‘Stop privatization of education’
General strike in Chile unites students, workers
Published Sep 2, 2011 9:02 AM
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators across Chile supported the second day of
a general strike on Aug. 25 as protests against the privatization of education
escalated into demands for sweeping governmental and social change.
The government of right-wing billionaire Sebastián Piñera responded
to the two-day general strike with repression and violence. This included mass
arrests and the killing of at least one youth.
The 14-year-old boy, Manuel Gutiérrez Reinoso, died early Aug. 26 from a
bullet wound in the chest. Witnesses said he had been shot by police. Dozens of
others were injured and as many as 1,400 detained or arrested.
Police in full riot gear have used tear gas and water cannons against blockades
that protesting youths set up. Cops also shot 18-year-old Mario Parraguez Pinto
in the eye; he is in critical condition at a hospital in Santiago, the Chilean
capital.
Gutiérrez Reinoso’s death followed a demonstration of some 600,000
in Santiago and protests in other cities throughout the country. Protesters are
demanding free public education, increased taxes on the corporations and the
wealthy, and better pensions and health care for workers.
The Workers’ United Center of Chile (CUT) and the Chilean Student
Confederation (Confech) called the two-day strike, the first of its kind since
the end of dictator Augusto Pinochet’s rule in 1990.
In addition to being large, the demonstrations were militant. Some protesters
burned barricades and blocked major streets, while other strike supporters
danced and sang on sidewalks. The police used water cannons, tear gas and mass
arrests at both confrontational and peaceful protests.
“It’s time to change the political system, the economic system, so
there is a fairer redistribution of power and of wealth,” said student
leader Camila Vallejo. “All this development model has done is make a few
grossly rich.” (juventudrebelde.co.cu, Aug. 26)
Demand to nationalize copper industry
Among the demands of the students is the nationalization of the copper industry
with part of the proceeds being used to finance a free public education system.
Chile is the number one copper producer in the world and sells $40 billion of
copper each year.
The Pinochet dictatorship encouraged the proliferation and dominance of private
education, encouraged by U.S. economist Milton Friedman and his “Chicago
boys.” This neoliberal approach was continued and nurtured by successive
governments. Profit-making universities run by big businesspeople, including
establishment politicians, dominate the educational scene.
The former minister for education, Joaquín Lavin, who attempted to pose as
a “neutral” moderator between the student movement and the
universities and whom Piñera removed in a desperate
“re-shuffle,” has huge shares himself in a major Chilean
university. Education has become a profitable field of investment for
capitalists, with rising fees and worsening standards.
The current movement responding to this situation is three months old. Weeks of
mass mobilizations culminated twice in massive days of protest both in June and
in August, when 500,000 took to the streets in the biggest demonstrations since
Pinochet fell. The overwhelming majority of public universities and secondary
schools have been occupied.
The movement has rocked the regime, which responded first by suspending classes
and then beginning “negotiations” with the movement’s
representatives. The government has offered some concessions, including an
increase in the funding of education. But the movement, with its radical
central demand for free education, rejected, a week before the strike, a third
government attempt to end the protests, this time by pledging to lower the
interest rates on student loans.
Students are not the only ones expressing grievances. Earlier this year, a
rebellion over rising natural gas prices shut down the southern Magallanes
region. In April, demonstrators marched against a planned hydroelectric dam in
Patagonia.
Piñera, who is possibly the richest man in Chile, was the first
billionaire ever sworn into office in Chile. He won a narrow runoff election in
2010 with $13.6 million of campaign spending, The current political crisis has
seen his popularity decline precipitously to 26 percent according to a recent
poll. By contrast, 80 percent support the demands of the students and workers.
(Santiago Times, Aug. 7)
The Chilean workers and students deserve international support and
solidarity.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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