Argentina: massive demonstrations to defend public universities against austerity

Hundreds of thousands of Argentines, students in the front row, demonstrated. Tuesday à Buenos Aires and in the provinces against the austerity policy of the ultraliberal government of Javier Milei and “in defense of the university” free public", marches denounced as "political" by the executive.

In the capital, the mobilization, probably the largest since the start of the Milei presidency in December, brought together “between 100,000 and 150,000” people, according to a police source, and half a million, according to the University of Buenos Aires ( UBA). A teachers' union reported a million demonstrators across the country.

In Buenos Aires, students, parents, teachers, university agents, but also unions and members of opposition parties, paralyzed the center of Buenos Aires all afternoon, near the Parliament, all the way to the Plaza de Mayo, seat of the presidency 2 km away, packed with people in end of the day, noted AFP.

Other gatherings in the provinces mobilized the country's sixty public universities, which were joined by private institutes . In Cordoba (center), seat of the oldest university in the country founded at the beginning of the 17th century, the procession brought together tens of thousands of people.

A protester holds a book-shaped sign reading “The Future” during a demonstration against the budgetary adjustment of public universities in Buenos Aires, April 23, 2024 © AFP – Emiliano Lasalvia

In Buenos Aires, in a festive atmosphere, students symbolically brandished a book at arm's length, denouncing “a brutal attack” against the university, as Pablo Vicenti, a 22-year-old medical student, deplored to AFP: “They want cut off their funds by pretending that there is no money. There is some, yes, but they choose not to spend it on public education.”

~60. ~p>Public universities, which welcome more than 2.2 million students, say they are in “budgetary emergency” since the government decided to maintain, for the 2024 academic year (which began in March) the 2023 budget, despite inflation of 288% over twelve months. And this within the framework of all-out budgetary austerity, to aim for a “zero deficit” at the end of the year, the objective of the Milei government, and to tame inflation.

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A protester holds a sign with the inscription “Without university there is no future” during a demonstration against the budgetary adjustment of public universities in Buenos Aires on April 23, 2024 © AFP – Emiliano Lasalvia

For several establishments, this is a threat of paralysis, and certain sections of the prestigious UBA have recently implemented emergency savings: unlit common areas, restricted use of elevators, reduced library hours, etc.< /p>

The Faculty of Exact Sciences of the UBA, which notably trained the 1984 Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology Cesar Milstein, has set up an online countdown until the day its budget 2024 will be sold out. Tuesday at the time of the demonstration, he had 37 days, 9 hours and 15 minutes left.

The major CGT union center joined the protest, as well as radical left organizations, opposition politicians, open to the accusation of “political demonstration” by the executive. Milei added fuel to the fire, accusing certain public universities of being places of left-wing “indoctrination”.

The Undersecretary of State for Universities, Alejandro Alvarez, warned the demonstrators and their supporters. “Let them do what they want, but as long as Javier Milei is president, the public money that goes to Universities will be AUDITTED (…) we are establishing an inspection and an audit that did not exist,” a- he indicated on but that “for decades the university has had serious problems (…) and study completion rates are plunging”.

Thousands of people arrive at Plaza de Mayo square during a protest march against the budgetary adjustment of public universities in Buenos Aires on April 23, 2024 © AFP – Luis ROBAYO

“We cannot question 200 years of history. Even with a very low budget, the UBA is among the three best universities in Latin America”, protested the dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the UBA, Luis Brusco.

Mr. Adorni also recalled an agreement a few days ago to increase the operating costs of universities in two stages, +70% in March, then +70% in May. Far from inflation, but now a “settled discussion”, according to him.

“Don't hope for an outcome on the side of public spending”, highlighted keeps Milei on Monday evening, trumpeting a budget surplus in the 1st quarter of 2024, without precedent since 2008, thanks to austerity. “Our plan is working,” he boasted.

“All our problems are solved with more education and public universities (…) L “Education saves us and makes us free. We call on Argentine society to defend it,” read a student to the crowd in Plaza de Mayo at the end of the rally.

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