View of the protest towards Plaza Baquedano, 10/25/19. Photo by Hugo Morales

Today’s show is a special 90-minute episode.

Around the world, as governments tell people to cut back and pay more to cover basic needs, the people have responded with explosive refusal and chaos.

Two weeks ago the Chilean people woke up, "chile despertó!" They are calling it a social explosion, which could equally be due to the speed of the conflict’s escalation, or the extensive property damage by fire.

Chile’s uprising started with groups of high school students who refused to pay a hiked fare for the subway. Evasión Masiva students shared memes about turnstile hopping, and within 24 hours, the stage was set. People across the capital took to the streets, banging pots and destroying city busses.The protests centered on the rising costs of living and the creation of the greatest wealth gap in the countries comprising The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)...a Marshall Plan organization supporting economic imperialism.

These are features of the Chicago-School neoliberalism behind Chile’s lauded but fictive political stability and economic success.

Photo by Nikola Garcia.

The government headed by the conservative media mogul billionaire president Sebastian Piñera has reacted to the uprising in ways that have drawn comparisons with the tactics of former dictator Augusto Pinochet. This past week Piñera has declared the first state of emergencies to control protests since the return to democracy in 1990.

In the eyes of many Chileans, today’s human rights violations, military tanks and helicopter patrols, police brutality, curfews, and state of emergency amount to dictatorship-era violence re-occurring now. The government’s lacking reform measures and militarized response have led many Chileans to believe the economic precarity and police brutality are simply highlight the illegitimacy of the current government, and just like that, flash, the entire constitutional system is in jeopardy.

Now, the protests have spread beyond Santiago and beyond the youth. Piñera was forced to cancel two major international summits, including the UN climate change conference, due to the insurrection.

Our opening song comes from Ana Tijoux, hip hop artist and social justice activist. Tijoux was born in France in 1977 to parents who were jailed and later fled Chile under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Tijoux returned to Chile in 1993. This is No Mas, from the 2014 album Vengo. The song begins:

Edificios cancerosos se apilaron numerosos

En bloques de cementos altos y furiosos

Taparon la luz de nombres poderosos

Y nunca más se vio aquel sol que era luminoso

Lo llamaron desarrollo, crecimiento

Del barrio sólo quedaron los cimientos

Dejaron desechos, dejaron gente sin techo

El único hecho es que no tenemos ningún derecho...

GUEST

Nikola Garcia, a political anthropologist at Emory University, who researches peri-urban politics in Santiago, Chile. Garcia is currently in Santiago conducting fieldwork and has been in the midst of the uprising from its beginning. (Recorded on October 29th.)

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MUSIC

"No Mas" by Ana Tijoux