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RedAcción | Puerto Rico

"La caridad es humillante porque se ejerce verticalmente y desde arriba; la solidaridad es


horizontal e implica respetuo mutuo." – Eduardo Galeano

March 11: Solidarity from Marburg, Germany

• March 20, 2011 – 4:16 pm

Tomado de ISM-global.net.

Global Day of Solidarity With Activists in Puerto Rico: Students in Marburg inform about
inhuman conditions at the University of Puerto Rico.

Last Friday, the Free Education Movement Marburg (FEMM) enrolled a banner calling “For
Free Emancipatory Education in Puerto Rico and Everywhere else! One World – One Struggle”
in the city center of Marburg (Germany).

The spontaneous action was part of the global day of solidarity with the students of the
University of Puerto Rico (UPR) on the Rio Piedras Campus.

The group of activists shortly occupied a fountain on the city market square, distributed leaflets
to inform about the background of the action and talked to passers-by. Later, the group went
ahead with the banner through the streets of the city center.
In Puerto Rico, a brutal fight between students and police is taking place for several months.
Background of the protest is the privatization of the education sector enforced by government
policies. Besides the increase of tuition fees in January, more than 25,000 jobs in the public
service have been axed. Thereupon, students in Puerto Rico went on strike at the UPR. Due to
the fee increase, thousands of them are now forced to give up their studies.

Violent attacks by the special police forces on protesters led to hundreds injured. According to
eye witnesses, the massive repression not only included the use of tear gas and smoke bombs, but
also sexual abuse.

Last Friday, with regard to the inhuman conditions at the UPR, students and education activists
demonstrated in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Granada, Manchester, New York City and other cities
their solidarity with the protesters in Puerto Rico. The FEMM, which emerged from the Marburg
Education Strike initiative, pointed to the prevailing global trend towards the privatization of
education. “The educational processes happening in Puerto Rico only differ in the extent of state
repression from those in Europe, Asia and North America. Almost everywhere in the world
educational institutions are being privatized and democratic participation cut back or abolished,”
said Mo Schmidt of the FEMM. It is therefore crucial to not only fight for free and emancipatory
education in local institutions, but also to act globally.

Websites for details:


http://ism-global.net/march11_solidarity +
http://redaccion-pr.net (official homepage of the Action Day activists)

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