Compartimos la nota de nuestros compañeros y compañeras del Movimiento Anticapitalista de Chile en la que nos informan sobre el lanzamiento de una importante iniciativa unitaria impulsada por distintos sectores de la izquierda, dirigentes sindicales, sociales, feministas y de derechos humanos: el Comando Nacional por una asamblea constituyente libre, soberana y plurinacional. Esta iniciativa es fruto de la acción militante independiente frente a los partidos del pacto por la paz y la nueva constitución firmado el 15 de noviembre. Dicho pacto representó, como lo hemos expresado en distintas notas, el salvataje del gobierno represor de Piñera y la realización de un proceso constituyente amWe publish here an article by the Chilean Anticapitalist Movement in which they inform us of the launching of an important unitary initiative promoted by different sectors of the left, and labor, social, feminist and human rights leaders: The National Command for a Free, Sovereign and Plurinational Constituent Assembly. This initiative is the result of independent militant action against the parties of the pact for peace and the new constitution signed on November 15. That pact represented, as we have expressed in different articles, the rescue of Piñera´s repressive government and the organization of a rigged constituent process, within the framework of the political regime that aims to “change something so that nothing changes.” The basic political declaration of the Command is also copied at the end of the article.añado, en los marcos de régimen político que apunta a cambiar algo para que nada cambie. Compartimos también sobre el final del articulo la declaración política base del Comando.
Launching of the Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly Command
Today the National Command for a Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly, made up of social, labor, feminist and political leaders was presented in different cities throughout the country.
At the activity in Santiago, Maura Gálvez – Bernabé, leader of the Movimiento Anticapitalista and one of the Command´s speakers expressed: “In the Command for the Constituent Assembly, it seems important to us to establish that there is a third voice against the parties of the regime, a third way to fight for a truly free, democratic, sovereign and plurinational Constituent Assembly, where we can absolutely discuss the demands that the people took to the streets along with the Piñera Must Go slogan.”
At the beginning of the conference, Dauno Totoro, leader of the PTR and also speaker of the Command, said: “Today we carried out this coordinated launch in three Chilean cities, Valparaíso, Antofagasta and here in Santiago, at the Plaza de La Dignidad, organizing coordinators, university and secondary students, social and labor leaders who were part of those who rebelled in October of last year, and we rebelled against this 30-year-old Chile, we rebelled against this country of hunger wages and pensions.”
The front line of the health crisis was also present. Brisa Gálvez, director of the FENATS Barros Luco Hospital, declared: “I represent the health sector, the sector that has been a protagonist in the pandemic, but we were also a protagonist in the social explosion … That is why I am here, because we were in the streets, 56 days in the streets with the slogan Piñera Must Go, we went with our tremendous banner that is seen everywhere and, therefore, we are not going to lower our arms until the resolution that the people want is acheived.”
Camilo Parada, a point of reference of the Movimiento Anticapitalista and of the fight for human rights, added his opinion: “We call for a critical approve vote, but we do not fall into the trap of the second ballot, either a constitutional convention or a mixed convention, which are within margins that have been imposed on us from above. And we are working and fighting for a truly sovereign, free, democratic and plurinational Constituent Assembly … They are leaving out the people who have been giving their lives to change this criminal capitalist system. That is why we are advocating a third way. Constituent assembly!”
In that sense, Josseffe Cáceres, a cleaning worker of the former Pedagógico (UMCE), expressed that “this government is far from our reality, today it imposed on our children, the children of the working class, to return to school in a tremendous exposure to covid infection.” Likewise, Rainier Rios, leader of the MST, began by denouncing the repressive actions prior to the launch of the command, which has been the tonic of this criminal government: “on the way to this activity the police requisitioned our materials, they took us to the police station, they controlled our detention for only one reason, because we were holding flags, because we were demonstrating … That is why we want to start by saying that the repression opened in October and the one that has existed for all these years in the governments of the Concertación, Nueva Mayoría and the right that have administered the Pinochet inheritance continues even today.”
Brisa Gálvez (FENATS), Josseffe Cáceres (Trabajadora del aseo UMCE), Camilo Parada Ortíz (Movimiento Anticapitalista), Maura Gálvez – Bernabé (Movimiento Anticapitalista), Dauno Totoro (PTR), Rainier Ríos (MST) and representatives of Colectiva Amapola Antipatriarca
In the city of Antofagasta, an important presentation of the Command was also made with the participation of public figures from various spaces, within the framework of support for the conflict of port workers. Mauri Huanca, speaker for the Assembly of Dissidents of Antofagasta, took the stage in name of Movimiento Anticapitalista, stating: “today with strength from the different sectors, we call on everyone, on neighbors, on the workers, to join and be able to unify for a true free and sovereign assembly because that is the path that the people have shown since October 2019.”
Read the statement. We seek a true Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly! For dozens of trade union, political and social organizations to join. Don´t miss out, you can join as well.
We stand for a true Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly!
We reproduce the joint declaration promoted by various political, labor and social organizations that stand for a Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly. We invite you to join, you can write us on our social networks.
Practically one month after the plebiscite of October 25, we have seen how the vast majority of traditional politicians and also large businessmen have declared that they are for the Approve option. In turn, there are sectors that say that the Constitutional Convention is actually a Constituent Assembly, but with another name. But we know that it is a trap to prevent us from conquering our demands on the streets.
They want us to believe that through the constituent process we will be able to resolve all the demands that we expressed in the October rebellion, when in reality they want a process that is as controlled and moderate as possible, to have a Convention and a Constitution to suit them, maintaining their rules and protecting the enormous profits that the big economic groups have amassed in these 30 years of Pinochet’s inheritance.
Faced with this scenario, those of us who adhere to this declaration and promote the Command for a Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly, propose:
1) On October 18, millions of us took to the streets against the criminal government of Sebastían Piñera, against repression and against the entire regime inherited from the dictatorship. “It’s not 30 pesos, it’s 30 years,” was the slogan that millions of us shouted. The constituent process or the “Agreement for peace and a New Constitution” that gave rise to it, was born as a pact signed by the traditional parties (from the right to the Broad Front, and then ratified by the Communist Party) to save Piñera and the Congress, to take us off the streets and open a constitutional process tailored to the old business parties, in the context of the popular rebellion´s historic mobilizations, and only 3 days after the national strike of November 12, the most important strike since the end of the dictatorship, which had raised the possibility of defeating the government and its brutal repression with the unity of the workers, the youth, the feminist movement, the assemblies and residents.
2) This is a constituent process that has given impunity to the political and material leaders of the repression, such as General Rozas, Piñera, Blumel, Chadwick and company, while on the other side there are hundreds of comrades with eye damage and political prisoners.
3) It excludes the secondary school students who jumped the turnstiles and started the revolt, as they will not have the right to vote or be elected.
4) In turn, this process is controlled by the business parties and contains a series of traps tied to the November pact, which favor them so that they are the ones who will be represented in the Convention. At the same time, with the constitutional 2/3 rule, they give the minority veto power. The process itself has been designed to exclude independent figures and new political parties that emerged in the heat of the rebellion. On the other hand, it has a series of vetoes and limitations that will prevent the demands of the streets from being met, such as the impossibility of touching international treaties and with it the hated AFPs, in addition to preserving the transnational plunder of our territories under the extractivist model.
5) To truly confront the pro-Rejection right, it does not serve us to fall into the trap of the Constitutional Convention, we must propose a third alternative: to fight for a truly free and sovereign Constituent Assembly. Therefore, in the face of the plebiscite, we call to vote Approve, because we are part of the millions who want to see an end to the Pinochet Constitution, but on the second ballot we call to annul or vote blank, to show that we do not fall into the traps of the conventions: neither the Constitutional Convention nor the Mixed Convention are Constituent Assemblies, and they allow the same old people to decide again.
6) To express this struggle, we will promote a third ballot (Ballot for Dignity), with the slogan of Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly, Piñera Must Go and Resume the October Struggle in the perspective of the general strike.
7) We are at a time where the government and businessmen are unloading the economic crisis on the working people (in complicity with the “opposition”, for example, with the law that allowed hundreds of thousands of suspensions voted by all, from the UDI to the PC). For this reason, today more than ever it is necessary to fight for a Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly, without Piñera, that is above all current institutions, where those over 14 years of age can vote and where demands of the rebellion can be discussed and resolved without hindrance. For Health, Bread and Work and for the crisis to be paid by big business: no more the AFPs, free, quality and non-sexist health care and education for all, no more precarious work, for all rights of women and sexual dissidents, no more plundering of our territories and no more impunity and repression. This is only possible if we nationalize strategic resources such as copper and lithium, and essential services under the management of workers, impose taxes on large fortunes and fight for the reduction of the working day without lowering wages so that everyone can work, ending subcontracting and all forms of job insecurity, and the entire program that the people have put on the streets.
We are aware that to achieve this, it is necessary to resume the struggle that the main centrals such as the CUT have abandoned after the November 12 strike and develop democratic organizations of the workers and the people to take this struggle into our hands.
We invite all political, social, territorial, neighborhood, feminist, LGBTI+, socio-environmental, labor, etc., organizations that adhere to these ideas, to promote this joint declaration, to raise together a unified National Command for a Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly, and jointly convene a great National Meeting this October 10, so that there are thousands of us fighting for an alternative of the workers to face these traps and resume the mobilization.
Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly!
Piñera Must Go!
Resume the October struggle in the perspective of the general strike!
Signed by:
Labor unions and leaders:
- Emergency and Shelter Comittee, Antofagasta
- FENATS Directorate, Barros Luco Trudeau Hospital
- Union nº1 Molyb
- Inter-company Steel Workers Union obreros
- Union nº1 Rema Tip Top
- Union nº1 Orica Chile
- Union nº1 de trabajadores empresa concesionaria Siglo XXI
- Union Bureau Veritas Antofagasta
- Union nº1 Famesa
- Guanaco Mine Workers Union
- Brisa Gálvez, President, National Federation of Health Rank-and-File Coordination
- Raúl Muñoz, FEANTS Barros Luco Trudeau leader
- Simón Bousquets, GAM Union tresurer
- Erwin Muñoz, Komatsu Reman union leader
- Paul Eleodoro Cifuentes Santana, director, Union N°1 of Embotelladora Andina
- Nathaly Flores Torres, director, National Easy Workers Union
- Mirna aguirre, president, Federation of mantos blancos contracts
- Tatiana Tapia, President, Centro Médico Afta Workers Union
- Patricia Romo, President, Comunal Professors College Antofagasta
- Ivette Gareca, leader, Education Teachers and Professionals Union
- Byron Vilches, President, Colegio Providencia Union
- Laura Vernal, Tresurer, Sindicato Providencia
- Carla Ramírez, union delegate, Escuela Padre Cariola D-136
- Romina Godoy, delegate, Class Assistants Union, Escuela D-136
- Galia Aguilera, union delegate, SIPPE Escuela España D-59
- Paula Villegas, leader, Class Assistants Union
- Yasna Ardiles, union delegate, Escuela España D-59
- Sergio Pinto, union delegate, Escuela E-77
- Joseffe Cáceres, union leader, ANFUMCE (State workers association UMCE), Pan y Rosas speaker
- Antonio Paez, Secretary, Starbucks Union
- Natali Hinojosa, professor, List H candidate, Communal Professors College Valparaíso
- Camila Delgado Troncoso, Cugat retail worker and PTR Temuco leader
- Melissa Hunt Veas, speaker, Tens Antofagasta
- Ivo Fierro, Secretary, Honorarios de Putaendo Workers Association
Social, cultural and student organizations:
- Command for a Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly
- Independent Command for Approval and a free and sovereign constituent assembly, Taltal
- Command for a Democratic, Plurinational, Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly
- Front Line Communal Kitchen, Taltal
- Varieté Humana, Antofagasta
- Carlos León Herrera, director of tv8 Peñalolen canal comunitario
- Liceo técnico Antofagasta Student Union
Political organizations:
- Movimiento Anticapitalista
- Partido de Trabajadores Revolucionarios
- Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores
- Juntas y A la Izquierda
- Colectiva Amapola Antipatriarca
- Agrupación de mujeres y de la diversidad sexual Pan y Rosas – Teresa Flores
- Isadora – mujeres en lucha
Individuals:
- Camilo Parada Ortíz, producer at the Memory and Human Rights Museum – member of Movimiento Anticapitalista
- Maura Gálvez – Bernabé, leader of Movimiento Anticapitalista/Juntas y a la izquierda, ISL Chilean section
- Dauno Tótoro, PTR leader
- Joaquín Araneda, leader of Movimiento Anticapitalista. ISL Chilean section
- Mauri Huanca, speaker, Dissident Assembly of Antofagasta Circular Maricantofa – member of Movimiento Anticapitalista. ISL Chilean section
- Camilo Sarmiento, Valparaíso Cultural Park president
- Claudia Cantillana, singer