“The Argentine people understand that university is not just a privilege, it is a right.”

Within the framework of the Plenary Meeting of Deans of Faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities of Argentina of CODESOC, at the end of May 2024, Eduardo RinesiPolitical scientist, philosopher, and former rector of the National University of General Sarmiento between 2010 and 2014, spoke with CLACSO.tv.

Rinesi addressed the situation of universities in Argentina: “We were all surprised, and it was a pleasant surprise, by the demonstration on April 23rd. It's a demonstration that speaks to very deep-seated issues, deeply ingrained in the common sense of Argentinians. The skinny guy carrying a sign (…) that said, ‘My psychoanalyst went to a public university, I owe him my life,’ that sign is extraordinary because it reveals the profound understanding of the Argentinian people, of Argentinian citizens, of that skinny guy, that university isn't just a privilege for the young men and women who come to our doors and become professionals, and for those who then do better because of it. It's a collective right of the people, who have the right to have good psychoanalysts, good bridge engineers, good professors of medieval philosophy. The people have the right to all of that, and that's what we do in public universities. The 23rd was very important and reveals that the cultural battle, to use this expression, is much more complicated than just spouting nonsense.” television and assume we have the people in our pocket.”

Furthermore, he analyzed the political force governing his country: “There is no doubt that it is an essentially and profoundly anti-democratic right wing. It has an anti-democratic discourse, it disbelieves in democracy, it disbelieves in its institutions, it disbelieves in and is ignorant of its procedures. It has never cared about that; it is against it. It celebrates those who destroyed democracy in Argentina, it holds events at the Navy Mechanics School advocating unacceptable things, things that we believed there was a consensus among all political forces to 'Never Again.' These people don't believe in 'Never Again.' And they are profoundly against the two fundamental pillars on which we can think of the democracy we have as being built: rights (…) and freedoms. Which are not what they mean every time they shout 'freedom.' That is a very narrow idea of ​​freedom, the freedom of economic agents to do whatever they want without restrictions from the State. That is not freedom.”

“Freedom has several great traditions: the liberal, which envisioned the freedom of individuals from the forces that stifle or oppress them; the democratic, which envisioned the freedom of individuals to participate in discussions and deliberations; and the republican, which envisioned the collective freedom of the people, sovereignty, which these types disregard and destroy every day. If you deny the importance of rights and call the freedom of the rich to commit excesses “freedom” instead of the freedom of citizens and the people, then of course democracy is in real danger,” he stated.

Interviewed by Gustavo Lema.