CHILE:
MAY 21: NATIONAL DAY OF STRUGGLE:
In the country of Chile May 21 is a national holiday, originally set up to commemorate a Chilean naval victory over the navy of Peru in 1879, during the 'War of the Pacific" in which Chile gained its present northern provinces from Bolivia and Peru. It is also the time of the seasonal opening of Parliament and the President's address to the nation. This year various opposition forces have called for a national day of protest on May 21. The following is a translated statement from the Chilean Frente de Estudiantes Libertarios (Libertarian Student Front) on this day's significance. The original in Spanish is at the A-Infos site. For those interested in more information about the Chilean anarchist movement see the series of reports republished here earlier in the year from Larry Gambone's Porkupine Blog on his recent trip to that country. See also Platformism Without Illusions:Chile at the NEFAC site.
.................................

[Chile] May 21, national day of struggle
May 21 has been transformed into an appointment into a meeting date to protest by the popular organizations to reveal the troubled face of this capitalist model. Also May 21 has come to be one more day in the history of the divisions of the working class and the people of Latin American, to present a further opportunity to strengthen the convergence of struggle, showing that the street is the decisive scene of the people, where we impose our demands by means of our ways of struggle.




But be careful!, For some this May 21 ,before the present context , represents an opportunity for mediation of struggles developed at this time, and a drift into ways that expropriates from us the ability to directly and effectively conquer our demands. In addition, amongst the planners and managers of the dominant bloc are machinations that manifest in a, "convergence with the union bureaucracy " and corresponding political proposals , which develop their concern about the danger of a general mobilisation against their system of reformist intervention in the popular in the world. Likewise we see the articulation of the sectors of "left" who are interwoven with the block that is in power and able to occupy a space in public policy, which demonstrate in their social practices and in their speech an aim of channelling current mobilization towards the hope of parliamentary representation of the"students, workers and others".




Undoubtedly this May 21, will be one more day of protest, that we must must project to the remaining 364 days a year, over and above elections, beyond symbolic unity.




Let us be aware that only the independence of the class to fight ensures the achievements and defines its decision-making capacity. In the same way we must guide our organizations and our efforts to build an alternative power that is within the reach of our own control over social life, because the current order of the politicians is beneath us. The powerful bosses do not feed us, do not educate us , they marginalize and imprison us, being that we are the ones who do the work, we study and educate those who live in the population ...
In summary what we want is a popular class movement ...
Struggle, Create Popular Power!
Libertarian Student Front Valparaiso