Hundreds of thousands march in defense of public education in Argentina

Buenos Aires. “We are not the problem, we are the solution,” “We fight for an education that teaches us to think, not an education that teaches us to obey,” were some of the slogans handwritten on cardboard by tens of thousands of young protagonists of a historic and imposing march, the largest in this capital, where the participation is estimated at more than 700 thousand, mobilizing more than one and a half million throughout the country, in rejection of the violation of constitutional rights and the defunding of the university and public education, in addition to the already intolerable adjustment for the people, applied by the government of the far-right president, Javier Milei.

From mid-morning the mobilizations began, when the trains full of young people arrived from Greater Buenos Aires and the province, who soon became crowds at the train stations, such as the most popular one in Constitución and Plaza Once, and which made the presence of dozens useless. of police and repression teams, unable to act.

The Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, could not maintain the anti-picketing protocol and had to withdraw everything she prepared for harsh repression; Her threats were of no use, given that a majority of analysts consider that what happened was a true plebiscite even due to the diversity of organizations and political parties that accompanied the students.

Afp’s photo

Everything was exposed in this peaceful but forceful march, not only because of what is happening in the universities, whose struggle began with the public classes, which moved various sectors of society, but the government’s measures condemning them to despair were exposed, marginalization and hunger for 60 percent of the population, while handing over the country to foreign powers.

It was a response even to what was announced the night before by Milei, who boasted of having achieved the greatest recovery of the fiscal deficit, the most important in “the entire West”, and describing as “patriots” the authors of the measures, which deregulated everything. destroying what was democratically built throughout the turbulent national history and trying to disappear one of the greatest symbols of Argentina’s insertion in the world, education.

The march was attended by tens of thousands of young people, accompanied by human rights organizations led by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, the General Confederation of Labor, the Argentine Workers’ Centrals and more social movements, political parties, such as Peronism, the most important sectors of the Radical Civic Union, socialists and radicalized left-wing parties. All expectations were exceeded, as another response to what happened with the banging of pots and pans in many neighborhoods, in protest last night against Milei’s ads.

Gallery: Hundreds of thousands march in Argentina for public education

Taty Almeyda, representing the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, opened the event. She was widely applauded by the crowd who let out a phrase that was not heard in these times and is very important: “Mothers of the Plaza (of May), the people embrace you”, also as a challenge to a government that tries to end the human rights organizations

Vice President Victoria Villarruel, who defends what was done by the past military dictatorship (1976-1983), requested an investigation into the compensation that the State provided during the governments of Néstor Kichner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to relatives of missing persons, validated by Congress in its moment.

Afp’s photo

The march was considered a “historical milestone” given the government’s intention not only to destroy universities and public schools, “but also all organizations and institutions of science and culture here and throughout the country, and starve to town. “Education saves us and makes us free,” was one of the most heard slogans.

At the closing of the event, a leader of the Argentine University Federation read the document agreed upon by the national rectors, under the title of “Public University based on Democracy and Social Development”, in which they refer to the critical moment by which is crossed, thanking “the demonstrations of society in support of the public university system.”

“Education is not for sale, it is defended” or “Pencils will never stop writing”, “Without education there is no future”, “Without a budget there is no education” are part of the creativity with which everything happened.

The rectors added that “it is essential that the situation of retirees who are going through another period of salary loss be urgently improved, and that the defense organizations of educational funds for all teaching be immediately restored.”

Photo Ap

They rejected “the policy of adjustment and discipline. The university community organizes, resists and stands in solidarity with all sectors that today are going through a similar or worse situation due to facing massive layoffs, remembering that “We believe in the equalizing capacity of free public education, in the transformative power of the University as formidable tool for upward social mobility.”

They defended “scientific production (…) problems are solved with more education and public universities, with more investment in science and technology. “We want our institutions to be the device that allows Argentina to retrace structural inequalities and embark on the path of development and sovereignty.”