The following is a statement issued by the International Students for Social Equality to the students of the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil’s largest university, who have been engaged in a strike, together with professors and staff members, since May 3. The action, which has been accompanied by an occupation of the university’s administration building, was taken by the students on May 3 in response to series of decrees by the state of Sao Paulo’s right-wing governor, Jose Serra, abrogating university autonomy, particularly in budgetary matters, thereby paving the way to the privatization of higher education and subordinating learning directly to the demands of the major corporations. Serra has repeatedly threatened to end the occupation by sending in military police riot squads. The strike has spread to other universities in the state.
Students at USP have translated the statement into Portuguese and are distributing it at the struck university.
End the occupation of Iraq! No to war against Iran! For an international socialist movement against war!
The following resolution was passed unanimously on April 1 by the International Students for Social Equality/Socialist Equality Party Emergency Conference Against War, held March 31-April 1 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It represents the position of the conference on the necessary political foundation for a renewed struggle against war.
