The rallies of campaign closure for the Approval and Rejection of the New Constitution proposal were held, simultaneous events where a contrast was expressed that no survey or massive press editorial can hide: massive affluence in the main avenue of the Capital with hundreds of thousands for the Approval, the counterpart only a couple of hundreds in a closed and isolated event for the Rejection. Beyond the numbers, the social expression manifests its drive in a dam of institutional containment. Here is review of the campaign closures 3 days before the plebiscite.
By M.A
From 6:00 p.m. in La Alameda thousands of people began to arrive to the event for the closing of the campaign of the I Approve a New Constitution, the social impulse that chanted in the streets is part of a process that, despite its contradictions and limits, demonstrates that social participation was never an impediment to be able to advance more to the side of the constitutional process. The stage that together with outstanding musical bands that powered the call, was led by the Comando Approval Dignidad of the Frente Amplio and the Communist Party with representatives of the former Concertación and that under the pretext of unity was joined behind them by the Comandos of the Social Movements and other minor ones, the initiative of these variants dilutes, even more, the political independence against the Government that uses the Plebiscite as a smokescreen to continue applying the austerity measures that the social majorities are living in the midst of the economic crisis.
The last stretch of the campaign of the Approval was framed in the return of Bachelet to the country, the end of the TV spot broadcasted with her face and that a few weeks ago added a new Pact between the ruling parties to limit even more the proposal of the magna carta emanating from the Constitutional Convention, thus, in a clear gesture to the big businesses, they are committing to a constitutional change commanded by the parties of the 30 years, diluting even more the progressive aspects of the New Constitution and simultaneously, setting the tone for the so-called Social Movements that are advocating an uncritical approval and sitting down with those politically responsible for the Pinochet’s inheritance. This orientation was undoubtedly the most nefarious of the “independent sectors” that played by the rules of the Peace Agreement, endorsing pacts and occupying the second row behind the officialist faces.
The final rally of Approval manifested this tension, the social participation that still responds to the streets and in front of them the dam of the leaderships and the kitchen pacts that try to close the cycle of the rebellion with the electoral chronogram.
Rejection with little street presence and a lot of past
The right wing, beaten since 2019, has managed to recompose itself based on the electoral schedule of the Peace Agreement, giving it media survival and being able to express diverse formulations ranging from the “Rejection to reform” of its most classic sectors and also to experiment, supported by polarization, fascistic actions such as those seen last Sunday with the running over of cyclists. Even and in spite of generating the conditions of political rearrangement with the institutional dynamics of the constitutional change, internal tensions prevent having a clear orientation and the dispute of who commands the block has taken more internal relevance than a logic of impact of a unitary project, thus the “center” of Amarillos por Chile was diluted and the disappearance of the former candidate for president, the Chilean Bolsonaro, Kast during the campaign.
The Rejection shows its own limits, the main one being that its notion is betting on the closure of the rebellion, crushing any spirit of change that the people are betting on, a situation that despite the manipulated polls that build castles in the air, expresses its little real substance of social base.
The rally is a manifestation of that, no more than 400 people, protected from the condemnation up on a hill, far from the popular world and waving the flags of Pinochet’s conservatism. Undoubtedly, the most nefarious face of the institutional polarization fails to summon. Even with these characteristics, its recomposition in the polarization cannot be denied, a political space that must be defeated with forces in all spheres, especially in the streets.
What to do after Sunday?
From Movimiento Anticapitalista we have promoted a critical Approval, which implies the necessary direct confrontation with the Pinochetista inheritance, its Constitution and what it has represented as articulator of the 30 years, but without having delusional expectations in this government, its pacts and in the New Constitution that we understand does not reflect the most heartfelt demands exposed in the streets in the last years. There is no contradiction in this, simply without trusting the leadership and its action of institutional deviation, we support the process of thousands of people who continue to show their willingness to fight for a different Chile.
We understand that the government is the one who has worked the hardest to put the Approval at risk, and this is not by chance, since its orientation is different from the one expressed in the streets. Far from working for a model of society with public education and health, without AFP, without repression and with an economy thought and built from the workers, the peoples and the territories, it has sustained the matrix of the country constituted throughout the last years, disguised with youth icons and a progressive discourse that has not been translated into concrete measures in that sense. The New Constitution is far from coming to change that, that is why next Monday, in the same way as it has been until now, the fundamental task is to build a program that gives answers to the social demands and a political leadership that far from administering them in the service of sustaining the economic and political structure of the country, dares to go for transforming everything to the service of the majorities.
It is not possible to resolve the polarization by means of agreement and dialogue with those who defend their minority interests to exploit and plunge millions into misery, we must work to resolve the polarization by means of conquering the demands of the majorities and a new economic, political and social model that we understand as anti-capitalist, feminist, eco-socialist and internationalist.
There are conditions to go for it, if we are able to build independently from the government and the institutions a united, democratic and revolutionary militant force. Only this way will the Approval have a transforming sense and not that of a new disappointing illusion that opens the way to the murderous right wing.