Many students have gathered at Boulevard Donostiarra and held the closing ceremony at Plaza de la Trinidad. The Abertzale students have had words for the students who have left the street on 20 March in defense of the socialist educational system: “Congratulations to all those who have been working and fighting in the times when depoliticization and demobilization prevail”.

Ibai Berezibar and June Eguino are members of the Ikasle Abertzaleak organization. Wednesday's protests, in the transformation of the educational model, have announced to ARGIA that they hope to be an essential instrument to take a step further. Because they say that the current educational system is "commodification", "avoiding the criticity of students" and gaining greater weight in "labor competence". They have also denounced that current education is “imposed”: “They impose on us how to think and act, and what comes out of that direction is punished and persecuted.”

Previously, numerous actions have been carried out during the demonstration, including banks, companies and real estate companies. “Fighting the education of impositions”, “stopping the intervention of companies”, “the socialist educational system” and “Long live the struggle of working students” have been the most heard demands.

Dozens of students identified and dismissed

At the closing ceremony they denounced the “heavy boom” of authoritarianism and pointed out that political activism in education suffers “suffocating harassment”. In the run-up to the strike, for example, dozens of people have been identified on the campuses of Leioa, Ibaeta and Vitoria, and students have been dismissed in the centres of Bilbao and Pamplona. They have also recalled the hundreds of students “beaten” by the Ertzaintza at Public University and the 34 arrested in the 2022 student strike, who have declared they are “waiting for the sentence”. “They wanted to break our activity, but after each attack we have made more progress, you are an example,” they screamed among applause.

“Police University Model” of the UPV/EHU

They have denounced the “criminalization” that is being experienced in recent weeks and have wished to respond to the letter of the UPV/EHU opened in the university, arguing that the Rectorate of the UPV/EHU wants to disregard the “responsibility” that it must assume: “It intends to cleanse its face through the opportunistic discourse of democratic values”, they point out in the final assessment note. In this sense, they have accused the UPV/EHU of “the total responsibility for the persecutions” suffered by the students: “The UPV/EHU, instead of taking responsibility and listening to the students, will continue to reinforce as hitherto the police university model, against the interests of the students and the workers of the university”. Thus, they have demanded the Rectorado that the Police do not access the campuses and that any relationship it maintains with Israel be “interrupted”.

 

Choice of independent organization

Political parties have highlighted in their last reading the “electoral circus”, and from there they have been ratified in the option of organizing themselves “outside”, in defense of the socialist educational system: “We understand every fighting process and every dynamic in the direction of the socialist educational system”. Thus, they believe that “another free, quality and universal education” is possible: that “free development” and “critical” thinking of the students, that guarantees the right to learn in Basque and that it is “controlled” by the workers. Finally, they appeal to continue fighting and organizing.