In Brazil, students at the University of São Paulo are fighting for basic funding of their university and they’re fighting like hell. At this moment, more than 100 courses at the University of São Paulo (USP), the largest public university in Latin America, have been on strike for more than 20 days.
It began with a strike which included both the university workers and students at the university striking together. This resulted in the workers winning many concessions from the university, but the students chose to continue their strike to fight for more. After weeks of the university refusing to negotiate with the students, they occupied the rector’s office on Thursday night, May 7.
On Thursday night 5/7 students began occupying the rector's office at the University of São Paulo because the head of the university refused to negotiate with them. I had the opportunity to visit their encampment which was totally peaceful. pic.twitter.com/RVuVVeou3G
— Sam Carliner (@saminthecan) May 11, 2026
On May 10, Mother’s Day, the military police under far-right governor Tarcísio de Freitas violently attacked the encampment. Videos and testimonies from the scene showed students being beaten, dragged, and violently removed during the forced clearing of the occupation. It must be noted that the dean of the university, Aluísio Segurado, and his chief of staff, Edmilson Dias de Freitas, are also aligned with the country’s Far Right.
But the repression backfired. On Monday, May 11, students, university workers, and teachers — who are also currently on strike — filled downtown São Paulo for a demonstration to repudiate the violence against student activists. They chanted “The love is over, now it’s going to be hell!” Far-right provocateurs showed up and were quickly chased off. Police used it as an excuse to fire tear gas at the crowd, but the protest held firm and took the street.
Since police tear gassed the demonstration it moved into the street, blocking traffic in downtown São Paulo. This is right outside UNESP, another important university in Brasil. pic.twitter.com/BGePV4qz1V
— Sam Carliner (@saminthecan) May 11, 2026
There have been other displays of solidarity with the students’ struggle including a free concert and a Mother’s Day lunch at the encampment. In addition, while the university workers ended their strike, they voted to continue halting their activity on days of mobilization to support the students. As André Barbieri, an editor of Left Voice’s sister site Esquerda Diario and USP worker explained, “There’s nothing the university can do because the workers and the students at the university are totally united.”
Other workers are also organizing against the austerity policies of the far-right governor. This week subway workers in São Paulo announced that they plan to go on strike unless demands around hiring and against privatization are met. If teachers, students and university workers, and transport workers unite their struggles against cuts to public services, they could mount a powerful fight against austerity in the region.
The student strike has exposed the degrading conditions imposed on students and outsourced workers inside São Paulo’s public universities. In recent weeks, students denounced meals served with larvae and other signs of contamination in university dining halls operated by outsourced companies. For many students, the situation has become a symbol of how outsourcing enriches private contractors while public universities deteriorate and basic living conditions on campus collapse … literally. On Monday, just before the demonstration, a part of the ceiling at the university library collapsed, destroying irreplaceable texts.
Monday night, following the demonstration, 700 students convened for a democratic assembly at the building for architecture on the university campus, where they voted to continue the strike.
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