In Apurímac, which is one of the poorest regions of Peru, firm and consistent teachers and their students went on the streets to demand just rights and to defend the existence of public and free schools in the course of the HNI (Huelga Nacional Indefinida) of SUTEP.
The educational workers in Peru already showed their urge to fight last year in August when they went on a national strike. In this context the Movimiento Clasista Popular (Peoples Class Movement) – which is strongly connected to the educational workers – published an important statement for an anti-imperialist an classline in the people’s movement.
The everyday life of teachers in Peru consists of covering the costs of teaching materials by themselves and often take on the way to almost unaccessible places daily in order to be able to teach at all. The teachers in Peru see the miserable conditions their students live in and also have to face miserable working conditions themselves. And therefore the teachers in Peru know about the problems of the masses and dare to put an end to this society.
And when they actually dare to protest these conditions they get to face the repressive forces of the old Peruvian state, are being branded as terrorists and their protest gets discredited by the reactionary press and the opportunists of the CEN – Patria Roja.
Nevertheless, the struggle is intensifying, as students are more and more joining it, in the defense of public and free schools. The teacher’s strikes are very important struggles of the masses and part of the class struggles of the Peruvian people. When the reaction and its old state oppresses and exploits the masses in favor of the imperialists, the masses will always unleash their justified rebellion.
