Last week, 600,000 people joined a national strike in Chile, with many pouring onto the streets to stage protests around the country. It was the latest in a wave of civil unrest that has affected the country for months.
Born out of a student movement for education reform, protests have now spread to labour unions and social groups in what has become one of the most important movements since Chile’s return to democracy in 1990.
Student protestors in Santiago (Photo: b1mbo )
The protests began in May. University student organisations mobilised against what they claim is an unfair tertiary education system, in which a small number of pupils prosper in private, elite academies, while the majority of Chileans attend poorly-funded state institutions.
As a result, while Chile often ranks top of the region for education performance in comparison tables, it has one of the most segregated education systems in the whole of Latin America. In an interview with the BBC, Mario Waissbluth, national coordinator for the citizens’ group Educación 2020, called it an “education apartheid”.
For years, The Federación de Estudiantes de Chile (FECH) has demanded reform of the higher education system, including the elimination of high levels of student debt, an increase in direct state funding of schools and universities, and the end of profit-seeking educational institutions.
However, with the government of President Sebastian Piñera refusing to negotiate, in June of this year the FECH became considerably more public and vocal with its demands.
According to Mario Garcés Durán, from Educacion y Communicaciones, an education think-tank, it is now “unconditional reform” to the current system that the students are demanding.
A Growing Movement
Though the largest gatherings haven taken place in the capital, Santiago, protests have occurred throughout the country. Some have been peaceful—on 7th July, in Santiago, students took to the streets to kiss en masse—but many have descended into violent clashes with police.
Cristobal Lagos Gonzalez, secretary general of FECH, criticises the government’s reaction by stating that it “is seeking to scare people and say that protesters should stay indoors and tell them not to protest.”
Protestors fired upon with a water canon (Photo: Todosnuestrosmuertos)
If that were the intended result, it has failed dramatically so far, with anger at police aggression turning public opinion against the government. In the most serious incident so far, 16-year-old Manuel Gutiérrez died last week after being shot in the chest. On Tuesday, five officers and a police general were dismissed in connection with incident.
In recent weeks, the protests in Chile have expanded far beyond the students’ demand for complete reform in education. Many different sectors of society are now mobilising, demanding reforms and even constitutional change.
On the 24th and 25th August, a two-day national strike was held by CUT, the national union of workers of Chile. According to the union, more than 600,000 people and 82 labour and social organisations participated in the strike. Authorities put the number at 50,000.
Even as Finance Minister, Felipe Larrain’s asserted that the strike would cost the economy $200m (£122m), Arturo Martínez, the president of CUT, announced in a speech that “Chileans demand answers and solutions to social and labour demands.”
Gonzalez explains that the “student mobilisation was the point that Chilean society woke up, in where there was a reinvigoration of discontent. It generated a new space to protest. Many people before weren’t organised, today they started to see it was necessary to organise and to go out to protest for the things that they believe to be fair.”
Challenging Pinochet’s Legacy
The wave of protests in Chile—often viewed as one of South America’s most stable countries—are a significant occurrence. For a country of just 17 million people, the number of people taking part in the protests is striking, particularly at a time when the economy is, on the surface at least, performing well (growth is expected to reach 6% this year).
Garcés Durán explains that for many years “Chile has had an external face of economic progress and prosperity, but internally the situation has been characterised by inequality.”
Gonzalez also shows how this spreads beyond education. “Chile continues to be a country tremendously unjust in many other areas, like health, urban planning and media” she explains.
Chilean riot police struck by paintballs (Photo: ectopic)
The problem for Chile is that after years of solid economic performance much of its population feels increasingly alienated from the prosperity enjoyed by a small elite. Strong headline growth only exacerbates many Chileans’ feeling of economic exclusion. Some have blamed this on the country following a US-type economic model, with a reliance on market forces and limited state intervention.
This in part can be explained by the legacy of the 1973-1990 regime of Pinochet, which was characterised by neo-liberal economic policies and widespread suppression of dissent.
After the return to democracy in 1990, Chile still retained the basic economic framework of the Pinochet era, even as many other countries in Latin America elected leftist, progressive leaders. As such, the education system, like many aspects of the Chilean economy, remains broadly similar to that which was established by Pinochet.
Under the Concertación, a centre-left coalition of political parties which ruled the country under a series of presidents until 2010, Chile cemented its reputation as a regional economic power and stable democracy. But social and economic reform during this period did not go far enough for many of those now joining the protests.
On the 25th August, the Manifesto of Historians, a document which aims to answer some of the fundamental questions about the protests, was released. Signed by some of the leading academics and professors in Chile, it views the protests as not only the students demand for education, but a wider anti-neoliberal protest too. They give the example of new songs sung by the protesters, which ‘hit the heart of the neoliberal social and financial economic model: at the market, credit, debt, greed and social and educational inequality.’
A Maturing Democracy
Protestors in Santiago (Photo: Sebaerazo)
Sofia Donoso, whose PHD at Oxford University is in ‘changing state-civil relations in Latin America and the impact of social movements on the policy-making process’ observes that recent events in Chile are evidence of a “maturing democracy.”
She argues that it is “not a coincidence that the main protests that Chile has witnessed since the return of democracy in 1990 have been staged by students. They have grown up in democracy and do not carry the fearful memories of authoritarian regime nor the gratefulness for the achievements of the Concertación.”
Garcés Durán agrees with this. He describes Chile as a “young democracy” and that what we are viewing is a “crisis of legitimacy” of the government.
Some feel that the very concept of the democratic system in Chile is coming out of one stage and entering a new one. After the fall of Pinochet, public security and political stability were the priority, but now Chileans are changing their priorities—social equality and a greater emphasis on public services are now what the people are demanding.
In Donoso’s words: “What was conceived of as impossible in the past, such as tax reform, is now being increasingly discussed.”
An End in Sight?
Perhaps realising the significance of this protest movement, Piñera may have decided that the time has come to peacefully negotiate an end to the protests.
Last week Chile’s president reacted to the death of Gutiérrez by announcing that the government must “do everything necessary to shed light on the circumstances and the responsibility of his death.” He also called for a “constructive dialogue aimed at finding solutions,” and was scheduled to talk with FECH leader Camila Vallejo for the first time on 30th August. However, the meeting was cancelled hours before it was due to commence.
Before the meeting was cancelled, Piñera declared triumphantly that “after more than three months in which we have seen the flourishing of violence and confrontation, we have arrived at the time of peace, the time of unity, dialogue and agreement.”
Youthful protester (Photo: Francisco Osorio)
However, Donoso warns that the lack of credibility in the Piñera regime, which can be viewed in his plummeting approval ratings, is hardening the resolve of the protestors and making a solution increasingly difficult to come by.
Gonzalez agrees with this sentiment. “I don’t believe that the protests in the short term will come to an end” she said “I believe profoundly that Chile has changed and today the protest and social organisation is here to stay.”
Spring is approaching, but it seems Chile’s long ‘winter of discontent’ is far from over.
Find out what locals think of the protests in Chile here.
