“It is historical, 13 years ago it didn’t happen”

Around 100 students have locked themselves on Thursday afternoon at the Getafe Campus of the Carlos III university of Madrid (UC3M) with the objective of “accumulating forces” for the general educational strike that will take place next Monday 28 against the budget cuts promoted by the Regional government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

“That there is a confinement in Carlos III is quite historical. 13 years ago one is not given. That speaks of the collective and basic organization that is being built,” explains Rubén M., a member of the Platform in Defense Platform of the Public University by the Carlos III University. The UC3M joins more presence in this way to the protests of the university community, more centralized in recent weeks in the Complutense, which lived a mass confinement three weeks ago.

The locked protests the “process of economic asphyxiation of the University Public Service, to which the Madrid society is entitled.” The rectors of public universities have denounced on more than one occasion that the financing that comes to the regional government does not even cover the payrolls of the staff and that opening universities every day is a fight. After a public protest of the leaders, the regional government agreed to increase the budget item by 45 million, but to distribute among the six centers. The rectors estimate that at least 200 million euros would have needed.

The situation at the Madrid public university is of discomfort and economically unsustainable. So bad that no one wanted to face the rector of the UAM in the last elections so as not to have to manage misery, and that despite the discontent with Amaya Mendikoetxea was so great that she ended up losing despite not having a rival because she obtained more blank votes than in favor.

“A step towards something much bigger”

Both the confinement of this Thursday and the mobilization next Monday, they say, are “a step towards something much bigger.” As some of the people who are starring protest actions in public universities explained, activism is growing on campus. “We have to say that there are sectors that will mobilize on Monday that also had not mobilized for 15 years. Our mentality is that we have to have a short and long look.”

The confinement will last about 14 hours, in which they will carry out banners, “antirrepressive” workshops and a final manifestation. They feel that the “repression that the student is living for organizing or the precariousness suffered by the associated professors” seems to be activating a fuse within the student body, and that is especially seen in a day like today in a university like Carlos III, which, they affirm, “tends to demobilization.”