Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Letter for Support of the Moroccan Student Movement

In this letter to an international audience, student activists in Morocco ask for solidarity in their struggle against the Moroccan government’s crackdown on students’ unions and democracy within the university system.

Mohamed El Wafi

December 4, 2016
Facebook Twitter Share

Dear comrades,

The Moroccan student movement in universities and academic institutions is strongly struggling against the neo-liberal policies, austerity, suppression and tuition fees, which prevent thousands of children of the working class from enrolling in universities (the number of Moroccan students is approximately 800,000, 48% of whom are women).

This happens while the Moroccan state carries on its policy of cracking down on students’ struggle and detaining them (dozens of comrades were jailed). Therefore, students feel unable to hold their trade union, cultural, and creative rallies supervised by the National Moroccan Students Union (a guild of students founded on December 26, 1956). The Students Union has been suppressed and banned since July 1981.

Furthermore, and as part of its plan to ban and restrict the right to unionize and democracy within Moroccan universities, the Moroccan government plans to confiscate the above-mentioned union’s central headquarters and alienate it to the Ministry of Youth and Sport. This triggered an overwhelming sense of outrage among students in many Moroccan universities, who denounced this unfair decision, designed to restrict their trade union freedom.

In resistance against this anti-student policy, and upon celebrating the 60th anniversary of the National Moroccan Students Union, a large number of political activists, including the Moroccan student movement and old militants affiliated to the Union, intend to march nationally en masse on December 25 in Rabat to protest the state’s decision to confiscate the headquarters. The purpose is to defend the right to free, democratic, secularist and adequate public education, condemn crackdown on trade union freedom at university and demand the release of jailed students.

Hence, we request you to mediate and seek support from brotherly student movements and unions in Britain, Argentina, Chile and others to:

1. Denounce the Moroccan government’s attempt to confiscate the above-mentioned headquarter and alienate it to one of its government departments, including filing a lawsuit;

2. Back the national march, which will take place on December 29 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the above-mentioned union;

3. Provide political and moral support for the Moroccan students’ battle, including sending statements showing evidence of such support for the struggle against policies of austerity, suppression, and neo-liberalism intended to privatise education;

4. Demand the Moroccan state, through the Ministry of Interior and its security forces, to lift its control and flagrant interference that prevent students from organising their trade union and political activities, and holding their congress supervised by the above-mentioned union.

Fraternal greetings,

Mohamed El Wafi
Tel: 00212663483155

Facebook Twitter Share

Guest Posts

“We Deserve a Living Wage:” on the Limits of the New Temple Grad Worker Contract 

A graduate worker at Temple reflects on the limits and strengths of the new contract won in the recent strike.

Monetary Tightening, Inflation and Bank Failures

Michael Roberts takes on bank failures, inflation and the Fed.

Michael Roberts

March 14, 2023

“We Need to Make a Change”: Trans Youth Speak Out and Walk Out

The following is a speech by a student activist from NYC for Trans Rights.

Alex Carroll

March 10, 2023

Ominous New Attacks on Trans Rights Remind Us…It’s Capitalism

If the viciousness and hostility against trans people and ultimately all LGBT people is today open-carried on the Far Right, it is our dependence on fair-weather liberals and the politicians of the Democratic Party that is our Achilles’ heel.

Ian Scott Horst

February 17, 2023

MOST RECENT

Femicide: The Face of a Patriarchal Capitalist Society

On March 8, the feminist movement flooded the streets of Mexico as part of a global day of mobilization. Among these thousands of women and dissidents, the main demand was an end to femicide and sexist violence.

Yara Villaseñor

March 31, 2023

Biden’s Proposed Budget Nothing but Empty Promises 

Earlier this month, Joe Biden announced his budget proposal, with a lot of promises. But the only thing we know he’ll deliver is that “nothing will fundamentally change.”

Molly Rosenzweig

March 31, 2023

At Least 39 Migrants Die in Fire at Detention Center in Mexico. The State Is Responsible.

The events of March 27 marked one of the darkest chapters in the Mexican State’s anti-immigrant policy, a policy that is increasingly subordinated to the interests of U.S. imperialism.

The French Union Bureaucracy Walks Back Demand for Complete Withdrawal of Pension Reform

After calling to put the pension reform “on hold,” the Inter-Union has requested “mediation,” even though the French government has rejected outright the proposal, showing that compromise is impossible. This proposition symbolizes the Inter-Union’s strategy of defeat. We urgently need to organize the rank and file to broaden our demands and generalize the strike.

Damien Bernard

March 30, 2023