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News > Latin America

Buenos Aires Protests: Education and Homeland, Yes, IMF, No

  • Teachers stage a two-day national strike demanding a wage increase in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 2017.

    Teachers stage a two-day national strike demanding a wage increase in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 23 May 2018
Opinion

"Here we are – all teachers in the country – fighting, demanding the resolution of conflicts," one of the march organizers said in front of the Plaza de Mayo.

Thousands of teachers marched throughout Argentina on Wednesday to demand higher salaries that can compete with the country's skyrocketing 25 percent inflation rate and steady devaluing of the peso.

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Sonia Alesso, a spokesperson from march organizer Confederation of Education Workers (Ctera), said that over the past year "everything changed for the worse" because teachers have not been allowed at the negotiating table.

Ctera head Eduardo Lopez told the crowd: "Fight, fight for education." "Here we are – all teachers in the country – fighting, demanding the resolution of conflicts," Alesso said in front of the Plaza de Mayo.

Secretary-General of Suteba Roberto Baradel echoed Alesso: "We are not happy about this permanent (conflict)," he said, referring to the failed negotiations between teachers and the Buenos Aires government.

For months, teachers unions have been negotiating with government officials for a 24 percent raise and a trigger clause that increases with national inflation, which has hovered at 25 percent for the past year.

The government offered a 15 percent salary hike until April, when it put a 10 percent raise on the table, which unions rejected.

Union leader Roberto Pianelli said right-wing Buenos Aires Governor Maria Eugenia Vidal should listen to the "thousands of teachers who are saying 'take care of public education, less television, more management, more public education, more public school, more suburban, more internal.'"

On a broader level, protesters were demonstrating against the way President Mauricio Macri has governed since taking office two years ago, and his recent decision to request a US$30 billion IMF loan.

"They thought that we were not going to surround the Casa Rosada ... Well, we say ...  homeland yes, colonization, no. We in the streets say yes to the homeland, not to the International Monetary Fund," Lopez told local media.

Alesso said: "This discussion isn't just about the country's education model, but the structure of the homeland. That's why we cry: homeland, yes, colonization, no."

The union leader said they will be protesting once again in Buenos Aires with other union sectors on Friday.

Workers unions and social organizations have staged massive strikes over the past year against Macri's drastic austerity measures, cutting energy and transport subsidies and public employment. Their collective action may be paying off as the Senate just passed a bill that would stop the increase of taxes on gas, water and electricity.    

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