More than one million Chileans took to the streets (26 October 2019) for an anti-government march. Protests were initially sparked by a 30 pesos (£0.03) hike in the Greater Santiago metro fare, with a group of secondary school students coordinating a fare evasion in response. But protests quickly turned into a mass mobilisation against inequality and injustice being created and sustained by Chile’s political system.

Chileans are demanding an end to social and economic inequality with nothing less than a democratic revolution. A mass movement of Chileans has been unified in a recognition that it is the political system that is producing social and economic inequality - and a just society therefore requires a new and democratic political system. The system that created the crisis of inequality will not and can not solve the crisis.

Chileans are demanding social and economic rights, and justice for all, in a new constitution that would replace Chile’s current constitution, which dates back to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. With more mass protest planned for late October, Chileans will continue to gather in mass protest to demand a democratic political system: one that is created democratically by the people through a constituent assembly (asamblea constituyente), and which enshrines equality and justice for all.

Government for profit, not people

Chile is “often praised as a capitalist oasis”, according to the New York Times. It is one of the most stable developed economies in the world, and one of the strongest in Latin America. But this business-friendly economy has been created by the government working over decades for profit, instead of people. 

Chile was the testing ground for the neoliberal policies of the Chicago School of economists. This agenda treated the state primarily as a delivery mechanism for economic growth, even when this was at odds with democracy and public welfare. The political choices made by Chilean governments following this approach saw the abolition of public services through privatisation, deregulation of the economy, weak protections for citizens’ social and economic rights, and low tax.

Despite having a stable economy inequality in Chile is pervasive and deeply entrenched as the result of this political agenda. While the number of people living in poverty has been falling, Chile has the highest level of inequality among the 30 richest OECD nations. A state that is orientated towards serving the economy above all else has disproportionately benefited a small economic elites, resulting in staggering levels of wealth inequality in Chile: 1% of the population has hoarded 26.5% of the country's wealth, while the 50% of low-income households control just 2.1% of wealth.

These policies bare a striking resemblance to the approach of successive UK governments, which have adopted a consensus around the neoliberal economic agenda for the past four decades. Many public services and utilities, such as the railway network and water in England, have already been privatised. There is creeping privatisation of social protections like pensions, with introduction of statutory requirements around individual contributions to private pensions pots, along with the reduction in the number of state-supported public pension years resulting from the increased state pension age.

In the UK, there have been concerns about accelerated privatisation of the NHS in England following the Coalition government’s Health and Social Care Act 2012, and the social care system in the UK is already privatised, albeit with some minimal public funding provisions: in Scotland personal care home is free; while in Wales care costs are capped; and in England there is meagre means-tested funding provided by local authorities.

Challenging the state

The slogan adopted by protesters, “it’s not about 30 pesos, it’s about 30 years”, captures the spirit of and motivation behind Chile’s mass movement for more democracy. It summons an inextricable tie between social and economic inequality, and the political system that produces it. Dealing with inequality therefore requires an overhaul of the state and a democratisation of the political system so that it orientated to serve the people, first and foremost.

Both the constitutional powers of Chile’s government, which have been used to brutally suppress protesters, as well as Chile’s path towards entrenched social and economic inequality, find their origin in the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. 

Chile was infamously a testing ground for neoliberalism. Marieke Riethof, a Senior Lecturer in Latin American Politics at the University of Liverpool, has written about how Pinochet’s policies in the 1970s included “the elimination of subsidies, welfare reform, and the privatisation of state-owned companies, the health sector, education and pensions” which resulted in “high levels of unemployment, declining real wages, and expensive social services, such as education”. Riethof points out that even after Pinochet was removed from power, the legacy of his social and economic policies has persisted because there was little appetite from political parties for change: “the impact is clear today in education, characterised by low levels of public spending and highly unequal access to good-quality schools and universities.”

The Chilean government has a disproportionate amount of power over the people of Chile. One result of this has been the steadfast adoption of policies which have created an unjust and unequal society. The failure to protect social and economic rights and create a just and fair society through the provision of adequate public services is the state abdicating its duty to citizens. It is undemocratic.

The government’s use of violence has also demonstrated that the state is willing to use its monopoly on power to fight against citizens demanding basic social and economic rights. There have been incidents of police brutality, including the deployment of tear gas and water canons. At the time of writing nearly 3,000 protesters having been detained, 2,500 injured, and 19 killed. In deploying the powers of Pinochet’s constitution, including sweeping emergency powers and a curfew, the Chilean government has undermined its own claim to democratic legitimacy.

Demanding justice and a democratic constitution

The existence of social and economic inequality is an injustice, and a product of a political system that is not responsive to the needs of the people. It is a signal that the state has not fulfilled its duty to the public, and therefore does not legitimately hold power. A political system that creates injustice is not one that can deliver justice, and so Chilean protesters have risen up against widespread inequality and injustice by demanding a new democratic political system.

Many Chileans are now demanding a democratic revolution in the form of a new constitution that protests social and economic rights, and which is created democratically through a participatory constituent assembly. Francisca Perales, a member of the national directive of Convergencia Social in the Valparaíso region, part of the Frente Amplio (Broad Left)  electoral alliance, told Jacobin: “We must continue to mobilize to advance along this path of transformation of our society, which allows us to build a more participatory and deeply democratic Chile.”

In demanding a new constitution as a remedy to inequality, Chileans are targeting the root of inequality: the political system that produces it. Permanently ending social and economic inequality requires a democratic political system that is orientated towards social and economic justice. This is a powerful and realisable remedy to inequality and injustice. More democracy, not less, can unify a people to take collective action in demand of a fair and just society that values and protects equality for all.

This blog is by Sarah, Unlock Democracy’s Senior Policy and Communications Officer.