As many as 100,000 Chilean students and
workers marched in Santiago, and more protested around the country on
Oct. 19, the latest actions in a months-long campaign for free
quality public education for all. Although mostly peaceful, police
repression resulted in 263 arrests nationwide.
University and high school students
have been in a standoff with the government of President Sebastian
Piñera since May, protesting and occupying as many as 100 schools.
These protesters have now missed an entire academic year.
Currently, only 45 percent of high
school students study in traditional public schools, and most
universities are also private. In addition, no new traditional
universities have been built since Pinochet was in power.
High school students would prefer to
attend private schools, which offer better preparation for college,
but many cannot afford the fees. They maintain that the educational
system is for the rich, while poor students are stuck in run-down,
under-funded schools.
Although students had been in
negotiations with the government since August, these were broken off
in October, with student leaders claiming bad faith on the part of
the government. At the same time, Piñera has tried from the
beginning to split the movement between othose he calls “moderates”
and others ”ultras,” a tactic that has been rejected by the
movement.
Chile has “one of the world’s lowest
levels of public funding for higher education, some of the longest
degrees and no comprehensive system of student grants or subsidized
loans,” according to The Economist. It also has the most expensive
educational system in the world, according to the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development.
Movement demands the
re-nationalization of copper
Students and professors are demanding
an increase in the budget for public universities of $1.8 billion,
which they say could be paid for by nationalizing the copper
industry, the country’s main export.
Forty years ago, President Salvador
Allende nationalized the U.S. multinationals Anaconda Copper and ITT.
U.S. imperialism responded to this by sponsoring a bloody military
coup and installing a dictatorship, led by General Augusto Pinochet,
which lasted for the next 17 years.
Under Pinochet, Chile was turned into a
laboratory for “free-market” state restructuring, which included
the privatization of state utilities and social services, including
education. This continued under a series of civilian regimes.
On July 11, the 40th anniversary of
Allende’s nationalization of the copper industry, the Association of
Professors and students supported a strike by copper workers. They
condemned the privatization of state copper company Codelco and
demanded “Copper for Chile, Copper for Chilean education.”
However, the re-nationalization of
copper strikes at the very heart of the free-market ideology. It is
something that the state is unwilling to concede.
The government is fighting back by
charging that the movement is violent, but students and workers
counter that it is the heavily armed riot police who use excessive
force.
For example, on Aug. 4, police used
high-pressure water hoses and tear gas against high school students
attempting to march for free quality education. They then arrested
more than 800 in a day that saw clashes between protesters and police
in the major cities of the country.
On Aug. 25, the second day of a strike
that drew 600,000 workers and students into the streets nationwide,
police in Santiago opened fire to disperse protesters, killing a
16-year-old. Around 750 were arrested and dozens injured during the
two-day action. Significantly, the strike was called by the CUT, a
workers’ federation, which has supported the student movement from
the beginning.
It is ironic that a country that has
been held up for years as a free-market success story would suddenly
have a militant student movement supported by 80 percent of the
population. But free-market state restructuring always engenders
resistance, because sooner or later people figure out that the
government is only there to guarantee that transnational corporations
accumulate profits.
In Chile, as in every other
restructured nation, the withdrawal of the state from providing basic
services and the sell-off of state industries has generated high
income for some, but has left the rest of the population facing
economic insecurity.
Piñera has tried hard to maintain the
legitimacy of the free-market regime by discrediting and repressing
the movement, even going so far as to understate unemployment
figures. But the Chilean people are waking up to the reality of how
little the government cares about their rights and dignity as human
beings, and Pinñera’s approval rating has sunk to 30 percent.
The militant movement of Chilean
students and workers, struggling to maintain unity and raising
revolutionary demands, is both unexpected and inspiring and is
certain to set off similar struggles in other Latin American
countries.
