Mexico City: Interview with Striking Student at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional

Originally posted to It’s Going Down

https://twitter.com/SMelocotoncita/status/782831410012823553

IGD: Why are you on strike in the university? Is there a history of this activity at this campus?

Since 2014 there has been a series of strikes to fight a group of reforms that seek to attack and dismantle public education in Mexico. This campus is on strike right now because of the repression the authorities have implemented against teachers, workers and students who have been active in the student’s movement. The whole campus is asking for the dismissal of the director.

IGD: How have the police and authorities reacted?

Authorities locked themselves in and called the police telling strikers were trying to kidnap him. When proved otherwise, they sent paramilitary forces called “Porros” trying to break the strike by force. They attacked and hit students and parents who were present discussing the direction of the movement. As a response all authorities and paramilitary were driven out of the campus. Although we have had a lot of problems and aggression from police and also the authorities sued all students who they could identify in the strike.

#EnVivo Toman encapuchados el CECyT 5, Benito Juárez, del Instituto Politécnico Nacional pic.twitter.com/xBzGIkXhQq

— Once Noticias ?? (@OnceNoticiasTV) October 3, 2016

Also, the strike is called by anarchist collectives who answer to the solidarity call from anarchist prisoners in Mexico city and Oaxaca who have started a hunger strike in response to the sentence Luis Fernando Sotelo, a political prisoner, just received two weeks ago. They called for solidarity and actions to support the struggle of the striking prisoners who are fighting in the US

IGD: Why have you chosen to link your struggle to that of striking prisoners in the US? How does the student strike tie into other struggles in Mexico?

We decided this actions were a good moment to show solidarity and support, besides making this fight visible to the Mexican people, who are mostly unaware of the situation. The student movement has always had strong ties with the struggle against forced abduction by the state, with the EZLN movement, and a lot of other struggles.

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