On Thursday, May 16, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Argentine President Cristina Kirchner participated in the inauguration of the Metropolitan University for Education and Labor (UMET). The University was founded by the Argentine Union of Buildings Workers.
To download high-resolution photos, visit Lula Institute’s Picasa.
In his speech, Lula recalled his time as a Union member saying that “he was a better person” for having been there. He stressed that the union struggle cannot be summarized as the demand for higher salaries and that investment in education is a crucial part of the lives of workers.
Lula also spoke of the educational policies not only of his administration but also that of President Dilma Rousseff, when 14 Federal Universities and 290 technical schools were established. “The inauguration of UMET has an important symbolic significance for the working class,” he said, and he stressed that workers need opportunities for growth. At the event Lula gave Cristina a book edited by Emir Sader about the ten years of post-neoliberal government in Brazil.
After his talk, he and Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, who referred to Lula as “the best friend of Argentina”, unveiled the University Plaque. Cristina recalled that the history of workers universities in Argentina began in the 1950s and that much has been since then. She pointed out that during her term of office nine universities were created, and added that she is writing a book to tell the story of the last ten years which she called “the decade gained.” Víctor Santa María, the Secretary General of the Union, made an emotional speech in which he said that his mother was a housewife and his father worked his whole life as a janitor and for that reason, inaugurating a place for the education and training of workers meant a great deal to him. Víctor said that he hoped that the University would be more than a place for apprenticeship training but would also be a place for support and a community life for the workers and their families.
UMET? The University opened in April with classes in four course disciplines: Government and Public Policy; Tourism and Sports; Applied Technologies and Organizational Development and Management.
After the official inauguration ceremony of the Metropolitan University for Education and Labor (UMET), Lula and Cristina stopped to talk briefly to the people that had gathered near the building. Cristina introduced Lula as “Argentina’s best friend” and Lula spoke about his pleasure in seeing Cristina and Dilma in the Presidency of their respective countries.
Lula said that two days before, at an event commemorating 10 years of a popular democratic government, he told Dilma that he hoped that the two of them would not be in conflict because Latin America was depending on their relationship. Cristina ended the brief event by noting pleasantly that they could all relax – that she and Dilma would not be fighting.
