Massive Movement for Free Education in Chile
Just like pretty much everywhere around the world people in Chile have been resisting the increasing privatisation and commercialisation of education for the past few years. The latest wave of protests errupted at the end of May this year. The following article gives an impression of the struggle with a collection of video’s in English, Dutch and Spanish.
A fellow activist in Chile sent in a report on June 4th to give some background information on the current movement.
By the way, the independent communication platform International Student Movement (ISM) can be used by groups and activists to inform about the developments on the local level, network with people worldwide and make coordinations.
June 2011 saw dozens of huge demonstrations for free education across Chile. Schools and universities have been occupied and the whole education system pretty much paralysed. To get a better idea of what has been going on, here is a collection of videos.
Let’s begin with a general clip, that was recorded by activists to inform people worldwide in many different languages on the situation. This video was uploaded on June 26th:
Nederlands
English
En nog in andere talen: ~ French ~ German ~ Dutch ~ Icelandic ~ Italian ~ Japanese ~ Korean ~ Mandarin (Chinese) ~ Norwegian ~ Portuguese ~ Russian ~ Spanish ~
June 30th: Massive strike with demonstrations in various cities across Chile; 120,000 protesters in Santiago, 30,000 in Concepción, 20,000 in Valparaísos and 15,000 in Temuco. All together about 300,000 people took to the streets for free education across the country. Thirteen students were arrested during clashes between riot police and protesters in Santiago.
June 25th: Students staged a mass performance of Michael Jackson’s Thriller in a protest over higher education in Santiago.
June 23th: About ten thousand students and pupils took to the streets of Santiago. Protesters were attacked with water canons and tear gas. Several students were detained by riot police.
June 16th: More than 100,000 students, pupils, lecturers and parents joined a massive demonstration in Santiago. About another 100,000 took to the streets in other parts of the country.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/wJMXpPXklIM
June 15th: Students fight back against police and WIN (Politie in de pan gehakt door studenten in Chili)
June 1st: About 25,000 students protested on the streets of Santiago.