Student Movements
Unrelenting.That is the word that floats in my mind as I think about the student movements of Chile and Venezuela. In researching the Constitutions of these two countries and trying to highlight the knowledge derived from what I have learned, the potency of the student movements in the processes of creating these constitutions could not be ignored. Across generations and locations, students have been at the forefront of the fight for democracy in their respective countries.
I am in a position now where I am the voice of many students. I sit as a board member of the undergraduate student association for the University of California and the stories and strength of the students in these countries have resonated deeply with the work that I could only hope to do.
The Chilean student movement is without a doubt the most famous example of the power of student movements. In recent history from 1973 to where we currently stand in 2022, student movements have been there every step of the way for the reforming of every constitution in between. After the coup of the Pinochet regime, students took to the streets to protest the far-right government that would put their education at the hands of neoliberal reformers. Since then that has been their constant struggle: the fight against neoliberalism in education. I wish to highlight in particular the more recent movements of Chile, those particularly that took place in 2011 and moreover in recent history in 2019. The current President of Chile, Gabriel Boric was a powerful student organizer in 2011 where he took to the streets in order to demand quality education, an education that aligns with the true definition of a public education. These students organized a massive National protest that involved thousands of students rallying for free education. Camilla Vallejo and Girogion Jackson were two of the most charismatic student leaders that helped push the agenda of this policy.
In Venezuela, students had long been at the center of the fight for radical left-wing politics; they played a major role in the election of Hugo Chávez. But even then they did not stand idly by and become complacent under a leader that they had supported. After the announcement the radio Caracas television RC TV would be shut down students took to the streets to protest calling on the government to uphold the right to free speech.
Moreover, these two particular examples play well into the struggles felt by students at the University of California and especially in the work that I do. The fight to hold this institution to the standard that they hold for students, we want our institutions to reflect that standard. From fighting to doubling the peel grant to the $48 fix, students at the UC have made it clear that higher education should be free and that it should have access to every student. Thinking of Berkeley specially, the call to Free Speech has been our founding ground. We are the birthplace and even now, we struggle constantly to uphold that for every student and understand what it means in the messy complicated twists of the political sphere we live in.
Andreani, Fabrice, and Damian Alifa. “Chavismo, Student Movements, and the Future of the Left.” NACLA, The North American Congress on Latin America, 11 Mar. 2022, https://nacla.org/chavismo-student-movements.
Bartlett, John. “Students Surge Back to Chile's Streets as Schools Remain Hotbed of Protest.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 1 Nov. 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/01/chile-school-students-protests.
Larrabure, Manuel, and Carlos Torchia. “The 2011 Chilean Student Movement and the Struggle for a New Left.” Latin American Perspectives, vol. 42, no. 5, 2014, pp. 248–268., https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582x14547506.
