By Movimiento Anticapitalista
As we write these lines, the computations of the “super elections” that ended a few hours ago are still being processed. Reviewing the preliminary data, it is clear that they show a photo of the new Chile that emerged from the rebellion of October 2019. The film is still in development and will depend largely on the steps that are taken in the future, to achieve the ending that the majorities deserve.
Open Constitutional Convention without hegemonies
The sectors responsible for the co-government of the last 30 years were the main ones defeated in this election. Not only because of the meager result obtained by their lists, but also because the main expressions that gathered support are those that clearly pointed to them as fundamentally responsible for having guaranteed the transition from dictatorship to “democracy” while maintaining the neoliberal scheme of plunder. The right as such does not obtain the one third representation in the Convention that would allow them to block the possibility of profound changes, which will further expose the sectors that pose from the left but defend the regime´s structure.
The numbers are overwhelming, from north to south, the right, which during long years was the backbone of political alternation in the country, is today reduced to its minimum expression. Those who obtained the best results are the candidates that reflect perhaps the most radical positions on the right, such as Teresa Marinovic to mention just one example. A symbol of these times of polarization
The other important data of the election is the rise of the independent phenomenon as a sector, although diverse and politically diffuse, that obtains the largest number of seats in the CC. Within that spectrum, it is clear that the most radical expressions were also the ones that garnered the greatest support.
We are heading toward a Constitutional Convention without clear majorities, where many facades will be put to the test and pressure from the street should play a key role. In the coming days, with all the results on the table, we will be able to better gauge the scope of the situation, but there is no doubt that we are facing a very interesting moment from the political point of view, with an election that reflects the emergence of new spaces, a rejection of old structures and a huge political space to build a new reference.
The phenomenon: independent and to the left
Like we saw in the plebiscite, the tendency that “those who write the new constitution should not be the same old faces” was strongly expressed in the election. The independent lists and candidacies managed to attract a very important flow of votes that, at the same time, focused on some iconic figures, fundamentally linked to the process of the rebellion and non-institutional forms of doing politics. It was thus strongly expressed in the candidacies coming from territorial assemblies and social struggles and it had a particular expression in La Lista del Pueblo (The People’s List) that obtained a high level of votes in many districts, with varied campaigns and realities in different places.
All this shows the openness there is to the construction of new political references and the high valuation that the candidacies referenced with the struggle and the transformation of the current order of things have in broad sectors. It also represents a challenge for the future, to see if these spaces are capable of structuring a program according to expectations or if parliamentary pressure ultimately ends up nullifying their potential. Without a doubt this is one of the most interesting phenomena to follow.
Great anti-capitalist campaign and results that drive a perspective of development
With great pride we can say that our independent anticapitalist candidacies, those of Camilo Parada Ortiz in District 10 and Maura Fajardo Gálvez in District 12, were part of this trend and obtained a very important result that places us among the main references on the left. With around 2% in each district, we were above complete lists such as the DC, the PH, the PTR among others and also of most of the candidacies of other lists.
You may be interested in: Interview with Maura Fajardo Gálvez and Camilo Parada Ortiz, anticapitalists to the Constitutional Convention
We achieved this on the basis of raising a fully radical program, of profound transformations from the perspective of the working-class majorities, strongly criticizing the power structure of the regime and the subsidiary State. We raised an anti-capitalist feminism deeply embedded in the needs of women workers. We placed the denunciation of extractivism and an implacable criticism of the privileges of the political caste at the center. This election is at the service, as we have said at every opportunity, of the construction of a new political reference and from this point of view we will continue to promote the broadest unity for what is to come. With Camilo, Maura and the entire Movimiento Anticapitalista we will put all our efforts into this task, the task of #TransformarloTodo (transforming everuthing).