ABSTRACT
The uprising of secondary school students in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, is related to a type of collective action that, although recent, finds support in other anti-neoliberal and anti-capitalist movements of this century, with forms of action and organizational dynamics inspired by the autonomist repertoires. For a long time, no social movement had expressed such power of mobilization, rupture and resistance in Brazil as the recent school occupations. This article recovers some aspects of resistance towards the policy of school reorganization in the state of São Paulo, between 2015 and 2016, and discusses the resistance strategies that emerged from the occupations, pillars for a renewal of struggles for democratic education in Brazil. In particular, we consider the interaction between student movements, public universities and the justice system in the context of school occupations. As discussed in the article, this articulation constituted a fertile field of resistance and solidarity, from which emerged the Public-School and University Network (Repu). The Repu proposes a closer relationship between public universities and movements for the struggle for public education, constituting a singular space for knowledge production and political action whose limits are presented and discussed.
KEYWORDS:
democratic education; social movements; educational reforms; university