The independent and popular current in the student movement grows
Featured Image: Student mobilization during the National University Strike in 2018. Source: El Comunero
We publish an unofficial translation of the statement published on the Colombian newspaper Nueva Democracia found here.
In the midst of discussions about the proposal presented by the government to reform Law 30 of 1992 that governs higher education, revolutionary students from different regions of the country have been coordinating and in July they held a national meeting held in the University of Tolima with the objective of strengthening the unity and building a minimum joint program. Due to its importance and relevance to the current situation, from Nueva Democracia we decided to fully reproduce the political declaration of this new interregional student organization published in the first days of August:
POLITICAL DECLARATION OF THE INTERREGIONAL ORGANIZATION
Within the framework of the development of the reform to Law 30 of 1992, student groups from different public Institutions of Higher Education in some regions of the country (Tolima, Antioquia, Santander, Bogotá DC) come together to generate a different political alternative to that proposed by the traditional organizations, which collects the demands and debates of the student base and points to the struggle for a dignified, free and class-conscious education. Based on historical contributions of the student movement, we discuss and propose to participate in the current juncture of the higher education in order to focus on the different debates and proposals that are born from the basis of the movement to contribute to the construction and consolidation of the student movement and its just struggle.
As a student organization that comes from the popular and impoverished sectors of this country, loyal to the oppressed people, we hold on to a number of principles with class character, firmly attacking fascism, patriarchy and all its representations, resisting the onslaught of imperialism that loot and exploit our country. In this sense, we understand bourgeois democracy as one more instrument to strengthen the capitalist system that seeks to co-opt popular organizations, therefore, we oppose the political opportunism of Parties who only care about votes, and individuals who falsely rise the flags of the oppressed people and consequently, we demand an struggle for locations for assembly and base organizations with class independence.
Specifically, we struggle for an all-around, critical, scientific, class education at the service of the oppressed people, in which the student organization does not start from or depend on unitary and/or self-proclaimed student representations. On the contrary, we seek to promote broad and truly democratic areas of action who are against the manipulation and the use such spaces and who defend the dignity of the oppressed people.
Our struggle aims to create guarantees and the necessary conditions that reduce those different factors that hinders the access and possibility to attend higher education, which are even more acute in rural contexts where what should be a Right is a privilege. In addition, we understand that the Autonomy of the University is conditioned and limited since the university government does not represent the majorities, and therefore is not a guarantor of university democracy, which comes from the conditions that are imposed by the university-company-state relationship that precisely establishes neoliberal logic’s that only benefits minorities, large private companies, and large multinational industry. Due to the above, our lines of work are oriented towards construction and political struggle through a program that allows the oppressed people more access to higher education, with university welfare policies that guarantee their permanence, based on security and food sovereignty, full mental health attention, and promotion of culture, art and sports, which are essential for the development of the learning processes. Likewise, the conquest of a university autonomy designed in favor of the university community is sought, and a university government that guarantees the broad participation of the majorities, reducing the inequality gaps that exist both in the countryside and in the city advocating for the defense of the plurality of territories and changing the focus to a university-society-State relation.
Because the General Assemblies are the highest decision-making means of the student movement, we call on the student and the different base units and the independent organizations to make use of these spaces to discuss their rights and most immediate demands, as well as build a superior education reform that serves the interests of the popular classes, facing the manipulation that the student movement has historically been subjected to by organizations and individuals that under their particular interests (economic, bureaucratic, electoral and representative) move away from the realities of the oppressed people and make student and popular demands a business and political platform to defend the interests of the bourgeoisie, fragmenting the unity of the student of the popular classes.
Based on the minimums and principles set forth in this document, we invite the organizations, social bases and those who are willing to work for the construction of a truly broad student movement that takes up the interests of the popular classes, to advance in favor of the unity and organization of the students, generating proposals that point out the structural transformation of higher education, thus advancing in the political struggle of our country.
TO THE HEAT OF THE FLAMES AND THE SOUND OF PUNK
A BLACK CAT LOOKS AT THE HORIZON.
IN MEMORY OF THE STRUGGLING AND COMBATIVE STUDENT,
JHONATAN “POPEYE” LIVES
Sign:
Alternativa Popular (Medellín)
Alternativa Popular (Santander)
Centro de Estudios de la Educación Popular CELEP (Santander)
La Cuna UT (Tolima)
Movimiento de Estudiantes al Servicio del Pueblo MESP (Medellín)
Nueva Cultura (Medellín)
Nueva Cultura (Bogotá)
Oficina de Asuntos Estudiantiles OFAE (Medellín)
Organización Estudiantil Politécnico Jaime Isaza Cadavid (Medellín)
Red Independiente Estudiantil (Tolima)
Rojos y Anarquistas (Ibagué)
