Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

20,000+ Students March Through Mexico City in Silent Protest

As part of a university movement against right-wing thugs on campus, thousands of Mexican students marched in silence to commemorate the Silent Demonstration of 1968.

Óscar Fernández

September 21, 2018
Facebook Twitter Share

Sign reads: My silence does not mean giving up. Here, no one surrenders.

On September 13, 1968, thousands of students took to the streets protesting the government’s violent repression. President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños had repressed previous demonstrations against police brutality and had called in the riot corps and the army.

This protest went down in history for its exceptional silence. The Silent Demonstration, as it was called, was an idea born from student leader Marcelino Perelló Vals, son of Catalan anarchist Marcelino Perelló Domingo. Perelló Vals took his inspiration from a silent demonstration in Catalonia four years earlier against Franco’s regime. Mexico’s Silent Demonstration would stress that the movement was nonviolent.

An estimated 40,000 people marched in 1968 from the National Anthropology and History Museum in the Chapultepec forest to the Zócalo, Mexico’s public square. Most of them were students, but many workers also participated.

Fifty years later, Mexico’s students have launched a new movement against “porros,” or university- and government-funded thugs who intimidate and beat up left-wing activists. After the porros beat up several students, hospitalizing several, there was a massive strike a few weeks ago in Mexico’s largest university, the UNAM. Mobilizations have not ended since. At the UNAM, massive assemblies are planning new actions and demonstrations. The anti-porro movement chose to commemorate the Silent Demonstration by reenacting it last week.

68_18.jpg
Student has 68 and 18 written on her face, commemorating the student mobilizations of 1968.

Just as in the original, demonstrators met at the Anthropology Museum and marched to the Zócalo. Students from the UNAM, the Polytechnic, the National Fine Arts School (ENBA) and the National Anthropology and History School (ENAH) gathered in front of the Museum’s Chalchiuhtlicue monolith, despite the rain. They poured in by the thousands from the nearby subway stations, coming directly from their schools, many of which were still on strike.

Starting from the Stele of Light, a 340-foot monument to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s independence, the demonstration marched in silence until it reached the “anti-monument”: a giant red “43” erected in memory of the 43 Ayotzinapa students and all of Mexico’s disappeared. These students were disappeared by the government in 2014, sparking massive national and international protests.

This means that for almost two miles, students marched in absolute silence to demand that porros and all porro-like groups disappear from UNAM. Many also demanded free, quality public education and the end of police and government repression.

The next day the Inter-University Assembly made up of student delegates elected to represent their school held an assembly that lasted almost 24 hours in order to make a plan to strengthen the movement

antes_q_olviden.jpg
Sign read: Before they forget us, we will make history.

September 18th marked the 50th anniversary of the military occupation of the UNAM’s University City amidst massive student and leftist organizing. Starting the 18th, UNAM students will engage in a “week of struggle” (jornada de lucha) that will culminate with the yearly October 2 demonstration in memory of all students killed and repressed by the Mexican state. Fifty years ago, porros were a key element in the repression of the left.

Just like the students then, today we chant, “Porros out of UNAM!”

Facebook Twitter Share

Óscar Fernández

Óscar is a member of the Socialist Workers' Movement (MTS) in Mexico and a graduate of political science at the Universidad Iberoamericana. He is a Left Voice correspondant in Mexico City and a member of the editorial staff of our sister site La Izquierda Diario México as well as the magazine Ideas de Izquierda México.

Twitter Instagram

Latin America

Pro-abortion activists hold up banners reading "Legal abortion" and "Forcing gestation is torture" during a protest against abortion named "For the Life", a week after the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) decriminalized abortion, in Monterrey, Mexico September 12, 2021.

Mexico Moves Closer to Decriminalizing Abortion, but the Fight Isn’t Over

The new ruling is an important step in advancing the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico. But we must fight for fully legal, free, and safe abortion across the country.

Joss Espinosa

September 14, 2023

The 1973 Coup in Chile, 50 Years Later: Lessons of a Revolutionary Process

50 years ago today, a U.S.-backed military coup overthrew the government of Salvador Allende in Chile, installing the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Here, we share a series of articles to think about the lessons from the defeat of one of the most profound revolutionary processes in Latin America.  

Left Voice

September 11, 2023
Argentine presidential candidate of the La Libertad Avanza alliance, Javier Milei, reacts with Ramiro Marra, candidate for head of government of Buenos Aires, and Victoria Villarruel, candidate for vice-president, on stage at his campaign headquarters on the day of Argentina's primary elections, in Buenos Aires, Argentina August 13, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer

What Explains the Rise of the Far Right in Argentina?

The Peronists’ “lesser evil” strategy has failed to stop the rise of Javier Milei, the most reactionary major candidate Argentina has seen in decades.

Robert Belano

August 22, 2023

Building “A Real Alternative to the Bosses’ Parties”: Interview with Argentinian Socialist Congresswoman Myriam Bregman

Socialist feminist leader, congress member and presidential candidate Myriam Bregman spoke with Jacobin Latin America about the record of the Peronists in government, the new far right, and the necessity of a true alternative for working people.

Myriam Bregman

August 13, 2023

MOST RECENT

President Biden visits striking UAW workers in Michigan.

Biden’s Picket Line Visit Doesn’t Mean He Is On Our Side

President Biden’s visit to the UAW picket line shows the strength of the strike — and why it should remain independent from him and the Democrats.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

September 27, 2023

Toward a Revolutionary Socialist Network

In this article Warren Montag and Joseph Serrano respond to our call for a network for a working-class party for socialism. 

Warren Montag

September 27, 2023

Scabs Will Not Pass: Defend the UAW Strike With Organized Grassroots Power

The Big Three are escalating their use of scabs. The rank and file are fighting back.

Jason Koslowski

September 27, 2023

China’s Rise, ‘Diminished Dependency,’ and Imperialism in Times of World Disorder

In this broad-ranging interview, originally published in LINKS, Trotskyist Fraction member Esteban Mercatante discusses how recent global shifts in processes of capital accumulation have contributed to China’s rise, the new (and old) mechanisms big powers use to plunder the Global South, and its implications for anti-imperialist and working-class struggles today.

Esteban Mercatante

September 22, 2023