Great struggle of the high school student against the Bachelet administration
For over a month now Chilean high school students have been fighting against the Michelle Bachelet administration. As early as last year they had presented the Ricardo Lagos administration with a petition of eight points. Neither Lagos nor Bachelet responded so the students started moving. And were brutally repressed in the first fortnight of their demonstrations.
As no answer came, mobilisations grew and there was a decision to take control of the schools, lessons were stopped and on 30th of May and 6 June, special activities were taken up. It is estimated that in Santiago alone there are more than 650 schools taken and that in the entire country over 600 000 high school students went on strike. They have furthermore received support (even if merely verbal so far) from the CUT (United Workers Central lead by the Communist Party) and over 100 trade unions and social and political organisations.
This has been the greatest since 1972 and the most massive mobilisation in the country since the end of the Pinochet era (1990). That is why it is called the ?rebellion of the penguins?, a name given in Chile to high school students because of the school uniform they wear.
The claims
The four major points are:
* Free school tickets for buses. It is particularly important item, especially for the children of workers because the minimum salary is 227 dollars and generally, workers? families have more than one child in school age.
* Free PSU (Test of University Selection). It is a test that students have to sit for after graduating from school in order to be admitted to university or Third Level institutions. It is not only a filter that prevents many workers? children from getting higher education but also you have to pay to sit for it.
* Derogation or revision of the JEC (Double shift schools). It is an extension of school time with the alleged purpose of making it possible for students to practise ports or other disciplines. Because of the appalling conditions the school infrastructure is in, this has been an utter failure and introduced no real improvement in the quality of education.
* Derogation of the LOCE (Organic Constitutional Law of Education) a piece of heritage from the days of Pinochet (1990). Because of the importance of this item, we shall analyse it separately.
The ACES emerge
In the heat of the struggle, a united organisation of high school students emerged: the ACES (Coordinating Assembly of High School Students). It has recently adopted the name of AES (High School Students Assembly). Up to last year, there were several students? organisations and this year they got together.
AES functions with a base on democratic assemblies at schools, where resolutions are taken by votes. It comprises about 1500 grassroots representatives from all over the country, out of where 25 constitute a kind of coordination or national commission. Finally, there is a group of four representatives who are the spokespeople for the organisations. The spokespeople are revocable. It is obvious that this form of organisation expresses the strength of the movement and also it has served as a lever to give it further impulse.
Bachelet´s real face
The struggle has served to unveil the real bourgeois and reactionary character of the ?socialist? administration of Michelle Bachelet. First she refused to listen to the students? claims; later on, in a motherly tone, she tried to persuade them to stop fighting; then she changed her tone and declared ?there is no money to solve these problems?; finally the power of the mobilisation forced her to yield on a few of the most immediate points and tried to manipulate in the negotiation for the deeper points (derogation of the JEC) and a new law to replace the LOCE.
At the same time, as a continuity maintained since the Pinochet days, she ordered the toughest ever repression of the carabineros (police) against the students. In each demonstration, thousand of the ?penguins? were beaten up and hundreds were arrested.
No money?
On the other hand, it is absolutely false that there is “no money” to satisfy the students´ demands. In the first place, an important part of the 3 000 million dollars that the Chilean state devotes to education are for grants to private schools. This money should go for state-owned schools. Secondly, copper, the main export of the country, is today very highly priced internationally. Private companies that exploit it after Pinochet privatised the activity are making fortunes! Bachelet should tax them heavily and so raise funds for education! Finally, according to Central Bank reports, the instalments on the service of the foreign debt were, in 2005, 7642 million dollars, more than 2.5 times the education budget! If the Bachelet administration stops paying the foreign debt, a part of the unspent money could be used for state-owned education!
A first triumph
Chilean high school students have already achieved a first triumph: the Bachelet administration has put forward the following proposal: PSU will be free for 80% of the young people; free bus ticket will be granted for 60% of the students; three months will be paid of the practice in companies by graduates from technical schools, 5000 food rations will be increased between 2006 and 2007 and on 15 July repair will begin in 1200 schools. That means that most of their most immediate claims have been accepted, but students demand this commitment to be signed by the government.
The point of conflict that still remains to be treated is the derogation of LOCE and JEC and the formulation of new bill to replace them. The government proposes a joint commission together with the members of the parliament where students would have 12 of the 74 representatives. Penguin demand that, at least half the members of this commission should be students.
No trust in Bachelet
We think we are duty-bound to give the opinion of the IWL-FI on the most general aspects of that struggle:
* We fully support the struggle that the students are putting on against the government and we call for the most ample solidarity with it.
* We believe that the attitude no trust in Bachelet should be maintained. She defends the interest of imperialism, of the great foreign and Chilean corporations and of the school-mongers. The great struggle of the students forced her to recoil but now she will try to lessen the defeat
* It is of great importance that organisation at school should be kept up all over the country so as to be able to respond once more with mobilisation if there is any attempt at manipulation by the government about LOCE and JEC
* The CUT support should no longer be merely verbal and become active support and coordinated between workers and students. It is important to see that the students? struggle in Chile jeopardises much more that the educational system of the country. This struggle actually challenges all the legal an institutional heritage that Pinochetism had left in Chilean current political regime and, essentially, its deeply repressive character. From this point of view, we believe that the students
International Secretariat of the IWL
Sao Paulo, June 7 2006
