The students provided an example for all who believe that students and workers

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so, a longer-term occupation and strike was undertaken, which was later joined by almost all other campuses in the UPR system, including some that were historically known to be more conservative.

The UPR students acted in a highly disciplined and organized manner from the beginning, while proceeding democratically at every turn. They repeatedly fended off attempts by the riot police to enter the campus gates. They organized to provide food and water while police tried to lay siege to the campus; surrounding the campus in riot gear, cutting off supplies and physically brutalizing some of students and their allies.

The students held teach-ins, traditional dance classes, poetry readings, and film screenings, and many campuses also held concerts. They utilized every available means to get their message out, including internet blogs, Facebook, and a radio station they put together themselves (streaming live at radiohuelga. com/wordpress to this day).

The students earned widespread support not only from parents but from university faculty, unions and workers throughout Puerto Rico. A one-day general strike was carried out by unions on May 18 in solidarity with the students. Solidarity was voiced by musical celebrities such as Ricky Martin, Rubén Blades, and the group Calle 13—and when Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez stopped in Puerto Rico for a concert on May 31, he dedicated a song to the students. A group of professors in the U.S. issued a letter of support, and U.S. students who are facing similar cuts have taken special note of their comrades in Puerto Rico and held solidarity protests. the students in the agreement that was signed by the Board of Trustees may seem familiar to students everywhere: no tuition hike or special fee for this fall semester, no privatization of UPR campuses, an amendment to legislation that wouldn’t allow the eliminate of tuition waivers for underprivileged students, and finally an agreement that no students involved in the occupation and protests would face punishment.

dents had achieved substantial gains, the government and university administrations immediately betrayed the agreement. The government rammed through legislation, “Senate Bill 30,” without debate or discussion, that adds four more governor-appointed memto begin in January.

The main demands that were secured on paper by Although it seemed at first as though the UPR stubers to the Board of Trustees. The expanded Board rapidly instituted new cuts and a $800 student fee, A student coordinating committee held a protest on June 26 to demand that the strike agreement be honored and to protest improper involvement by the government. On June 30, police attacked a peaceful

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should not have to pay for the capitalist crisis.