Teaching moves ---- Along with the mobilization of August 14 remembering the
"Student Martyrs", the students launched into the struggle occupying severalTeacher Training centers in Montevideo and in various parts of the country.Despite the police evictions, in the following days the occupations continued,joining the secondary school students, as well as the active strikes, assemblies,various activities and street demonstrations. Then the teachers of TeacherTraining, who for the first time occupied the IPA, the Secondary teachers and theteachers are added. ---- Throughout the second half of August and the beginningof September, the occupations, active strikes and mobilizations against the"educational transformation" continue and add people, especially students andyoung people. The ANEP authorities were received with an important rejection inthe Cerro.We are in times of a certain rebound in the activity and mobilization ofTeaching, especially students. Guilds are reorganized, others are strengthened,well-attended assemblies are held, the guild organization grows, coordinationbetween guilds is established and some specific conquests are obtained. Otherimportant facts for these times.Unions and university associations have also taken to the streets, with variousconcentrations and very popular activities.On the other hand, various unions are mobilized. The Rendering of Accountsgenerated mobilizations of the public unions. The mobilization of FFOSE againstthe Neptune Project and the privatization of water stands out, contravening thepopular statement in defense of water and life of 2004.Workers in the private sector are also mobilizing against arbitrary dismissals-the case of Fuecys- and various employer abuses. Unfortunately, the fatalaccidents at UPM work stand out, which have cost the lives of several workers inrecent times.The Copsa Workers' Association has mobilized and paralyzed its activities,denouncing and claiming overdue payments and violation of conquered rights. Thisalso speaks of difficulties in a monopoly company of suburban passenger transport.The Railway Union has been carrying out an important campaign in defense of therailway as a public service, against privatization and the total dismantling ofthe service, making an analogy with the Pluna company and the end of the airnavigation service in the country.The struggle has been present in these months that precede this 24-hour generalstrike on September 15. Various conflicts - where the Teaching conflict standsout - that question the neoliberal policy of the government and the attacks thatit still intends to inflict on the popular field.The concentration of wealthThe transfer of wealth from the popular sectors to the local and foreignbourgeoisie in this period has been immense. Since the assumption of thisgovernment and under the pretext of the pandemic, the employers "got rid of" fora few months part of the labor costs, deriving their support to the State,through the mechanism of unemployment insurance, special insurance and thenlayoffs came.As much as the numbers today are indicating that employment levels haverecovered, it is a more precarious job and with wage loss. From 2020 to date, avery important transfer of income and wealth has been processed towards thedominant sectors. Now, the government establishes for public officials and alsoat the private level through Salary Councils, a certain level of recovery -whichgenerally does not reach all of what was lost- to mitigate the effects of saidtransfer and in the face of the 2024 election. It's a pay-loss recovery, punintended.But this transfer of wealth is also given by the deepening of the neoliberalmodel in terms of privatization (case of the Neptuno Project, for example) or thecontinuation of concessions to private capital in the Port of Montevideo untilthe year 2081. Other examples can be mentioned. , some already come from previousperiods. It is that the neoliberal model has not been questioned at any time, ithas only been deepened step by step. In this sense, an attempt is made to imposesome important reforms for the benefit of large private capital, such as thosementioned below, being aware that these and other issues addressed here requirefurther analysis, which we will try to carry out in subsequent letters.The Reforms: 1- Social Security ReformOne of the main policies that the government wants to implement is that relatedto Social Security. The reactionary discourse that this is an expense for theState and not a social benefit, has been the framework that has allowed us totalk about the reform of the BPS, because the political class does not talk aboutthe Military, Police or any other Fund. ATSS, some unions and socialorganizations are trying to put the whole issue on the table, with all itscomponents. To begin with, if the BPS generates a deficit, it would be necessaryto increase employer contributions, which are generally half of the contributionof workers. Each worker contributes 15% of their salary to social security for"Montepío", and employers contribute only 7.5% for each of their employees.Before the dictatorship, the contributions of both classes were equal to 15%: thedictatorship reduced them and the neoliberal government of Lacalle Sr. did soeven more. Today, his son, in an attempt to deepen neoliberal, pretend to makeworkers work five more years, with the sole purpose of increasing the bosses'coffers.On the other hand, a more detailed analysis of this reform is necessary with allthat it entails and the changes that it will bring if it is approved.The Reforms: 2- Education ReformThe Education Reform, now called "Educational Transformation", is neither morenor less than the application of neoliberal policies to education. It is a returnto the "Rama Reform" of the second half of the '90s. In fact, the vast majorityof the team leading it today worked on the implementation of the Rama project,and have been part of Eduy21, a study and proposal group ("think tank" as theycall it), which has elaborated all the foundations of this model in the fifteenyears of progressive governments. There, personalities from all the electoralpolitical parties and figures from the academy and even some well-known unionleaders met, who applied some proposals in their union such as "public-privateeducational centers", financed by the companies in their sector of activity.Of course, when assuming the government of the right-wing coalition, some of itsmost notorious referents were displaced from government and elaboration positionsand now they appear "crying the milonga" in some areas, but the truth is that allpolitical sectors are in favor agree with this neoliberal reform.What does this reform imply? Grosso modo we can say that teaching is going to befocused on working on "skills" linked to "social life" and the "world of work"with the aim of forming docile beings, apt to obey the bosses and in the worstcase , who know how to manage their "leisure" times. Here they do not refer tothe free time of young people, but to a social situation of thousands ofunemployed young people in the future, with endless time, without work, withoutincome. The society project that is behind all this is of precarious employment,extreme poverty and marginalization and the conception of education is that itmust contain serious social problems. Engage in teaching, no. That remains in thehands of schools or private institutions.In some way, that is the society project that big capital has designed or has inmind for our country.Hunger and repression in the neighborhoodsIn fact, a large part of this project already has concrete expression in theneighborhoods of the capital and cities in the interior of the country. Themisery that grows more and more, job instability and unemployment, hunger (250thousand people suffer from "food insecurity" in a country that produces or canproduce food for more than 30 million human beings), generate a desperatesituation in the suburbs.The levels of violence, generated by the growth of drug trafficking, come hand inhand with this situation. For many young people there is no other way out thanthis and these "entrepreneurs", who do nothing but rot the social fabric of thosebelow, are becoming more and more present in our neighborhoods. In addition tomoving millionaire sums and logically being protected by politicians and thepolice. Without that protection, said "business" could not exist.This "perfect combo" for the capitalist system, which increasingly submergesthose from below, which installs social conflicts among the humble and runs themfrom the axis of the class struggle, also has an entire ideological production inline. Discourses and notions are generated that see with more hatred those whoare more screwed than one, those who are in the "wound" or, failing that, are in"the bad one", than the multimillionaire narco who lives in "La Tahona" and isnamed "sir" or "entrepreneur", case of the soybean producer linked to CabildoAbierto who sent a large shipment of cocaine to Europe or the neighbor of thepresident.These "entrepreneurs" belong to the same class of legal business entrepreneurs,that is, the Uruguayan bourgeoisie and the managers of foreign capital. They havethe same interests and politicians who defend them and share businesses. Aren'tthey the real culprits of this social situation? Aren't they, the big Uruguayancapitalists, allied to multinational capital, the ones who are looting thecountry, pocketing all the wealth produced by those from below, who areresponsible for this "war between the poor" and the increase in hunger andmisery? Or aren't these businessmen the ones who close companies and lay offworkers? Those who use all the resources of the State for their business in allareas. They already do it without any shame and qualms.The right advancesIn accordance with all this, right-wing political positions are advancing in oursociety, as they have been doing in the last decade. It has its electoralexpression, but it transcends it. At the level of ideological notions they haveadvanced a lot. Some we mentioned above. Another to highlight may be thedemonization of those who fight and the fact of boasting about the forces oforder and repression, that is, the police. Now they are slowly trying to do thesame with the Armed Forces.When these notions are installed at the level of society, we know how complexmilitant work becomes and the power to act within the popular field. We come froma plebiscite at the beginning of the year, where the population -by a tinydifference, it is true- approved the LUC with a whole regressive content in termsof social rights. This is possible not only because a sector of the populationsupports the government, but also because they have managed to convince aboutthese changes or certain types of measures to be taken. Therein lies thechallenge for the militancy with revolutionary intent, which does not go out toask for the vote every five years, but pushes for a project of deepertransformations in which all the oppressed sectors must be protagonists.We must add that the military institution carries gorillaism in its DNA. Proof ofthis are the recent revelations made in the Brecha Weekly about the military"courts of honor" (they should be called infamy) in 2006 and the situations thatoccurred before and after them, which included threats of a coup d'état beforethe arrest of four notorious military participants in Plan Condor. An episodethat remained behind the scenes, which now comes to light and is, without adoubt, a small link in a huge plot that shows that military power is intact.Other episodes in past years should make us pay attention to the movements of theArmed Forces and the retired military "reservists", who are active in the ranksof Cabildo Abierto. Let us not forget that this party is in fact a military party.The region has similar problemsThe advance of the right in the region is worrying. On September 7, the day ofthe Independence of Brazil, Bolsonaro and his supporters carried out massive actsin different parts of the country. It has clearly become a political sector thatmobilizes socially with an ultra-conservative and anti-popular program. Itdoesn't matter if Bolsonaro wins or loses the upcoming elections: he has becomethe true political force in Brazil where, on the contrary, the PT is increasinglyfaded and allied to the right. His vice-presidential candidate is Alckim,repeating what was already done under Dilma Roussef's presidency. Lula now seemsto have the support of big business, but the Bolsonarist sectors are notthey are going to remain quiet and are going to continue to act from now on,complicating the actions of a possible Lula government, as we see in othercountries in the region such as Peru. All of which leads to greater institutionalfragility in the midst of a loud noise of sabers and speech by the coup plotterof the Bolsonarist sectors.The confrontation with this advance of the right does not occur and cannot occurin the electoral field. In fact, the PT did not go out to confront the massiveBolsonarista mobilizations on the 7th, on the contrary, it called for not goingout into the streets. Only the demonstration of the "Cry of the Excluded"provided the presence of popular organizations with independence of class,putting the fight against a possible coup d'état at the center of the scene. Ourcomrades from the Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB) were there promotingthese demonstrations from the social spheres.In Argentina, the assassination attempt on Cristina Fernández is the result of awhole policy of hatred deployed by the right and extreme right againstKirchnerism and other progressive political sectors and the left in general. Fromthe media, "journalists" and television hosts openly demonize and insult politicsopenly. And all this is being deposited and is being added to a right-wingideological construction -and that is turning to the extreme-. The discourses"anti social plans", anti people, racist, have been permeating certain socialsectors.This has a correlate at the political level, also produced from the media. Thephenomenon of Milei and her ultra-liberal bet, her hatred of everything thatcould be leftist, is the concrete expression of the hatred of the ruling classestowards those below. Unfortunately, as we said, these expressions have beengrowing in the region and not only in the electoral arena.Now, this fact of the frustrated assassination has left in the background theserious socio-economic situation and the brutal adjustment that is being imposedon the Argentine people and has overshadowed the arrival of Massa to thegovernment as "super minister", giving prominence to Cristina Fernández in theface of next year's presidential elections, and in the midst of a strong bidwithin Peronism.In both Brazil and Argentina there is a certain social and politicalpolarization, for now within the political sectors of the system, containedwithin institutional frameworks. But the right and the extreme right have alreadyshown that they can get out of those frameworks whenever they want -which theydon't care about in general-. Today they talk about a coup in Brazil, and itremains to be seen where the attempted assassination of Cristina Fernández started.For the extreme right, and a certain classic right, anything that threatens thestatus quo or any measure that means a minimal "reform" or change in some aspect,is seen as a measure of the extreme left. For this reason they demonize thelegalization of abortion, social plans, the rights of homosexuals and transpeople, unions and popular organizations, among another long list of issues thatare placed as true "advances of international communism", according to the logicof the Cold War. It should be laughable, but for these sectors that harshlycriticize the supposed "cultural hegemony of the left" any proposal or measuretaken by a progressive government is synonymous with a revolutionary measure.They don't look at the left as a broad ideological spectrum. They see her as the"incarnation of evil",The question is, when will this polarization transcend institutional frameworksand become a political-social polarization of classes and political projects?Will this actually happen? How will this process be? Questions that remain openbut necessary from the perspective of the militancy of the left withrevolutionary intention.In the case of Chile, the rejection of the constitutional reform was forceful andexpresses different opinions and feelings of the population. On the one hand, theright voted against. But not all votes come from the right; A good part of thepopulation voted against this project: the Mapuche, popular sectors of the citiesand the countryside. Why did this occur? It is a complex analysis that will taketime, but we can try to establish a primary hypothesis: this constitutionalreform did not solve the problems of the Chilean people. As much as a series ofrights were included and a "Plurinational State" was declared, popular sectorsmistrusted this proposal. The fact that Boric flagged himself as its maximumdefender helped to discredit it, since in such a short time at the head of thegovernment,The Chilean people today continue to mobilize, especially the students. It islikely that the 2019 revolt, channeled towards the constitutional, will onceagain have street expressions. For now, Boric's government takes a more centristapproach, changing part of his cabinet and trying to negotiate a newconstitutional reform.The alternativesFor us, anarchists organized in FAU -and the sister organizations of the LatinAmerican Anarchist Coordination and the rest of the region- there is no other waythan the organization and struggle of the people. There is no other way than thepeople in the street.The people as the builder of their destiny, with their social organizationsregardless of class, building advances from below and that really matter. Thereare no recipes, manuals or magic formulas. Each people has its history, itsstruggles, its experiences and its knowledge. There are more than enough elementsto advance in this stage with all that rich popular baggage.In recent years there have been important mobilizations and conflicts in thecountry and in the region, the peoples of Latin America have not been quiet. Weare going through a cycle of popular struggles that began in 2019 and that isstill open.In the face of the neoliberal and right-wing political and ideological advance,there is no other way than to confront it with the people in the street. For thisreason, militancy with revolutionary intentions must make every effort tostrengthen popular organizations, to develop their role with the broad effectiveparticipation of the people, with an anti-bureaucratic policy and for concreteadvances and conquests wrested from the struggle.We call this long process Construction of People's Power. In it we hope to meetwith the workers, the students, the unemployed, the housing cooperatives and allthe organized movements and social sectors from below that fight for changes anda different society.AGAINST THE NEOLIBERAL ADVANCE, STRUGGLE AND ORGANIZATION!!FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF POPULAR POWERUP THOSE WHO FIGHT!!URUGUAYAN ANARCHIST FEDERATIONhttp://federacionanarquistauruguaya.uy/carta-opinion-fau-setiembre-2022/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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