Chile: Two years since the Rebellion. Coming back to October from October

We share the text from Movimiento Anticapitalista, Chilean section of the ILS, 2 years after October 18.

Coming back to October from October

Two years have passed since the rebellion that shook the social and political structure of our country. Millions took to the street throughout the entire country to demand the end of the legacy of the dictatorship, the “30 years” of savage neoliberalism and the development of a new Chile for the majorities. The answer was brutal repression that does not stop and the maneuvers of the political caste to maintain things. We propose you an assessment and some definitions about how to keep being organized until #TransformarTodo (TrasnformingEverything).

Uprising, pact and pandemic

October 18, 2019, saw the outburst in the country of a model responsible for excluding the popular majorities from the most basic rights. This structure inherited from the dictatorship, was sustained by the “transition” and the alternation between the right and the concentration, which with nuances, took care of maintaining and in many cases deepening the neoliberal and extractive capitalism, priding themselves in its results and even mentioning we were in the “oasis” of the continent.

Reality was very different: private education, private healthcare, plundered pensions and an increase of poverty and misery that does not stop, the plundering of our common goods took a leap in favor of the profits of a handful of rich and powerful. All of this was supported by a relentless repression, not only in Wallmapu but to any action of demand.

The rebellion stood against that. Condemning the attempt to increase the subway ticket, high school students jumped the turnstiles and lighted the fuse of a bomb that exploded in Plaza Baquedano and turning it into Plaza Dignidad.

The response, as awlays, was repression, but the first line where thousands and we fought back. With the dock workers at the forefront and two general strikes, we put the government of Piñera at the border of the abyss and then it came the Agreement for Peace that together with the regime, with the former Concerta and the Frente Amplio leading the way, rescued Piñera and agreed an institutional way to change the constitution in the narrow margin of the rotten regime.

We had important shortcomings in that process, that explain in part that the pact had so much success. On the one hand, the withdrawal of the CUT and the PC that demobilized, preventing the working class from participating in an organized manner and with their typical strength in the process. The inexistence of an anti-capitalist, revolutionary and strong leadership that decides to move forward with the mobilization was also a counteracting factor. Lastly, we cannot stop mentioning the brutal repression that caused thousands of prisoners behind the bars and the people that were mutilated and murdered.

However, in spite of all of that and some minimal social measures, the mobilizations did not stop and then came the pandemic that caused the emptying of the streets.

It is clear that the climax of the mobilization passed, but also that our demands have not been met and we learnt that on the streets we can generate changes. We are in a new stage in our country.

Overcoming weaknesses and developing a new reference

The new stage we mentioned was expressed in the massive voting for the CC and then the election of great independent benches that strongly oppose the regime of the 30 years (at least during the campaign). After that, the action of the regime and the mistakes of these inexperienced leaderships, detached from the real structures of the workers’ movement, feminisms and youth, caused that today the CC is far away from the needs of real change. The FA is preparing, taking care that nothing changes, to govern in the next period.

But the strength of the rebellion is still latent and there are thousands of us who want to conquer the demands for which we mobilized and build a Chile for and from the 99%, and for that we have to solve the deficiencies that were expressed in October: To build a strong political alternative, with a program of deep transformations and a democratic method of functioning, without enlightened people or bureaucrats. A force that fights in the workplaces, among the youth, in the populations and in the environmental and feminist fights against the old parties and is capable of articulating with assemblies and social movements. A force that does not fail to raise outside the murderer Piñera and the need for a government of those who have never governed: the workers and the peoples. To achieve these strategic objectives we invite you to get to know us, this is what we propose, this is our program:

– For a Chile of the workers: work, health, education and housing guaranteed by the State, free and with universal access, #NoMasAFP.  Right to full employment eradicating unemployment through the distribution of working hours for all, for the development of public works and inclusion and employment plans for youth. Minimum wage according to the family basket. Full autonomy of trade unionism from any state organization, negotiation by branch and trade union democracy.

– For a feminist and queer Chile: Emergency law that contemplates a real state budget to prevent and attack macho violence and that is controlled by women’s and feminist organizations. For all rights for women and queer people, for full equality in all areas. Right to free, legal, safe and free abortion in the health system. A single and plurinational system of care, which socializes the reproductive and care work that women currently perform as a social mandate.

– For an ecosocialist Chile: state ownership with social and workers’ control of common goods, starting with water. No more extractivism on our territories. Transition plan, under social and territorial control, from the current energy and productive model to another based on clean and renewable energies. Climate emergency law for the qualitative and immediate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, on the road to their elimination.

– Against the impunity of yesterday and today. #FueraPiñera! Freedom for the prisoners of the revolt. Dissolution of the Carabineros and prosecution of all those responsible for cases of human rights violations. Dismantling of the repressive forces. Promotion of a democratic security, with social management, without privileges of any kind in relation to the working majorities.

Join us to build an Anti-capitalist, Feminist and Ecosocialist alternative together with the Movimiento Anticapitalista.

These proposals are the starting point that we invite you to discuss and promote together with us. Transforming the present is an anti-capitalist task and requires many forces, as the rebellion demonstrated, and today more than ever we need a political alternative that in the decisive moments does not make pacts and goes for everything so that once and for all we govern those who have never governed: the workers and the people. Join us to build the Movimiento Anticapitalista and the International Socialist League.