November 2010
ARGENTINA
High School Students Lead The Resistance To Neo-Liberal Education Policies
Students for Public Education against the Mayor of Buenos Aires
The international struggle for quality public education had as one of its center in Argentina in the last period of August and September 2010, when High School students and University students occupied 30 school buildings and two universities, respectively. Their demands include the call for 1) improvements to the terrible conditions of the buildings, 2) having better conditions for study, and 3) the end of the plans of privatization of public education, like the Law of Higher Education (LES) [1]. Occupations, mass marches, blockades and other mass actions took place over a series of weeks, culminating in a march of more then 30, 000 students, workers and community members on September 16th, which was the anniversary of the “Night of the Pencils�. [2] This march brought together different layers of the Argentinean society beyond the students, including the labor unions that are facing repression, wage cuts and privatizations of their industries. The same orchestrated privatization of education is happening here as is in other centers of struggle. However, the marked difference in Argentina is the elevated radicalization of the struggle, as seen in the occupations. Not only do these mobilizations and mass actions indicate the willingness of students to give it their all for their demands, they also emphasize the importance of grassroots organizations like the Assemblies in the various University departments. Furthermore, the General Assemblies are spaces of mass, democratic, direct student participation and are attentive to emphasize international solidarity.
The Budget, the Frustrations with the Government, and the State of the Buildings
High School and university students have occupied the buildings because many of them are falling apart & are in unsanitary conditions. High school students are
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LA VOZ de los trabajadores
also demanding for free lunch, scholarships and bus tickets in order to be able to afford to go to school. Many of the deteriorating buildings end up being abandoned due to the lack of investment and building maintenance as the previous government administrations have continuously neglected the funding needed to maintain the public schools. School occupations over the same issues happened 2008 when thousands of students hit the streets to demand for heating in their buildings and for building repairs as there were examples where pieces of roof were falling on students. Thanks to the occupations and demonstrations, the government has promised to start construction to a few schools next year, but it does not propose solutions to the the other schools and has postponed any other talks of solutions.
Balance Sheet: A First Victory in An Ongoing Struggle
Our LIT-CI comrades in FOS (Frente Obrero Socialista) and COI (Corriente Obrera Internacionalista- which is in the process of merging with the FOS) of Argentina played an active role in organizing the occupations and shutdowns of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) , National University of Arts (IUNA) and the National University of Quilmes (UNQ) , which included takeovers of the Social Sciences and Humanities buildings. They put out their balance sheet of the student occupations (Lucha Socialista, 10/20/10) and put forward an analysis of the building takeovers and perspectives for next steps in the student movement: - The huge march of September 16, which placed almost 30,000 people in the streets, united students, teachers, staff and sectors of workers like those from ParanĂĄ