Stop the reprisals against the leaders of the student movement,
the “penguin revolution”.
During the course of the year more than 600.000
school students and students have been involved in a protest movement. Lead by
secondary school students, the “penguins” as they have become known for their
school uniforms, the movement went on to occupy more than a hundred schools and
reached out to university students and students in lower grades and included
them in the democratic organisation of a protest to demand free and accessible
education for everyone.
The movement started as a protest against the
poor quality of secondary education, the lack of access for working class youth
and the social inequality which the education system reproduces. The protest
movement was organised in a most democratic manner. All decisions were taken in
general assembly after a debate in the classes and the election of
representatives to the general assembly. Representatives had to explain
themselves to their comrades and were subject to recall at any time the local
assembly chose to do so.
The students demanded better study material in
their schools, free bus passes and free school meals but they also demanded
that the law governing education, inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship,
would be scrapped out of the constitution. Pinochet had written this law, which
effectively promotes privatisation of the education, into the Chilean
constitution in the last days of his dictatorship. Today everyone across the
political spectrum agrees that the education system is failing but no-one,
neither the government nor the right wing opposition is prepared to support the
reforms the students are asking and guarantee quality and free education.
The authorities, in a bid to gain time, have
established a “Presidential Advisory Council of Education” to study the
problems. It still has to meet. The students are growing tired of these
political games and in some places protests have been rekindled while the
authorities are trying to manoeuvre to break the student movement by expelling
student leaders from their schools or by buying them with personal and
political favours.
One case of repression by the government is what
is happening to Simón Sepúlveda,
a student of the 4th grade of the
Another example are the tens of students that
have been suspended and the professors that have been sacked at Arcis, a private run university, owned by the Chilean
Communist Party and run by employers who used to be members of the MIR in the
past. To take revenge for the earlier occupation of the university, the
authorities suspended students for several semesters and sacked different
professors, several of them of great prestige, including the winner of the last
“Gabriel Salazar National History price”.
On the fifth of September the students of the
Socialismo Revolucionario, the CWI in
Underneath you will find a model letter (which you can modify) to send to
the Chilean authorities to demand an end to the repression of the student
movement and to demand the reinstatement of the young student leader Simón Sepúlveda. At the end of
the letter we include a number of addresses.
We have been informed by the Committee for a Workers’ International, an
organisation with a presence in more than 35 countries worldwide, that the
young student leader Simón Sepúlveda,
who is one of the spokespeople for the student general assembly in the East of
Santiago, has been the victim of brutal repression aimed at denying him his
fundamental democratic rights. He has been indefinitely suspended from his
school “Liceo Polivalente
José Ignacio Zenteno” in the Maipu
district. This suspension is aimed at denying him the opportunity to speak on
behalf of his fellow school students.
We have long standing links with the Chilean community in
So it is with astonishment that we now find ourselves in a position to have
to protest against the measures taken by the Bachelet
government against the student movement. In our humble opinion these measures;
the beating of students by the police, the tear gassing of demonstrations and
the numerous random arrests, echo the practices of the Pinochet dictatorship.
With this protest letter we want to draw your
attention to the case of Simón Sepúlveda
who has been suspended from attending classes since the 28th of August. This is
clearly a repressive measure aimed at isolating this young student leader.
The indefinite suspension is a threat hanging
over the heads of all leaders of the student movement. It seeks to destroy
their undeniable right to free speech and thought, their right to represent
their fellow students and their right to continue their studies and future.
We are writing to you to demand an immediate end
to the suspension of Simón and all other students and
teachers who are victims of the repressive measures taken by the Bachelet government and the repressive state apparatus.
Sincerely,
1) Chilean President
Mrs Michelle Bachelet
To send and email go to the webpage:
http://www.presidencia.cl/view/viewRegistraUsuario.asp
2) Ministry of education
Mrs. Yasna Provoste
3) Mayor of Maipu
Mr. Alberto Undurraga Vicuña
4) Mrs head of the Liceo Polivalente de José Ignacio Zenteno,
Cecilia Barrenechea
Go the following page to send email:
http://www.codeduc.cl/index.php?option=com_contact&Itemid=3
Please send copies to:
srcitchile@gmail.com y cwi@worldsoc.co.uk