Mexico City.- Members of the scientific community call for a 24-hour national strike on May 2 at universities and public and private research centers, and institutions that show solidarity, to protest the reform of the science law.
“In addition to legal technical errors, its implementation implies setbacks to scientific development, restrictions on the freedom of research, authoritarianism, discrimination, budget reductions and violates labor rights and academic regulations,” they point out in a message shared on social networks.
They urge them to express their discontent through posters and to make their opposition to the controversial project public.
The Government’s proposal to replace the current Science and Technology Law has been questioned because of the way it was endorsed: with 257 votes in favor and 210 against and without considering the warnings that members of the scientific union had made to what they consider a centralist, authoritarian and unconstitutional proposal.
In addition, they maintain, the previous agreement to first carry out seven sessions of Open Parliament is being breached.
The call to strike is addressed to “colleagues, colleagues, university colleagues, scientists, academics and students.”
The callers for the strike emphasize that the Chamber of Deputies approved the bill without due dialogue.
The deputies approved an opinion that they just received this Tuesday night from the United Commissions for Education, Science and Technology.
And the Conacyt denies dismantling
For its part, Conacyt reported in a statement that the institution will not be reduced or disappear.
The approved opinion, he indicated, contains multiple mechanisms that strengthen Conacyt and the 26 Public Research Centers (CPI) that it coordinates in the Country.
“In addition, this initiative does not foresee in any section the disappearance of the Conacyt, as some voices adverse to the human right to science have wanted to distort in an alarmist way in order to instill fear, both in the members of the humanistic, scientific, technology, to the beneficiaries with some kind of support from Conacyt, as well as to the workers of this council and the CPIs”.
He added that the opinion of the initiative advances to the Senate of the Republic “with a solid legislative proposal in technical and substantive terms, which incorporates fundamental points that favor the advancement of universal knowledge and strengthens sovereignty.”
