{"id":3368,"date":"2019-10-31T04:13:28","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T04:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/2019\/10\/31\/chile-its-not-30-pesos-its-30-years\/"},"modified":"2019-10-31T04:13:28","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T04:13:28","slug":"chile-its-not-30-pesos-its-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/2019\/10\/31\/chile-its-not-30-pesos-its-30-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Chile: \u201cIt\u2019s not 30 pesos, it\u2019s 30 years!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chile: \u201cIt\u2019s not 30 pesos, it\u2019s 30 years!\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\"0037094147\"This is one of the many slogans sung in the streets of Santiago. Thirty Chilean pesos were the increase in the subway that unleashed the protest on Friday 18 October. Spokespersons from the government and the right-wing said, \u201cIt\u2019s only 30 pesos. Less than 10 cents of a dollar\u201d. But it was the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back, after decades of high social inequality, of a capitalist model that comes from Pinochet\u2019s dictatorship. That is why the youth and the working people have exploded. Millions have been on the streets for over 12 days demanding that Pi\u00f1era leave and demanding a fundamental change in the country.<\/span>
By Miguel Sorans*, leader of Socialist Left (IS) and the IWU-FI. 30 October 2019<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The social uprising in Chile shocked Pi\u00f1era\u2019s government and the entire bourgeoisie, including imperialism. Until then, they cited the \u201cChilean model\u201d as an example of \u201csuccess\u201d. Days before, Pi\u00f1era said that Chile was an \u201coasis\u201d. But it is a model of extreme exploitation, a continuation of Pinochet\u2019s dictatorship, through the pact with the system\u2019s political parties such as the Christian Democrats and the Socialist Party, along with the new parties of the Pinochet right (UDI and others). Pinochet imposed the 1980 constitution, which is still in force, and since the 1990s -with the regime of the \u201cConcertation\u201d – the governments of CD-SP-CP or of the right via elections alternate. Before Pi\u00f1era the \u201csocialist\u201d Bachelet was the president. All maintained this model in favour of national and foreign multinationals, with labour flexibility and the privatisation of all public services from water to education, health and transportation. Guarded by the repression of the military and the carabineros (the famous \u201cpacos\u201d, the name given to the police). In this rebellion, they have already killed 20 people, wounded hundreds and imprisoned thousands. That\u2019s why people came out to say \u201cit\u2019s 30 years,\u201d \u201cEnough\u201d of Pi\u00f1era and also of the \u201cmodel\u201d. <\/span>
Chile is among the ten countries with the greatest inequality in the world. Five per cent of the population with the lowest income is at the same level as in Mongolia or Moldova. The two per cent highest income is at the same level as in Germany. Private pension funds (AFPs) have been a scam. The average pension is less than $200. University students are indebted for life, once graduated (CLARIN data, 24 October).<\/span><\/p>\n

Chile has changed. The people rebelled<\/span><\/strong>
\u201cIt\u2019s not a war. Chile woke up,\u201d you see in some placards with which people go to the marches. They are small, handwritten. They responded to Sebastian Pi\u00f1era\u2019s first statement by saying that they were \u201cat war\u201d. When his wife (Cecilia Morel) said it was like an \u201calien invasion \u201c, the placards responded with \u201cthe alien people for peace, support the Chilean people\u201d. Both had to apologize… and Pi\u00f1era annulled the increase in the subway fare.<\/span>
But, to Pi\u00f1era\u2019s surprise, people continued in the streets and demanded that he and his government must leave, they demand the end of the state of emergency, the military out of the streets, an end to privatisation in education, health, pensions, water and energy. Since Friday 18 October, the masses have not stopped being on the streets. Even ignoring the curfew. The high school students mobilised to the subways but, with the passing of the hours and days, the popular mobilisation generalized. In the neighbourhoods, the pots and pans have defied the curfew. As did the strikes in ports, miners, truckers, health or public employees. Thousands and thousands in the streets all over the country. An undeclared state of a general strike. <\/span>
People named it: \u201cChile woke up\u201d. This is the beginning of a revolutionary situation. That is the change that has taken place in Chile. It is a situation where, as Lenin defined it, \u201cthe bottoms don\u2019t want and the tops cannot live in the old way\u201d. That is why in Chile a revolutionary mobilisation is underway and questions the power of the \u201ctops\u201d and raises the need for a new power, a government of the workers and the popular sectors. <\/span>
The historic mobilisation of Friday 25 October<\/span><\/strong>
On Friday 25, after a week of marches and protests, the largest popular demonstration in the last 30 years took place. In Santiago, it reached about 1.5 million people. With thousands and thousands in every city and town in the country. That massive march filled Italia Square and the nearby avenues and parks. Human tides came through Alameda and Providencia Avenue, from all the neighbourhoods and communes of Santiago. Young people, workers, women, families, pensioners, doctors, bikers, football fans. There were no political flags. Flags of Chile, of the Mapuche people, of Colo-Colo, of the University of Chile, many green neckerchiefs and those individual placards with all kinds of slogans; \u201cArrivederci Pi\u00f1era\u00bb; \u201cnationalisation of public services\u201d; \u201cI don\u2019t need sex, the government fucks me every day\u201d; \u201cBielsa was right\u201d; \u201cConstituent Assembly\u201d; \u201cnationalisation of natural resources\u201d, \u201cdirect democracy\u201d or \u201cRevolution\u201d. And they sang the traditional \u201che who doesn\u2019t jump is a paco (police officer)\u201d.<\/span>
The impact of mobilisation hit the government hard. They left Pi\u00f1era on the tightrope. He had to lift the state of emergency and the curfew, renewed much of the cabinet and promised the moon and the stars. But the people started the week on the street demanding that he leave. The masses see they can defeat the government and the model.<\/span><\/p>\n

A mobilisation that overflowed the leaderships<\/span><\/strong>
It\u2019s a spontaneous mobilisation, without a leader. Not even a reformist. From the beginning, the mobilisations took place outside the unions and students\u2019 leadership, in which the CP and the Broad Front (FA) predominate. They are summoned by the networks. It took both the CP and the FA three or four days after the initiation of the popular rebellion to release a statement. They formed a Social Unity Table through which they called for a national strike on 23 and 24. But, although they propose terms of reference against repression, social measures and even a Constituent Assembly, they do not raise \u201cOut with Pi\u00f1era\u201d, which is the central demand of the masses. Only after the impact of the historic mobilisation on 25 the CP and part of the deputies of the FA propose the possibility of appealing to the \u201clegal\u201d mechanism of the \u201cconstitutional accusation\u201d against the president via parliament. A kind of \u201cimpeachment\u201d or political trial.<\/span>
A strong point of the mobilisation is that it is not controlled by the reformist political apparatchiks. That also prevents the government from having with whom to negotiate and seek to appease the mobilisation. But the weak point is, so far, the lack of a revolutionary socialist leadership. And that workers and popular organisations emerge from where the struggle can be coordinated toward the perspective of a government of the workers and the popular sectors.<\/span>
With this strategic policy, the Movement towards Socialism (MST), Chilean section of the IWU-FI, intervenes in the process (see statement of October 25 at www. uit-ci. org). Promoting the neighbourhood assemblies and other organisms of trade union and student struggle and their coordination. To maintain the mobilisation in the streets and the call for a general strike to put an end to Pi\u00f1era\u2019s government, for the trial and punishment of the military and civilians responsible for the crimes of repression, for a fundamental change in the country, with a government of the working class and the people that promotes an emergency economic plan for the working people to put an end to misery and privatisations and call for a Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly to end the Pinochet constitution. To advance on that road, the mobilisation must continue until they oust Pi\u00f1era.<\/span><\/p>\n

*He travelled to Chile and took part in the demonstration of 25 October.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chile: \u201cIt\u2019s not 30 pesos, it\u2019s 30 years!\u201dThis is one of the many slogans sung in the streets of Santiago. Thirty Chilean pesos were the increase in the subway that unleashed the protest on Friday 18 October. Spokespersons from the government and the right-wing said, \u201cIt\u2019s only 30 pesos. Less than 10 cents of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[41],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3368"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}