On September 2, the largest teachers’ union in the country, Ctera, will define its leadership in elections that promise to be historic. The Multicolor list, which brings together recovered unions, sections in struggle, and anti-bureaucratic groups, presents itself as the only option to end the nightmare that Argentine teachers are living through. From the April 9 group, which is part of the list, they denounce that the current leadership of Ctera is complicit in the adjustment of the national government and the union bureaucracy that sustains the fraud in the Association of Provincial Educators (ADEP) of Jujuy.
The fight to recover ADEP has become a national symbol. The Provisional Board that runs the Jujuy union, imposed after a scandalous electoral fraud, has been without calling assemblies, without accounting, and handling more than 1.5 billion pesos without member oversight for months. Behind this maneuver, the complainants assure, is the alliance between the Ctera bureaucracy and the provincial government of Carlos Sadir, which violates union autonomy to maintain a docile union that neither stops nor protests.
«The current leadership of Ctera played a perfidious role. It did not fight for the teacher incentive, left provincial conflicts isolated, and endorsed the ADEP fraud,» they fire from the opposition list. The Multicolor is led by the recovered unions of Adosac (Santa Cruz) and Unter (Río Negro), and includes combative sections of Suteba Matanza, Tigre, Bahía Blanca, UEPC Córdoba, ATEN Capital and Plottier, as well as groups like Tribuna Docente, Docentes en Marcha, and the Hormiguero Docente of Jujuy, the legitimate winners of the ADEP elections.
The electoral campaign presents itself as a unique opportunity for the ADEP struggle to become a national banner. «If the fraud in ADEP is defeated, the entire working class wins and the government and bureaucracy lose. If ADEP is recovered, there is more strength to unite all Jujuy teachers alongside Cedems,» they maintain from April 9. Therefore, they demand that all unions in Jujuy actively show solidarity with the recovery of the union.
The unitary list, however, was not exempt from debates. From the April 9 group and the Hormiguero, they proposed that ADEP, as a recovered provincial union but prevented from exercising due to fraud, occupy one of the top positions on the list. But unfortunately, none of the other groups supported that perspective. Even so, the list stood up and will fight across the country.
The challenge is enormous: the Ctera bureaucracy, allied with the national government and the regime’s parties, will not hand over power without resistance. But teachers are fed up with low salaries, multiple jobs, stress, and lack of representation. The Multicolor promises to be an independent tool of struggle from all governments, betting on organization from below and coordination of sectors in struggle to build strength toward a general strike.
In Jujuy, the activism of ADEP is an example of consistent struggle against fraud. Now, the opportunity to take that fight nationwide is within reach. On September 2, the ballot boxes will decide whether teachers choose to remain complicit in the adjustment or stand up to recover their union.
Para mí estos burócratas de Ctera son unos vendidos que se hacen los giles con el gobierno. La Multicolor es la única que va a poner a laburar el sindicato de verdad. ADEP tiene que volver a los laburantes, no a los traidores. Esto huele a complicidad y hay que terminar con eso. ¡Fuerza Multicolor!
che pero estos zurdos de ctera nunca aprenden la lista multicolor quiere recuperar el sindicato para mi es para seguir choreando burocracia ellos son los reyes de la joda adep la tienen tomada hace rato y ahora se hacen los santos voten a los giles de siempre a ver si asi laburan mas los pibes firmado tano gonzalez