Dérive

  Protests began in Chile during the middle of October following the announcement of a 30 peso fare increase for the national metro service. In response, students staged fare evasion campaigns using the slogan ¡Evade! and occupied dozens of metro stations. The protests have since grown in size, embracing long-standing resentment over income inequality and the privatization of resources such as education and utilities, as well as demands for the resignation of President Enrique Piñera. City walls are covered in various slogans, including Rosa Luxemburg’s famous dictum declaring “socialism or barbarism”, and demonstrators wave the flag of the indigenous Mapuche people. Various reports from the ground paint a compelling picture of class struggle in one of the most unequal countries in Latin America, where 1% of the population controls some 26% of the total wealth. By design, the neoliberal policies pushed forward under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinoche and continued...

  A march by supporters of the Cordones Industriales in the Chilean capital of Santiago (1970).  What can we learn from the past? Over the next several months I'll be talking with a friend about the book Revolutionary Rehearsals, edited by Colin Barker.  The synopsis reads: "Five times in the last 35 years, the working class has posed a radical alternative to the status quo. Although none of these struggles ultimately achieved their goals, they were 'revolutionary rehearsals' that hold important lessons about the struggle for socialism under modern conditions." I'll make five separate posts sharing my notes and our thoughts about the five revolutionary rehearsals examined in the book - France 1968, Chile 1972, Portugal 1974, Iran 1979, and Poland 1980.