Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/09/strength-to-strength-2.html
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Sorry, we’re only interested in protests in “adversary” countries that don’t kowtow to the Empire.
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Thanks for posting this, Cory. A lot of people here have correctly wanted to discuss this particular protest movement, another opposed to the multifarious forms of late-stage capitalist oligarchy.
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Thanks for finally aknowleging the Chilean struggle. And also thanks for pointing out some of the important structural issues that are being fought against. Our government is actively trying to present this internationally as an issue of public security, out of control violence, etc. Piñera, our very own billionaire president, canceled his personal participation at the COP25 but sent in a disgracefull propaganda video basically blaming us, the Chilean people. It’s really important that platforms like BB and others help fight disinformation. Currently, for example, Chile is falling into a situation of blatant police state. Police forces have been basically doing whatever they please, ignoring their own protocols, defying legitimate civil power and violating human rights every day. Not a single police authority, civil or in uniform, has been called into resignation. Our government has decided to side with Pinochet’s legacy, with the olygarchy, with brute force.
As I said in another comment on an article about the Colombian situation, there have been already investigations by Anmesty Internationa, Human Rights Watch and the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights. All of them have concluded there have been grave violations of human rights, but the government has not only choosen to ignore them, but has even gone as far as to cuestion the reports. Even the millitary, who are contitutionally forbidden from deliberation, have publically questioned the reports. This is grave. This is how neoliberalism kicks back when it’s really in danger.
In Chile we’ve coined a chant I hope will come true: Neoliberalism was born in Chile, and will die in Chile.
… yes, we know it was thought out in Austria and the US, but that was its incubation. It was given its bloody birth in my land, blanketed in fire and fear, nursing on Pinochet’s unholly bust.
Now… as for the title of the article. Yes, there are former student protests leaders who are now serving in congress, but ther status as allies has been called into question recently. Many of those student leaders went into traditional parties (mostly left, but there’s one egregious example of a guy who’s considered by everyone a traitor to the students and is now secretary of national properties). Some others went into trying to establish new parties. Eventually most of those political movements came to coagulate into the parties that now comprise the “Frente Amplio” block. All of them define themselves as leftist, and untill now they had been a beacon of hope against the traditional status quo of the Chilean political landscape. Now, after many turbulent votings on legislations criminalizing the protests, some of these leaders have come under severe scrutiny and even virulent rejection by many Chileans. A week ago, for example, many of these ex-student-leaders voted in favour of a law that would push harder penalties for people participating in barricades, that would make it easier for the police to ciminalize people suspected of plundering, blocking streets, etc. In the midst of a crisis where the police has clearly shown it’s accountable to no one and abuses its power, this was a vote that automatically labeled them as traitors in the mind of many. Some of them themselves came out on public on the next day asking for forgiveness, claiming they had committed an error.
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