On the eve of the end of the 59th Congress of the National Union of Students (UNE), leaders of the student movement heard by Agência Brasil reaffirmed the importance of the event, which they classify as “the greatest political meeting of Brazilian youth”. “We believe that, this year, the congress has been victorious. Whether for the political programming that featured guests such as the former president of Uruguay, Pepe Mujica, or for the strong institutional presence, including the participation of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva”, said the president of UNE, Amazonian Bruna Brelaz, remembering that the last time a head of the Brazilian Executive Branch attended the event was in 2009, when Lula himself attended the meeting. According to UNE, around 10,000 students from all over the country have been in Brasília since last Wednesday (12) for the meeting. After an extensive agenda of debates, cultural activities and political acts – such as the protest on Friday (14th), in front of the Central Bank, the target of criticism for keeping the basic interest rate high – the students participate, today (15th). ) and tomorrow (16), the plenary session in which the entity’s main action proposals will be voted on. This Sunday, the future presidency and board of directors of the entity for the next two years will also be chosen. “We have divided our agenda between the demands that we consider emergency and those that are structuring”, explained Bruna Brelaz, noting that the congress entered its “most beautiful” phase today. “It is the moment of greatest mobilization, the most tense, since there are different opinions and expectations, which represents the diversity of the student movement in the country and the ability of UNE to represent this multiplicity.” For Rio Grande do Sul Tiago Morbach, from the Socialist Youth Union (UJS), the presence of so many students from different regions of the country confirms the capillarity of UNE, which turns 86 this year. “The congress plays a very important role, transmitting a message from the student movement, from the Brazilian youth, who are mobilized to build the transformations that Brazil needs in this new political moment”, said Morbach, reinforcing Bruna Brelaz’s opinion on diversity of proposals and the intensity of the debates. “It is during the final plenary of the congress that the democracy that characterizes the UNE emerges. The amount of opinions should be viewed with optimism and respect”. The vice-president of UNE, Júlia Aguiar, from Rio de Janeiro, highlighted the challenges that the entity and the student movement as a whole have faced over the last few years to measure the importance of the current congress. ′′ Due to the pandemic, we were prevented from holding the meeting in person for four years. Even so, not only did we go back to organizing a giant event, but we also built the process of choosing the future board. All this is of fundamental importance for the renewal of the student movement. Many students are attending their first meeting in a political context that we, who advocate for a more inclusive and democratic education, consider better. Even because, in the last period, we obtained a fundamental victory: the defeat of neo-fascism and Bolsonarism. Even though we know that the extreme right is still organized”, commented Júlia, who is part of the Levante Popular da Juventude, close to the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and other social organizations in the countryside. Priorities Upon attending the UNE Congress, President Lula received a document from representatives of the movement with some of the main student demands for the coming years. In the president’s words, the agenda is “long, arduous and spicy”. According to the entity’s president, Bruna Brelaz, the proposals – including some that are still under debate – are divided between those considered emergency (such as the transformation of the National Student Assistance Program into national law) and structuring ones (such as the creation of the University of Integration of the Amazon, with massive investments in science and technology). In addition, during the plenary, each entity defends the actions it considers priorities, as explained by Tiago Morbach. “We, at the UJS, for example, seek approval for the proposition of a university reform that allows educational institutions to assume a new role in national development, actively participating in the fight against hunger and extreme poverty. And that the UNE intensifies its role as a social mobilizer”, said Morbach before commenting on the presidential reaction to the preliminary document: “I, in fact, consider the agenda that we delivered to Lula as, shall we say, well tempered. having recognized this, as we intend to open a channel of dialogue with the government so that the students’ claims are taken forward. even the Central Bank”. Júlia Aguiar listed some of the agendas defended by Levante Popular da Juventude at the congress: “Our expectation is that, in addition to continuing to mobilize students across the country, we will be able to stop setbacks. May we revoke the Secondary Education Reform and manage to print, in the current federal administration, an education project that takes into account the fruit of our debates, strengthening student organizations, which were very fragile in the last period”.
Agência Brasil
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