Social Movement Unionism, Social Participation, and State-Union Relations among Education Workers in Brazil (2003-2023)

• In Event: Education Activism as Affirmative Resistance: Examples of Real Educational Utopias Through and Outside the State

Proposal

The union movement of education workers played a strong role in the governments of President Lula and President Dilma, from 2003 to 2014, with historic achievements for education workers. This union movement can be considered a social justice union movement, not only fighting for more salary and benefits for public education workers, but moreover, a more equitable public education system for all Brazilians. One of these accomplishments was the process of education policy for the 2014-2024 decade. Effective social participation was very important in the elaboration, approval and evaluation of educational policies at all government levels, which in Brazil include the municipal, state and federal levels. Through the participation of civil society in educational policy making, the union movement achieved more rights for education workers who are temporary employees. There has also been an expansion of the right to education for all people, through creating more Federal Institutes and public universities. The first part of this paper reflects on the relationship between the union movement of education workers and the left-leaning Workers’ Party presidents between 2003 and 2014.
The second part of the paper will analyze the attack on these educational achievements after the 2016 coup against President Dilma Rousseff and the arrest of former President Lula in 2018. During this period, the National Confederation of Workers in Education (CNTE) shifted all its political actions from Brasília to Curitiba, where President Lula was unduly imprisoned. From the first to the last day of Lula’s time in prison, educators from across the country maintained a permanent vigil to FREE LULA, camping out at the location where he was put in prison. In 2023, after seven years without any dialogue between the unions, social movements and the government, President Lula was finally re-elected. Since taking office, Lula has once again established a permanent dialogue with organized sectors, guaranteeing their participation in important decision-making spaces. CNTE is once again the coordinator of the National Education Forum (FNE), made up of 60 entities representing different sectors of Brazilian education. The CNTE also has a seat on the Social Participation Council, which is building the 2024-2027 Pluriannual Budget Plan, and on the Economic Social and Sustainable Development Council, which will suggest public policies to President Lula that meet the demands of human, social, environmental, economic rights, and the labor rights of the Brazilian people. It is through the mobilization of more than 4 million education workers, organized in about 55 unions across the country, that CNTE has been able to participate in the construction of a new education agenda for current Brazilian society. This second part of the paper will reflect on the contrasts in state-union relations between 2014 and 2022, when right-wing sectors controlled the country, and post-2023 with the return of the Workers’ Party to power. The paper will shed light on the character of social movement unionism in the 21st century as well as the complex relations that develop between unions and the state in different political moments.

Author

• Heleno Araujo, Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores em Educação (CNTE-Brasil)