New strikes at the universities of Brazil

Feature image: 200 students in an assembly in Pernambuco. Source: AND

In different parts of Brazil, new strikes and protests have been organized, both by professors and students, to improve their labor and study situation.

Protests continue at Brazilian universities. As we previously reported, the student movement, in this case Mangue Vermelho and the Ventania Movement, had already demonstrated their combativeness by protesting against the New Secondary Education law in Recife:

Now, the Professors’ Association of the Federal University of Pernambuco has convoked a strike in a massive assembly, in which it also had the support of the Union of Workers of the Federal Universities of Pernambuco (SINTUFEPE), of the IFP teachers’ collective. This strike is in addition to the strike of the technical-administrative workers, who have been on strike for a month. The student movement also attended, such as the Mangue Vermelho Collective or the Ventania Movement, which showed great class solidarity by entering with chants such as: Our unified struggle is the student together with the worker.

The professors denounced the manner in which the assembly was held, where the union, linked to the PCdoB, paid 16,500 reais to a subcontracted company so that the voting is online, without debate or declaration of vote, opening the door to absent and non-unionized professors being able to vote. The PCdoB rector’s office, which was responsible for the list of professors eligible to vote, also did not include the newly hired professors.

In front of with this lack of combativeness and transparency on the part of the PCdoB, chants began to be shouted such as “To sweep away precariousness, general strike in education!” “Sovereign Assembly!” and “Voting!”.

However, continuing with the boycott of the debate, the microphones were cut off by the “leading” table to prevent the debate and there was a 30-minute recess. However, the democratic teachers, with the help of the students, got a megaphone to be able to carry out the assembly and the debates.

With all of this and despite the efforts of the PCdoB, the teachers’ strike, which began yesterday, April 22, was approved.

That same afternoon of April 17, more than 200 students approved a student strike in the same university.

These students, from 14 academic directorates, called for a student strike, joining the strike of the professors, which began on April 22, and that of the technical-administrative staff, which has been in struggle for a month.

During the assembly, the Mangue Vermelho Collective pointed out how the precarization of the Public University was a conscious project and that the only option to fight it is a combative movement and against the selling out of the student guidelines and the passiveness promoted by the official entities of the student movement.

The occupation strike was also defended as a path of struggle. “This moment is very important and that we take it further and further, striking and occupying this university, transforming UFPE into a space at the service of the student, at the service of the people.”

Also in other universities, as in the Fluminense Federal University, which started a student strike on April 18, joining the university workers, who were already on strike. The students carried out large mobilizing activities, such as picketing or occupation of the university space for political, academic and cultural activities.