The Constitutional Convention came to an end after a year of its implementation and the countdown for the exit referendum begins. Beyond the vote, we contribute with our opinion, between its limits and perspectives, between the institutional delegation, crisis and polarization.
By Joaquín A., Movimiento Anticapitalista
The channeled rebellion
After the eruption of the massive mobilizations of October 18, 2019, the political dynamics was unbalanced in favor of the questioning of the Pinochetista inheritance that remains intact until today, “it is not 30 pesos it is 30 years”, in allusion to the responsibility of the representatives in office who have administered the neoliberal capitalism. From that radical and massive impulse, the eyes of the people identified the need to change everything without the supervision of the government, which was in hot water due to the mobilizations, expressing two central slogans that emerged in every assembly, street and square of the territory: for a new constitution and Piñera out. That is to say, on the one hand, it was identified that it was necessary to debate the foundations of the country, to overthrow the 80’s constitution and uplift the demands of the streets that had accumulated during the 30 years, while questioning the power.
The depth of the dynamics of the rebellion could not be defeated by the orientation of the human rights violation led by the Piñera government, on the contrary, it encouraged the condemnation of the repressive apparatus, encouraging the weakening of the Carabineros institution in particular. Thus, the whole political arc of the regime, after the general strike of November 12, had to negotiate the Agreement for Peace and the New Constitution, from the Frente Amplio to the UDI, in order to take charge and institutionally manage the two main demands imposed by the streets, thus saving Piñera from falling via mobilization, a fact that would have deepened the rupture with the regime, and at the same time, agreeing on the constitutional change through an electoral calendar and a series of obstacles such as the 2/3, the impossibility of touching international treaties and the supervision of the traditional parties.
The change of stage in the country opened by the rebellion showed the complications that the regime maintained despite the Agreement and despite the fact that the main weakness of the process in constituting a revolutionary political force to push forward the demands of October 18 was not resolved. This was manifested in the continuity of the mobilizations which only stopped due to the pandemic and that the institutional timetable for a new constitution was manifested with such contradictions: the electoral mobilization was supported in the streets in the case of the triumph of the referendum, while the elections for constituents were marked by the defeat of the right wing and the former Concertación, and on the other hand, with the wide triumph of independent sectors to the parties of the 30 years, opening a new expectation in wide social sectors that saw this situation with sympathy. From our organization we participated with special attention at all times, taking the demands of the rebellion to encourage them to constitute independent and anti-capitalist candidacies to transform everything, managing to gather thousands of signatures and have an outstanding election that we later made available to generate unitary calls to build a political and social movement to support the process, unfortunately there was no echo among the elected convention members, a point that we will address later.
Within the walls of the institution: a Convention far from the streets
The social situation we have been going through during the last year is marked by an important economic crisis that was deepened by the pandemic and that today lives a new chapter due to the war in Ukraine, showing that the sign for the period will be marked by a phenomenon that the majority of us who live off our work are already suffering: the inflation that affects the prices of basic products and the wide destruction of jobs, increasing unemployment. All this pushes the capitalists to recompose their profits at the cost of deepening this dynamic and that in turn in our country finds us with the consequences of the model: high family indebtedness, low wages and the commodification of all basic rights, that is to say, without minimum containment capacity at the social level. These ingredients of the economic panorama mean that the promises of the progressive neoliberal government of Boric have no margins of possible reforms and accelerate a process of austerity in the service of capital, as has been seen in his few months leading the State. This achieves a great social unrest that in turn the constitutionalists have not responded to, dissociating themselves from the daily dynamics of the peoples and the working class with the constitutional process.
The institutionalization of the social force expressed in the outburst, the framework of confidence in the parliamentary process and the “dialogue” with the sectors expressing the worst of the past have played a more than clear role in the generation of a massive and popular response to the economic and social crisis. It is not only a matter of negotiating the most progressive aspects, the reason for the implementation of the 2/3 (weight in the veto and search for moderations), but of implying that this in itself will achieve the transformations, as if voting an article had the strength to defeat a certain structural reality in the country, when there is no other way to impose favorable conditions than by means of organization and mobilization, as even the right wing knows, which congratulates and encourages the mobilizations of truck drivers or the direct actions of lumpen gangs against students or migrants.
This relationship established by the Convention in its year of development is undoubtedly the most negative aspect, leaving behind the speeches of “overflowing the constituent” and directly abandoning popular participation to generate a movement that would promote the most heartfelt demands in the streets, limiting itself merely to virtual initiatives, which despite their narrow margins of participation, the proposed regulations aiming at the nationalization of copper (which would allow financing changes) were discarded by the constituents, the same happened with the popular proposal for the amnesty to political prisoners, discarded and denying the speeches of many independent sectors that encouraged the “not a convention with political prisoners” as a campaign slogan, a 180 degree turnaround.
On July 4, after a year of drafting the Constitution, sectors called for a “popular” mobilization, although it was transformed into a parade towards the delivery of the draft in La Moneda, this position is far from reversing the trend of institutional delegation, which as if that were not enough, has weakened the very perspective of a new constitution among the popular masses who see their living conditions deteriorating, that the usual ones continue winning and do not feel that an articulation of good intentions means a resounding tool against that. This policy has opened flanks for reactionary sectors.
On the way to the referendum, beyond the vote
The schedule agreed upon by the regime as a whole relies on the logic of institutional delegation, which is why after the November 15 photo a moment full of elections arrived, displacing the deliberation activity from the streets to the ballot boxes, thus taking advantage of the Agreement of the most nefarious and conservative variants that manage to articulate themselves under the “Rejection”, demonstrating the most reactionary perspectives to maintain the legacy of Pinochetism, a sector that must be fought with all our strength, on the same sidewalk there are sectors of the former Concertación that are open to “reject to reform”, another variant to maintain the model as it is.
The logic of polarization via the vote broadens the re-composition of the representatives of the 30 years, which is why we are confused. On the one hand, we know that we must face the rejection without hesitation, especially in the streets and open a debate to move forward in retaking the coordinates that drove the rebellion, thus, it is not about the argument of the sectors that signed the pact and that today are part of the Apruebo as the Frente Amplio to shout the “this is better than the previous” or “the right is coming”, falling into an electoral blackmail, but to build the conditions so that what is written can be done, otherwise it is nothing more than a new deception, a decoration of the future for the same past, a new “transition” to postpone the popular forces. Thus it is expressed in the draft that maintains the foundations of neoliberalism such as the Autonomy of the Central Bank, bicameral bodies and as we already expressed, denying the nationalization of the common goods and not questioning the political prison, facts that guarantee capital as stated by its main institutions, as the report of Morgan Stanley Bank did: “Although the polls before the exit referendum in September continue showing that the Rejection option maintains a tendency of advantage, our scenario is that the new Constitution will finally be approved.”
Against the backdrop of the institutional delegation, it is fundamental to open a dialogue among all those who want transformations at the service of the working class, beyond the vote, activating a new alternative that, in line with the favorable changes and the guarantees of basic rights expressed in the draft of the new constitution, we can generate a movement that links the current problems to forge a program so that the crisis is not paid for by the majorities. It is enough to simply take a look at the continent to see that even the most advanced experiences in terms of rights go backwards if deep changes are not produced in the social structure. It is not possible to simply dialogue with the capital, to reach agreements with the owners of everything; it is necessary to defeat them and for that we need an organized social force. To build that force is the fundamental task of the stage to respond favorably to the interests of the working class.