We publish an unofficial translation of the editorial of La Rebellion se Justifica issue 20. The original can be seen here.
More than 100 days since the reactionary Piñera took over and his government more openly shows the character of the Old State, how it serves the big bourgeoisie and landlords, the same as Bachelet, and how it has deaf ears to the demands of the people, while it pillages and represses them, just like a dog loyal to its master, Yankee imperialism.
It is shown by the intention to lower business interests “so that Chile can develop its potential”, benefitting a handful of millionaires, meanwhile they continue to rob the people of their shabby wages and health, education, housing, etc. continue being unattainable for the poor of the country.
With the modification of the abortion law, which lowered the requirements for conscientious objection and allows the public employees who object to do abortion to continue working for the State, Piñera gambles with this demand that took years of struggle to be acheived, and scorns the hundreds of women who have been raped or who risk their lives to clandestinely get an abortion.
After his presidential campaign in which he promised to extend scholarships to 90% of students, he is now saying that this measure will be conditioned to the economic growth of the country, showing that he traffics with the dreams of the people to get votes, then he “washes his hands“ of his false promises.
They are already intending to restrict this scholarship for students involved in occupations, as a form of intimidation, and they have taken measures like the unilateral closing of Amunátegui high school.
This government continues on with the militarization of Wallmapu, now sending police that are specialized in “combatting terrorism in Araucanía”, added to the modification of the antiterrorism law, makes the Old State’s persecution of the Mapuche people even stronger.
But its anti-people measures did not come cheaply, and there are hundreds of thousands of people in the streets demanding justice and fighting for the rights of the people, for fair pensions, for the freedom of Mapuche and Chilean political prisoners, health, etc. Faced with this, the old state has not hesitated to deploy all its repressive apparatus to disperse and intimidate the masses.
The student movement has been a headache for those have governed this state, and this year it is the women comrades who have protagonized this struggle, against sexual harassment and abuse, against sexist and patriarchal education, carrying out more than two months of national mobilization which brought such a level of tension that Piñera was obligated to launch a “Women’s Agenda,” strongly rejected by the masses, because it deepened the precarisation of life.
This raise in the women’s struggle is ending, and a good number of universities, institutes, and high schools that were mobilized are ending their occupations and strikes, having obtained various conquests. This demonstrates the justness of these demands and the strength of organized women who exercised leadership of the rest of the student movement.
But in order for all these conquests not to turn into dust once the mobilizations are ended, it is necessary to fight for the historic demands of the student movement, which aims to sweep away semifeudalism and clientelism in education, and to democratize educational institutions.
For a Three-tiered Co-government and election of the authorities, so that final decisions aren’t made by a group of authorities inside four walls, but rather by students, staff, and professors in a three-tiered way. This demand has special importance, above all when the majority of mobilizations have been raised against a handful of abusive professors.
For a genuinely free public education, so that education is not a privilege of the few, but rather a truly guaranteed right for the people, so that all the demands won by the student movement be attainable for the poorest in the country.
And always to safeguard the independence of the student movement, so that education not be subject to the interests of the current government nor to the old state, together with seeking unity with the poorest masses.
For the student movement to achieve the reclaiming of these demands can only be done by carrying out ideological struggle in the middle of the current struggles, aimed at leading them and taking them away from the influence of opportunism and imperialism, that is to say, driving them forward with a class line. It is in this way that important leaps have been made in the politicization and organization of the masses. It is in this way that we will advance toward a classist student movement.
