The following article appears in the latest issue of Oblation, the newsletter of the UP Diliman University Student Council (USC). The last issue was the last of our term, 2008, and serves as a joint/transition issue with USC 2009.

The University of the Philippines bore witness to our militant history of collective struggle. It has been a testament to the tide and ebb of our national affairs which have propelled thousands of students to forge an inextricable link with various sectors in our society in our clamor for a common aspiration””genuine social change.

At the dawn of the decade 60′s, the country was swept by the massive waves of rage and discontent among the youth, laborers and peasants and other sectors of the society weary of the existing social order favoring foreign interests and the ruling class. It was further aggravated by the government’s incapacity to ease the worsening crisis, tolerance for corruption and the use of fascism to quell the progressive mass movement.

At the height of political repression, the students of the University took both issues of national and local significance to the streets: from tuition fee increases, campus repression and the fight for academic freedom to US imperialism and its war of aggression in Vietnam, oil price hikes, land reform and decent wages for the workers.

Youth organizations that were founded in the University along with University professors propelled the progressive movement in the campus as they packaged militant ideas in fora, convocations, cultural performances, educational and classroom discussions and teach-ins.

As a reaction to the government’s inaction involving the release of its 9-millon budget, the Council of Leaders which includes traditional organizations, fraternities and sororities and progressive organizations such as the Kabataang Makabayan, Student Cultural Association of the University of the Philippines and the University Student Council led the picket protest.

The USC presented the general demands of various sectors in the University which included the recognition of all student organizations and the granting of autonomy to all student formations, security of tenure for the faculty, transparency in the affairs of the University among others. Such became known as the General Strike of 1969 which paralyzed the operations of the entire University and secured the victory of our demands.

For so many years until today, the gains of the General Strike and our fight for our democratic rights have been a mark of popular sentiment among various sectors as a precursor for collective action. The 1969 action verifies the fact that mass actions are indispensible in our collective struggle as the major stakeholders of the University. In and by itself, it has proven that it is our most potent weapon in our struggle to defend the gains of the student movement as we strive to achieve greater victories.

Up until now, the student movement continues to seek and uphold their democratic rights in the University. July 2008, different student formations united once again to petition to the administration the reclaim of their democratic rights through the 18 general student demands. Included in the demands are the right to tambayan, to peaceably assemble, student representation in all policy-making bodies, free use of university facilities, recognition of all student organizations, transparency in accounting of laboratory fees, and the rollback of tuition.

Four decades after the victorious General Strike and in the midst of the movement for the reclaim of such, the democratic space gained by the collective action of students is in threat of being completely seized by the administration through the passage of the 2009 Code of Student Conduct. The said Code will cancel out and curtail the basic democratic rights of students enshrined in the basic statutes of our justice system and recognized by other humanitarian laws.

At a time that our democratic rights are threatened by anti-student policies borne out of the administration’s intent to reshape the university into a commercialized institution, we are called upon to register critical dissent and launch mass actions for only in participating in such shall we be able to pursue our rights and defend the gains of the movement former UP student have paid for dearly.