The last time Chile saw protests like these was during the Pinochet dictatorship. For over a week, the protests have only grown in both size and fervour. A hike in the price of metro fares sparked the first outcry on 19 October and the protests have come to represent so much more than just a demand for better transport prices. Ordinary Chilean people, including large numbers of students, have taken to the streets to demand the government address significant economic and social inequalities. Chilean President Sebastián Piñera ended the state of emergency this Monday, and the death toll continues to creep upwards.
On the other side of the world, November 2018 saw the birth of a separate series of protests that began with outrage against a fuel levy and quickly snowballed into demands for structural reform and better standards of living. Although on another continent, the gilets jaunes similarly condemned the French government for its failure to address economic and social inequalities. Despite the starkly different governments, histories and cultures between Chile and France, the turmoil in both nations highlights that democratic deficiency is a global problem, not inherent to any particular region or people.
In both cases, the increase in metro or fuel prices was simply the straw that broke the camel’s back. Out-of-touch leadership is the focus point of the protesters’ ire. In Chile, the groundswell of student support and the enormous turn-outs have provided a huge platform from which protesters can amplify their grievances on social inequality including education, the pension system, health care, privatisation of water, and transport costs. Even though Chile has seen some of the best economic growth in Latin America in recent years, this wealth has been disproportionality dispersed among the Chilean people. Chile has similar costs of living to Australia but, on average, Chileans earn wages approximately 25% of Australian wage-earners – a nationwide situation which many Chileans believe has been allowed to endure for too long.
Just as French President Emmanuel Macron’s first attempt to address the gilets jaunes’ complaints in December 2018 proved futile, Piñera’s promises to increase the monthly pension and monthly minimum wage while forestalling a scheduled rise in electricity rates have not achieved their desired effect. Both presidents offered too little too late. Such gestures do little when French and Chilean protesters perceive the problem as deeply entrenched in national political structures.
Carlos Morreo, an associate lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University, observes that, “We can point to several immediate causes, the hike in public fares, the gradual elimination of subsidies, and things of this sort, making life progressively harder for the bulk of the population. But what you have is a real sense of injustice about the political and economic order that had extraordinarily survived in Chile with little change since the military government. And it seems that there is now a broader generation, not just students and activists, who are a little more distant from the Pinochet years, and who feel that they must question its continuation.”
Consequently, some Chileans have even called for constitutional overhaul in Chile, as did certain gilets jaunes in France. it is the political culture itself that has come under intense scrutiny from the Chileans. A reversal in the metro fare hike and fast-fix promises never had a chance in quelling the situation.
Inevitability, the media zooms in on the violence: smashing, looting and fires. This coverage is accurate to the extent that there are certainly violent elements to the protests. Nonetheless, the images associated with both the gilet jaunes and the Chilean protests often glaze over the important nuances to the protesters’ violence.
The gilets jaunes have constantly been grappling with a media coverage that they believe does their movement a gross injustice. Alex, a protester from Angers, last year described the mainstream French media as defending, “the interests of the system against the interests of the French people…They try to discredit the movement in showing the violence of the gilets jaunes in order to say that the gilets jaunes are violent and therefore not intelligent and shouldn’t be listened to.”
In Chile, most of the protesters dance in the streets and bang pots and pans as forms of non-violent resistance. Although there are moments of opportunistic violence such as when shops are raided and pillaged, most of the violent outbreaks are specifically targeted. It is predominately high-end boutiques which are defaced as symbols of economic inequality, and the protesters are happy to part ways to allow emergency vehicles to pass through the crowds. Alternative Chilean media sources have emerged to show what is happening outside of journalists’ camera frames.
https://www.facebook.com/FelipeCarcamoMoreno/videos/10218678530787814/
From the other side, police violence has been intense at both the gilets jaunes and Chilean protests. Tear gas, rubber pellets, and water cannons have been used to disperse protesters. In Chile, the police – and up until Monday, the military – have been patrolling the streets in an attempt to establish order. Chile’s human rights commission, INDH, has reported members of police and military instigating homicides and acts of sexual assault.
It is hard to say what the outcome of the Chilean protests will be. Almost a year on from the first call of action of the gilets jaunes movement, the French protests have significantly diminished in numbers and momentum. Yet this is in no way a forecast for Chile. Despite the government’s use of force, a million Chileans peacefully marched through Santiago last Friday to call for reform. With the slogans “evade” and “evade y lucha” (“dodge the fare and struggle”) tagged on walls across Santiago, and numerous demands for Piñera to step down from leadership, it is clear that the Chilean protesters are still determined to strive forward. Even in Australia, there have been shows of solidarity with those who have been marching through the Chilean capital. It is not even possible to say this moment is the peak of the movement. It now falls to Piñera and his government to decide their next steps.
———————————————
Follow Le Courrier Australien on Facebook and Instagram, subscribe to our Newsletter for free. Have your say ! Email you opinion pieces, ideas or corrections at redaction@lecourrieraustralien.com
Discussion about this post