Troops have been ordered out on the streets of the major Chilean cities as billionaire President Sebastian Piñera clings on to power in the face of a mass nationwide uprising against the rule of his kleptomaniac government. While many invoke shades of General Pinochet’s military coup of 11 September 1973, the social and political conditions do not exist at present for a military solution: three years of US-financed subversion were required to prepare the ground for the coup, and the prerequisite of a divided population does not exist. Instead, strikes and protests have spread across the country like wildfire as people call for an end to the looting and plunder of their nation which has only enriched a tiny minority.
Chile’s ruling class may boast that it is the only Latin American country to be a member of the OECD, but in truth it remains a comprador bourgeoisie as dependent on imperialism as it has been for generations. The locomotive for the Chilean economy remains copper extraction (5.5 million tons a year, 27.6% of world output), and vagaries in the world demand for copper determine not only the volume that is exported, but also its price. The largest destination for Chilean copper is China, and as the Chinese economy has slowed down, so copper prices have fallen from a peak of $4 per pound in 2011 to $3 a pound today. Uncertainties in the world economy have a disproportionate impact on Chile’s export-dominated economy: it is the world’s largest producer of rare metals such as molybdenum and rhenium, and second largest producer of lithium (37% of world output) after Australia.
But, given the context of a deepening world economic crisis, the pressures have been growing. Capital has been flowing out of Chile for years now: $8bn in 2018, and $3.4bn in the first half of 2019 as imperialism takes its profits. Foreign direct investment recorded a deficit of $4bn in 2018, and $3bn in the first half of 2019. The current account balance has been in deficit for years, reaching $9bn in 2018 and nearly $4bn in the first half of 2019, expressing itself in a fall in the exchange rate of the Chilean peso against the dollar of 10% since March 2019. The Chilean bourgeoisie has diminishing freedom of manoeuvre: faced with this crisis, it is determined to ensure it maintains its luxurious position by making the working class pay even more. Piñera has a direct interest: with a personal wealth of $2.8bn, he is the fifth richest person in Chile.
The spark for the uprising was a 4% hike in ticket prices for the metro in Santiago, where nearly a third of Chile’s population of 18 million people live, on 14 October. School children refused to pay the increase, jumping over the barriers and crowding onto trains without paying. Later on in the week, students were occupying metro stations in protests, breaking gates, shattering glass and throwing debris onto the electrified rails and setting some stations on fire. Bank branches and supermarkets were attacked and the country’s main electricity company headquarters building was torched. Unlike the XR London underground action in Canning Town, the actions of the Santiago school students received immediate massive support as tens of thousands took to the streets confronting the paramilitary Carabinero police force. Almost immediately agents provocateurs were identified at protests firing guns, while the Carabineros deployed tear gas and water cannon, and have fired live rounds at protestors. Hatred for the Carabineros has grown in the wake of corruption scandals which have involved generals stealing $46m.
Far from intimidating people, Carabinero violence sparked protests elsewhere: massive demonstrations took place in Punta Arenas in the south to Arica, 3,000 miles to the north. Piñera’s announcement on 17 October withdrawing the increase in prices had no effect. On 18 October, Interior Minister and millionaire Andres Chadwick, Piñera’s cousin, announced a state of emergency in Santiago, banning demonstrations, imposing an overnight curfew and putting thousands of troops on the streets. A day later, it was extended to other Chilean cities: Antofagasta, Valparaiso, Valdivia, Chillan, Talca, Temuco and Punta Arenas with Piñera declaring that it was now a ‘war against a powerful and implacable enemy.’ The response was defiance: Piñera must go! Echoing that call, tens of thousands attended a protest at the Plaza Italia in central Santiago on 21 October.
The force of the protests expressed intense anger at the deepening inequalities within Chilean society, where half the workers have monthly earnings of 400,000 Chilean pesos or less (£425), and 1,800 (0.01%) receive 576m pesos (more than £600,000 a month). The top 1% receive 33% of incomes, the highest proportion in the OECD, with Russia and the US second highest at 20%. Between 2001 and 2014, MP salaries rose 245% and are currently £10,000 a month, while a third of in-work Chileans are in poverty. While unemployment remains low, there is instead structural underemployment: workers who want more hours, but cannot obtain them. 51% of teachers and 47% of health workers are in this category. 35% of health care employees and 34% of teachers work for agencies and have no collective rights at all (Fundacion Sol). Expenditure on education stands at 4.9% of GNP, the lowest in the OECD, and 90th in world ranking. It is scarcely above the proportion spent at the time of the ‘Penguin Revolution’ of school children in 2006, or the later struggles in 2011-12 involving both school and university students.
Successive governments since 2006 led either by Michele Bachelet for the Social Democrats or Piñera have not changed a situation where education is underfunded, much of it in private hands; where health care is paid for by individual private insurance and where pensions, averaging £180 a month, are linked to the market, and labour protection is non-existent. Chile remains bottom of OECD rankings for both health and social care. While protests across Chile continue, there is alarm in imperialist quarters. The Financial Times warns that ‘The billionaire president told the Financial Times this month that his country needed a more inclusive model of growth; he must practise what he preaches.’ Yet this is not possible in the conditions of today: the ruling class must grab even more to survive, not share it out. Bloomberg has a more sober assessment: ‘If it can happen in Santiago, it could happen anywhere. That is the uncomfortable message that the rest of the world should take from the sudden breakdown of civil order in Chile, and unfortunately it is correct’ (22 October). We do not share that discomfort or Bloomberg’s worries: the people have to taken to the streets across Chile, Lebanon, Haiti, Ecuador and Honduras because imperialism has made their lives intolerable. Instead we celebrate the resistance, and join in the call: Piñera must go!
Robert Claridge
