WORLD WORLDWIDE SOUTH AMERICA BRAZIL - news journal UPDATE - (en) Brazil, OSL: Solidarity with municipal education workers against Bill 186/2024! (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Last Tuesday (December 3), Bill 186/2024 was approved by 31 votes to 15

in the Rio de Janeiro City Council, which takes away several rights from
municipal education teachers. Today (December 6), the amendments to the
bill were approved. The bill is not only a strong attack on the
municipal public education category, but on the working class as a
whole, given that it further undermines public education in the city of
Rio de Janeiro. If the bill were approved in its original form, teachers
who work 40 hours, for example, would have to work more than 24 class
periods per month, given that the hours would now be counted by minutes
(and not by class hour). This contradicts a court ruling by the Superior
Court of Justice (STJ) of November 26, 2024, and opinions by the
National Education Council, which were the result of pressure and
mobilization by the education sector.

What is at stake in this bill is, in essence, the control and increased
exploitation of teaching time. The bill also eliminates the bonus leave,
which allows civil servants to take a 3-month leave every five years of
professional practice, and interferes with the right to vacation.
Teachers would only be entitled to vacation after 365 days of work,
which would mean that teachers would work during the school recess in
January and July. In addition, the bill allows for the diversion of
functions, with civil servants being assigned to tasks outside their
duties, and increases the probationary period to 3 years, also creating
a series of legal constraints that aim to increase institutional
violence against teachers.

In November of this year, Bill No. 2584/2023 had already been approved,
authorizing the hiring of temporary workers for the areas of Education,
Public Health, Social Assistance, Information Technology, basic
sanitation works, containment or emergency improvements. These temporary
contracts can be extended for up to six years.

The core of Bill 186/2024 and Bill No. 2584/2023 is the increased
exploitation of public service workers (especially those in education)
and the precariousness of social services, under the logic of the
neoliberal adjustment of Eduardo Paes and his support base. Eduardo
Paes's bench has a majority in the city council (28 of the 51 seats) and
when it comes to attacking workers' rights, this hegemony can expand
even further.

In this sense, it is not surprising that the attacks on teachers have
been supported by self-proclaimed left-wing or supposedly progressive
parties. Let us remember that the PT, PCdoB and PDT are part of the
coalition of the elected government of Eduardo Paes, who, under the
argument of defeating Bolsonarism, give their approval to the removal of
rights of municipal education workers. The only PT councilors who were
against the project were coincidentally those who were not reelected. It
is worth remembering that the PT is also part of the leadership of
SEPE-RJ. The PT instructed its bench to approve the project in the hope
of "softening it", as if there were any possible conciliation, given a
project that massacres education workers, increasing the level of
exploitation on the school grounds and cutting their rights. The old
tactic of proposing a project that deeply attacks workers and then
mitigating it specifically is a strategy that aims to make the category
accept and come to terms with the consummated loss of rights.

MAINTAINING THE ORGANIZATION AND MOBILIZATION OF THE CATEGORY

The vigorous demonstration by municipal education workers last Tuesday
(10/03) demonstrated that the way to reverse this latest attack on
rights is through organization, direct action and popular struggle. We
cannot trust the corridors of institutional politics, where yesterday's
supposed defenders of workers align themselves with those who today are
taking away education rights.

Under the pretext of fighting Bolsonarism, we are witnessing a
traditional right-wing government implementing fiscal adjustments in
public service with the support of left-wing parties (PT, PDT, PCdoB),
making teaching work precarious and hindering the population's access to
quality education. The bourgeois justice system has already shown which
side it is on, when it ruled on November 28 that the strike would be
illegal. The persecution by the justice system and the repression of the
category, as well as the approval of the project, produce demobilizing
effects. At the assembly, the municipal education strike was suspended,
although a mobilization schedule was maintained. The category must
demonstrate the strength it demonstrated in the last protest against the
project and remain mobilized.

Popular movements, the student movement and left-wing political
organizations must give full solidarity to the teachers' mobilization.
Transforming a sectoral mobilization into a class defense against the
neoliberal attacks of Paes and his support base. It is only through
organization and direct action that we can reverse the attacks on education!

Libertarian Socialist Organization

December 2024

https://socialismolibertario.net/2024/12/06/solidariedade-aos-trabalhadores-da-educacao-municipal-contra-o-plc-186-2024/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca