In June 1977, students from across the country came together in an attempt to rebuild , an entity that had been made illegal in Brazil’s early years.
The 3rd National Student Meeting (ENE) ended with the military siege of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), the meeting’s headquarters, and the arrest of around 850 students.
The episode is one of those reported in the book “Se Baterem, Cantem!”, by Grupo Editorial Quixote, which will be launched this Saturday (11) in Belo Horizonte, in the academic directory of the Faculty of Medicine of UFMG, from 4pm to 7pm.
Organized by journalist and historian Cândida Lemos, the work is authored by Angela Drummond, Cândida Lemos, Izabel Zóglio, Samira Zaidan and Virgínia Castro.
The book was created based on interviews with students and journalists who participated in the 3rd ENE and research in newspapers of the period and official documents of the time, especially from the Federal Police, the Military Justice and the regime’s spy agency.
The 3rd ENE had been banned by the Ministry of Education and Culture days before its completion. The day before, governor Aureliano Chaves ordered the blocking of all universities in the capital of Minas Gerais.
The demonstration at the time was closely followed by journalist and writer Luiz Fernando Emediato, who wrote the book’s preface.
“I don’t know if there is any hope left for us, our children and grandchildren, but when reading this book a feeling of longing hits our chest and, before it’s dark night, we try to believe that, if we reestablish the vital energy of those times, yes, we can once again have hope that better days will come. Reading this book awakens and stimulates this feeling”, he wrote.
After the meeting in Minas, a recall to rebuild UNE in September of that year, in São Paulo, also ended up being prevented.
At the time, around 70 students managed to hold a secret session there at the end of the morning, in which a committee was elected to resume the activities of the student entity.
UNE was officially resumed in 1979, during the Reconstruction Congress in Salvador. In the following years, the student movement played an important role in mobilizations for direct elections.
