Costa Rica: Acuerdo pone fin a toma de edificio administrativo en la Sede de la UCR en San Ramón

America Central/Costa Rica/Informa-Tico

Un acuerdo entre los representantes estudiantiles y las autoridades regionales y nacionales de la Universidad de Costa Rica permitió poner fin a la toma del edificio administrativo de la Sede de Occidente. La toma del edificio por los universitarios fue una medida de presión en defensa del Fondo Especial para la Educación Superior pública (FEES) que este jueves será discutido en la Comisión de Hacendarios de la Asamblea Legislativa.

El acuerdo al que arribaron autoridades y representantes estudiantiles incluye una cláusula para impedir la aplicación de medidas disciplinarias así como la devolución ordenada de las instalaciones que durante una semana ocuparon los estudiantes en la Sede de Occidente de la UCR.

Otro de los acuerdos establece la creación de una comisión Tripartita: administración, funcionarios y estudiantes, para trabajar en forma permanente por un presupuesto justo para la regionalización.

En este mismo sentido, se acordó gestiona con el Consejo Universitario una sesión pública en la Sede de Occidente, en un plazo no mayor a 22 días, para que se discuta sobre ampliamente el FEES y la distribución interna del presupuesto. Los estudiantes pidieron que esta sesión se transmita en directo a toda la comunidad universitaria.

Además, se acordó la firma de un manifiesto oficial por parte de la Sede de Occidente que señale que la negociación del FEES no es justa, no facilita el crecimiento de la educación pública ni la Regionalización de la Educación Superior Pública en Costa Rica.

Por otra parte, los universitarios anunciaron que harán presencia en las barras del Congreso para exigir a los diputados  que se respete la norma constitucional que establece que el gobierno debe destinar el 8% del PIB para financiar el sistema de educación pública costarricense, del cual, un porcentaje es para las universidades públicas.

El balance de los estudiantes resalta los resultados positivos que tuvo la protesta en defensa del presupuesto universitario, que concluirá formalmente en la mañana del jueves cuando se haga la entrega del edificio a la directora de la Sede, Roxana Salazar, aunque el documento del Finiquito de la negociación se firmó ayer, martes, en la Ciudad Universitaria Carlos Monge Alfaro, en San Ramón de Alajuela.

En la firma de los acuerdos entre la Asamblea General Autónoma de la Sede de Occidente y la Administración de la Sede de Occidente para concretar la devolución del Edificio Administrativo estuvieron los representantes estudiantil, el Consejo de Sede de la Sede de Occidente, la representante ante el Consejo Universitario por las Sedes Regionales, el Vicerrector de Administración y la Vicerrectora de Vida Estudiantil.

El documento lo firman los representantes estudiantiles Laura Vega Molina, Mariana Garro Fallas, Néstor Madrigal Flores, Wanda Hidalgo Aguilar y Javier Carvajal Monterrey.

Por el Consejo de Sede de Occidente suscriben la directora Roxana Salazar Bonilla, Carlos Ulate Ramírez, Jeannete Morales Zumbado, Henry Vargas Benavidez, Damaris Madrigal López y Milagro Piñeiro Ruiz.

Firman como testigos de la representación estudiantil Grégory Garro Jiménez, presidente de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Costa Rica (FEUCR) y Esperanza Tasies Castro, de la Sede de Occidente.

Los testigos del Consejo de la Sede de Occidente fueron la Vicerrectora de Vida Estudiantil, Ruth De la Asunción Romero, el Vicerrector de Administración, Carlos Araya Leandro y Marlen Vargas Gutiérrez, representante de Sedes Regionales ante el Consejo Universitario.

Conoce el documento firmado entre las partes:Acuerdo

Fuente: http://informa-tico.com/27-09-2017/acuerdo-pone-fin-toma-edificio-administrativo-sede-ucr-san-ramon

Documento del acuerdo enviado a redacción OVE

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Students in South Africa vow to keep protesting over tuition fees

África/Sudáfrica/Noviembre de 2016/Autor: Kim Cloete/Fuente: PRI.org

RESUMEN: Las protestas han estallado en las universidades de Sudáfrica en los últimos meses, ya que los estudiantes exigen una educación universitaria gratuita para todos. Muchos sudafricanos apoyan, al menos de la idea de la educación gratuita para los pobres. Pero recientemente, las protestas han tomado un giro más militante. El mes pasado en la Universidad de Ciudad del Cabo, los estudiantes barrieron las entradas al campus, irrumpieron en los edificios, activaron alarmas de incendio e insistieron en que el personal y los estudiantes abandonaran el local. Tenían la intención de cerrar el campus.En un incidente particularmente violento, un par de manifestantes se liberaron de la multitud y se volvieron contra un guardia de seguridad, pisoteándolo y golpeándolo con una barra de metal. Recientemente, me senté con Sinawo Tambo, un estudiante de segundo año y líder de la protesta, para tratar de entender por qué las manifestaciones se han vuelto tan intensas recientemente.«La educación es un derecho básico para todos», dice. «Así que la cuestión que tenemos con los honorarios es que excluyen a la mayoría de la gente en este país, porque pone un precio en la educación».

Protests have erupted at universities across South Africa over the past few months — as students call for free university education, for all. Many South Africans are supportive, at least of the idea of free education for the poor.

But recently, protests have taken a more militant turn.

Last month at the University of Cape Town, students barricaded entrances to campus, burst into buildings, set off fire alarms and insisted that staff and students leave the premises. They intended to shut down the campus.

In one particularly violent incident, a couple of protesters broke free from the crowd and turned on a security guard, trampling him and beating him with a metal bar.

Recently, I sat down with Sinawo Tambo, a second-year student and protest leader, to try to understand why the demonstrations have recently become so intense.

«Education is a basic right for everyone,» he says. «So the issue we have with fees is that they exclude the majority of people in this country, because it puts a price tag on education.»

The #FeesMustFall protests began a year ago in response to an increase in fees at South African universities. Protests stopped, for a while, when the government announced there would be no tuition hikes for 2016.

However, more recently, South Africa’s minister of higher education announced that fees will go up next year. This reinvigorated the protests on campuses throughout the country. The government has promised to work towards free education for the poor, but it doesn’t have enough money for it yet. Protesters insist that they want free education for all.

Students are fueled in part by what they see as the slow pace of economic progress in South Africa, which has one of the highest rates of both youth unemployment and inequality worldwide.

According to Statistics South Africa, black students are five times less likely to study at a university than white students. Money is a huge problem. Students can get loans, but rack up debt. Tambo says he can’t afford to pay back loans as he is expected to financially support his extended family as soon as he gets a job.

«My entire family is dependent on me getting a degree and getting a job,» he says.

Tambo says the protests aren’t just about fees, though: They’re also about what he and fellow activists call “decolonization.”

«By free, decolonized education, we mean that the education we are being taught must speak to the lived experiences and needs of black people in the country,» he says. «We must be able to see ourselves in our curriculum, and it mustn’t be Eurocentric.»

I asked Tambo if he condones the violence that’s come with the protests.

«Students are not going all out to be violent and to fight or to burn or to destroy or anything, but it’s always a response,» he says. «On the side of students, it’s a retaliation to the day-to-day antagonisms and provoking of student protests.»

Across the country, students have accused police of brutality, for firing stun grenades and rubber bullets at them. More than 500 protestors have been arrested. Some students have been injured in clashes with police. The government has appealed for calm. But students are not giving up, vowing they’ll shut the country down if need be.

A few days after that campus protest turned violent, students from the four universities in and around Cape Town converged on the parliament building downtown. They handed a «memorandum of demands» to the minister of finance.

The protest started peacefully but then unraveled when one or two students flung bottles at police.

Police retaliated by firing stun grenades. Then bricks started flying. At least one student was badly injured. It’s hard to know where things will go from here.

With violence escalating, the University of Cape Town canceled all lectures for a few weeks. University officials hope to reopen campus on Monday to start the end-of-year exams. But with protesters vowing to continue, many students fear they won’t be able to complete the year.

I ask Tambo about criticism that the protests are holding 26,000 students ransom.

«We are holding ourselves at ransom,» he replies. «We are not people who are against universities functioning, but we want them to change, and this is the moment they have to change, because we are not going to protest annually for the same thing and not get results.»

For Tambo and his fellow protestors, the promises of 1994 ring hollow. That’s when apartheid ended and South Africa became a democracy.

«There was no real reconciliation,» he says. «It was as if there was no one who supported apartheid. Everyone who supported apartheid prior to 1994 just magically disappeared, and we were all supposed to work together. We were all supposed to be one big happy family while the tangible issues that face black people at an economic level, at an institutional level, were never resolved. There has been no tangible change for black people in South Africa.»

Fuente: http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-11-04/students-south-africa-vow-keep-protesting-over-tuition-fees

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Sudáfrica: The fight for free education and the lessons of the student movement

África/Sudáfrica/Noviembre de 2016/Autor: Ben Morken/Fuente: Marxist

RESUMEN: Esencialmente, la lucha de los jóvenes de hoy refleja la crisis del sistema capitalista que no puede ofrecer ningún camino para las masas. La lucha amarga es un punto de inflexión para la sociedad sudafricana, que ha visto surgir durante la última década las contradicciones de clase. Los estudiantes y la intelligentsia son un barómetro sensible del estado de ánimo en la sociedad y sus luchas hoy son una anticipación de lo que está por venir. Demuestran que hay una cólera y una frustración profundas en la situación actual.

Essentially, the struggle of the youth today reflects the crisis of the capitalist system which cannot offer any way forward for the masses. The bitter struggle is a turning point for South African society which has seen class contradictions rising over the past decade. The students and intelligentsia are a sensitive barometer of the mood in society and their struggles today are an anticipation of what is to come. They show that there is deep anger and frustration at the current state of affairs.

A crisis of the regime

Starting off as a movement against tuition fees and for free education, the movement has gone way beyond these immediate issues. The violent crackdown and the arrogance of the government has politicised and radicalised the movement. The intensity and sweep of the protests, in turn, have captured the attention of all classes. As the situation unfolds on a daily basis, the government seems increasingly paralysed and does not know how to proceed. The ground is shifting beneath its feet and it wields no authority over the movement.

This inability to rule in the old way is a signal of an approaching revolutionary crisis. The traditional support base has grown disillusioned with the ANC which has been presiding over all the cuts and attacks against the workers and the youth since taking power in 1994. This is reflected in the violent crackdown of the government against the movement. It shows the increasing inability of the ANC to exercise its traditional function for the ruling class of holding back the mass movement. The bourgeoisie on the other hand, does not have an alternative to the ANC. This has plunged it into a profound crisis.

Consumed by infighting, the government is completely out of touch with the situation. This is evident in its latest attempt to “resolve” the crisis. President Zuma created a task team which initially consisted of ministers of the Security Cluster – Defense, Justice, Police, Correctional Services and State Security. This speaks volumes of the government’s approach to the protests. Zuma has belatedly included the ministers of Finance, Communication, Housing and Social Development after a call by the ANC. But this only adds to the inept and clumsy manner in which the government is handling the issue.

The militarisation of the campuses is actually having the opposite effect of its intended purpose, because it only pours fuel on the fire. The ruling class is split and lacks the necessary internal cohesion to respond effectively. The regime is in a deep crisis, which has been caused by the rising tide of the class struggle. The student movement is exacerbating this crisis.

Social origins

The student protests themselves have their roots in the upsurge of the class struggle of the recent period. It is part of a broader process, which has taken place over the last few years, in which the masses have again and again taken to the road of mass struggle in search of solutions to the social and economic crisis they face. Over the last decade there have been waves of mass struggle which have taken various shapes and forms. These struggles, especially in the period between 2009-2012, saw an explosion of strikes which battered the political landscape and ushered in a period of political realignment.

The capitalist policies carried out by the African National Congress and the militant response by the workers resulted in the former mass liberation movement beginning to fracture along class lines. The turning point was the Marikana massacre which saw the ANC responsible for apartheid era atrocities against striking poor black workers. Huge class contradictions have since emerged between the ANC leadership which has the joined the ranks of the ruling class, and the working class masses that supported it for decades. The crisis in the Tripartite Alliance, the splits in the trade union movement, the emergence of forces to the left to the ANC, as well as a number of community based organisations, are products of this process.The student protests are the latest phase in this line of development.

On the one hand we the leadership of the ANC and its allies, which have joined the capitalist club, mostly backed by the older generation of the former liberation movement. On the other hand, we have the new generation of youth that is bearing the brunt of the capitalist crisis and the consequences of  the 1994 “transition”. The outcome of those negotiations between the leaders of the black elite and the traditional white capitalist class resulted in a deal in which the ANC leaders were allowed to form the government while the economy was kept in the hands of the capitalists. What we are currently witnessing are the natural consequences of that deal.

Under capitalism, the great wealth which is created by the South African working class is appropriated by the capitalists. An anarchic and crisis ridden system which relentlessly pursues profits for the few cannot be reconciled with the basic material needs of the masses. This is a generation disillusioned with the results of capitalists democracy, which has not given them much aside from a prospect of a life of unemployment and constant attacks on living standards. And now they are fighting back.

A new generation of fighters

Protests over tuition fees are not a new phenomenon. As part of the general upsurge in the class struggle, they have been ongoing at the poorer black universities for a number of years.  These protests were largely left to fester so long as they were confined to universities such as TUT, UWC, CPUT and Fort Hare. But with the current upheaval at Wits, UCT, Rhodes, etc, the protests have spread to the middle class. This is an indication of the deteriorating material conditions of the masses.

The most militant layer of the protests consists of the so-called “born free” generation, i.e, those born after 1994. This fresh layer of youth is unshackled from the politics of the liberation era and only know the convulsive period we live in now. Outraged by the effects of the crisis of capitalism and galvanised by the local and international fightback by the masses, the youth have taken to the road of struggle.

Thrown into the cauldron, the fresh layers show enormous militancy and heroism but the lack of experience also places many obstacles before the movement. In the initial stages it is only natural that the movement goes through a period of confusion. But in order to succeed and to take the struggle to a higher level it necessary to overcome these weaknesses.

In their fight against the state for free education, the students have shown enormous bravery and sacrifice. The scenes of daily battles at all the universities across the country show the determination and revolutionary zeal of the youth. But the demands of the students have not been met despite a month of intense struggle. This shows that courage and determination alone are not sufficient to win. Had this been the case, capitalism would have been overthrown decades ago. What is needed is a correct programme, correct tactics and a truly fighting leadership.

The student leaders

When the student protests erupted in October 2015 they immediately took the form of a mass movement. The key reason for this was the intervention of the South African Students Congress (SASCO) which was involved from the beginning and provided an important national framework for the movement. Within a week, students began to mobilise not only on their own campuses but also between universities. This mobilisation was then coordinated at a national level. Marches and mass demonstrations were held on consecutive days in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria to protest at parliament, Luthuli House and at the Union Buildings respectively.

The mass character of the movement came as a shock to the government. Within two weeks the size and increasing militancy of the movement forced the government to announce a freeze in tuition fees in a desperate attempt to put a lid on the protests. This is an important lesson. It was the scale of the protests and the threat it posed to the system that forced the government to retreat.

This year, however, the SASCO leadership has scandalously declined to support and organise the students. On many campuses some SASCO leaders have even spoken against the students and have protected the government. This goes against the whole purpose of SASCO, which was set up by the students to represent them and to fight for good quality and free education. Together with another traditional organisation, the South African Union of Students (SAOS), the SASCO leaders are often seen as being in cahoots with the government. Many of the student leaders are seen as using the movement as a stepping stone to advancing their own political careers.

It is clear that the aim of the concessions to the movement last year was purely to buy time for the government. But while the government was preparing a counterattack over the past year the student leaders at some universities began to shut the movement down. The mass based character and vital coordination between universities was broken and replaced by an atomised movement wherein the numerous demands were fought on a campus-by-campus basis. This false dichotomy which was created between local and national demands led to the atomisation of the movement.

Over the past year, universities across the country have become a hotbed of activity. Protests against a lack of accommodation, financial exclusion, the curriculum, institutional culture and outsourcing of university workers cropped up at almost all universities. But everywhere it lacked the mass character and necessary coordination of last year. Instead of linking up the demands centrally and waging a national struggle against the government and the system as a whole, the movement began to fracture into its different tendencies. The consequence of this was that when the movement erupted again it lacked the nationally coordinated struggle of last year.

This has had very serious consequences for the movement. The actions – or rather, the inaction – of the student leaders has only assisted the government in tiring out and isolating the students. This could lead to the defeat of the movement. Apart from exceptional cases such as at Wits University, the protests have by-passed the official Student Representative Councils at universities.

Organisation

This is a healthy reaction towards the actions of the student leaders, but it does not solve the problems of the movement. The solution to bad leadership is to find better, committed and selfless leaders. The only way to ensure this is to make the leadership structures as democratic and accountable as possible with the right to recall of any leader who fails to carry out the mandates of the students in an acceptable way.

The pitfalls of the atomising of the movement have been apparent. Instead of speaking with one voice, the fractured movements began to speak past each other. This has made the protests more disjointed and the demands less clear. The government and the hostile media have used this incoherence to distort and misrepresent the demands of the students.

The lack of a national and mass based movement also led to the isolation of different groups from the broader student body. Meanwhile the smaller core of the movement, which was radicalised under the crackdown, began to employ tactics such as the burning of libraries, stoning of cars, and other similar actions. This provided the perfect pretext to the state to further isolate student leaders and crack down on the protests. The disconnection between the advanced layers of the students and the wider student base only serves to isolate and fracture the movement, making it easier for the state to clamp down on the protests. This could open the road for a counter-attack by the ruling class.

The lack of national organisations and mass oriented tactics is a clear weakness which the movement must attempt to overcome. It is not possible to fight the centralised capitalist state machine with disunity and disorganisation. The way forward is to build on the best methods of the movement last year: democratic mass student assemblies where everyone is allowed to speak freely and give their opinion. Only in this way can the movement build the necessary momentum and draw in the necessary forces to proceed. These assemblies should choose delegates to a national student congress where all the demands could be taken up on a central basis. The only way to proceed is with maximum unity and organisation. All methods of disunity and atomisation will only mean that it will be easier to isolate the individual groups of protesters and thereby weaken the movement as a whole.

A political struggle

The lack of a national coordination also leads to a political weakness. While the demand for the abolition of university fees is still at the centre of the struggle, this does not exhaust the question of a programme.

Of course, the movement is not uniform but contradictory. The specific conditions and demands vary from one campus to another. The conditions and dynamics at Wits, Rhodes, Stellenbosch and UCT are different from the traditionally black universities like TUT, CPUT, UWC, VUT, etc. This in itself is not a problem. The different layers of society always come to revolutionary conclusions on the basis of their own concrete situations. The key is, however, is to link up the struggles by generalising the local and individual demands into a programme which can unify the struggles on a national scale and draw in new layers. The more localised the coordination of the movement remains, the harder it is to develop such a programme.

While the movement was initially sparked by the raising of tuition fees, the demands have gradually expanded to areas such as as tuition funding for poorer students, reduction of the university managers’ incomes, an end to outsourcing, raising government funding for higher education, cancellation of student debt as well as racial inequality issues. But these demands are not centralised and also don’t quite reflect the real stage at which the movement is at. The violent crackdown of the police and the coordinated efforts of the bourgeoisie to crush the movement has pushed the movement far beyond the initial aims and demands towards a direct struggle against the Zuma government. The demand for the fall of the Security Cluster and the Minister of Education would help focus the movement and would find a wide echo amongst wide layers of the working class. But the demands of the movement, insofar as they exist, mainly reflect the initial phases of the movement.

The working class

While the youth can play an important part in the class struggle, they cannot directly influence economy or the key levers of power in society. As we have stated above, the student protests are part of the broader class struggle, which in turn is a result of the crisis of capitalism. Due to their role in the large scale production process, the workers are central to any action to fight the capitalist system. The limitations of the movement to purely a student strike can be seen in the current protests. While they have succeeded in disrupting the normal functioning of the universities, they have had no effect on the functioning of the economy. The mines, banks, supermarkets and factories are all running normally. It is therefore crucial for the student movement to find ways of linking up with broader layers of the workers and the poor.

Last year, the movement led straight to a campaign against outsourcing at the universities. This instinctive turn of the students toward the working class was a huge step forward. Significant victories were won at a number of universities. It is necessary expand this method, broaden the scope of the campaign and raise the level of the movement.

The student struggle must be linked up with the struggles of the working class as a whole by developing a systematic approach to the workers. Firstly, the main demands of the workers, including an end to labour brokers, a living wage and an end to service delivery cuts, should be a key part of the students’ programme. This should be accompanied by student delegations being sent to all the big factories and big enterprises to appeal to the workers.

A revolutionary leadership

Those who oppose the struggle of the youth on the grounds that they do not have a clear programme should explain where such a programme should come from. It is a fact that of all the organisations which were built to represent the South African masses, none of them has managed to serve their purpose in this struggle.

The ANC leadership which dominates the government has been the main perpetrator of attacks against the youth and the working class in the past period. All of its infighting factions are completely out of touch with the daily day life of the masses. The “Communists” have also joined the government as cabinet ministers and are complicit in the relentless assault on the material conditions of the workers and students. The General Secretary of the “Communist” party as a Cabinet  Minister of Higher Education is actively fighting against the demand for free education! The distance between the mass of youth and the youth wings of organisations such as the ANC Youth League has grown into an abyss.

The EFF leaders have been the only ones to support the movement, but Julius Malema has been seen as using the movement for his own narrow means. His recent flirtations with capitalist elements from the DA and the Mantashe wing of the ANC as well as his watered down programme for the latest local elections has undermined the EFF amongst the most advanced youth.

The trade unions have also not tried to link up the struggles of workers and students. The right wing leaders of COSATU participated in a low-key march on 14 October to the Chamber of Mines. But they have not provided a clear programme to take the movement forward. In fact, the march was reduced to simply “appealing” to the mining bosses to provide funds toward higher education! This was a classic example of the COSATU office bearers taking the steam out of the situation and effectively trying to demobilise the students. As for the left wing of the trade union movement – in particular NUMSA –  it has only given the minimum of support. Although it has supported the students in words, it has not done anything to help the movement overcome its weaknesses in practice. It has also not mobilised in anyway against the violent crackdown of the security forces and the apartheid era tactics used by the state.

For the past three years, NUMSA has talked about setting up a socialist party. Should this materialise, it would change the whole political landscape. Its leaders are missing a golden opportunity. The conditions for launching a fighting party of the working class are extremely favourable. The presence of the most radical layers of the youth on the streets is clear confirmation of this. The South African masses are taking to the road of struggle, but they do not have a revolutionary leadership to unify their struggles and aim them at the real cause of all of their problems – the capitalist system.

Fight for Socialism

Since 1994 enrolments at universities have more than doubled. In order to offer loans to poor students, the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) was established. Since then NSFAS has provided assistance to more than 1.4 million. But while the enrolment at universities has grown exponentially, funding to higher education has decreased as the government has tried to cap a growing budget deficit. In the period from 2000 to 2012 state funding for higher education declined in real terms by 1.1% of GDP. The proportion of GDP spent on higher education in 2015 has dropped to 0.7% which is low by international standards. And in order to mitigate the shortfall, universities have increased tuition fees.

At the same time, the burden on students increased from 24% to 31%. At the end of 2012 student debt increased from R2.6 billion to R3.4 billion. The NSFAS also ran into a crisis. The crisis of youth unemployment and the inability to pay back the loans meant that outstanding debt to NSFAS has grown to nearly R20 billion. Youth unemployment increased to 55% which means that many new graduates could not be absorbed into the labour market. The so-called “skills shortage” which is needed in the economy is therefore the result of the workings of capitalism. Enormous human potential goes to waste because the system cannot make optimal use of it. So what started out as initiatives to reform the system have run into the laws of the capitalist system. The crisis has once again exposed the limits of reformism.

The demands of the students and of the working class are in direct conflict with the private ownership of the means of production. All the wealth of society is in the hands of a small minority, the capitalist class. Yet all this wealth is created by the working class. It is therefore a prime necessity for the working class to put an end to this state of affairs by taking the ownership of the economy out of the hands of the capitalist class. The Freedom Charter states: “The People must share in the country’s wealth! The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industries shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole!” Only by expropriating the capitalists will it be possible to put the huge resources of the country to use for the whole of society and not the privilege of the few.

Fuente: https://www.marxist.com/south-africa-the-fight-for-free-education-and-the-lessons-of-the-student-movement.htm

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EL SNTE-CHILE EN EL SEGUNDO FORO INTERNACIONAL DE EDUCACIÓN ALTERNATIVA

México/06 octubre 2016/Fuente: SNTE Chile

El 29 y 30 de Septiembre de 2016 organizaciones sindicales de toda latinoamérica nos dimos cita en la ciudad de México para participar en el Segundo Foro Internacional de Educación Alternativa, organizado por la combativa Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación – CNTE de México. Como Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores de la Educación – SNTE Chile suscribimos la presenta declaración pública internacional para iniciar la pronta construcción de un referente continental para organizar y unificar las Luchas por la Defensa de la Educación Pública, la resistencia a las políticas neoliberales, la defensa del trabajo docente y la construcción de un Nuevo Proyecto ?Educativo de carácter continental.

 

con-dirigentes-del-continente
Unidos y Organizados
Hasta que la Dignidad se Haga Costumbre

COORDINADORA NACIONAL DE  TRABAJADORES DE LA EDUCACION

Declaración del 2º Foro Hacia la construcción del Proyecto de Educación Democrática. Articulación de las retrospectivas y perspectivas de la educación alternativa.

Miembros activos de la Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE),  académicos e intelectuales, representantes de las organizaciones sociales, de padres y madres de familia, ciudadanos de todos los sectores de la sociedad mexicana, voceros de distintas organizaciones sindicales y de defensa de la educación pública del Continente, reunidos en la sede nacional del Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME), los días 29 y 30 de septiembre del 2016, para continuar los debates que posibiliten la construcción compartida del Proyecto Educativo Democrático, acordamos la siguiente:

DECLARACIÓN POLÍTICA

La avanzada neoliberal se ha presentado a modo de reformas y contrarreformas, que desde Canadá a Chile, pasando por Centro América, imponen una concepción de educación mercantil y colonizadora, en donde los gobiernos serviles al imperialismo apuestan por la privatización de los sistemas educacionales, la desaparición de la escuela pública, la precarización de la profesión docente, el exterminio de las organizaciones sindicales y la implementación de evaluaciones estandarizadas y punitivas.

En estas contrarreformas la despedagogización actúa como política pública que procura atar la educación a las necesidades laborales, de producción y consumo que demanda el mercado mundial, violentando su carácter científico, desconociendo la diversidad cultural y cognitiva de la humanidad, reduciendo la formación integral a capacidades mínimas del sujeto, imponiendo una  visión occidentalizada y economicista como única forma de conocer la realidad, evadiendo la responsabilidad de enfrentar la crisis sistémica en aras de continuar reproduciendo la misma  lógica de desarrollo destructivo, ecocida e inhumano que ha puesto en riesgo la existencia del planeta.

La ofensiva neoliberal en la educación no pasa desapercibida para el magisterio, sus organizaciones sindicales y gremiales, para los grupos estudiantiles organizados ni para las comunidades. Cada día son mayores las resistencias que desde el aula, la escuela y la comunidad no solo se oponen sino que presentan proyectos educativos alternativos, comprometidos con un horizonte social emancipador. El magisterio ha protagonizado jornadas singulares y ejemplares de resistencia al neoliberalismo en los últimos años en Estados Unidos, Canadá, México, Panamá, Brasil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, entre otros. Los logros de países como Cuba o Venezuela muestran que si es posible emprender un camino distinto al neoliberalismo educativo.  Cada vez más, las pequeñas luces de resistencias en el continente iluminan con mayor fuerza todos los territorios abriendo camino a otra educación posible para otro mundo posible.

En este contexto, la reciente huelga magisterial encabezada por la CNTE evidenció a nivel nacional e internacional que hoy en México está en juego el proyecto continental de los organismos de la globalización económica (OCDE, BM, FMI)  y a pesar de la ofensiva gubernamental de aniquilamiento masivo contra la vida, la libertad, los derechos laborales y la organización sindical de los maestros disidentes, el impacto de la resistencia trascendió de lo gremial a lo popular, caló hasta cimbrar la legitimidad del Estado y puso en riesgo el conjunto de reformas estructurales empresariales, como lo evidencia la propia suspensión provisional de la evaluación docente en su carácter obligatorio.

El recorte al presupuesto para educación es un síntoma del colapso de la política neoliberal e implica un desafío para la CNTE y las organizaciones sociales y sindicales que tenemos enfrente una lucha por el presupuesto a la educación, la cultura, la seguridad social, la salud, el campo y otros sectores populares.

La CNTE, con su lucha organizada, logro construir un gran consenso nacional e internacional contra la Reforma Educativa; por ello, sigue siendo un referente moral con el respaldo social e histórico suficiente para convocar a la unidad por la defensa de la educación pública, no es fortuito que su aceptación incluso en recientes encuestas, esté por encima de la figura presidencial, puesto que ha sido un movimiento cuyas demandas y desafíos recogen el descontento generalizado y la necesidad de transformaciones profundas que arranquen de raíz la matriz neoliberal de las políticas educacionales.

Con el término de la huelga magisterial en México no se puede hablar de cese en la movilización sindical y popular, mucho menos de derrota, sino del inicio de otra etapa para la reorganización, de recualificación de la lucha, para la disputa cultural y pedagógica de la escuela a través de la edificación desde abajo de un proyecto contra hegemónico de educación, que a su vez conjunte las múltiples experiencias construidas por la CNTE y permita tejer la unidad  con los padres de familia y las comunidades; a la par de los pedagógico,  se impulsa la ruta por la integración nacional de la resistencia civil, que desde la vía constitucional busca abrir el camino hacia reconstrucción de la hegemonía social y así, preparar las condiciones para enfrentar una nueva coyuntura política de la lucha de clases.

Las movilizaciones de la CNTE, permiten pasar de la solidaridad internacional a la posibilidad de la articulación geopolítica interregional del continente con los principales referentes intelectuales, sindicales y populares que luchan por defender la educación pública; por tal razón, los reunidos en este Segundo Foro manifestamos la imperiosa necesidad de conjuntar esfuerzos, propuestas, iniciativas, experiencias y utopías de todos quienes luchamos contra las políticas destructivas de la educación que pretenden imponer los organismos económicos internacionales.

Desde la Ciudad de México, los participantes nacionales e internacionales en el 2º Foro “Hacia la construcción del Proyecto de Educación Democrática” decidimos impulsar la construcción compartida de una Coordinadora Continental de las y los trabajadores de la educación en lucha contra el neoliberalismo educativo y por la defensa de la educación pública, que permita articular las luchas, las resistencias y que posibilite la formulación de propuestas e iniciativas que garanticen una educación pública, gratuita, incluyente y liberadora para los pueblos de nuestra américa. Esta decisión nos convoca para los días 28, 29 y 30 de Noviembre de 2016 para la realización en Caracas, Venezuela, de la I Conferencia Continental de los Trabajadores de la Educación en Lucha contra el Neoliberalismo.

De igual manera, consideramos urgente impulsar en el corto plazo la conformación de una Escuela continental por otra educación posible y por la descolonización del saber, que se fundamente y vincule a las múltiples iniciativas convergentes en curso como las que se desarrollan a través de la Universidad de los Movimientos Sociales, el Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO), el Foro Mundial de Educación (FME), el Instituto Internacional Paulo Freire, entre otros.

A ello se le suma la necesaria puesta en marcha de una Plataforma de Comunicación, que no solo desarrolle medios alternativos sino que también ponga en marcha la Editorial del magisterio continental en resistencia al neoliberalismo.

Son múltiples los compromisos que emergen de este 2º Foro en el plano nacional e internacional, los cuales evidencian el vigor de la Coordinadora y su proyección histórica. Juntos podemos derrotar al neoliberalismo.

Llego la hora de la unidad del magisterio continental comprometido con un proyecto de construcción de la patria grande.

¡Unidos y Organizados, Venceremos!

29 y 30 de septiembre del 2016, Ciudad de  México

Fuente: http://snte.cl/el-snte-chile-en-el-segundo-foro-internacional-de-educacion-alternativa/

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