We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Chile strike: Clashes mar anti-government protest

Click here to access report from BBC.
Tens of thousands of Chileans have taken to the streets on the second and final day of a general strike to call for far-reaching reforms.
This insurrection stemmed from student protests against socially unjust education policies in Chile. For much more background on this, you must read this article by Ramona Wadi from Upside Down World.
The ongoing student protests in Chile are an unwavering accomplishment aimed at combating the social injustice riddling the country's education system. What started out as a series of peaceful protests has become a manifestation of unity between students, artists and much of the general population in a stance defying the current government’s position regarding social class, cultural difference and political division with regard to education. 
From this report it seems that after the CIA assisted overthrow of the democratically elected government of socialist Allende in 1973, US neoconservatives imposed their influence on Chilean educational policies. And, if they sound familiar, it is because the policies are very much like those being presently implemented right here in the US. 

You see, under the new hegemony of global capitalism, unjust social policies are being introduced everywhere. For the global ruling class of capitalists, boundaries pose no restraints in the pursuit of their interests; they are only used now to control the movement and exploitation of working people. Unless we as workers organize globally and fight back like the Chileans, the Greeks, the Spaniards, the Palestinians, Egyptians, the British, etc, the end result will be a tiny global elite living in luxury on heavily fortified islands amidst oceans of impoverished working people--a tiny 1st world and a huge 3rd world existing everywhere in the world. 

But, take heart, here is some evidence that working people are beginning to organize across boundaries throughout the world.