Argentina: We demand the acquittal of the 27 students indicted for the university seizures of 2018

Last 22 April, Federal Court No. 3 of the province of Córdoba (Argentina) ratified the elevation to trial of 27 students of the National University of Córdoba (UNC) .

For the first time since the return to democracy in that country, Members of the UNC academic community are prosecuted for their union and/or political activities at the university.

Specific, is charged to 27 students for the crime of usurpation by dispossession, for the fighting actions carried out within the framework of the educational rebellion, in defense of the public university, that toured the entire country in 2018. The charges for which they are accused can carry sentences of between six months and three years in prison., in addition to a significant economic penalty for each defendant.

More of 50 Universities from all over Argentina were part of this process of struggle that spread nationwide and that went against the brutal adjustment that the Macri government applied to the country's public education.. The students who were part of this process, in addition to repudiating the new adjustment by the government, They demanded a salary increase for teachers, creation of protocols to confront gender violence, increase in the budget for scholarships and for the university cafeteria, among many other claims that are completely valid today.

This decision of the Cordoban justice system has to do with generating a disciplinary message to the entire student body and to the sectors that face the adjustment policies of the national government.. There is no clearer proof of this than wanting to prosecute 27 random students from a specific university when it was a national process that shared methods and objectives and that was carried out in numerous universities throughout Argentina.

Some colleagues who today belong to SOL were part of this process precisely at the University of Córdoba and we understand that the assemblies, mobilizations, cuts and seizures are tools of student struggle and a democratic right to defend public education.

From Socialism and Freedom we send all our support to the 27 accused students and we demand their acquittal.

Public education is not for sale, defends himself!