Jun 22, 2007

Update: Two Recent Victories

In the past two weeks there have been two inspiring victories here in Buenos Aires. Students at Carlos Pellegrini have ended their occupation and the tire workers strike at Fate has also ended. While both struggles made compromises in their current agreements, they also won amazing concessions from those in power and continued to build the strength of their movements.

Student Democracy at Carlos Pellegrini (original report here)

Students at the Carlos Pellegrini university prep school demanded that the recently appointed principal Juan Carlos Viegas be fired with a new principal being chosen through election. On May 25th, after a refusal by the school to hear their demands, students occupied the building. Classes would continue, the occupation quickly gained the support of parents, teachers, and other building employees, but Viegas was refused entry to the school.

After nearly one month of continual occupation and countless assemblies held by students, teachers, and faculty, the occupation has ended and an agreement has been reached. Assemblies of each group spent all of Tuesday June 19th in debate over the proposed deal, eventually agreeing to it. The agreement has 3 major stipulations. 1) A committee of students, teachers, and faculty will be made that will have binding authority over academic, extracurricular, and extension programs at the school. 2) A complete overhaul of Viegas’ intended course for the school, stressing the “universal, humanist, and autonomous” aspects of the schools. 3) Students will gain full control over the school café and copy machine services (so that they can make copied packets of required text, rather than buying text books).

While this agreement does accept that Viegas will still be the principal of the school, it goes beyond simple reaction to his role. The deal pushes the boundaries of student control, while leaving Viegas nearly powerless. Instead of simply reacting to a poor leader, they have changed the institution as a whole.

A Partial Victory at Fate (original report here)

After nearly two weeks of a full and indefinite strike, the workers at Fate decided to partially return to work. They returned to the idea of a 3 hour per shift strike. This would allow workers to continue receiving wages while maintaining their struggle. However, when they tried to return to work the bosses cut the factories power, turning the strike into a lockout. Another deal was then offered to the workers, a 22% raise spread out for months and a one time $1400 peso payment at the signing of the contract. This deal was rejected.

In late May another nearby factory joined the Fate workers in strike. The Fate workers held a number of marches and another picket of the Pan American Highway with these workers. Shortly after their joint action on the highway, Fate workers called for a concert and party at the gates of the factory for all those in solidarity with their struggle. Hundreds gathered for the event and dozens of organizations pledged their support to the new fight. These events gave improved the morale of the Fate workers and gave them the energy to push on in their fight.

In the next 2 weeks the fight at Fate would intensify quickly. After an incredibly complex series of events, debates, and assemblies a deal was finally negotiated and agreed to by the union. However, they then only allowed a yes or no vote on the new deal (rather than the usual assembly discussion) which included a 25% raise, $18,000 peso bonus given at two times, and a renegotiation of the entry level wage. This agreement was passed by the majority of members. While it’s considered a partial victory, a fight continues to ensure the power of the assembly and to elect assembly delegates for each shift. In a fight that began with the miserable offer of an 8% wage increase and no one respecting the power of the assembly, this is an excellent first step.

Jun 5, 2007

Argentine Students Demanding Democracy in Education

On Thursday, May 24th, I attended the weekly movie screening series at La Casa de Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo. The movie of the week was about the “Penguin Revolution” – a massive rebellion of high school students that occurred in April and May of 2006 – throughout Chile. As it happened, the movie screening turned out to be prophetic. The next week, there would be a high school student uprising in Buenos Aires.


The Penguin Revolution
On April 24th, 2006 it was announced that fees would be increased for the PSU (university admissions test) and that public transportation passes for high school students would be restricted. Students in Santiago, Chile (whose uniforms gave them the appearance of penguins) immediately took notice of these changes and began to mobilize students in their city. They organized marches, and on April 26th, one of the marches became violent and 47 students were arrested. On May Day, new rallies were held, and again violence broke out. This time 1,024 students were arrested in Santiago and in other cities around the nation. The unrest was spreading. But public opinion was also turning against the students.



Public opinion would begin to change after two prestigious schools took action, simultaneously calling for more long term demands which called for a complete overhaul of the laws around education with the goal of quality education for all Chileans. On May 19th these two schools were occupied by their students. They demanded that the Chilean President would concede to their demands during her traditional May 21st address to the nation. She instead condemned the student movement for provoking violence. By May 26th over 100,000 students and about 100 schools were either on strike or occupied. On May 30th the national student union called for a strike that was supported by the national teachers union and the University student union. The May 30th strike saw an estimated one million people take part. On June 1st, President Michelle Bachelete gave in to the majority of the students demands. On June 7th, she announced a national advisory committee on education that would contain 6 seats reserved for high school students. Shortly afterwards0 the students accepted and called off the occupations and strikes, having won a number of massive changes to national education policy.



In Buenos Aires Today
One year later, on May 25th, in Buenos Aires, students at the two high schools run by the University of Buenos Aires have occupied their schools. The recently chosen principal for the schools, Juan Carlos Viegas, is not someone that the students want as their principal. More important to the students, he is not someone that they have chosen. They are demanding that the principal be chosen by referendum.

After demonstrations of more than half of the student body were ignored repeatedly by the school administration, students held an assembly to consider their direction. They voted for the occupation that has now lasted nearly two weeks. However, classes have continued. The students aren’t refusing to allow the school to function; they are only refusing entrance to the newly chosen principal. Each day they keep watch at the door to stop the principal from entering. The students also have daily assemblies in which they decide the direction they will take with their movement. The students continue to offer dialogue, so long as the new principal doesn’t enter the building. For the most part that offer to dialogue has been refused by an administration that seems to be simultaneously refusing the idea of democratic educational institutions.


Democratizing Education
In the United States, the simple idea of democracy in education is a lesson that we need to learn. With students governments that either don’t exist, or simply exist to plan dances and concerts, we seem to have abandoned the idea of a legitimate student voice in the educational process. To begin organizing students (particularly high school students) to seriously challenge the overtly authoritarian ideals that our school systems uses could help to build a spirit of direct democracy. Students could simultaneously challenge both the school systems that have so miraculously failed them as well as their own lack of power in society at large. Each day I’m reminded of the students’ sense of their own power. I turn on the news and reporters are asking students what will happen at their school today. They respond: “We’ll see what the assembly decides.”

Why Am I Writing?

After an inspiring year following the social and political movements of Argentina, I returned to my hometown of Buffalo, NY intent on beginning the process of actively building local movements with the lessons I had learned in Argentina.

One of those lessons was the importance of participants in our movements telling their own stories and actively analyzing their organizations. That's exactly what I plan to do here, and I hope that some people find it relevant and interesting.