The 2011 Chilean Student Movement and the Struggle for a New Left

• Author: Manuel Larrabure,Carlos Torchia
• Published date: 01 September 2015
• Date: 01 September 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X14547506
• Subject Matter: Other Articles

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 204, Vol. 42 No. 5, September 2015, 248–268

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X14547506

© 2014 Latin American Perspectives

248

The 2011 Chilean Student Movement and the Struggle

for a New Left

by

Manuel Larrabure and Carlos Torchia

The Chilean student movement that began in early 2011 poses a significant challenge

to Chilean neoliberalism and is beginning to reconfigure left politics within the country.

Specifically, the movement’s demands for free education and public control of strategic

domestic industries strikes at the heart of neoliberalism in Chile. In addition, in emphasiz-

ing the importance of participatory democracy and mass participation, the movement goes

beyond the boundaries of the established left and is now struggling to create a new left

capable of furthering its political goals. This emerging left roughly fits within the politics

of autonomism. In doing so, it displays a break from the experiences of twentieth-century

left politics and is consistent with other recent movements in Latin America. However, the

student movement in Chile risks co-optation by the established political class. In addition,

the autonomous left remains small and lacks a coherent alternative to neoliberalism with

broad appeal. Therefore, the victory of Michelle Bachelet and the Nueva Mayoría in the

2013 elections is unlikely to result in substantial changes to neoliberalism in Chile.

El movimiento estudiantil chileno, que comenzó a principios de 2011, representa un

desafío importante para el neoliberalismo chileno y está empezando a reconfigurar la

política de izquierda en el país. En concreto, las demandas del movimiento para la edu-

cación gratuita y el control público de las industrias nacionales estratégicas toca el corazón

del neoliberalismo en Chile. Además, en destacar la importancia de la democracia partici-

pativa y la participación de las masas, el movimiento va más allá de los límites de la

izquierda establecida y ahora está luchando para crear una nueva izquierda capaz de pro-

mover sus objetivos políticos. Esta izquierda emergente se encaja más o menos dentro de

la política del autonomismo. Al hacerlo, muestra un quiebre con las experiencias de la

política de izquierda del siglo XX, y es consistente con otros movimientos recientes en

América Latina. Sin embargo, el movimiento estudiantil en Chile corre el riesgo de coop-

tación por la clase política establecida. Además, la izquierda autónoma sigue siendo

pequeña y carece de una alternativa coherente al neoliberalismo que tenga amplia atrac-

ción. Por lo tanto, es poco probable que la victoria de Michelle Bachelet y la Nueva Mayoría

en las elecciones de 2013 resulte en cambios sustanciales al neoliberalismo en Chile.

Keywords: Chile, Student movement, New left, Autonomism, Neoliberalism

In the history of neoliberalism, Latin America holds a special place. It was in

Chile that the Pinochet dictatorship first introduced this political and economic

model in the early 1970s, following the overthrow of the socialist president,

Manuel Larrabure and Carlos Torchia are Ph.D. candidates in the Political Science Department at

York University in Toronto, Canada. Larrabure’s research is on alternatives to neoliberalism in

twenty-first-century Latin America and Torchia’s on neoliberalism in Chile.

547506LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X14547506Latin American PerspectivesLarrabure and Torchia / The Chilean Student Movement and The New Left

research-article2014

Larrabure and Torchia / THE CHILEAN STUDENT MOVEMENT AND THE NEW LEFT 249

Salvador Allende. Not surprisingly, Latin America has also been at the fore-

front of struggles against neoliberalism and its claim that “there is no alterna-

tive.” Indeed, it was in 1989 that poor communities in Venezuela climbed down

from the barrios to protest the neoliberal package about to be delivered by the

government. This event, known as the Caracazo, became the first great mass

insurgency against neoliberalism in the region. Soon, others would follow: the

Zapatistas in Mexico, the water and gas wars in Bolivia, the popular assemblies

in Argentina, to name some of the most memorable examples.

In expressing opposition to neoliberalism, these experiences also shared a

commitment to think and act outside the boundaries of twentieth-century left

politics, which predominantly took two forms. The first was the social demo-

cratic path, which relied on technocrats attempting to manipulate the economy

from above. The main avenue for popular participation became top-down

bureaucratic unions that favored the male breadwinner. At best, this model

would eliminate the worst abuses of capitalist markets while providing a

degree of economic development. “Cast your vote and leave it to us” was the

technocratic message to the working classes. Brazil’s Partido dos Trabalhadores

(Workers’ Party) under Lula is a good example of this model.

The second variant of left politics relied on the revolutionary vanguard

party, a tightly insulated political elite that was supposed to lead a transition to

a new society. However, as the experience of the Soviet Union showed us, the

result was a strictly hierarchical party ruling over a centralized and bureau-

cratic state (Devine, 1988; Katz, 2004; Wainwright, 1994). Though often provid-

ing significant material benefits to the working classes, this model can

nevertheless be described as consisting of “vanguard relations of production”

(Lebowitz, 2012). Hence, if the technocratic message of social democracy was

“Leave it to us,” the vanguard’s message ended up being “Do as we say.” In

Latin America, Cuba is most representative of this model.

Departing from the experiences of the twentieth-century left, Latin American

rebellions over the past 20 years consisted of communities and workers self-

organizing and fighting with their own hands and feet. For example, in

Argentina, during its 2001–2002 political and economic crisis, workers and

communities organized themselves through popular assemblies in hundreds

of neighborhoods across the country, creating barter clubs and even local cur-

rencies. In addition, under the banner of “Occupy, Resist, Produce,” workers

began to take over bankrupted private businesses, turning them into self-man-

aged cooperatives, while the unemployed joined organizaciones piqueteras (pick-

eting organizations), helping to establish the country’s solidarity economy

(Dinerstein, 2013; Larrabure, Vieta, and Schugurensky, 2011; Moreno, 2011;

Sitrin, 2006).

Meanwhile, during the gas and water wars in Bolivia between 2000 and 2005,

mass organization and mobilization took place through political bodies such as

the Coordinadora (the Coordinator), a relatively loose network of resistance that

brought together indigenous organizations, radical unionists, and juntas vecina-

les (neighborhood councils), independent neighborhood organizations based on

direct democracy. Finally, Mexico’s Zapatistas, one of the region’s earliest pro-

ponents of breaking away from the politics of the old left, emphasize the impor-

tance of developing horizontal relations and maintaining autonomy from the