A little more than ten days after the student movement began resisting the veto of the Educational Financing Law voted in Congress, the Deliberative Council of La Matanza voted in session to reject it.
From the benches of FITU were the first to present a draft resolution In the same sense, given the importance of the mobilization and organization of students in the Buenos Aires suburbs in defense of the public university. “The 2025 Budget presented by the Executive allocates 3.9 billion pesos to national universities and 10 billion pesos to debt interest to speculators and international organizations. The recent reduction in the tax on Personal Property, which went from representing 0.19% to 0.11% of GDP. Don’t you think it’s obscene that those who have yachts in Uruguay, Brazil, or properties abroad pay less taxes? “ said the PTS councilor in the FITU, Natalia Hernández during the session. “More fundamental measures are necessary, such as progressive taxes on large fortunes or the elimination of subsidies to large businessmen, which represents close to 4% of GDP when the university budget barely reaches 0.5% and pensions 6.3%. ”.
The veto of the law unleashed a huge student and teacher movement, with more than 100 takeovers of faculties and assemblies, mobilizations, public classes and strikes, which continue to develop. La Matanza is part of that movement. Students from the En Clave Roja group were present at the session to witness the debate, along with their colleagues from CUDI and UNLAM.
The debate over the veto and UNLAM: what did the different blocks say?
It is undeniable that La Libertad Avanza did not expect this reaction from the student movement. In the session of the Deliberative Council of La Matanza, the councilor of that libertarian wanted to minimize the strength of youth with data that at this point remains archaic. He said that the precarious youth who work in applications voted mostly for Milei, a CUDI student present answered him: “Ask them now how they think”. The three councilors who occupy those seats for having appeared on the lists of LLA, voted against the rejection of the veto.
The councilors of Together for Change, increasingly closer to the libertarians, took the same position, in line with Finocchiaro, a national representative who loves privatization. And they doubled down presenting a draft resolution against the UNLAM students that on October 9 (simultaneously with all the universities in the country) they were trying to hold an assembly, when by order of the authorities, the gates were closed and they were beaten by gangs. This block of Councilors has a direct relationship with Alejandro Finochiaro, which is why their repudiation of the student struggle in the most important university in the Conurbano is not surprising. A Juntos councilor said: “We want to identify and sanction” those who supported these measures for the students, far from what is happening at the university and the concerns of those who defend their place of study. As Natalia Hernández pointed out: “Finocchiaro was declared persona non grata by the students of the University of La Matanza”.
The Peronist bloc, although they voted to reject Milei’s veto, was not their point of support in the strength and determination of the kids to defend the public university. During the session they did not mention the enormous student self-organization because the student centers run by their party were from the first moment against the methods of democracy of the kids, the assemblies and measures such as occupations and public classes. It must be clarified: the student centers run by Peronism are boycotting the student struggle, they are trying to transfer the fight to next year’s electoral field, even to a debate on the 2025 budget, placing all their expectations once again on the parliamentarians.
In the Deliberative Council of La Matanza, their flag is the defense of “upward social mobility” and the support of González Catán’s CUDI, and the rest try to appease him until the next elections. The students don’t wait.
Councilor Natalia Hernández pointed out that from the FITU benches they presented contrary to the Juntos project, a project to support UNLAM studentssupporting the resolutions that were voted on in the Autoconvocados assembly, and repudiating the crooked actions of Rector Martínez. And he recalled that Milei managed to veto the university financing law, among other things, thanks to the support of Peronist governors.
The first conclusion regarding Milei’s veto is “false democracy”, since the president with few votes was able to veto a law approved by a majority, and with widespread support throughout society. And Hernandez pointed out: “It is very good that the students were angry with the veto, against what Peronist leaders like Maximo Kirchner were asking for” and vindicated the organization of the students, especially those from the National University of La Matanza and the CUDI who were present.
At this moment in the process of student struggle, the debate is what type of university is needed and how to fight so that it is not impossible to finish degrees due to economic issues, transportation, without scholarships or free cafeterias or daycare centers, for example. In a municipality in which Mayor Fernando Espinoza, together with billionaire Marcos Galperín, are looking for a university as a source of labor, in these cases precarious, only at the service of their economic gains, students discuss other perspectives.
Because beyond the struggle itself, young people in the streets, in assemblies, public classes and protests express the political emergence of a new generation and act as a sounding board that anticipates and amplifies the contradictions of a society subjected to a deep and long crisis for years.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
