Expanding Democracy and Public Education in Puerto Rico
The epicenter of the struggle for the public university in Latin America is Puerto Rico.
– José Carlos Luque Brazán, professor and researcher of political science and urban planning at the Autonomous University, Mexico City.1
The social conflict taking place at the University of Puerto Rico is polarizing this island to such an extent, that this United States’ possession, which used to be heralded as the “Showcase of Democracy” during the cold war ideological struggles, is now sliding into a system of widespread civil and human rights violations. The University of Puerto Rico, for the first time in decades, is occupied by police, political demonstrations are banned, summary expulsions of student leaders are common, and hundreds of students have been arrested, beaten and at times sexually assaulted or tortured. On February 9, after the riot squad violently intervened with students
Capitalism’s Profit System
My country is the world.
— Thomas Paine
Workers of the world, unite.
— Karl Marx
Demands for social change are accelerating throughout capital’s global empire. Once limited to armed insurrection, now nations like Bolivia and Venezuela elect governments to replace capitalism with democratically controlled socialism. While their approach is not followed everywhere, more people are demanding democratic power with those demands reaching new peaks in the Middle East.
Recent uprisings in the Arab world may endure short-range attempts at western manipulation, but their long-range outcome is clear to all but the morally disabled. Calls for majority rule are coming from masses of people united in their desire, rather than from elites organizing minority rule and calling it democracy. The USA and Israel will try to control the uncontrollable, but the days of western Zionist rule are numbered. This is not just great news for Arabs or Muslims but for all humanity.
After colonialism officially ended, western domination was maintained over former colonies by governments