Students, teachers, and workers in Argentina marched this Tuesday, May 12, in defense of public education. Protesters are fighting against budget cuts on education, research, and scholarships and denouncing low salaries, staff shortages, and the dismantling of university hospitals.

According to the media, more than a million people took to the streets in response to the growing crackdown on public universities, which stems from the government’s plan to divert public funds intended for education toward subsidies and tax benefits for the wealthy and toward the repayment of foreign debt. This debt, which is suffocating the Argentinian economy, is imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which the government struck a deal with in exchange for a commitment to implement austerity.

For the fourth time since Milei took office at the end of 2023, students, teachers, university unions, social movements, and the Left, as well as unorganized but sympathetic masses stood up against the cuts and in defense of public education. The latter is a demonstration of the long-standing tradition and consensus in Argentina on defending public education as a fundamental right, despite the political polarization that prevails in the country.

On March 24, the Argentine people also took to the streets in large numbers to condemn the military dictatorship that terrorized the country from 1976 to 1983, disappearing 30,000 students and workers. Both the defense of public education and the condemnation of the dictatorship demonstrate, contrary to the official narrative, that millions of people are willing to defend these two pillars of the working-class struggle in the Southern Cone country and that there is mass opposition to the right-wing government of Javier Milei. The Far Right is far from hegemonic.

The demonstrations put many of the hallmarks of Milei’s third year in office on display: contradictions and weaknesses within the government, the continued rallying power of issues such as public education (which are inherently in contradiction with the governing party’s “libertarian” program), attempts by traditional and establishment parties to re-direct or co-opt already mobilized masses, and differing strategies among opponents and dissidents about how to counter Milei and organize resistance.

Education Under Attack

Attacks against public education have been a trademark of neoliberal and right-wing governments internationally for decades. But an outright open assault involving the shutting down of offices or mass layoffs of public sector workers (such as the Ministry for Women’s Affairs or the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism) would be impossible to implement in Argentina’s current political climate. Milei has been forced to resort to subtler maneuvers when it comes to public education. Few professors have been fired, but many have quit or are working in precarious conditions due to budget cuts.

The University of Buenos Aires is subject to both internal and external audits, but the government’s strategy has been to cut down on audits in order to more easily accuse the university authorities of internal corruption, a strategy designed to erode trust in the university’s historical autonomy. Since shutting any level of public education down is off the table, the government’s strategy has been to keep them open but gutted and in a state of asphyxiation.

However it is clear that even allies or powers sympathetic to Milei’s worldview are not entirely comfortable with open confrontation with public education. Both the legislative and judicial branches have now repeatedly told the executive it must enforce the laws which ensure quality continuity of public, universal, and secular education at the federal level.

Union bureaucrats and several authorities from the Education Department have adopted a strategy of bargaining for crumbs. Instead of using the broader base of support at their disposal to reverse austerity measures they are content to negotiate what can only be described as a less critical state of misery.

Currently, the Radical Civic Union, a right-wing party with close ties to the former administration of Mauricio Macri — a rabid neoliberal — and to the current administration of Javier Milei, wields power and influence within the university and over the student movement. Although they hold power and have won student association elections, they do not represent the outcry of hundreds of thousands who refuse to let these attacks on public universities go unchallenged. Many students who voted for these right-wing leaders went out to protest this Tuesday.

The Left Fights Back

The Socialist Workers’ Party (PTS), one of the organizations that composes the Left Front (a coalition of Trotskyist opposition parties), has been at the forefront of defending public education and fighting the Far Right, putting forward class independence and fighting for the unity of students, workers, and teachers. The PTS (sister organization of Left Voice) has insisted that the movement cannot win its full demands by compromising its platform and negotiating with Milei and the oligarchy.

On Tuesday the PTS youth organized its own road blockades and headed columns independent from the government and the university authorities that have done nothing against the cuts. The PTS youth calls for an immediate halt to austerity and the organization of the mobilized masses behind its own platform: defending public universities and putting forward the fight for a university run by its workers, students, and teachers and at the service of the working class and the oppressed.

Tuesday’s march highlights that far from being unassailable, Milei’s government is navigating an extremely complicated moment. Congresspeople from the PTS and the Left Front have called openly from the floor of Congress not to give in to inaction and strengthen the struggle and street demonstrations. They have called to organize from below to stop the Far Right.

Myriam Bregman, currently Argentina’s most popular politician, is standing up to Milei and, along with PTS congressman Nicolás del Cano. They are calling for struggle and organization because Milei’s plan won’t wait until the next election in 2027.

As Bregman has pointed out, Milei — the best friend of the genocidal Donald Trump and Netanyahu — is preparing a massive assault, a massive robbery of the working class. To stop him, we must fight against the illegal debt to the IMF, austerity, against the cuts, and for all our demands, independently of the political parties that call themselves progressive but continue to negotiate crumbs with the right and support the system that brought us here.

The post Argentina: Massive Protests Erupt Against Javier Milei’s University Cuts appeared first on Left Voice.

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