The National University of Colombia (UNAL) as is well known, has been facing a crisis notable for its unrelenting nature. There have been decades of struggle against gender-based violence within the university, often backed by cover-ups within the faculties, and protected by a disciplinary system that is inherently sexist and re-victimising.
It is also evident that the university is facing a serious budget crisis, which this year has only reached even more critical levels — with working class students being disproportionately affected. The high cost of lunches for the food support programme, the pending allocation of resources for supervisors, and the worrying situation of casually employed lecturers and unpaid interns are just some of the many underlying problems that have been accumulating without remedy for years.
At the same time, the authoritarian and stigmatizing rhetoric of the University only increases. This semester they dared to install turnstiles at certain entrances, and stepped up security at others, demanding ID cards to enter: all this in a campus that has traditionally been open entry. Even so, there seems to be a deepening of our demands: more than the important reform of Law 30 (which would increase public finances to university education) the need for greater student participation in decision making has become even clearer; in line with maintaining the movement as a popular struggle, and as inhabitants of our classrooms and our corridors.
We consider these kind of demands fundamental, as they highlight something essential for mass movements: that the most important changes can only be built by and for the masses, from below and democratically organised. The Paro Nacional (General Strike) of 2021 showed that an active and even minimally organised layer of the oppressed masses is able to put the whole of the ruling class, expressed in its political parties, media and economic empires, in crisis. It was even the catalyst for a left politician to come to power for the first time in our history.
The Limits of Petro’s Reformism
The demands of the Paro Nacional, advanced in the hope of achieving real change, partially expressed in Petro’s reformist programme, have, however, been met with enormous resistance from the Colombian oligarchy and its political apparatus — still subject to imperialist domination. Likewise, the limits of Petro and his party, the Pacto Histórico, have become clear: the politics of compromise and conciliation with the traditional parties have undermined the scale and momentum of his most basic reforms. But the working class movement is not limited to Petro, nor to his actions, nor to the actions of his close circle; because it holds a radical force, which, properly organised, represents the only alternative to the most severe problems facing society.
We also believe that these lessons can be transferred to the internal crisis of our university. We believe that the demands of the student movement must be based on combative organisation, and with a view to achieving popular and democratic control of our education system. Reforms and agreements can be reversed; and as long as public education remains under threat of privatisation, we cannot stop organising, and must continue to demand the changes we need to ensure a dignified life.
- Stop the cover-up of abusers! Ensure that complaints procedures are enforced and followed up accordingly. End patriarchal structures in education!
- For a properly funded Food Assistance Programme! No more hunger in our classrooms!
- For decent working conditions for our teachers! No more unpaid interns, no more casual workers in precarious employment!
- No more speculators in education! No to the privatisation of university education! For a fully public, high quality education system, under the democratic control of workers and students.
Build a Fighting Mass Student Movement
Even if Petro is in power, there is still a need for a popular, independent and democratic organization, in order to overcome the potential political obstacles that our demands may face. The youth and the student movement have a key role to play. However, in response to this need, it is necessary to examine our traditions as a student movement, how this connects with the broader struggles of the working class and oppressed masses, and why we need to arm ourselves with an anti-capitalist and socialist programme to ensure future success. The present forums of political discussion, persistent in recent weeks, favour such a new approach.
- Build a combative student movement of a mass character, that’s feminist and that links up with the trade unions, peasant organisations and all the struggles of the working class and oppressed masses!
- Fight for a socialist society in which the key sectors of the economy are taken out of the hands of the capitalists and put under democratic workers’ control and management, in which the resources of society are organised to meet the needs of the masses and not the profits of a parasitic elite!
