In a new sample of the growing discomfort within the university system, professors and nodcents of the University of Buenos Aires, they called for a concentration of this Thursday, May 22 at 12:30 in Plaza Houssayin claim for salary improvements, working conditions and integral financing of public education. The protest day, organized with students, will be the prelude to a Total unemployment of activities planned for Friday 23.
The slogan that brings together the educational community is clear: “In defense of the public university: for our present, for our future”a phrase that synthesizes both the current urgency and the concern for the structural course of educational policies under the current management of the national government. The mobilization is part of a context of deep budget deterioration, salary freezing and lack of official responses to the multiple claims that are formulating national universities.
Concrete claims and critical situation
Among the central points that drive the protest, they stand out:
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The loss of purchasing power of teaching salarieswhich accumulates a fall in 40% according to figures disseminated by the guilds of the sector.
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The lack of call for free peerswhich prevents discussing realistically and democratic working conditions.
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Failure to comply with collective work agreementswhich guarantees basic labor rights for teachers and support personnel.
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The urgent need to increase both the amount and the amount of student scholarshipsin a context of growing expulsion for economic reasons.
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The requirement of a University Financing Lawthat allows to guarantee the predictability and sustainability of the system.
The call of Plaza Houssay – one of the nerve points of the Buenos Aires university circuit – seeks to make these claims visible with a wide multisectoral participation, articulating the claims of education workers with the demands of the student body.
A climbing conflict
This week’s protest adds to a series of measures and expressions of discomfort that are already being deployed in other houses of study of the country. From interclaustro assemblies to federal mobilizations, the university conflict has become one of the most active fronts of opposition to the adjustment policies of the national government, which so far has shown “Total indifference”according to the calls.
He FRIDAY OF FRIDAY, MAY 23 It will imply the suspension of classes, administrative activities and academic tasks in all units of the UBA, and it is anticipated that it could be extended or replicated if a serious dialogue table with the national authorities does not open.
Within this framework, guild Social mobility tool, knowledge production and rights guarantee In an increasingly unequal Argentina.
“We are defending more than our salaries: we are defending an open, free and quality university model for all,” they point out from the organization.
The government’s response, for now, is silence. But in classrooms, offices and university places, the voice of the educational community begins to sound stronger and stronger.
By rn
