On Wednesday, November 28, the Marxist-led Spanish Students' Union (SE) called a general strike to protest against the reactionary education law of the right-wing Aznar government.
More than two and a half million students in the schools and universities answered the strike call all over Spain and 200,000 poured onto the streets of Spain to support the demonstrations organised by the SE: 50,000 marched in Santiago de Compostela, including students from all over Galicia. This response was particularly satisfying because the right-winger Manuel Fraga had recently won the regional elections in Galicia.
The strike and demonstrations received very extensive coverage on television and the radio and in all the national newspapers. There were 30,000 on the Madrid demonstration, 10,000 in Barcelona, 15,000 in Valencia, 12,000 in Seville, 3,000 in Bilbao, and many others. This is an excellent result in view of the fact that the Students' Union was obliged to call the strike alone. It gives a good idea of the Union's power to mobilise.
This was the fourth strike and day of struggle since the Student's Union first called for action on October 25. In the first day of struggle, 100,000 students - mainly from the schools - participated. This compelled the trade unions and the other student organisations to join in the fight.
This is the most important student mobilisation since the big movement of 1986-7, when the Students' Union led a massive movement of three million students which lasted more than four months and ended in an historic victory.
According the opinion polls, 80 percent of the population support the students' demands and reject the privatisation policies of the PP government. The attitude of the workers was shown by the SE's collection in the shipyards and the big CASA company in Seville, where we raised 120,000 pesetas.
On November 7, the CCOO and UGT unions also called a strike of teachers and university employees. The SE also called a strike for that day. But the other student organisations boycotted the workers' struggle or stayed on the side-lines.
There was a massive response in Madrid, where around 50,000 - mostly from the university - marched. In all Spain the total number of demonstrators was almost 300,000.
On November 14, the numbers participating clearly increased, as did the extension of the struggle: there were almost half a million demonstrators - all students. On that occasion there were 100,000 in Barcelona, 80,000 in Madrid, 40,000 in Seville, 25,000 in Valencia and 20,000 in Santiago de Compostela.
Following this, the Students' Union proposed a day of struggle for November 28 - which was rejected by all the other organisations. However, the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the United Left called for a march on Madrid on December 1. We considered that this proposal did not contradict our plans for the 28th, but complimented them. So we maintained our strike call. Now we have been proved right.
Despite all the attempts of the other groups to prevent it, the mobilisation of November 28 has been a fantastic success. The strike has been widely followed and the demonstrations have been successful everywhere.
Sadly, the preparations by the PSOE and IU for the march on Madrid have been poor. But the success of our strike has given the necessary impetus to the movement, and it now seems likely that the December 1 march will be massive.
The Students' Union has always maintained a firm policy of unity in action of students and workers. On Saturday we will be marching at the head of the demonstration, together with the leaders of the main unions: Fidalgo (CCOO) and Candido Mendez (UGT).
We will be putting forward the demand for a general strike before Christmas to bring the whole educational system in Spain to a stop in support of our just demands.
We have every confidence in the success of our movement.