During the event, Carlos talked about the recent victory of the Colombian student movement, working hand in hand with trade unions, in managing to defeat the Colombian government’s proposed privatisation of the higher education system. Their anti-privatisation campaign used highly creative and artistic methods to diffuse the traditional tension and police aggression which accompanies protest in Colombia, including a ‘hugathon’, in which students hugged each other and the police and handed flowers to the police during the marches. The campaign culminated in all 32 state universities going on indefinite academic strike.
Berenice called upon those at the conference to learn the lessons of what has happened in Colombia and around Latin America over the past 30 years in order to understand the current use of public debt to implement neoliberal policies in Europe and the US. “This is not something new that you are experiencing- this is what we have been living for the past 30 years, only we also had to pay for the neoliberal policies with the deaths of thousands of social leaders and hundreds of thousands of civilians. This is a barbaric model we are all facing- it is the same model whether you are in Colombia or Newcastle.”
During their time in the region they also had meetings with local branches and the regional women’s network. They then travelled to London for meetings with Nick Sigler, head of UNISON’s international department, as well as meetings with various MPs, international NGOs and students.