TeleSUR dispatch
NEOLIBERALISM at bayonet point is failing in Chile, as it is bound to fail everywhere.
Over one million people are marching in the streets of the Chilean capital, responding to the convocation of students and labor unions who organized on social media "The Largest March in Chile" on Friday afternoon, with rallies paralyzing major cities.
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Chile Unrest: Rights Groups Warn of Dictatorship-Like Practices
The march started between 5-6 p.m., local time, from the Plaza Italia, demanding among others the government to send back the Armed Forces to their military base, and to convoke a Constituent Assembly in order to outline a new Constitution.
Police repression has been brutal, and the army is now out on the streets, too, as the president has proclaimed "Chile is at war." The neoliberal order has pampered the armed forces and police—the political suppression apparatus—as a way to keep their loyalty. The military enjoy many advantages and financial benefits ordinary Chileans can only dream of. So far, the bribe has paid off.
They are holding banners like "Chile woke up" and "We are not at war," as Chile's military has taken over security in Santiago, a city of 6 million now under a state of emergency with night-time curfews.
"These protests were necessary," said fruit vendor Sergio Perez to Reuters. "But they've made everything difficult, especially getting around."
Many shops and schools in downtown Santiago remained closed.
Many bus drivers in Santiago also staged a walk-off on Friday after one of their number was shot.
"I used to take one bus to get to work, now I have to take four. This must stop," said Julio Herrera, 71, as he waited in a long line at a street corner for what few buses remained.
One MILLION march in Chile! Furious activists snub military night-time curfew and occupy streets - after 18 were killed and hundreds wounded in on-going protest against government
ABOVE: The protests have captured a lot of media attention, as the capitalist press could not simply bury the social implosion of a whole nation, especially one long touted as a great example of capitalist success.
On Friday morning, trucks, cars and taxis also slowed to a crawl on major roads, honking horns, waving Chilean flags and bearing signs of protest. "No more tolls! Enough with the abuse!" read bright yellow-and-red signs plastered to the front of vehicles.
Piñera, a billionaire businessman, told the nation on Thursday he had heard "loud and clear" the demands of Chileans.
He has sent lawmakers legislation to overturn a recent hike in electricity rates, and called for reforms to guarantee a minimum wage of US$480 a month and introduce state medical insurance - only in the case of "catastrophes."
Seated with a group of elderly Chileans over lunch on Friday, Piñera put finishing touches on a bill to hike minimum pensions by 20 percent. "We must approve these projects with the urgency that Chileans demand," Piñera said.
So far, the biggest rallies, according to the interior ministry's estimate, took place on Wednesday, with 424,050 people rallying nationwide.
An online poll conducted by local company Activa Research of 2,090 people between Oct. 22-23 found 83 percent of respondents said they supported the goals of the demonstrators.
The principal causes of the protests were low salaries, utility prices, pensions and economic inequality, the poll said.
U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, former social-democrat President of Chile, said she would send a mission to her homeland to investigate allegations of rights violations by security forces.
The Chilean government said it would welcome a U.N. delegation, along with representatives of global NGO Human Rights Watch.
The video below, in Spanish, is easily one of the best we have found in terms of explaining the reality of the "neoliberal Pinochet order", maintained to this day by conservative regimes that succeeded Pinochet, and center-rightists like Michelle Bachelet's "coalition of the (pseudo) left". If anyone knows how to add an English subtitle track, please consider doing that as a contribution to this struggle.
Lo que esconde “el modelo chileno” (y por qué estallaron las protestas ahora)
What the "Chilean model" hides (and why the protests finally exploded).
By Ina Afinogenova (based in Moscow)
From oasis to war in one week?
¿Por qué Lenín Moreno entregó a Julian Assange?
BONUS
Remember this, just a couple years ago, when Morgan Freeman, one of Hollywood's richest actors, and apparently a political idiot or a hardcore neoliberal, endorsed this propaganda campaign fueled by the Democrats' Russiagate hoax? The whole exercise was actually the brainchild of Hollywood brat Rob Reiner, who earned his spurs by actually playing a liberal (of the old, antiwar kind) in the legendary sitcom ALL IN THE FAMILY. Ina lets him have it, as he deserves.
This counter-campaign was designed to reach Sanish-speaking cybernauts.
Tiene que ser una broma. Pero no, no lo es... https://t.co/kSgXAg58pR @inafinogenova pic.twitter.com/UTdbUHjN07
— RT en Español (@ActualidadRT) September 23, 2017
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS
Read it in your language • Lealo en su idioma • Lisez-le dans votre langue • Lies es in Deiner Sprache • Прочитайте это на вашем языке • 用你的语言阅读
[google-translator]
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