The 2023 UNE’s Congress was undoubtedly a milestone. Especially due to two aspects. The first one is what the hiatus we had with the pandemic meant. We are still in the process of reorganizing the student movement, rediscovering methods and relocating a new generation. That is why, from the beginning, we denounce the artificiality of founding DCEs (University Students unions), which do not contribute to this task in any way.

The second involves the left reorganization. The UNE was certainly one of the main dynamic poles of opposition to Bolsonaro, given the fundamental role that the Education Tsunami played in 2019, even though during the pandemic manifestations that opened an offensive breach against the government, opted to follow the formula of the “Sunday” protests that aimed an electoral exit.

But the presence of figures like Barroso (Minister of Federal Court of Justice) who represent the defense of the bourgeois regime’s institutionality at the opening of Congress and the posture of fleeing the guidelines that generate confrontation with the government, such as the insistence on continuing to apply the New High School (a neoliberal education reform approved by the coup president Michel Temer and implemented by Bolsonaro), demonstrates the necessity to continue affirming an alternative and independent pole at UNE. The Juntos! has been giving a battle for the opposition unity since the beginning of this CONUNE (UNE’s Congress). Since when we articulated the letter denouncing the artificiality and barriers clauses of this Congress, but also seeking to build slates that expressed this unity.

We think that the opposition’s difficulties have to do with the self-centered posture of some sectors, which were not able to attract an independence hub. But this pole is still a necessity. It does not mean that our unity against the far-right, Bolsonaro and the fascists is at stake. All sectors were with Lula against Bolsonaro, repudiating the 8th of January (bolsonarist coup attempt), the murderous attacks on schools and all the many times that it was and will be necessary to defend the government and the oppressed sectors against bolsonarism. What we disputed in this Congress, and what we will continue to do in the streets and universities, is that it is too little for this moment of deep crisis to limit the student movement to what is possible within institutionality.

Polarizing other struggles dear to the student movement, such as the regulation of the PNAES (National Student Assistance Plan) to the repeal of the New High School, is a mistake. What we’re saying is that students won’t even go near universities anymore. And that if we surrender in what has been one of the main struggles of our generation in education, we won’t have the strength to discuss University Reform either.

We insist and regret that there was no consensus on the call for an August 11 (Student’s Day) in the streets against the High School Reform. That is why I also regret the choice of Juventude Sem Medo (cluster of PSOL’s youths composed by RUA, Afronte, Manifesta, Fogo no Pavio, Brigadas Populares and Travessia), which opted to guarantee a 100% government-supported board of directors rather than to strengthen an independent field. The consequences will be seen from now on.

Finally, I am very, very proud of what we did as Juntos! in this CONUNE. Raising the level of political debates, building unity in defense of the MST (Landless Workers’ Movement), guiding an opposition against the New High School and the Austerity policy and, above all, presenting a new generation that is very willing. Which makes me sure that this is just a new starting point of what the student movement will be in the coming years.

Fabiana Amorim is member of the Executive Board of UNE and the National Coordination of Juntos!