Chilean pupils have been occupying their schools now for more than a week demanding free transit, free admission tests to the university, and a fundamental reform of the educational system. The latter is regulated by the LOCE, which was the last law enacted by the Pinochet government and seems to put profit over pupils. I have been really surprised how the high school students with an age of 15-17 years handle the current attention and pressure. They have put their demands on top of the national agenda with grass-roots decision making and smart behavior in relation to media and politics.

Today university students have joined them on a national day of strike. In Santiago this day was accompanied by a large-scale demonstration. I (now) think that such central marches tend to be kind of useless – yet i don’t blame the protestors for the violent and aggressive outcomes. Before we left i was told that the police has not allowed to walk in groups nor carry banners. Nevertheless i helped to carry for maybe ten minutes a bag full of food supplies for occupied schools that was collected by students of the engineering faculty of the university of chile.

On the Alameda – the largest street in Santiago – i have seen how the police has provoked demonstrators and i have seen protestors turn irrational, as well. If activists are letting themselves in on those street fights i think they are choosing the wrong path. Another world will not be created with stones, bottles, and molotov cocktails. I think it would be smarter if activists would be scattered all around the city and country – ironically, as the police demanded. Spatially distributed protests can still be connected via telephone and internet. Protest activities should not only be limited to marching down streets. Seminars and workshops open to general public could put the discourse on a real-life level. This would mean that even more people would not only see the filtered images on television but could get in contact with the movement for real.

In the last days it became obvious that the people are with the students and not with politicians that are busy laying the blame on each other. The movement should now substantiate their demands and use the terrain – not on the Alameda but in the heads of the Chileans – to present an alternative model of education based on equality and emancipation instead of profit and exploitation. Therefore i think it is unwise to turn the students movement into a great mayday gathering with all the destruction included. Media, state, and capital are just waiting for more broken glass to denounce the movement.

More photos in the photo set.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 at 7:20 pm and is filed under english, education, selfrule, santiago. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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