Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Chile's Progressive Victory

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Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2021

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

Suzi talks to Pablo Abufom about the historic victory for progressives in the election held in Chile on May 15-16. This outcome would have been unimaginable just two years ago, after nearly fifty years of neoliberal governance, first under Pinochet’s brutal military dictatorship until 1990, then the so-called center-left Concertación. We can thank the social protests of October 2019 for this epoch-making achievement, showing that mobilized popular forces could win against the long entrenched center and right. A key demand that emerged and united the protestors was for a new constitution to replace the fraudulently approved 1980 Pinochet Constitution which had cemented neoliberal, repressive rule against any attempt to create a more equitable society. That new constitution would not be written by members of the political class, but by delegates elected by the people, with gender parity and indigenous representation. Pablo Abufom was in the thick of the 2019 protest movement and spoke to us about it at the time. He returns to explain what has been won by the new left coalition Apruebo Dignidad in the elections, as well as the possible pitfalls that lay ahead.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Jacobin Radio, I'm Suzy Weisman.
0:27.6	Today we're going to look at the best news of the last few weeks, a big win for
0:32.4	progressives in Chile. It's safe to say that this victory would have been
0:37.4	unimaginable just two years ago, that after decades of defeats,
0:41.4	guerrilla dictatorship, and then more decades of center-right governance,
0:46.2	that the mobilized population could win big, defeating not only the right,
0:51.1	but also what we call the so-called center-left, the neoliberal concertation.
0:56.6	We can thank the social protests of October 2019.
1:01.4	One of the huge demands that emerged from that massive protest movement of 2019,
1:06.7	which seems like, I don't know, a lifetime ago before the pandemic lockdowns,
1:12.4	was for a new constitution to replace the fraudulently approved 1980
1:18.1	pinot-shaped constitution that cemented the domination of right-wing legislators
1:22.8	and an entrenched oligarchy to contain and constrain any attempts
1:28.4	to create a less repressive and more equitable society.
1:31.9	Pablo Abufoam was in the thick of the 2019 protest movement and he spoke to us
1:36.7	about it at that time, and today he returns to explain this progressive win
1:42.6	in Chile's elections of May 15th, 16th, and the possible pitfalls that lay ahead.
1:49.6	Pablo Abufoam is a freelance translator, a political analyst,
1:54.0	and activist, he's the editor of Posicione's, which is Chilean journal,
1:59.2	and he's also on the editorial collective of Jacobin for America Latina,
2:04.8	where his article, Chile, the constituent power of the people breaks in,
2:09.5	rough translation, appears.
	...

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