Chilean Protests Against Nonsense Education System

[rekil]

This has been going on for a while, occupations, huge demos, hunger strikes and the like. An illegal march was broken up on Thursday before it could start, a massive one was held on Sunday and there's another planned for today. Pinera's government of cranks and Pinochet era functionaries looks increasingly fucked. Student leader and militant communist beauty Camila Vallejo Dowling is a right pain in their arse and I fear a bit for her safety.

Chilean students demand education referendum.
Guardian report on Thursday.
Sunday demo pics.

 

[rekil]

Santiago Times report on Tuesday's demos if anyone's interested.

Chile student protests point to deep discontent - BBC

Rory Carroll ignoring the whole thing as is his cunty wont.

 

[Gmart]

Santiago Times report on Tuesday's demos if anyone's interested.

Chile student protests point to deep discontent - BBC

Rory Carroll ignoring the whole thing as is his cunty wont.

Interesting - another country erupting in riots and again a neoliberal imposition of a system on people who are unconvinced of its merits.

 

[rekil]

Latest threat against Camila Vallejo, some knob called Tatiana Acuña Selles of the Chilean Ministry of Culture posted a Pinochet quote “Se mata a la perra y se acaba la leva” on twitter, which subject to correction by a spanish speaker I think means something like "If you kill the bitch, you kill the rising".

 

[rekil]

Last tuesday's demo being attacked. Man turns water cannon back at 4:40ish with bare hands.

Camila Vallejo returns tears gas canisters to the government.

The mayor of Santiago has suggested the military should be brought in if protests continue until Sept 11th, a sneaky reminder of the coup and a crap ploy to scare people into submission.

 

[butchersapron]

Been trying to keep eyes on this, fucking hell.

 

[butchersapron]

Are they firing that TG from the blocks?

 

[rekil]

Are they firing that TG from the blocks?

Couldn't work that out. I think they're coming over the building, others seem to be fired from some distance. So I think they're just firing indiscriminately from way back into the park.

 

[rekil]

Been trying to keep eyes on this, fucking hell.

It's not that easy to follow even with twitter and whatnot but cooperativa.cl has a constantly updated chronology of events here.

I'm a bit confused about the number of remaining hunger strikers. I read yesterday that some of them have had to quit and 30 or so still going, most aged 16-18, a few of those just started going dry.

Carlos Larrain, president of Pinera's party, called the student reps 'a gang of useless subversives',so people have adopted the label and turned it against him. 'We're all useless subversives', 'The subversives demand the resignation of the useless' and so on.

 

[gawkrodger]

I knew this had been going on, but didn't realise to quite what extent. Thought it'd been just a few thousand students but seems more substantial than that!

 

[rekil]

I knew this had been going on, but didn't realise to quite what extent. Thought it'd been just a few thousand students but seems more substantial than that!

It's v.big. Nationwide strike on 24th/25th. Short vid here with a bit about the hunger strikes. There were more demos on Thursday, 80,000-100,000 in the pissing rain in Santiago. Pics here. No rucks but a bit of quality slapstick when a copper ran into a wall.

Pinera has said that the damage and disruption is comparable to that which preceded the coup. It's nonsense, just a shit attempt at cajoling the students to call it a day, even one of his own senators told him to stfu.

 

[rekil]

Huge turnout for a concert/rally yesterday. A million they're claiming.



Cristián Labbé, mayor of Providencia, former Pinochet bodyguard and DINA agent reckons Camila Vallejo is a tool of Satan.

In the interview Labbé stated, among other things, concerning Vallejo that “here we see something perverse: an argumentative girl with a demonic expression who mobilizes half the country because she is pretty and somewhat smart, and has the country on its knees. She’s a devil.”

 

[rekil]

Chile's Supreme court has ordered that Camila Vallejo gets police protection after she received more threats.

The people united etc, and the old 'it's going to fall' chant.

 

[rekil]

Chilean student in critical condition amid long hunger strike.

A teenage Chilean girl was in critical condition Monday, 35 days into her hunger strike demanding quality public education, as the government of Sebastian Pinera readied for a national strike backing reforms.

“It is serious and she could be left with irreversible neurological and kidney damage” from the action, warned a health ministry official of 19-year-old student Gloria Negrete.

The girl's health is especially weak as she is plagued by chronic asthma — during her protest she has lost 12 kilos (26 pounds) and is down just 49 kilos (108 pounds) in body weight. She is, however, still refusing food and only drinking water.

Authorities were meanwhile gearing up for the 48-hour national strike expected Wednesday and Thursday, the first to hit Pinera's government, convened by the largest workers union in the South American country with some 780,000 members.

 

[butchersapron]

Many thanks for updates CL. These *** aren't for the rich.

 

[rekil]

Many thanks for updates CL. These *** aren't for the rich.

Thought I'd killed my own thread tbh. All the ingredients are there for it to turn into a good old row.

btw @derechatuitera are the cunts on twitter who published Vallejo's address and phone number.

 

[gawkrodger]

What are the politics of the Juventudes Comunistas de Chile like? As would be expected from the name?

 

[frogwoman]

wow, fucking hell, i didn't know anything about this.

 

[rekil]

What are the politics of the Juventudes Comunistas de Chile like? As would be expected from the name?

That's the youth wing of the communist party who are a very small part of the opposition coalition. Beyond a few basic assumptions about how a tiny leninist party with a history of persecution and splits operates I really dunno tbh, I thought someone here would offer some useful insights (then someone else would disagree and then we'd get pages and pages of abuse, derails and who knows, maybe even **** being a prick) but in the spirit of the internet I could engage in some wild uninformed unsubstantiable speculation if you'd like.

It's hard enough to find quality reporting and info on latin america, never mind a proper analysis of the multitudinous lefty sects. Look at the state of Jonathan Franklin's piece on Camila Vallejo in the guardian today. Student uprising leader brings charisma to a Chilean winter. A load of lazy bollocks cut and pasted from a few articles on Chilean news sites topped with a dollop of opinionated toss. I could have knocked that out in 30 minutes. What's he on per word? Vallejo did immediately strike me as someone who'd be loathed instinctively by the Chilean right, but by making her out to be the heart and soul behind the campaign, Franklin does a disservice to the students' courage, imagination and self organisation, the other reps who've suffered some of the same harassment, other factors such as the copper miners and the Mapuche, the 80%+ of the public who support the student demands and especially the hunger strikers. He doesn't even bother mentioning the hunger strikers. The ones I mentioned previously just ended their strike.

Gloria Negrete, spokeswoman for the Buin high school students enduring a 37-day hunger strike, confirmed the group’s decision to end strike. The measure was taken “out of concern and distress of our family and our immediate environment becoming increasingly critical state of health” she read in a public statement. Negrete said the strike ends, but they continue to struggle “because it is better to die standing than live kneeling.”

One of the other reps has a fantastic name. Scarlett MacGinty.

 

[nino_savatte]

Trust neoliberal scum to tell us how much the strike is costing Chilean economy.

Sebastián Piñera, Chile’s president, reckons a two-day nationwide strike which began on Wednesday could cost the country $400m and has lamented incidents of violence. The strikers’ aim, he says, is to “inflict damage on Chile”. Rodrigo Ubilla, interior ministry undersecretary, said it had turned out to be “a big failure” with low turnout and most of the country working normally.
http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/20...ong-hard-road-ahead-for-pinera/#axzz1W2CvuR6m

 

[rekil]

Managers were ordered to snitch on anyone who observed the strike. See how today goes though. 350 arrests yesterday. Most probably illegal.

Looks like a sub has just changed the title of that Guardian piece to "Chile's Commander Camila, the student who can shut down a city" which is even worse.

I've collected a few videos and that.

Pueblo En Guerra Ace hip hop with footage and pics.

Emilio Pittet - Camila Vallejo Comedy love/stalker tune with footage from demos.

She's A Rebel It's Green Day but...well I'll just leave it here shall I.

Footage of the tear gas canisters being returned. Lennon haters advised to turn sound off.

Liliana Felipe - They Fear Us Because We Have No Fear. Argentinian singer whose sister and brother in law were disappeared.

August 4th demo being broken up before it could start. Exciting chase music.

August 18th demo Bloke with the spoons at the end...

Student explains what it's all about. In English thanks be to jaysus.

 

[treelover]

'Gloria Negrete, spokeswoman for the Buin high school students enduring a 37-day hunger strike, confirmed the group’s decision to end strike. The measure was taken “out of concern and distress of our family and our immediate environment becoming increasingly critical state of health” she read in a public statement. Negrete said the strike ends, but they continue to struggle “because it is better to die standing than live kneeling.”'

puts our students to shame...

 

[girasol]

'Gloria Negrete, spokeswoman for the Buin high school students enduring a 37-day hunger strike, confirmed the group’s decision to end strike. The measure was taken “out of concern and distress of our family and our immediate environment becoming increasingly critical state of health” she read in a public statement. Negrete said the strike ends, but they continue to struggle “because it is better to die standing than live kneeling.”'

puts our students to shame...

I don't think it's about putting students to shame, the conditions in Chile are a lot worse than they are here. I'm pretty sure if things got as bad in the UK people would take action, it's human nature. Although things are bad, they are not bad enough for most people, and they never have been in the 23 years I lived here.

Although, slowly but surely, it's heading that way

 

[rekil]

Health Minister Jaime Mañalich told local media Thursday that he believes Negrete is the only student who was truly on a hunger strike. Mañalich said the other five students were lying to the country as a ploy to manipulate sympathy for their cause.

“I believe it is an act of cowardice for someone to say that they are hunger striking when in reality they have neither the heroism nor the courage to truly follow through with such a decision,” Mañalich added.

[...]

Meanwhile, there are eight other high schools in Chile with students currently on hunger strikes. In the Darío Salas high school in the Santiago borough of La Granja, six students are on day 36 of their strike. On average, these students have lost 22 pounds, according to La Tercera (right wing paper that Camila Vallejo refuses to talk to)

Story here. They really are despicable.

Meanwhile, single mums to blame for everything.

The governor appointed by Pinera for the Bio Bio region, Victor Lobos, blamed the protests on unmarried parents, saying 65% of Chilean children are born outside marriage.

"Today Chile is a country without family. I warned this would bring social conflicts to Chile," Lobos said. "A child that doesn't receive anything, doesn't receive affection, the loving attention of a father and mother and their protection, shows up in the streets with hate."

Big turnouts yesterday. Unions claimed 600,000 nationwide, 300,000ish in Santiago, while bullshitting police said 50,000. Also 50,000 in Valparaiso, a city of 275,000. There's a report (here via @camyrojas) that a communist ex-student leader there got targeted by coppers and had the shit kicked out of him.

Decent article here ('Hunger is not bread: On political institutions and the plebiscite') translated from The Clinic, a sort of Private Eye mag, about just how badly Chile's institutions are rigged by the right.

The reason that Chilean political institutions (especially the parliament) are “incapable of doing their job” is not because a “democracy of institutions” is incapable, but rather that the institutions that we have were not designed to do a democratic “job.” To the contrary, they were designed specifically so that they would not be able to do it.

[......]

Most likely, the political right will hold on tightly to its loaded dice until the end, and they will last until popular discontent grows so large that no institution can resist it. Than the truth will get revenge.

 

[rekil]

A 16 year old boy died after being shot last night. I assumed police are responsible but we'll see.

Reuters.

Eta: His brother said the boy was a bystander and a copper fired 3 shots from a police car. He said 'large caliber' bullets were used whatever they may be. No telling what happens now.

Also, coppers setting dogs on a bloke on wednesday.

 

[rekil]

This twat, Jose Luis Alonso (1topone1) in a spot of bother for threatening Vallejo, "better change your address" "we'll make you disappear without trace", "we'll kill you bitch" and so on. I didn't know he was at this before I posted the thread, I just assumed that there'd be loads of his creepy ilk out there. Report in forrin here.

Another vid of August 4th here, shows coppers just driving up and tear gassing girls doing that stick dance thing on the pavement, 1:10 on. A lady at 5:20 gives out to them, they respond with more casual tear gas tossing.

 

[Riklet]

Keeping Chile safe (for the rich).

 

[rekil]

Top trumps.

VP of the socialist party says he got arrested at a demo for the dead boy when he tried to stop police from harassing a couple of people on the way home from work. After they discovered who he was, they threatened to kill him make him disappear etc. Report.

Police teargassed a kindergarten. Nice one. Can't link to the report for some reason.

 

[skitr]

The British reporting of this has been non existent. Don't know why I'm surprised.

 

[rekil]

Police raided the home of Claudia Nunez, communist party mayor of Santiago's Pedro Aguirre Cerda quarter the other night. Slightly garbled googletrans reports here and here. The area was a hub of working class opposition to Pinochet.

The British reporting of this has been non existent. Don't know why I'm surprised.

If something like this was happening to Chavez, I bet there'd be a lot more about it. 'Arab SpringTurns Into Venezuelan Winter.' That kind of bollocks.

Slogan carved into a big fuck off hill in Arica. northern Chile.

More copper slapstick here. Not as funny as the one who ran into the wall mind.