Chilean Protests Against Nonsense Education System

[rekil]

endemoniada... "diabolic"... not as heavy as it may sound really, not like an accusation of satanism or anything, but still, the man is obviously bad news and if justice finally catches up with him many will be v happy

I think it was largely base sexism - he was trying to portray her as a seductress of the masses or something, not literally an envoy of his lordship the father of lies himself, but the likes of Labbe do regard communists as being more or less on a par with satanists, bless 'em, and traditionally that's been one of the ways they've rationalised the depths of their cruelty.

Some movement here.

Vote to end profit-making in state-subsidized schools makes its way to Senate

Less than a year after President Michelle Bachelet’s presidential election, Chile’s Chamber of Deputies voted in favor of the head of state’s education reform — a pillar of her campaign — on Tuesday. Although most applauded the law’s progress through the appropriate government bodies, many right-wing politicians condemned what they deemed a threat to the survival of state-subsidized schools.

The landmark reform, which seeks to put an end to co-payments, profit-making and biased selection processes in state-subsidized schools, made its way to the Senate on Wednesday, where it will be further revised. While the proposal’s core measures were approved, parliament members rejected a stipulation that sought to criminalize profit-making, leading to disappointment among former student representatives now turned deputies.

“We profoundly regret that this measure, which was agreed upon with the Executive, was dropped,” Communist Party (PC) Dep. Camila Vallejo said.

State-subsidized schools, which are at the focus of the education reform, are privately owned institutions that receive their funding from both state subsidies and school fees. Public schools, on the other hand, are free to students and run by municipalities, creating a stark contrast in the quality of education from one neighborhood to another, depending on each sector’s relative wealth.

Private schools remain a popular option for the wealthier segments of Chilean society.

Before the vote took place, each deputy was given a four-minute time slot to present his or her views, resulting in a heated debate marked by incendiary remarks. Right-leaning politicians expressed their distress concerning the possibility of state-subsidized schools closing as a result of an end to co-payments.

 

[treelover]

http://santiagotimes.cl/bachelet-becomes-first-re-elected-president-modern-era/

Easy win for Bachelet. 62% to 37%. Abysmal turnout, 50% in first round, 42% in the 2nd. One of the criticisms of the christian democrats, PPD and PS has been that their parties and bigwigs are just as baw deep in the health, education, pension etc markets as the other side, so why expect them to dent their personal business interests, let alone begin to address the enormity of the required structural changes.

Camila Vallejo interview in the Morning Star.

Some of the stuff she is saying in that interview is remarkably similar to the 'beyond the fragments' and march through the institutions' of the late 60's-early 80's here in the U.k

 

[rekil]

Decent article on Cristian Labbe here.

There were also cases which, were they not so callous, seemed to be based in some sort of parody of right-wing values. In 2013, a man named Harry Cohen Vera accused Labbé of having tortured him in 1973 for the crime of sporting a ‘revolutionary and hippy look’, i.e. of having a beard and long hair. Cohen was a non-politically affiliated electrician when he was arrested in Valdivia by the same anti-guerrilla unit that had been sent by Pinochet to flush out the Liquiñe insurgents, and arrived in the region with the scent of blood in its nostrils. According to lawyer Roberto Ávila Toledo, Cohen decided to make the accusation after becoming enraged by Labbé’s repression of student protestors in 2011’s campaign for universal free education. The mayor invoked water cannon and teargas to dislodge student activists from occupied schools and publicly insulted those behind the movement. “If Labbé had stayed quiet, kept a low-profile, nothing would have happened and there would be no lawsuit because Cohen had forgiven him, “said Ávila Toledo. “But seeing (Labbé) in the media making declarations against the student movement angered him and led him to make these charges.”

The new president of FECH is Valentina Saavedra from the autonomous left/libertarian communist list. The gremialistas won the FEUC presidency, due in part to much lower participation than the last few years and also because the Catholic University is the most exclusive.

Spoiler: Somos Fuerza: Very professional

 

[rekil]

I haven't been able to keep up lately but this is the only article in English I can find about developments.

Last month, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed into law the most significant educational reform the country has seen in 30 years. Enacted after an eight-month legislative battle, the new law will gradually ban profits, tuition fees, and selective admissions practices in privately-owned primary and secondary schools that receive state subsidies.

As anticipated, the protracted legislative battle over the New Majority’s education reform galvanized strong opposition from conservative sectors. But dissent has also come from less expected quarters: the highly-organized Chilean student movement. “This is not the reform we mobilized for,” proclaimed the University of Chile Student Federation (FECH), which spearheaded the massive 2011-13 demonstrations that catalyzed popular demands for education reform and paved the way for the New Majority’s electoral victory. “We have wasted a historic opportunity for educational reform, and also deeply damaged our democracy,” said Gabriel Boric, one of four student leaders elected to Congress in 2013 (who, nevertheless, voted for the reform).

Students say the reforms don’t go far enough, and may fall short even in meeting their stated objective. They point to loopholes that will allow “flagship” schools to maintain selective admissions for up to 30% of their enrollment. Non-profit schools can also retain transitional leasing arrangements with for-profit landlords, legitimizing continuing profits within the primary and secondary education system through the same subterfuges used by private universities.

Ex-student leader-turned-legislator Camila Vallejo has taken a more pragmatic stance, endorsing Bachelet’s gradualist program as the most practical way to eliminate profits in education without a massive expenditure of state resources. Vallejo, who will chair the education commission in the Chamber of Deputies this year, will be in a key position to shape the New Majority’s future education agenda.

While Chilean students may be loath to claim Bachelet’s reforms as a partial victory, their experience is teaching the world how mass popular movements can transform state policy—even if they can’t win everything at once—and how difficult it is to truly dismantle the entrenched neoliberal educational model.

 

[rekil]

First marches of the year yesterday.

Spoiler

 

[rekil]

Two students killed at the end of yesterday's march in Valparaiso.

Two young men who took part Thursday in a student march in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso were shot and killed by an individual who was apparently angry that they had vandalized his home, police said.

The victims, aged 18 and 25, were spray-painting the door of a house at the end of the demonstration when the owner realized what they were doing and began arguing with them, according to the preliminary investigation.

Several witnesses said the homeowner’s son then went out on the street with a gun and fired the deadly shots.

That's the story that's out, but as far as I can make out from local media, police are also looking at the possibility that students were just passing by and got into a row with the killer or his da and things escalated.

Exequiel Borvarán, 18 and Diego Guzman, 25, of the JJCC here.

 

[nino_savatte]

 

[rekil]

Funeral of Diego Guzman, JJCC member.



Vids showing the confrontation before the murders and the accused.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Rodrigo Aviles in a coma after being watercannoned at the May 21st protest also in Valparaiso. He was knocked off his feet and his head smacked off the ground.

 

[CNT36]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/re...education-minister-amid-protests-reforms.html

More protests today/yesterday. I caught the end of it on AJ a minute ago but nothing online yet. A lot going on this month with the football and everything.

 

[rekil]

Chile’s Congress passes free university bill

SANTIAGO — Chile’s Congress has approved a law granting free university education to many of the country’s students. The law was approved by both houses of the legislature on Wednesday.
The measure is a pillar of President Michelle Bachelet’s reform promises and is expected to aid about 200,000 students at state universities. Students attending private institutions are also expected to join with some conditions.

Chile’s Constitutional Court had recently blocked a part of Bachelet’s proposal to provide free university education to half the country’s poorest students. The court ruled that portions of the plan discriminated against students by forcing them to attend specific institutions to qualify for the benefit. The government then amended the US$765 million plan, which is included in its budget for 2016. Controversy around the bill further escalated last week with the governing coalition divided on the fact that free access to education did not apply to at least three public universities, while private ones were included.

By 2018, when Bachelet’s four-year mandate is set to end (in March), her government says that it will have 70 percent of students covered for free higher education. Finally, by 2020, the coverage for free university education is expected to become universal.

I havent been able to have a look for local analysis and criticims but there's a Camila Vallejo article in forrin here.

 

[rekil]

Last month, Valparaiso got a little bit communist by electing PD backed Jorge Sharp of Movimiento Autonomista as mayor, smashing the fash incumbent into 2nd place. After a process which I won't even pretend to really understand, Movimiento Autonomista (Automomous Movement) was formed after Izquierda Autonoma (Autonomous Left) was dissolved. Cde Sharp came out of the 2006 student protests, looks a bit like a wayward 70s midfield general and can hold a tune.

Spoiler: tune

 

[gawkrodger]

he certainly can sing

 

[rekil]

Still at it btw.

SANTIAGO – Tens of thousands of students marched in Chilean cities this week to demand improvements to the nation’s higher education system, in first protest of the southern hemisphere academic year.

Student protesters argue that attempts by centre-left President Michelle Bachelet to improve quality and access to higher education have been insufficient. Reforms by her government to date do not provide enough Chileans with free university education, they say. They also complain that the government did not seek their advice when drafting legislation.

Following the protest, the education committee in the lower house of Congress voted against sending the bill to the floor for debate. That will now force President Michelle Bachelet and her team to go back to the drawing board.

Presidential elections are due in Chile in November. The current frontrunner, conservative Sebastian Pinera, has indicated that he will roll back recent educational reforms if elected, preferring a system of scholarships to free tertiary education for poorer students.

Spoiler: vid - usual stuff

 

[rekil]

Pinera administration faces first student march in Chile – The Santiago Times

The march was called by the National Confederation of Students of Chile (Confech) to demand the end of profit in education, among other demands. Young people consider that higher education is still a business and they denounce that thousands of students and their families are indebted to banks, which they are forced to go to for their education.

Gathered in the Bustamante Park, huge columns of students advanced for several blocks of the main avenue in the center of the Chilean capital, with a high call not seen since the first student demonstrations in 2011.

Spoiler

 

[rekil]

Chile: students ambush metro stations in mass fare-dodging protest over price hikes – video

Chile protests: state of emergency declared in Santiago as violence escalates

A state of emergency has been declared in the Chilean capital after simmering protests against a rise in metro fares spilled out into widespread vandalism and violence fuelled by rising cost-of-living pressures. As ordained by Chile’s dictatorship-era constitution, the state of emergency will apply to Santiago and can last for 15 days. It grants the government additional powers to restrict citizens’ freedom of movement and their right to assembly. Ominously, soldiers will return to the streets for the first time since an earthquake devastated parts of the country in 2010.

Twitter machine thread providing context. Min wage is around 300k CLP (£325 per month). Metro fares are up to 830 CLP (90p).

Spoiler

 

[yield]

Chile’s Six Months of Struggle
jacobin. 05.02.2020

The last six months in Chile have been momentous. In October of last year, the country experienced the largest popular uprisings in its recent history; now the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic is, as elsewhere, causing economic havoc and widespread fear. In addition to these two landmarks, and taking place in between them, March 8 in Chile saw huge demonstrations to mark International Women’s Day. In Santiago alone, 2 million women and their allies took to the streets, just days before the pandemic suddenly came to dominate the political agenda.

Despite the recommendations of health professionals — which are, for the most part, supported by the public — and the example of neighboring countries, Sebastián Piñera’s right-wing government is refusing to order a general lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus. The billionaire businessman has rejected all social protection measures, among them rent moratoria, the freezing of debt and mortgage payments, price controls, and the temporary nationalization of private hospitals. The government has not even made free testing available. In Chile, as in the United States, health care is a very lucrative business, and all the more so in an emergency.

 

[teqniq]

Putting this here as it's most probably got the most subscribers, thread worth a read too:

 

[Jeff Robinson]

All hail the mighty Chilean people! One day they will burn down the entire edifice of neo-liberal tyranny and drive the oligarch hoarders into the ocean!

 

[teqniq]

Celebrations in Chile as voters back rewriting constitution

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Infinite respect to the glorious Chilean people! Down with neo-liberalism!

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Burn scum:

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Chilean masses deliver a death blow to the remnants of the Neo-Pinochet regime by voting to scrap the torturer-in-chief's neo-liberal constitution. The scum and vermin of the bourgeois press (WSJ, Economist etc) are all very sad.

Chile's govt in shock loss as voters pick independents to draft constitution

Chile's center-right ruling coalition suffered a shock loss on Sunday night after failing to secure a critical one-third of seats in the body that will draft the country's new constitution.

www.reuters.com

 

[zahir]

Presidential elections

Michael Chessum · In Chile

A successful candidate will need to offer stability after years of upheaval and division, but there is an obvious...

www.lrb.co.uk

Far-right populist, ex-protest leader set for runoff vote in Chile’s presidential election

Republican party’s José Antonio Kast set to win first round with 28% of the vote

www.theguardian.com

 

[rekil]

Bartlett is decent so I expect the g will rope in someone to copy the chilean right wing press's slaggings of Boric while not openly cheering on Kast. I think it was La Tercera who put out one particularly hysterical piece saying he'd be a disaster like Allende. Boric ahead in the polls by a couple of points atm.

 

[Dogsauce]

I‘d watch out for this one, the article mentions that turnout is often low. The far right is very very good at getting the vote out through well-funded social media shitfuckery, often with international backing (cf Bolsanaro, Brexit etc.), beware of a shock result as the right takes the well trodden and often successful culture war bullshit and anti-refugee path.

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

Pinochet's widow death bring street parties

 

[rekil]

Boric wins.

Leftist Gabriel Boric to become Chile's youngest ever president

Gabriel Boric, 35, says he will look after democracy after a convincing win over his far-right rival.

www.bbc.com

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Eternal glory to the Chilean proletariat!

Bet they’ll be some very sad emoji editorials in the Wall Street Journal, Economist and FT, just like there were when quasi-fascists were defeated in Bolivia and Peru.

 

[PTK]

Eternal glory to the Chilean proletariat!

Bet they’ll be some very sad emoji editorials in the Wall Street Journal, Economist and FT, just like there were when quasi-fascists were defeated in Bolivia and Peru.

I bet that Norman Lamont is unhappy, given that he was a great supporter of Pinochet!

This is wonderful news.

 

[Jeff Robinson]