TEACHERS OF COLOMBIA FACE A MONSTER

       

       There is a rumor that former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, when he was a candidate for his first presidential term, the big international companies had forced him to sign a series of compromises that would limit his social programs once he became president. So I was worried that Brazil, being the economic power of Latin America, would be greatly affected by the incidence of holding companies, if this were so, then what could be expected of other countries with much less financial capacity and Political weight as Colombia for example? 

       This situation brings me to the memory of what is happening in Colombia, this is one of the longest teacher stoppages of recent years, and the fundamental reason is not the salary, which should be the reason for national unemployment, but Which has to do with requesting greater contributions to the participatory system in education, and this contemplates addressing other needs such as food for children, arrangement of educational infrastructure such as school improvements, classroom expansion, educational tools, The information and many other resources that are needed.

       That's the problem. The teachers are not facing President Santos or the minister of education, they are facing nothing more and nothing less than the famous International Monetary Fund and, as the cartoonists would say, their cronies, which are the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Development.

       Not only do these entities exert pressure on heads of state in Latin America, but also the world's largest investment firms such as Allianz Global Investors or JP Morgan, which, if not controlled by governments, do have decisive influence over time To take economic policy measures.

       So the teachers in Colombia are facing a monster, and although the union organizations have made calls inviting the society to participate in the strike, the response has been as usual warm, not to say cold, against the expectations and results that can be generated from negotiations between teachers and the Colombian government.

       If Santos continues to reiterate that there is no money to meet the demands, it is simply because it follows the guidelines of external entities for the effects of financial risks, or, as an expert economist would say, to avoid a hypothetical quiebracracia, that is, that the State must intervene when financial institutions go into crisis.

       Is it a utopia that the teachers are pursuing? A socialist utopia, the neoliberals would say, a capitalist utopia, the Socialists would say.