of these reactionary economic changes is a lot of
>unemployed educated youth, as happened in Columbia in the seventies, feeding
>the revolutionary movement in that country.
>
>The students and their supporters have occupied 36 campuses and other
>university facilities. They have repeatedly gone into the streets in the
>tens of thousands. On March 18, 1999, 100,000 students and their supporters
>marched on the main square of México City, the Zócalo. On October 2, 1999,
>250,000 students, workers and homeless people took to the streets of México
>City to commemorate the anniversary of the massacre of students and
>residents of the housing project of Tlatelolco in 1968.
>
>The strike has polarized Mexican society in an incredible way. The students
>have gained the support of workers, parents and others through their
>struggle, as well as the support of the EZLN. The unity between the
>worker's and the students is very strong. Worker's organizations have
>helped the students by forming joint student / worker guard groups to
>protect the occupation from the constant attack of backward forces, and they
>have helped in organizing some important logistics in maintaining the
>strike, such as helping to provide and prepare food for the strikers.
>
>The strike has also come under vicious attack. Though the government fears
>the potential nationwide upset that a repeat of the massacre of 1968 could
>produce, they have arrested and beaten many students with the full support
>of Mayor Cárdenas. UNAM Rector Barnes has called for federal government
>intervention to end the strike. President Zedillo said that the government
>"will resort to another type of solution" if negotiations fail. One senator
>has advised that Cárdenas should not be held back by the ghost of the
>October 2, 1968 massacre and "arrest the delinquents of the CGH [Strike
>General Council - the main organization of the strike]" He suggested a
>joint operation with the new "preventative police" whose ranks include 5,000
>army troops. So far, several key leaders and member of the strike have been
>kidnapped and beaten. Just recently a woman striker was taken at night from
>the campus in a truck. In June a student was kidnapped, raped and
>interrogated about the strike. These attacks have been met by thousands in
>the streets protesting. The strikers have successfully blocked buildings by
>surrounding them with their bodies so that even the police could not get
>through. They have taken many campus police cars and turned them into
>campus ornaments with bright paints and posters.
>
>The struggle of these students and their supporters is part of the
>international struggle against growing oppression in this globalized
>economy. The rulers of México are subordinate to the rulers of our country
>and they act in the very same interests. We live in the very country that
>is the main oppressor of the Mexican people and we have a responsibility
>and special opportunity to expose the common enemy and support the just
>struggle of our sisters and brothers in the struggle at UNAM.
>
>
>==========================================
>
>Statement from student strikers at UNAM
>
>Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal!
>
>The following motion was approved by over 500 striking students of the
>National Autonomous University of México (UNAM) at a meeting of the Strike
>General Council (CGH) early on October 13, hours before Pennsylvania
>Governor Ridge signed a death warrant ordering the execution of Mumia
>Abu-Jamal.
>
>On October 4, 1999, the US Supreme Court announced that it refused to hear
>an appeal submitted by the lawyers of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The attorneys
>demanded a new trial on the basis of the innumerable and flagrant judicial
>atrocities that took place during the trial in 1982 which sentenced him to
>death. While the defense team is preparing new legal steps, this rejection
>by the highest court of the United States makes it all the more urgent to
>massively mobilize the working class to demand freedom now for Mumia. This
>is the social force which has the power to defeat this capitalist onslaught
>against the oppressed.
>
>The capitalists state want to silence Mumia Abu-Jamal, the renowned black
>journalist known as the "voice of the voiceless," by executing him. His
>"crime" was to defy the racist American bourgeoisie and to denounce a system
>based on the most unbearable oppression of racial minorities. The racist
>death penalty in the United States is nothing less than legal lynching, an
>official version of the terror of the Ku Klux Klan which is directly derived
>from slavery. Today there are thousands on death row, most of them black
>and Latinos, including dozens of Mexicans.
>
>By murdering Abu-Jamal, the ruling class wants to send a warning to all
>those who dare to raise their heads against oppression and poverty, hunger
>and war. To do this, they trample on the rights of the oppressed. Jamal
>was not allowed to present his own legal defense, and was even expelled from
>the court room during much of his 1982 trial. Blacks were systematically
>eliminated from the jury. This goes to show that there can be no justice
>for the exploited and oppressed in the bourgeois courts. In the capitalist
>judicial system, the only voice is that of the bosses, their politicians and
>judges, who always seek to suppress the protests of those who fight against
>the starvation measures which they impose on the working people.
>
>Those who have ordered that Mumia must die are the same ones who have
>ordered the increase of student "fees" at UNAM, as well as the wave of
>privatization that threatens to throw thousands of workers out of their
>jobs around the world. They are the same ones who have deployed an enormous
>military force in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero in order to
>crush the Indians and peasants rebelling against their relentless
>oppression. From the largest university in Latin America, currently on
>strike, we join our voice with the international protests for Mumia. At the
>same time, we fight for immediate freedom for all the class-war prisoners in
>this country, victims of bourgeois justice in México.
>
>We UNAM students on strike who have resisted the blows of the Mexican
>bourgeoisie, junior partner of those who today seek to silence Mumia,
>emphasize that in order to prevent this new crime of the capitalist state,
>it is necessary to mobilize the enormous power of the working class around
>the world. This past April, teachers in the state of Rio de Janeiro,
>Brazil, and the longshoremen on the West Coast of the United States stopped
>work demanding freedom for Jamal. Today we address ourselves to the unions
>and militant workers in México, in particular to those who have organized
>and participated in defense guards in the UNAM strike, to call on them to
>join with us in protest actions demanding:
>*Freedom now for Mumia Abu-Jamal!
>*Abolish the racist death penalty!
>
>============================================
>-end-