Puerto Rico university students strike

Puerto Rico university students strike to keep university from privatizing.
By Dr. Victor M. Rodriguez
For more than fifty-six days, students at the University of Puerto Rico system,
have peacefully occupied ten of the 11 universities in support of a series of
measures that could challenge efforts to privatize this public university.
Student struggles in Puerto Rico historically have repercussions in the
broader society and are woven with the major economic, political and social
issues in this United States? colonial possession. While some social analysts
saw this millennial generation as somewhat less militant and political, these
events have surpassed any previous social struggles in creativity, strategy and
in its use of participatory democratic processes since the founding of the
university 107 years ago. Given Puerto Rico?s peculiar colonial status, in a
world where colonies are almost extinct, every social struggle becomes, an anti-
colonial process. But in this case, this process also becomes a struggle
against the neo-liberal policies which have again resurfaced in the policies of
the current colonial government to address the extreme economic precariousness
of the United States? colonial project in Puerto Rico. This student struggle
exists within the historical context of an anti-colonial struggle in Puerto
Rico. When people thought social movements were dead, they somehow stood up and
walked.

Origins of the Oldest Colony

Since the Spanish-American War of 1898, Puerto Rico has performed a hidden but
strategic role in United States? foreign policy. One of the outcomes of the war
that for the first time in U.S. history, lands that were conquered or annexed
did not become a territory on its way to incorporation as a state as was
suggested by the 1787 Northwest Ordinance. Instead, the United States Supreme
Court in the early twentieth century, in a series of decisions called the
?Insular Cases? ?carved? a special legal space which formally transformed
Puerto Rico into a colony and the United States into an empire. This
contradictory legal space also gave the U.S. total control of Puerto Rico?s
economic, political and social dynamics. In this new political status, an
?unincorporated territory? of the United States, Puerto Rico became a testing
ground, a laboratory for medical, military and social and economic policies
that were later implemented as part of U.S. foreign policy around the world.

The first two years of U.S. control over the island (1898-1900), a military
government implemented economic policies which coupled with the natural
devastation caused by tropical hurricane San Ciriaco in 1900, led to the
collapse of what had been the most dynamic sector of Puerto Rico?s economy, the
coffee industry. This industry had well-developed markets in Europe and Cuba,
whose populations preferred the high quality coffee produced in Puerto Rico?s
highlands. The economic policies of the military government, the incorporation
of Puerto Rico into the United States? tariff structure closed access to
European and Cuban markets. In turn, the United States market was already
controlled by Brazilian coffee. The devastating effects of the hurricane
contributed to the island?s social, economic and political crisis. The
thousands of displaced peasants then became entrants into the global labor
market when labor brokers from the Hawaii sugar industry began to recruit
thousands of Puerto Rican peasants. One of the strategies of Hawaii?s sugar
elite was to create an ethnically divided labor force to avoid the
consolidation of unions in the sugar fields. Unwillingly, the displaced Puerto
Rican peasants, most of whom had no experience in sugar cane agriculture,
became pawns in the sugar elite?s drive to control labor.

In the following decades, population planning policies (some led by U.S. groups
connected to Eugenics ideology), assembly plant industrial development policies
(maquiladora model), militarization of the island, the testing of napalm and
Agent Orange in various parts of the island, the use of depleted uranium shells
in the island of Vieques all were facilitated because of Puerto Rico?s
inability to protect itself. These policies and practices were later promoted
in other countries around the world. Colonial governors were appointed by the
president of the United States until 1947. Puerto Rico?s only voice in
congress, was and still is a sole ?resident commissioner? who only has voice
but has not been a voting member of congress which has complete control over
policies to shape the island?s political, social and economic dynamics.

In addition, congress and its colonial representatives implemented a cultural
policy of assimilation, which given the island?s colonial nature, had an
imperialistic effect while also furthered a Puerto Rican national identity and
culture of resistance. In 1903, the University of Puerto Rico was founded as a
school to prepare teachers for the public educational system. The use of
English as the medium of instruction was imposed throughout the developing
educational system being developed by colonial authorities. The university?s
role would be to create the cadres for the process of assimilation that was
promoted among the island?s one million inhabitants. Instead, Puerto Rico?s
national identity, which under Spain was created in tension with Spain, now
began to be centered on the Spanish language and Puerto Rican culture.
Ironically, United States policies contributed to the development of a more
clearly defined Puerto Rican national identity, this time vis a vis the United
States. This tension with the United States at times led to a nationalism that
romanticized the Spanish past, at the same time, with all its contradictions
became the core of a culture of resistance against U.S. colonialism in Puerto
Rico.

During the 1930s and until the 1950s, the pro-independence movement was the
second largest political force in the island. But its influence was also strong
within the dominant political party, the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), who
later on went to win the elections and created in 1952 the ?Estado Libre
Asociado? (Commonwealth). This is the present political system that defines the
relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. Not much of the
colonial relationship was changed by the new political facade, and Congress
still holds control over all aspects of the island. But the dominant party,
most of whom were former pro-independence politicians, used the symbols of
Puerto Rican nationalism to get the consensus of the Puerto Rican population
for their political project. The flag of the new political entity, became the
nationalist flag, the Commonwealth?s national hymn had also been the
nationalist hymn and the rhetoric used by the Popular Democratic leaders
continued to, in contradictory ways, echo the nationalist discourse.

Because of student and faculty struggles, Spanish was reintroduced as the
medium of instruction in the public educational system in the 1940s and the
University of Puerto Rico, instead of becoming the uncontested site for the
assimilation of the emerging professional class became the battle ground for a
national culture of resistance. In 1948, pro-independence students led a strike
at the University of Puerto Rico which led to the closure of the university and
to the expulsion of many of the student leaders. Many of these leaders would
finish their higher education elsewhere and later become political leaders in
island pro-independence politics. With this strike, the University of Puerto
Rico became, not only an ideological battleground between hegemonic forces and
anti-colonial forces, it also became a launching ground for national resistance
to imperial policies. The colonial government efforts, under the control of the
Popular Democratic Party, to steer the university after the defeated student
strike toward the formation of a technocratic apolitical professional class for
the emerging program of industrialization failed. While the pro-independence
forces lost its influence on the electoral arena, they maintained their
influence in the island?s social struggles and the university. The anti-
imperialist struggles in the Third World and the Cuban revolution (1959) became
catalysts for another stage of anti-imperialist struggles.

Student Struggles at the University of Puerto Rico

During the 1960s, the Vietnam War and the presence of the Reserve Officers
Training Corp (ROTC) at the University of Puerto became the issues that sparked
social movements, not only on the campuses but also throughout the island. The
University of Puerto Rico, especially the main campus in Rio Piedras, was the
site of much conflict including violent confrontations between anti-colonial
and pro-establishment forces. Political repression, emigration and economic
transformation led to the decline of the electoral strength of pro-independence
forces. The university then became a major site of struggle for those who
contested colonial policies in Puerto Rico. In some way, struggles at the
university of Puerto Rico served as the spark for Puerto Rican national
struggles.

While in the United States ?draft-dodging? was the principal means of
challenging the Vietnam era draft, in Puerto Rico resistance to induction
became the main tactic. In fact, the refusal of thousands of Puerto Rican youth
to be drafted, especially of university youth, led to the collapse of the
Selective Service System in Puerto Rico. While some early resisters were
arrested and a few served time in prison, the majority did not. The massive
nature of the protest made the incarceration of thousands a political
impossibility for United States? colonial authorities.

Also, the University of Puerto Rico, following the Latin American autonomous
university model begun at the University of Cordoba, Argentina in 1918, has a
veneer of autonomy. In 1966, the University Reform law created a space for an
autonomous university and limited co-government of the university. The
university would later receive a fixed percent (9.6 per cent) of public funds
in order to prevent it from falling prey to the vagaries of island politics.
This precarious autonomy did not have its full intended effect, since the
dominant parties gave their supporters positions in the university
administration as part of the political spoils, however, its ideological effect
on students and faculty was quite distinct. Students, particularly, took
seriously the autonomy of the university and defended it through their
struggles. In the Fall of 1967, after a protracted struggle for the elimination
of the ROTC from the University of Puerto Rico campus, Puerto Rico?s police
intervened in a struggle between pro-statehood students and pro-independence
students. The pro-independence students, who stayed within the confines of the
university, tried to impede the entrance of the police into the campus as a way
of protecting the autonomy of the university. In the battle between police and
students, Adrian Rodriguez Fernandez, a taxi driver who was looking for his
daughter, a student at the university, was killed by the police.

The conflicts at the university intensified and in 1970s, a university student,
Antonia Martinez Lagares, was killed while standing on a balcony in the Santa
Rita neighborhood where many students lived. She had been denouncing the police
as murderers because of their attacks of students protesters in the street
facing her apartment. One of the officers proceeded to kill her. Today, the
transmission booth of the University of Puerto Rico striking students low watt
radio station, ?Radio Huelga? is named Antonia Martinez Lagares in her honor.
Also, in many of the demonstrations her name is raised in banners.

The continued intensification of the conflict at the university continued and
on March 11, 1971, as students attacked the ROTC building, Chancellor Pedro
Rivera called for the riot squad to enter the University of Puerto Rico, Rio
Piedras campus. The entrance of the riot squad so incensed the students, that
at the end of the day, one ROTC cadet Jacinto Gutierrez had died, a police
officer and the commander of the riot squad Juan B. Mercado had been killed by
snipers.

In recent years, another large student strike occurred in 1981-82, this process
precedes the current strike in terms of the issues and the characteristics of
the social movement. Issues related to the national question were not as
salient as in previous decades. The main issues were of an economic nature. The
raising of tuition fees would make the university less accessible to many
Puerto Rican students. The role of Christian groups and the visible role of
women as leaders was also a characteristic of that process. The student leaders
were also broader in ideological terms although the role of pro-independence
and socialist was crucial. The repression of the student strikers by the police
was intense and was followed by the summary suspension of a significant number
of the student leaders. These measures left this process of struggle as an
unfinished social conflict. Despite the massive nature of the student movement,
the strong external support and the broad basis of the leadership the process
ended in a short-term defeat of the movement. But in many ways as a response to
the lessons of the 1981-82 period the university adopted a formal policy of ?no
confrontation? that has helped the university avoid the level of violence
experienced during the previous era.

Today: The Political, Economic and Educational Crisis Converge

Today, partially hidden from the mainstream United States media, a long (56
days June 15), and creative process of social struggle to preserve higher
education began on April 13, in San Juan Puerto Rico. Echoing in diverse ways
the 1968 San Francisco State strike and the National Autonomous University of
Mexico strike in 1999, this is a clear and eloquent counter attack on neo-
liberal thinking about the role of the public university in a capitalist
society. But also, this social struggle has revealed, again, the precarious
nature of the colonial model in Puerto Rico and the impeding need for its
transcendence.

The University of Puerto Rico system, with its 65,000 students and more than
5,000 faculty members is the largest public system in higher education in this
island. More than 33 per cent of Puerto Rico?s 25 years and older population
has some post-secondary and/or university education. This is higher than more
developed nations like Finland and New Zealand. Puerto Rico, with a population
close to four million has developed a philosophy about the need to have an
accessible system of public higher education. Ironically, this is also a
contradictory outcome of some of the early colonial reformers who were members
of the Popular Democratic Party. They developed policies, some reflected in
the islands? constitution that in some respects are more advanced than in the
United States. Education, at least from k-12, is established as a right in the
constitution. Access to higher education, while not enshrined in the
constitution is also considered a right and not a privilege by most Puerto
Ricans. The state support and relatively low tuition attest to that
philosophy.

This has enabled Puerto Rico to have a higher bachelor degree rate than three
states, Mississippi, Arkansas and West Virginia, despite having a lower high
school degree completion rate than any state. At the same time, according to a
study by Cruz Rivera (2008) the University of Puerto Rico produces 95 per cent
of the research carried out in Puerto Rico and produces 10,000 new
professionals every year. Just one of its universities, the University of
Puerto Rico in Mayaguez produces 606 engineers every year which is more than
Texas A & M, Florida International University of Texas, Austin and California
State University, Pomona combined. With limited resources its six year
persistence and graduation rates are higher than the University of Wisconsin,
Texas A & M, University of Washington and the University of Minnesota. It also
has increased the percentage of its faculty with doctorates from 66.5 per cent
in the 1999-00 academic year to 79.4 per cent in 2007.

Unfortunately, part of its success has to do with the changing demographics of
its students, from 1998 until 2007, the percentage of students entering the
University of Puerto Rico from the public school system has decreased from 50
per cent to 41 per cent. While still 57 per cent of the students still qualify
for federal aid, increasingly, the new entrants are from middle and upper-
middle class families, while ironically, private universities are the ones who
increasingly are providing a university education to lower income families. The
persistence and graduation rates of these private institutions are dramatically
lower than those for the University of Puerto Rico system.

Its tuition, comparatively speaking, is lower than most universities in the
United States and the colonial state support is also comparatively higher than
for public institutions in the U.S. For example, while only six per cent of the
budget of the University of Puerto Rico depends on tuition, at similar public
universities in the United States, 31 per cent of their operating budgets are
derived from tuition. On the other hand, state appropriations provide 65 per
cent of the operating budget for the university of Puerto Rico while for public
universities in the United States the corresponding share is 41 per cent. But
gradually, after the defeat of the student strike in 1981-82, the share of the
operating budget derived from tuition has gradually increased. According to the
office of the vice president of academic affairs report, from 1981-2001, the
state appropriations were reduced from 45.6 per cent to 35.6 per cent while the
share of income from tuition increased from 12.9 per cent to 18.1 per cent.

In a nation with a median family income of $20,425, a third of the United
States median family income ($58,526), every tuition increase excludes working
and middle class students to the most important social mobility tool the state
provides, a university education. The poverty rate in Puerto Rico in 2008 was
45.4 per cent which is three times as high as the rate of the United States
overall. Any state policy that limits access to students from lower
socioeconomic levels will increase the social and economic inequality in a
country that already is extremely unequal.

In 2008, the new colonial government elected was the New Progressive Party, a
political party that is neither new nor progressive and which represents the
most conservative strata of the island social and economic elite. This party
supports statehood for Puerto Rico and through a platform which promised to
solve the economic crisis that has been revealing itself in the colonial model
since at least the 1970s, was able to get massive support. The previous
Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila, was indicted on more than 20 counts of fraud by
the Federal Court in Puerto Rico during the electoral year. Some have argued
that it was punishment for the timid efforts of its government in investigating
the FBI assassination of a prominent leader of the Ejercito Popular Boricua-
Macheteros, a guerrilla organization that had remained relatively dormant
during the previous 15 years. Filiberto Ojeda Rios, was shot by an FBI Hostage
Rescue Team sniper. He bled to death because the FBI did not allow medical
teams to provide medical assistance. Surprisingly, while most Puerto Ricans do
not support independence there was a strong national response to the
assassination and his funeral was attended by thousands of mourners. The
electoral weakness of the Popular Democratic Party led it to take timid steps
to keep the support of those pro-independence voters who in order to stop the
electoral advance of the proponents of statehood were voting for the colonial
party. Ironically, Acevedo Vila lost the election and Luis Fortu�o won the
elections in a landslide. Surprisingly, soon after Governor Fortu�o took office
in 2009 all the federal charges against former Governor Acevedo Vila were
dropped.

The new governor was active in Republican Party politics in the United States.
Contrary to most of the other recent New Progressive Party governors, like
former governors Pedro Rossell� and Carlos Romero Barcel�, who were members of
the Liberal wing of the Democrat Party, Governor Fortu�o is closely linked to
the island?s social and economic elite and to the conservative wing of the
Republican Party in the United States. While there is no Republican Party in
Puerto Rico, there is a political structure that participates in the primaries
and sends delegates to represent Puerto Rico?s ?Republicans? in the Republican
National convention.

The Collapsing Colonial Economy

Puerto Rico has been in a recession for more than four years. The Gross
National Product has declined by more than 10 per cent (Lara, 2009). Governor
Fortu�o surprised many when in response to the grave economic recession and the
large budget deficit facing the island he gathered a group of the financial
elite to develop a plan to address the economy. Partially in response to the
plan, legislation was approved (Law 7, March 2009) which allows the state to
eliminate more than 20,000 public sector jobs, privatize public sectors of the
state, through a gimmick called ?Public-Private Alliances.? Law 7 also allows
the state to bypass collective bargaining agreements, create the private public
partnerships and enable the state to institute cuts in government operational
costs of more than $2 billion. These ?partnerships? would allow the private
sector to take over the most profitable segments of the public sector and run
them as profit-making enterprises. Every previous efforts to privatize public
sectors of the state have ended up in disaster. The Telephone company of Puerto
Rico, one of the most profitable and modern public enterprises in the island
was privatized by the administration of Governor Pedro Rossell� in 1998, this
led to a general strike that was unable to stop the process. The phone service
today is worse than it was before and the stream of income that was used to
finance education was lost and the income from the sale was used to poorly
finance a very expensive health care system that has dragged down the economy
of the island. The Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AAA), a public
agency with manages water and sewers, also experienced privatization as have
many formerly public services. Scandalous frauds and inefficiencies have marked
all these privatization efforts.

Puerto Rico today has one of the highest private and public debts in the world
and an infrastructure that is in need to a major investment. The murder rate is
one of the highest in the world and the drug trafficking related violence
forces working and middle folks to live inside of home with gates and security.
Contradictorily, United States corporations operating in the island, from
pharmaceuticals to enterprises making medical instruments have benefitted from
Puerto Rico?s highly skilled labor force transferred $33,330 billions in profit
to their main headquarters in the United States and only paid $27.4 millions in
taxes. The island has one of the lowest corporate taxes in the world.

It is in this context that the administration of the University of Puerto Rico
decides to place the burden of a $280 million deficit on the backs of the
students by proposing a tuition increase. This deficit is in part due to the
effect of Law 7 and the elimination of funding streams that previously had gone
to the university and the fact that close to $300 million in debts owed to the
system have not been collected. The students, who already had been
participating in the social movement against the neo-liberal cuts and the
firing of thousands of public workers joined the labor movement in a national
general strike on October 15, 2009. The university of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras
was closed on that day of protest. Given the political and social context it
is not surprising that the students decided in one of the largest student
assemblies ever gathered at the UPR to strike. Initially for 48 hours and
later, if no response was received from the administration, an indefinite
strike would begin. The administration, did not take the students seriously and
the students began an indefinite strike. Through a careful process of
organizing the strike spread through the 11 campus system and a national
negotiating committee was selected to represent all the universities in the
system. The only campus that did not close was the Medical School although they
held a number of limited strikes. The role of medical students in teaching
hospitals and clinics led many to limit their role in the strike.

Contrary to the 1960s and building on the strategies used by UPR strikers in
the 1981-82 process, a policy of ?no confrontation? was strictly adhered to,
forms of participatory democracy were utilized. The students created social
networks in Facebook, Twitter, My Space and also created a low watt radio
station (Radio Huelga) which transmits across the world on US STREAM. This
station rapidly became the best source of music and news developing in the
course of the strike. The role of culture as a way of promoting the strike
and enabling the spirit of struggle to be maintained was also strategic.
Performance art, guerrilla theater, musical concerts, and a broad array of
international and national support reached levels never experienced in previous
struggles. For the first time LGBT organizations were visible participants in
the strike and the clear and visible role of women leadership was clear and
important. Parents of the students organized, the Bar Association, labor
unions, religious organizations organized events supporting the students. The
faculty union and the clerical workers union decided to not cross student
picket lines. The faculty of all the 11 universities gathered in the campus of
the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey and voted to strike if violence was used
against the students. While violence was used at various time against the
strikers it was not as systematic as it was in previous decades.

In recent days, Governor Fortu�o ordered police forces out of the university
confines (intense use of the police at the university gates led to increase in
crime rates), the governing party, New Progressive Party Resident Commissioner
in Washington, D.C. publicly disagreed with university authorities and called
for negotiations and no sanctions for the students.

The negotiations between students and the university are advanced, a mediator
agreeable to both parties was named and it is expected that one of the longest
strikes that has challenged neo-liberalism in Puerto Rico will soon end with a
student victory. Neo-liberalism experienced a defeat, but the struggle is not
over. Contrary to ivory tower social analysts who had argued that the national
identity of Puerto Ricans had diminished in its strategic role in Puerto Rico
or that students should be pragmatic and bend to the necessity of the present
times, this strike showed that what seemed dead was resting for a new day.
________________________________
Dr. Victor M. Rodriguez (rodrigvm@cox.net), is a Professor at the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies California State University, Long Beach
http://www.csulb.edu/~vrodrig5/index.html