Listen to this note:
“Today is a special day,” a teacher tells his two female companions as they board a crowded train car at the Constitución station on the C subway line, which connects to Avenida de Mayo. “Everyone gets off at Avenida de Mayo,” one of them adds later. And she is not wrong in her prediction.
One month after the March for the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice —who recalls that in Argentina 30 thousand people were arrested and disappeared due to political persecution during the last military dictatorship—, the president Javier Milei He was once again confronted with an eloquent image of the massive discontent of a sector of Argentine society against his policies: the festive, multitudinous, mocking, proactive opposition to his privatization policies.
The president, who defends a capitalism without regulation from the State and won the favor of the electoral majority in November 2023 with the promise of cutting superfluous expenses in public administration, has maintained that he will seek to destroy as many public entities as possible during his administration, from the privatization of Aerolíneas Argentinas to the closure of the historic news agency Télam, the cuts of thousands of jobs or the blurring of the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA), in addition to promoting the country's entry into the conflict between Israel and Iran, in favor of Tel Aviv, or the installation of a US military base on the strategic island of Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of the American continent.
Following this announcement, which includes cutting off the supply of resources to the country's public universities, on Tuesday, April 23, around one and a half million Argentines took to the streets nationwide to defend public education, according to organizers, including students, teachers, researchers, education workers and supporters.
In Buenos Aires, where the organizing committee said that 800,000 people had marched from various educational centers and Congress, the protesters advanced for hours toward the historic Plaza de Mayo and the surrounding streets, amidst drumming, choripanes, fernet, festive songs from the Argentine repertoire, combative and carnivalesque slogans, some even recalling the student struggle of Harry Potter and his companions against the dark lord, and with a clear position: the defense of free education to favor socially vulnerable sectors with the opportunity for professional training and, consequently, the country as a whole.
One idea is repeated throughout the day: without public education, none of those present would be what they are: the first graduate in the family, a teacher, a student, an aspiring scientist, or a girl who says from today: When I grow up I want to go to the UBA (University of Buenos Aires).
And clearly stating who his political rival is, provocations against the current executive power are also raining down. “Study, don’t be Adorni,” reads a poster in reference to Manuel Adorni, presidential spokesman in charge of making his usually mocking responses to journalists who question the Casa Rosada spectacular on TikTok. Or, on the metal fences that the police placed to protect the executive headquarters in Plaza de Mayo, a young woman writes in spray paint “Libertontos” and a red arrow indicating where to look to find them.
“They are against public universities because they teach us to think, not to obey,” read repeated banners. “Educating is fighting and silence is not my language,” reads a sticker stuck to the wall.
“They cloned more traitors to the country,” reads the slogan on a banner over a map of the Malvinas Islands. And another calls for not giving up: “Let us not be the generation that saw the death of the public university.”
Already gathered in the public square, the attendees sing songs by the Fabulosos Cadillacs or from the Andean classical repertoire, remember the worker Rodolfo Walsh or express discomfort:
And you see it,
and you see it,
the one who doesn't jump
voted for Milei.
The massive mobilization was celebrated by rock icon Charly García, who promised that dinosaurs would disappear, and by Aymara leader Evo Morales, among many other global witnesses: the eyes of the world are following the convulsions that derive from the Argentine president's attempt to favor large private capitals in one of the largest nations on the planet, and to which organized society reiterates its dissatisfaction.
One of the members of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo movement, Taty Almeida, speaks from the central platform towards the end of the event and recalls, amidst applause, that she herself was educated in public education. She also recalls that her son, Alejandro Almeida, was enrolled in the medical program at the University of Buenos Aires when he was detained and disappeared.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, in turn, recalled that a request for impeachment against Javier Milei is already being promoted by the legislative branch.
In the statement of the rally, which ended at around 6:40 p.m., while a nearly full moon rose behind the Casa Rosada, the organization claimed that it has been forced to return to slogans from 20 years ago: "No worker below the poverty line!"
The document called for regulating the situation of retirees and restoring the National Fund for Teaching Incentives (Fonid), as well as reversing mass layoffs. “Today, universities lack the budget to support their own scholarships; a budget and student welfare policies are needed in order to be able to study. In light of this, we take on the task of unwaveringly defending access to education for the vast majority.”
The statement ended with a general call to Argentine society to continue defending public education in the country. As soon as the speech was over, the music from the platform made the audience dance and sing along to the rock music of Indio Solari.
In the heat of the mobilization, Vice President Victoria Villarroel, a denier of the crimes of the last military dictatorship, launched from X what reads like a provocation: “Hebe, what you missed,” in reference to the former head of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo organization Hebe de Bonafini, who died in November 2022.
In addition, President Milei shared on Instagram the image of a lion drinking a cup of coffee with the caption: “Tears of left-handers.” Although he later deleted the image, it was shared and replicated by his supporters, who celebrated the mocking tone of the meme.
Argentine society remains divided. Although the massive demonstration made clear the will of thousands to express their discontent, it is not difficult to find among the street conversations in different parts of the country those who remain convinced of their vote in favor of the libertarian. Political skepticism remains, to which Milei appears as a desire for a solution due to his non-traditional aggressiveness in institutional political language. The prolonged economic and social fatigue in Argentina led to this scenario.
One thing is clear: the upheavals will continue. The executive stresses from its primary sphere, social networks, that it will continue to insist on its rhetoric of provocation and boasting.
The end of the speech on the platform does not close the festivities. The attendees advance between drums, waving wiphalas and panpipes towards the dispersion, recovering slogans from the reels of their cell phones, smiling, crowded, collecting testimonies of what they have experienced. An intervention on the famous engraving by Francisco de Goya shows a tormented vampiric leader next to a legend: “The fallacy of the free market produces monsters.”
And the protesters, amidst the force of the demonstration, slogans, celebrations, criticism, humor, tenderness, irony, demands for social opportunities and memory, reiterate their political position: “Milei, listen, you are the dictatorship.”
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