Brazil: Thousands of Students March in Support of Public Education in São Paulo
Featured image: Student demonstration in São Paulo. Source: A Nova Democracia
A Nova Democracia reports that on May 20, thousands of students marched through the streets of São Paulo toward the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, the seat of the state government. The students are demanding decent conditions for studying and teaching at universities, including guarantees for students to remain enrolled, improvements to university dining halls, student housing, increased financial aid, and autonomy for academic centers.
Participating in the march were students from the São Paulo University (USP), Unesp, Unicamp, and Fatecs, as well as high school students and students from private universities across the region. Also in attendance were education workers and labor unions. The demonstrations was estimated to have in attendance between 10,000 and 30,000 people.
These demonstrations are part of a broader wave of strikes and occupations at São Paulo’s state universities, where this month, at least 193 courses are on strike, and nationwide, 54 federal universities and institutes are also on full or partial strike.
During the demonstration, the students chanted slogans such as “Go into battle without fear! Dare to struggle, dare to win!”, “Our struggle is daily! Hey, Tarcísio, I will return to the rector’s office!” and “Resist and occupy until the strike triumphs!”
A militant bloc, composed of popular movements such as Alvorada do Povo (AP), Frente Independente Marimbondo, and activists from the International Anti-Imperialist League (AIL), maintained a combative tone from the beginning to the end of the demonstration. In addition, hundreds of leaflets calling on students to persist in the militant struggle and to occupy the entire USP campus were distributed.
Students participating in the demonstration reportedly faced repression on the way to the demonstration, where 12 out of 17 chartered buses where searched by the Highway Military Police, this did not prevent the students arriving nor did it dampen their spirits.
According to the Alvorado do Povo, the movement has become a historic mobilization across the state of São Paulo, resisting pressure from university administrations, criticism from the mainstream media, and attacks by Governor Tarcísio de Freitas. The movement asserts that, far from backing down in the face of these threats, the students have intensified their resistance, establishing this protest as one of the most significant student movements of the 21st century in Brazil, driven by the occupation of buildings as the primary strategy for their demands.
The student mobilization and support for the students’ demands, which culminated in the demonstration on the 20th, intensified following the successful occupation at USP’s Ribeirão Preto campus in April, the occupation of the School of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities at the University of São Paulo (EACH-USP, or USP East) and the occupation of the Rector’s Office in the state capital.
We previously reported on this student occupation:
