Chilean Protests Against Nonsense Education System

[rekil]

A copper chucks a tear gas grenade into a postal workers' union office during the strike.

 

[rekil]

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

They've confirmed that a copper killed him (Manuel Gutierrez) with an Uzi and is to be charged with murder.

Cristian Andrade, the communist former student rep mentioned earlier, gives account of the battering he was subjected to on a police bus.

The reps are meeting with Pinera today. This is a big climbdown for him.

Other sites say that “Se mata a la perra y se acaba la leva” means "If you kill the bitch you do away with the litter." I got that a bit wrong earlier.

 

[Idris2002]

 

[rekil]

From June. A mounted copper rides down a girl. Some rascal then spears one of the horses.



Police firing tear gas canisters at people's bodies.

Two girls from Chiloé island, Macarena Álvarez (18) and Sofía Ferias (16) called off their hunger strike yesterday after they developed health problems. They'd been on it for over a month. 10 other students there began a symbolic 7 day one.

 

[rekil]

Some more slapstick here. Mounted coppers move in to intimidate a group of people including some very young girls, but what happens next?

 

[rekil]

Patricia Opaza Aravena, apparently some sort of bigwig woman from Pinera's party, suggested via facebook that a 1948 law (The Permanent Defence Of Democracy Law) that outlawed the communist party, erased its members from the electoral register, and stripped all reps (mayors, councillors, senators etc) of their positions, should be revived. Barking. She's gone and closed her account now.

Even more bizarrely, Arturo Martinez, union bossman, is blaming philosophy professors for filling the heads of students with nonsense, and that's what's causing them to go out and brick the coppers.

 

[rekil]

Martinez said he's sorry now. Thick cunt.

There's a peculiar story here - Valparaiso activists denounce alleged black list in Chile - about a former member of the Bachelet government who was read a list of names of labour activists by an airport customs official and then asked if she knew any of them.

Camila wore a hardhat for some reason last week.

 

[rekil]

Two 17 year old girls, Johanna Choapa and Maura Roque, reached the 50th day of their hunger strike at Santiago's Liceo Dario Salas yesterday. There were 2 others until a few days ago when they had to quit with kidney problems.

 

[Red Faction]

Very sad

 

[ayatollah]

As has been commented on here , it's strange...NOT... that the Chilean strikes against privatised services haven't been much covered by the UK media - I recall I think only two brief reports on nthe BBC recently.

Apart from admiration for the growing Chilean resistance to the legacy of Pinochet's privatisation policy, it is truly chilling just how much Pinochet's Chile was used as a living laboratory for the privatisation of previously state owned and run services, eg, education, healthcare, and social security and pensions. For the Chilean ruling class and their US company co-conspirators it was a highly successful experiment - income inequalities are at the most extreme in Chile in the whole of Latin America. All the up and coming privatisation "liberalisation" moves in current UK coalition policies can be traced straight back to the Pinochet years in Chile - NHS privatisation, education "reform", pension "reform". The world's ruling classes really do learn from each other in the fine art of exploitation - Unfortunately most of the declasse rabble running NULABOUR are also upper middle class Muppets who have bought profoundly into the chimera of "prosperity via the free market" bollocks - so we can expect little help from them in the much needed UK resistance to the Coalition's privatisation schemes.

Mind you, it's taken a long time for the Chilean population to start a real fightback - but then they are dealing with a brutal state still largely run by Pinochet's followers - whereas in the UK one can only conclude that our population are still currently so bedazzled by a diet of media propaganda and the trivia of mass culture/lottery win hopes, that it will only be when a mass of people needing hospital care are asked for their credit card as in that excellent UNISON spoof film, that the penny will finally drop and the struggle will begin !

 

[rekil]

Very sad

Vallejo said the other day that "this is a four year war", and even if they suffer a defeat now, it's inevitable that they'd be back on the streets again next year. Anyway, several hundred dancing girls (and a few boys) should cheer you up a bit.



The communist HQ was attacked by about 30 people yesterday. According to the JJCC site, they destroyed some equipment and furniture before being beaten off by members and neighbours. It was attacked last month by the police as well. Also a party office in Iquique in the north of the country was attacked by self styled neo-nazis on the 11th. Report here, incl vid of the one that didn't get away.

 

[rekil]

The police attacked the Dario Salas school on Saturday night. There are six hunger strikers there, the two girls mentioned above plus two adult guardians of the school and two other students (incl 15 year old Karla Fernandez below) who joined about three weeks ago. Four of them were hospitalised due to the effects of the tear gas. They said a tear gas grenade landed on the balcony of the room they were in and filled the whole floor and courtyard. They were gassed last month as well. More demos tomorrow.

 

[gawkrodger]

any more updates?

 

[rekil]

any more updates?

I'm a bit busy at the moment, still out of sorts after a family funeral last week, but I've a bunch of stuff to look at and I'll update when I can, but in short, the government are still taking the piss. They asked the student reps what conditions were necessary for dialogue and then rejected the most important ones, the postponement of the end of first semester of the university year which affects scholarships, loans and things like that, and the halting of any education bills sent to parliament by the executive. So the students say they're going to ramp things up a bit. More demos scheduled for Sept. 22nd and 29th and early October.

 

[rekil]

As has been commented on here , it's strange...NOT... that the Chilean strikes against privatised services haven't been much covered by the UK media - I recall I think only two brief reports on nthe BBC recently.

The BBC had a report on just now. Stephen Sackur bullshitting away, and then he cut off a woman from the Santiago Times to go to a piece about Postman Pat.

The report is on iplayer now. Should be here. Only available until 1pm saturday. It's towards the end.

 

[venmalathy]

I agre with you all............

 

[rekil]

A new tune dedicated to the Dario Salas hunger strikers. Like in the Guerra En Pueblo one I posted there's a dig at Vallejo which seems a tad harsh to me.

 

[skitr]

A new tune dedicated to the Dario Salas hunger strikers. Like in the Guerra En Pueblo one I posted there's a dig at Vallejo which seems a tad harsh to me.

Why aren't people fond of Vallejo copliker? I'm trying to follow this story the best I can but it's hard when everyone seems to ignore it.

 

[rekil]

Why aren't people fond of Vallejo copliker? I'm trying to follow this story the best I can but it's hard when everyone seems to ignore it.

She gets a lot of attention because of her looks which some find irksome, but there's not a lot she can do about that. She has a huge level of public approval but there's an element who are wary about the possibility of some sort of sellout by the student reps. There was a brief occupation of the education ministry (vid here) a couple of weeks ago making this point. I'm not sure how justified that is, since the reps seem to have been totally solid and uncompromising so far. The demands are by no means namby pamby.

 

[rekil]

Opinion poll from yesterday.

69% support the students, down a bit partly due to the plane crash on Sept 3rd.
56% believe they should maintain their campaign until the government meets their demands.
27% approval for President Pinera.
20% approval for how demos are handled.
69% approval for Camila Vallejo.
73% approval for Giorgio Jackson, other student rep. Al Jazeera interview, (his English is a bit choppy but fair dues).
48% want a solution through parliament.
46% want extra parliamentary solution, I'm not sure what exactly, possibly a plebiscite.

 

[gawkrodger]

I wondered if it had something to do with her being a member of a leninist party.

Still doesn't stop me falling a bit in love with her!

 

[rekil]

I wondered if it had something to do with her being a member of a leninist party.

That as well. I had mentioned it and something about how the opposition parties have even worse approval ratings than the government but the lines went missing.

Still doesn't stop me falling a bit in love with her!

Good luck with that. Have you got a boat? This bloke has a boat. Maybe two.

 

[rekil]

Telesur's youtube channel. Short but regular reports with English subs. Type chile or whatever in the search bar.

Two good photographers on flickr. Nelson Keru Arancibia and Mtellezcar.

From 11th September.

Valparaiso during the strike on 25th August. Tear gassing under the door. At night I think they used a tube thing. Where's that fire extinguisher twat when you need him eh?

 

[rekil]

Dario Salas school hunger strikers and supporters tried to hold a demo yesterday to protest against the government and media's indifference but the police broke it up in a distressing manner. Yesterday was Chile's independence day and they were trying to get close to the cathedral where the bigwigs were engaged in some mumbo jumbo ceremony.

 

[rekil]

3529 people arrested since June.

Figures released by the Interior Ministry revealed that 949 of those arrested were under the age of 18, and 1,654 of the arrests in that period were made in Santiago with charges of rioting, vandalism and violence towards the police.

Lots of those arrests are bullshit though, as in the clip above, or just plain illegal.

Copper workers supporting the demo tomorrow it says here.

Tunes with footage etc.

Mi Chile Se Moviliza - Dj Mendez.
Basta - Los Vasquez. Already posted in protest song thread but might as well go in here.
La Banda Sonora De La Tomas - La Clazze. Slapstick at 1.40 and 2.23. I hope it's the same coppers in both incidents and they have some sort of long running feud.

Quality demo prop but it might get a bit nasty inside if teargassed.

Deutsche Welle interview with Camila Vallejo.

Deutsche Welle: Why has this student movement found such strong support among the population?
Camila Vallejo: The young generation is just the spearhead of a general deep dissatisfaction that is breaking out. Many people were scared up to now to publicly discuss politics. But this isn't just about dissatisfaction. There are also concrete social and political demands, for example introducing binding referendums.
Planned legislation also has to be able to emanate from the people. We need an assembly to work out a new constitution and we have to renationalize our mineral and natural resources. These are just some examples. There is a great disenchantment with politics. Decisions that affect large parts of the population are made by a few behind closed doors.

 

[rekil]

Huge demos yesterday.

BBC - Chile students stage mass protest for education. A bit less shit than usual but only a bit.

Santiago Times report.

Radio station Cooperativa reported that the attendance of the march was comparable to any of the previous marches in this movement, which have been the largest demonstrations in Chile since the return of democracy in 1990.

[...]

“The government has lost an historic opportunity to initiate a space, to provide a space for discussion, for unfettered debate . . . that would have made a solution to this problem possible,” said Vallejo after the government to refused to agree to the two of the four conditions that representatives of student and teacher organizations required before talking with the government.

“We never thought, we never imagined, that the government would play so dirty in this process,” Vallejo said.

Pics from mtellezcar.

The Dario Salas hunger strikers have moved to the entrance of the university to be more visible. They're developing hypoglycemia problems. Report.

 

[rekil]

Cristián Labbé, massive cunt mentioned earlier, sent in police to clear out two schools in Providencia, (Lastarria and Carmela Carvajal), which had been occupied and has barred all students from outside the area from registering. Providencia is a very wealthy part of Santiago and only 15% of the students come from there. A few years ago Labbé was accused of being a torturer at Tejas Verdes (Green Gables) but it couldn't be proven. Guilty as sin I reckon.

#labbestia on the twitter

Euronews Report.

Girls protesting against this getting shoved about and arrested.

Docu/footage on the 2006 occupation at one of the same schools.

 

[Idris2002]

Huge demos yesterday.

BBC - Chile students stage mass protest for education. A bit less shit than usual but only a bit.

Santiago Times report.



Pics from mtellezcar.

The Dario Salas hunger strikers have moved to the entrance of the university to be more visible. They're developing hypoglycemia problems. Report.

I wish they'd stop. There are other ways to struggle.

 

[rekil]

I wish they'd stop. There are other ways to struggle.

Might get worse. They're upset that the minister for health has been mocking them and they're thinking about going dry as well.

 

[rekil]

Footage of lads occupying the Lastarria school on Friday but the police showed up a bit too quick with watercannon, and tear gas as well by the sounds of the reactions.



On Thursday, Pinera told the UN about the students' 'grand, noble and beautiful' cause. Report.

The Dario Salas girls were hospitalised at the weekend. Doctors are very worried about permanent damage. Googletrans Report.

Mounted police galloping about the cemetery on 11th of Sept. One of them falls off.