Celso Calfullan, Committee for a Workers’ International Chile
Barely a month was enough for the ultra-right government to launch huge attacks on Chilean workers and their families. From the first day of taking office, systematic attacks against the working class began.
In just one month, the government of the ultra-right and the businessmen, headed by José Kast, has carried out repeated attacks on the living standards of workers, students, and the poor.
With the brutal rise in oil and gasoline prices, we are seeing everything on the rise, including basic food costs. The government refused to use ‘MEPCO’, a mechanism that the government has for the stabilisation of fuel prices, instead passing on the increases directly to the population. According to the government, the state must reduce costs. It also uses the excuse that the Chilean state is bankrupt, which economists, both right-wing, social democratic and progressive, have denied.
But on the other hand, we see how big businesses continue to increase their profits via price increases. This government wants to lower taxes on the richest sectors of the country (for the richest 1% of society) and in this way increase the profits of the large economic groups. In other words, the rich will become even richer and the poor will become poorer.
But not satisfied with these attacks on the living standards of the working class, they have also taken other measures, such as withdrawing 43 decrees on environmental issues that are being discussed in parliament. These seek to prevent the destruction of the environment by large mining, fishing, or forestry companies.
At the same time, a series of attacks are being conducted in the field of human rights. Under the previous government headed by Gabriel Boric, the ‘Search Plan’ (a commission) was created which was intended to search for all the detainees who disappeared under the dictatorship of the right and the Armed Forces between 1973-1990 and whose remains are still not found. The main people in charge of the Search Plan have already been dismissed from their posts, and it is almost certain that nothing will continue to be done about this issue.
Another relevant issue is the withdrawal of the fisheries law that was being processed in parliament. This means that the ‘Longueira law’ is maintained. This legislation was adopted in Congress as a result of bribes to several parliamentarians who ended up approving a law that gives the Chilean sea to seven families. This has a devastating effect on fishermen, among whom are also the lafquenches (Mapuche fishermen). The only ones to gain from the new legislation are the large fishing and salmon companies in Chile.
The government will also apply 3% cuts to all government ministries. This means that health spending will be reduced by more than 517,000 million pesos, in an area that is already operating at its limit. The limitations and restrictions on healthcare will affect more than 15 million people. In education, a cut of 524,000 million pesos will be carried through. This will make the situation in education even more precarious, where there are also many limitations on resources. There will also be further measures to limit even further access to free higher education, which is already very limited.
The cuts in the other ministries have the same objective; to limit the few social rights that the most oppressed sectors of Chilean society still have, such as the construction of social housing.
Support for the government has fallen rapidly. The government of José Kast has gone from winning 58% in the elections to having barely 41% approval in just a month. This must be the first government since 1990, to date, to see support among the population erode so quickly.
Our perspectives were that after six months or so, we would see a reaction against the government of the ultra-right. But already we have seen massive mobilisations, such as the one on 22 March, on World Water Day. Thousands of people marched through the centre of Santiago. There were also mobilisations in Valparaiso and other cities in Chile. The marches organised by the environmental social movements sought to protest the withdrawal of 43 environmental decrees by the government of Kast, and to warn about risks to ecosystems and access to water.
High school and university students also marched in Santiago on 26 March, two weeks after Kast took office. The protests were called by ACES and Confech (organisations of secondary and university students). They rejected the 3% cut in education and the attacks on free education, which are a massive setback for that sector.
What should workers, students and residents do in the face of these brutal attacks on our living standards?
The working class throughout its history has only one way to defend its most basic rights, such as the right to a dignified life – through mass struggles. A fundamental tool of workers’ struggle has historically been to organise a general strike to stop the abuses of the bosses, not only in Chile, but throughout the world.
We believe that the time has come to start preparing a plan of organisation and struggle. It is not enough just to call a general strike; we need to organise local committees of struggle in every community, place of work and study. These need to be formed in every town or village, in every commune, in every region, in every corner of this country, to prepare for a successful strike and stoppage, and to force the employers and the right to respect our minimum rights as human beings.
If the workers cannot organise a successful struggle, the right-wing and the bosses will override all our rights and will take us back to the last century or even further back.
The struggle for a workers’ government and a socialist society is still more relevant than ever before in the history of humanity.
Socialism or barbarism, there are no other alternatives!
