Flags quickly filled Avenida Corrientes. Drums set the rhythm as the same chant echoed from different points of the blockade: «Honk if you support education.» Then came others: in defense of retirees and against the repression of Patricia Bullrich, Jorge Macri, and Milei, and above all, against the BA Aprende reform advancing in the City’s high schools.
The call brought together students from Lola Mora, Lengüitas, Yrurtia, Comercial N.º 35, Nacional Buenos Aires, Técnica Sarmiento, René Favaloro, and Nini Marshall, in one of the first actions expressing a concrete attempt to coordinate the various struggles that have been developing against the educational reform promoted by the Buenos Aires City government.
The blockade was accompanied by teachers, families, members of educational communities, the Ademys union, and tertiary student centers such as those from Joaquín V. González, Alicia, and Normal N.º 1, whose students emphasized that as future teachers, they feel challenged by the example set by high schoolers. «The kids are showing us the way,» noted a tertiary student. «We want to put our student centers at the service of defending public education, supporting them, and coordinating.»
Until a few weeks ago, many of these schools faced the reform separately. Yrurtia staged a takeover that ultimately forced the Ministry of Education to sign a document committing that the school would not enter BA Aprende. Lola Mora held an overnight stay to prevent the reform’s advance. Nini Marshall has been developing various measures, and at the end of the blockade, it received support from other schools in a gathering in front of the establishment. Comercial 35 reported that BA Aprende is already having concrete consequences: reorganization of courses, loss of teaching positions, and modifications that deteriorate teaching conditions.
Each school has its own experience, but all are beginning to identify that they face the same policy. «Yrurtia showed that the reform can be stopped,» several students commented during the day. «Now the fight is that no school has to face it alone.»
The mobilization also showed something that is beginning to repeat in different educational conflicts: the active involvement of teachers, families, and tertiary students. Mothers and fathers accompanied the blockade holding signs against BA Aprende and talking to those who approached to ask about the protest. Teachers from different schools insisted that the attack does not only affect those currently in high school. «The education of future generations is something that all of society must defend,» explained a mother. «We cannot look the other way when the government modifies the school without consulting anyone.»
In that sense, tertiary student centers emphasized that they also feel this fight is their own. «We are future teachers. What is happening today in high schools also defines the conditions in which we will teach tomorrow.»
One of the most significant aspects of the day was precisely that attempt to coordinate between schools. While rejection of BA Aprende grows in different educational communities, students have been questioning the direction of the Coordinadora de Estudiantes de Base (CEB), whose leadership maintains in practice that there is no possibility of confronting the reform. A similar position has been adopted by the Peronist leadership of UTE, which also did not promote a unified struggle plan against the advance of BA Aprende and was notably absent today, as well as in many other actions emerging from below.
However, reality seems to be heading in another direction. The experiences of Yrurtia, Lola Mora, Nini Marshall, and other schools show that discontent has not stopped growing and that more and more educational communities are seeking to meet to discuss common actions. The blockade of Corrientes and Darwin precisely expressed that search: moving from isolated conflicts to coordination built from below by students, teachers, and families.
At the end of the activity, they headed to the Nini Marshall School to support the gathering held there by its educational community. The scene summarized the meaning of the entire day. No longer is each school alone defending its conflict. Several educational communities are beginning to recognize themselves as part of the same fight. Amid hugs, drums, and songs, a mother summed up the mood that pervaded the entire mobilization: «Let’s not give up. The way out is collective. The high schoolers are being an example for all of us.»
In a context marked by Jorge Macri’s educational cuts in the City and by the national government’s attacks on public universities, retirees, and other popular sectors, the coordination beginning to be built between schools appears as one of the main political novelties of the conflict. The Yrurtia experience showed that BA Aprende can be stopped. The question that is beginning to circulate in more and more schools is how to extend that strength to defeat the reform across the entire City.
Para mí, Macri y sus secuaces quieren destruir la educación pública, pero estos pibes se plantan como leones. Me parece una locura la reforma basura, viva la lucha estudiantil. Yo creo que estos pibes tienen más huevos que todos los políticos juntos. A seguir cortando calles, que la calle es del pueblo.
para mi estos zurditos de mierda ya me tienen podrido siempre cortando calles son unos vagos q no quieren laburar reforma macri es lo mejor pero prefieren ser negros kaines basta de privilegios a laburar se ha dicho firmado @ElVerdaderoMachoArgento