Recife, 15 March 2019.
We are in a political moment marked by setbacks and by obscurantism against universities, which attack their finest traits: critical thinking, social education, research, community outreach and faculty compromised with social change. The Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) progressive project carried out by dean Valéria Correia and her team is praised by the entire academic community. Her administration is marked by political firmness and by committed fundraising, known for transparency and openness. Valéria Correia was the first dean to publicly take position against the presidential coup that overthrew Dilma Rousseff in 2016, the Amendment N. 55 — known as “the death amendment” that freezes public funding in education and health for the next twenty years – and in favor of democratic freedom. During the student occupation in UFAL, instead of repressing the dissident voices, she welcomed and increased dialogue with the student body. Her position has always been of openness to discuss problems, such as the talks and collaborative decision-making with the professors and employees unions on cuts in the University funding. She has stood up for parity between students, academic staff and employees for electing the university Director. Despite ever-increasing cuts in funding, she has always maintained her position for better working and studying conditions.
In the wake of the next elections for a new dean in 2019, forces inside unions demand Dean Correia’s arrest, as well as her Vice-dean and other rectory members. This attempt is a clear move that contributes to strengthening a wider strategy to criminalize social movements. It is also an action that contributes to the current Bolsonaro Administration’s perverse logic against workers and women’s rights, and against all of those who dare to protest against injustices and the now popular obscurantism.
This way of doing politics is deplorable and must be denounced. It only serves to those who wish to destroy the autonomous, democratic, progressive character of the University, which is, in its turn, in favor of the population in the state of Alagoas and of Brazil.
We express our solidarity to Dean Valéria Correia and other UFAL officers.
IN DEFENSE OF THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY! For an autonomous and democratic University that serves the people!
Universidade Pública em Movimento UFPE