This Tuesday, the province of Buenos Aires woke up to the roar of teacher anger. A massive 48-hour strike is shaking Buenos Aires schools, with adherence averaging 70%, according to estimates from the rank and file. The measure, which combines strikes, mobilizations, and assemblies across the province, is the response to the shameful 7% wage agreement that Governor Axel Kicillof signed with union leadership. A raise that, teachers denounce, does not even cover half the basic basket.
The protest is not just about wages. Behind the anger lies the budget cut that the national government of Javier Milei imposes on education, and which Kicillof mercilessly passes on to the classrooms. “Poverty wages, lack of infrastructure, school cafeterias without resources” is the combo that teachers denounce, most of them women heads of household who sustain schools with two or three positions and another job.
The provincial government is not holding back on repression. Despite a court ruling from La Plata Court No. 5 that supports those who adhere to strike measures, Kicillof applies deductions that reach amounts of $200,000 for primary school teachers. And not only that: from the provincial leadership of Suteba, in the hands of recently elected candidate for Secretary General María Laura Torre, they have joined a campaign of intimidation, threatening disciplinary sanctions against the Multicolor Leadership sections that express the teachers’ enough.
“We need to conquer a true organization from below, with assemblies of members, non-members, assistants, students, and families,” cry the combative sectors. In Tigre, the 48-hour strike is coordinated with ATE, at the start of a coordination of action that could deepen. In La Matanza, mobilizations are expected for Wednesday, while in La Plata, from the Multicolor List, a mobilization is organized from the Government House to the General Directorate of Culture and Education to denounce the arbitrary deductions.
The struggle does not stop. In Bahía Blanca, the call for an assembly at Technical School 2 sets the pace of a fight that, they warn, is not just about wages: it is about budget, infrastructure, and a dignified public education. “What is at stake now is whether that force disperses or transforms into a combative, united, and continuous movement,” they state from the rank and file. Meanwhile, the caravans in support of FATE from Suteba Tigre and the fight for the reinstatement of workers at the Río Santiago Shipyard show that teacher anger is not alone: it is part of a broader resistance to the adjustment.
para mi kicillof es un hdp 70% de paro y solo dan 7% se rien de nosotros milei los usa de alcahuetes y los docentes bancando el ajuste descargate o renuncia lacra los descuentos de 200 lucas son una mafia no se callen mas a las calles hasta que caiga todo
kjjjj 70% de adhesion? para mi es verso de los zurdos q no quieren laburar. kicillof les tira plata q no tiene y milei les tiene q bancar el choreo. a laburar vagos de mierda!