Chile's Social Earthquake

by Roger Burbach from Global Alternatives. The author provides an honest update on Chilean society under the post Pinochet governments that have been touted so much in US media as a paragon of neo-liberal virtues.

The rampant ideology of the free market has produced a deep sense of alienation among much of the population. Although a coalition of center left parties replaced the Pinochet regime twenty years ago, it opted to depoliticize the country, to rule from the top down, allowing controlled elections every few years, shunting aside the popular organizations and social movements that had brought down the dictatorship.

The Chilean people seem to be way ahead of activists in the US who can't seem to imagine working outside the system to protect their communities and promote real change.

A coalition of over sixty social and nongovernmental organizations released a letter stating: “In these dramatic circumstances, organized citizens have proven capable of providing urgent, rapid and creative responses to the social crisis that millions of families are experiencing. The most diverse organizations--neighborhood associations, housing and homeless committees, trade unions, university federations and student centers, cultural organizations, environmental groups—are mobilizing, demonstrating the imaginative potential and solidarity of communities.”