On September 22, 2011, wearing a dark suit, a purple tie and a light blue shirt, president Sebastián Piñera went up to the rostrum of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The head of the Chilean government — and nevertheless a successful multimillionaire businessman – had a wide smile on his face. In these times of a worldwide crisis of capitalism, he could claim to have a flourishing economy, judged by a growth rate of more than 6 per cent of GDP (at the beginning of 2011). In the course of his short speech before the main leaders of the world’s states, he also made a point of referring to the social conflict for education which has traversed his country for several months: “We must win the race for development and the battle for the future in the classrooms”, he insisted.

 

He assured his listeners that his government sought “to guarantee education for all and free education for all those who require it”. And if Chile’s young people were struggling valiantly, that was just proof of the good health of Chilean democracy, all of them mobilised for “a noble, grand, beautiful cause, to give an education of quality” to the people. The magic of a politician’s discourse. Who would believe that they were hearing the representative of a hard right, back at the head of the state 20 years after the end of the military dictatorship (in 1989) and engaged, whatever the cost, in the continuity of the “capitalist revolution”, imposed by fire and blood on the ashes of Popular Unity (1970-73) and the corpse of Salvador Allende [1].

 

In the popular neighbourhoods, in the innumerable marches which are crisscrossing the towns and cities of the country, in dozens of occupied secondary schools, colleges and universities, such a discourse is seen as one more provocation. The government does not understand what is stirring in society. Or, rather, it pretends not to understand. On the day of this speech at the UN, colourful demonstrations and processions were informing the Moneda (the presidential palace) that the movement for “free, public and quality” education was not dead. On the evening of September 23, Camila Vallejo, one of the leaders of the Confederation of Students of Chile (Confech), remarked, with a certain irony, that the speech of the president was full of “contradictions, incoherence and inconsistencies”, at the time when he was refusing any serious negotiation and continuing to deploy his arsenal of repression [2].

 

A social movement for education of historical scope

Since the first march of university and secondary school students, on April 28, collective action has not weakened. Quite the contrary [3]. Throughout May, the actions of the movement became bigger. On May 12, the first “nationwide strike for education” exceeded all expectations. On May 21, in Valparaiso, while the president of the republic was making — as he does every year — his annual balance sheet before the nation, tens of thousands of people expressed their anger.

 

Progressively, discontent swelled. The popularity of the Chilean indignados increased. There were 300,000 in the streets on June 30 and 500,000 on August 9 — young people, old people, the middle classes and the popular classes, together. One of the high points of this growing movement was the nationwide strike on August 23-24, called by the United Workers Confederation (CUT) and by more than 80 trade union organisations, protesting about deplorable working conditions but also in support of the mobilised students. The repertoires of collective action that are utilised are varied and often original. In addition to the traditional strategies of the street, the festive and creative aspect is at the centre of the contestation of the youth: carnival, kissing contests, original dances and songs, satirical humour, spectacular actions [4].

 

But we find also more traditional instruments of contestation: strikes in the universities (the public ones, primarily), with the support of the teachers, a multiplication of toma (occupations) and even hunger strikes, carried out by young people who intend to show the world their determination. A whole generation seems to have the wind in its sails, giving rise to the most important social struggle since the big protestas of 1983-84: a generation which did not experience the dictatorship and which was born under the auspices of the pact for neoliberal democratisation.

 

The students have always been important protagonists of the social movement. We could thus go back to the time of the “actors of the secondary” who faced the military regime [5]. The current protests are related to the experiences gained in 2001 (the mochilazo) and to the “penguin rebellion” (of school students, so-called because of their uniform) of 2006. This exemplary mobilisation made the government of the Socialist Party president Michelle Bachelet tremble and cracked the cement of the political consensus [6]. Those who have revolted in 20

---