Peru: SUTE Huaraz – For a Class-conscious Union Line!
We hereby share an unofficial translation of the statement by SUTE Huaraz found in the webpage of New Democratic Association – Germany.
FOR A CLASS-CONSCIOUS UNION LINE!
FOR THE REORIENTATION AND CLASS-CONSCIOUS REBUILDING OF SUTEP, FROM THE GRASSROOTS TO THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
The Provincial Executive Committee of SUTE [Unitary Union of Education Workers] – Huaraz hereby brings to the attention of the Peruvian public, and in particular the national teachers and those of our province, the following observations and current actions:
I. International Political Situation
Currently, the world is immersed in the conflict between two blocs led by global superpowers representing the global bourgeoisie: the financial (neoliberal) and the State (bureaucratic) blocs. Both are vying for global hegemony through geopolitical strategies aimed at securing the greatest possible amount of energy and strategic resources for themselves.
The United States, as an expression of the financial and pro-neoliberal global bourgeoisie, has continued since the second decade of the last century with its constant acts of aggression against peripheral countries, under the pretext of pursuing a policy of global justice and pacification. In its advance, it destroys not only regimes opposed to its interests, but also innocent civilians: children, the elderly, women—all of whom are uninvolved in the conflict. Meanwhile, the State big bourgeoisie, spearheaded by the Sino-Russian alliance, deploys its forces indirectly to launch counteroffensives, using Middle Eastern countries such as Syria and Iran to assert its political and military presence.
In conclusion, the world is witnessing a struggle between two powers within this outdated capitalist system, revealing its state of decay, which will surely culminate in a third world war to determine which of the two trends will emerge as the dominant power. In this endeavor, both will drag the oppressed nations of the world into their conflict.
II. Reflection of the Contradictions in Peru
While that is, in essence, the international political situation, in our country these contradictions are reflected today with greater clarity in the electoral competition within the framework of a democracy distorted and decaying due to the semi-feudal and semi-colonial conditions in which Peru is mired.
This fact clearly shows us the political confrontation between, on the one hand, the rotten, decaying faction of the old right, led by Fujimori-followers and Renovación Popular—representatives of the financial big bourgeoisie—and, on the other hand, the Juntos por el Perú party and others of a similar nature—representatives of the State-controlled big bourgeoisie—surrounded by dozens of centrist parties that veer now toward one, now toward the other side in the dispute.
Meanwhile, the people—confused and still pinning their hopes on one side or the other—offer their unconditional support, unaware that, once in power, whichever side wins will abandon them to their miserable fate, forcing them to survive on their own in a country where the gaps between social classes are widening ever more: a minority lives in opulence, while the majority sinks into poverty and extreme poverty.
In this scenario, the political system, embodied in various State and private institutions, is teeming with the infamous lobbies, led by the very same political class linked to transnational corporations and major national businesses, which hand our natural resources over on a silver platter to the highest bidder. Corruption intertwined with crime deepens the crisis at every level and fosters underdevelopment, reinforcing bureaucratic capitalism, which acts as a barrier to the development of our productive forces.
III. Education in the Context of the Crisis
Education operates within this political context, reproducing the same economic, political, and social contradictions. Education thus becomes a system marked by profound inequalities between private and public schools: the former serving the children of the upper class in the political arena, the latter, in a state of widespread crisis, serving the children of the working class. It is an educational system that allows for the full development of a social minority while leading to the social, economic, and political decline of the majority.
Within this context, education is governed by a competency-based model whose strictly economic foundations aim to train the children of the people as a source of cheap labor. Pragmatic and utilitarian pedagogical approaches are applied to public education—approaches that are fundamentally divorced from scientific pedagogy grounded in epistemological and ontological principles that would enable social mobility within a just society. In conclusion, they are indirectly reviving a new form of behaviorism—despite having vilified it in the past—to inaugurate a model that falls into the same fallacies.
IV. Corruption in the Education Sector and at the UGEL – Huaraz
Just as in the political sphere, within the education system, the corruption perpetrated by MINEDU [Translators note: Education Ministry] officials themselves spreads like dominoes to other decentralized bodies: DREs [Regional Direction of Education], UGELs [Translator note: Regional authority which makes decisions on some educational matters], and, in the worst cases, even educational institutions.
In the case of the UGEL – Huaraz, it is known that there is a criminal organization that not only involves systematic and high-profile actors within the sector but also extends its tentacles to institutions such as the Regional Government, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Judiciary, the Ombudsman’s Office, the Comptroller’s Office, and others.
This organizational system allows for the illegal exploitation of the state’s substantial resources through productivity-based payments and agreements with other institutions (including those in the financial and banking sectors via SUB CAFAE [Translators note: Aid fund for the stimulation of civilian employees in the airforce of Peru]), going so far as to favor immediate family members (siblings, nephews, spouses, lovers, or others) or to charge teachers exorbitant sums of money for resignation rights, teaching contracts, and contracts for support and service staff, as well as for other administrative actions. In this way, teachers who are actually entitled to these administrative services are neglected, as they are unable to legally fulfill their requests due to a lack of the funds that these corrupt officials and/or UGEL employees indiscriminately demand.
Furthermore, these corrupt elements within the sector mistreat the majority of the teaching profession, clearly committing abuse of authority and professional misconduct against the long-suffering teachers of our province.
Among these unethical, illegal, and illegitimate acts, they fail to fulfill their administrative duties to make payments that many teachers, by legal right, require. Among the many abuses being committed, the payment of severance pay (CTS) to contracted teachers is a source of discontent that is gradually spreading throughout our province.
V. Resolutions Adopted
In light of the foregoing, at a plenary meeting held on Friday, April 17 of this year, it was unanimously agreed:
- To grant the UGEL – Huaraz a 72-hour deadline to pay the CTS to contracted teachers. Otherwise,
- a criminal complaint will be filed against those implicated in this attack on the teaching sector.
- to declare the Huaraz teaching sector in a permanent struggle to assert its rights at the UGEL – Huaraz level
- to organize provincial-level protest campaigns against all acts of corruption, particularly those taking place within UGEL – Huaraz
Huaraz, April 17
For a class-based rebuilding of SUTE at the national level!
Down with corruption of all kinds!
Long live the teaching profession organized around SUTEP from the grassroots up!
Down with the opportunism and revisionism of Patria Roja and FENATEP!
[Translators note: FENATEP: National Federation of Workers in Education of Peru]
