Hasta la victoria

We had a busy day yesterday. To be expected when we have an interview, a law lecture, a demo and an assembly to attend. The day started at the grandiose Faculdad de Derecho (Law Faculty) where we sat in the cantine transcribing for an hour before Carys interviewed a law student in a smoky far away corner of a student café/bar.

Sara listening back to focus group tape.

Carys about to interview.

We then went to a Constitutional Law lecture with our law student friend where a very engaging professor talked about constitutionalism in John Rawls. Carys and I were put on the spot a couple of times on the UK’s constitutional arrangements (that GDL came in really handy here), as well as about our views on abortion (!!!). Later on, it transpired that this is a bit of a national debate on abortion going on, with students campaigning for its the decriminalisation. We also learnt that recent laws have allowed both gay marriage (2010) and gender self-determination (2012) –  and, amazingly, that both of these had a strong element of “judge made law”.

Sat in a Constitutional Law lecture.

From UBA’s law school we headed for a “Corte en Junin y Cordoba”. A demonstration which consisted of creating a block on the road, between Av Cordoba and Junin. We looked through the craft market and sat on the grass of Plaza Bernardo Houssay watching the skateboarders from the comforts of a breezy shade. But there were no signs of the corte, so we headed to the Faculdad de Sociales (faculty of social science) to catch an assembly of FUBA (Federación Universitaria de Buenos Aires). There we met some great people from one of the student political groupings in the uni and realised that both the corte and the assembly were running late so we hadn’t missed anything. Then, the real thing happened…

Sara & Carys at Student demo.

Student demo outside Economics.

Demo stops traffic,

It may be useful to briefly describe the university structures and the structures of student representation in Argentina. These structures differ from university to university but they exist in all public institutions in one form or the other. Each university is headed by a Rector, which would be the equivalent of a vice-chancellor in the UK. Each faculty is then headed by a Decano or Dean, and there is an Academic Council which elects the Dean. The composition of this Academic Council tends to include about 8 Professors, 4 Students and 4 Graduates. Above this faculty level there is a Consejo Superior or Superior Council which is composed of all the Deans, vice-deans, graduates and students. In Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), it is this Superior Council, made up of about 13 faculties which elect the Rector, but in Lomas de Zamora University the Rector was elected by a General Assembly, where students are also represented. Some students believe the system works despite the necessity to stand by the rights conquered throughout the years, but others will tell us that in fact each professor who votes is worth 2000 student votes and that both professors and graduates are handpicked so student voice has little impact through the formal channels. Por esta razón, salir a la calle es esencial.

FUBA assembly I.

UBA students mobilise for a number of worthy causes including the recent increases in the metro prices and in solidarity with oil refinery workers who have been wrongly accused of murder in the context of a labour dispute. However, the hot issue of the moment is the election of the new Rector at UBA which is due to happen on December 5^th, which will generate as much student resistance as the recent election of Deans at faculty level. The students feel they do not have a voice in this process despite the principles of co-governance which are a legacy from the 1918 Reforma and they feel the next Rector will be handpicked by the government, despite the pretence of a democratic process. Furthermore, they fear that the person who is about to be appointed (most likely the vicerrector and peronista Alberto Barbieri), will be a supporter of the privatization of higher education and thus a threat to the principles of equality and equity which underpin a free/public higher education system. Nonetheless, student opposition to the election of the present Rector, he was still elected.

FUBA Assembly II.

By the time we left the FUBA assembly (which started at about 9pm!!) it was late and we were starved and exhausted. However, we were also certain that there could be nothing more topical than the issue of private v public university provision and that what sustains the debate is a strong and bold student movement.