Statement from the Chilean school students on hunger strike
en huelga | 12.09.2011 15:06 | Education | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | World
Translation of communique issued Sunday September 11 by the school students on hunger strike (some for 50 days now) in Santiago, Chile. Education without profit.
Communique of the Students on Hunger Strike in Santiago de Chile
Strike Support Commission
Sunday 11 September 2011, 21:41
To national and international public opinion
To our People, the students in struggle
To all those who have been with us in these long days of hunger strike
Comrades:
In the last few hours the strikers in Castro and Temuco regions in Chile have explained the reasons why they are leaving the movement. We, the secondary school students on
hunger strike in the Metropolitian Region of Santiago, make the following statement:
i. We share the same political unease shown in Temuco on Friday: for us, the social actors of the Movement for Education (Movimiento por la Educación) are part of the problem that we face in visibilising the strike. This is not just about the government and the nature of the Chilean mass media, but also the constant obstruction of those of us who look for much more than just a few words of lukewarm concern expressed in the media every now and then. However, for us the distance and indifference that we have experienced from actors such as CONFECH (Confederation of University Students gathering all public universities' students) is not a relevant argument: the moral ground of the way we choose to fight puts us high above them.
ii. In full consciousness of what we are doing, and bearing in mind both the medical records and the will of each one of us, we are agreed on ONE condition under which we will call off our strike. This is: the re-establishment of the minimum unit (i.e. Non-profit free quality education) in order that the education block maintains and deepens the dialogue with the Executive, including the ACES (a confederation of Secondary School or Liceos).
Being students of the AUTONOMOUS establishments of CONES (another confederation of secondary schools) and ACES, we feel that the development of the
struggle over these three months not only spared nobody, but that the exclusion of ACES excludes a segment of the student population with broad national coverage.
The ACES, furthermore, is our political guarantee that our demands as secondary school students will not be betrayed:
A. Demunicipalisation without privatisation of all establishments
B. Accelaration of the reconstruction of facilities destroyed after the earthquake
C. TNE (discount pass for public transportation for secondary school students ) free of charge, 365 days a year, for all of Chile, including rural transport, since only in Santiago de Chile is working but not in other regions.
D. Paid work placements and improved conditions for technical-professional education.
iii. We insist that the responsibility for the deterioration of the state of health of students and proxies on hunger strike continues to lie with the government of Sebastián Piñera Echeñique. This government, with its ideological conditioning, continues to ignore the clamour of the majority of the country, who have understood and enthusiastically joined in with the demands of the students.
iv. All the school students and proxies on hunger strike in the Metropolitan Region are now based in the same establishment, the Liceo Dario Salas, since Friday 9 September, waiting for the government to give rapid and concrete responses to our demand.
All this in the context of the general struggles and the demands which are widely supported by our people: NO MORE PROFIT IN EDUCATION and for PUBLIC, FREE, HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION.
Santiago de Chile, September 11 2011
Johanna Choapa, 54 days on Hunger Strike, Liceo Darío Salas.
Maura Roque, 54 days on Hunger Strike, Liceo Darío Salas.
Karla Fernández, 21 days on Hunger Strike, Liceo Experimental Artístico
Quinta Normal. Francisco Garcia, 21 days on Hunger Strike, Liceo Ministro Abdón Cifuentes La Cisterna.
Silvia Mellado, 23 days on Hunger Strike, Proxy Liceo Dario Salas.
Sergio Yañez, 23 days on Hunger Strike, Proxy Liceo Dario Salas.
Strike Support Commission
Sunday 11 September 2011, 21:41
To national and international public opinion
To our People, the students in struggle
To all those who have been with us in these long days of hunger strike
Comrades:
In the last few hours the strikers in Castro and Temuco regions in Chile have explained the reasons why they are leaving the movement. We, the secondary school students on
hunger strike in the Metropolitian Region of Santiago, make the following statement:
i. We share the same political unease shown in Temuco on Friday: for us, the social actors of the Movement for Education (Movimiento por la Educación) are part of the problem that we face in visibilising the strike. This is not just about the government and the nature of the Chilean mass media, but also the constant obstruction of those of us who look for much more than just a few words of lukewarm concern expressed in the media every now and then. However, for us the distance and indifference that we have experienced from actors such as CONFECH (Confederation of University Students gathering all public universities' students) is not a relevant argument: the moral ground of the way we choose to fight puts us high above them.
ii. In full consciousness of what we are doing, and bearing in mind both the medical records and the will of each one of us, we are agreed on ONE condition under which we will call off our strike. This is: the re-establishment of the minimum unit (i.e. Non-profit free quality education) in order that the education block maintains and deepens the dialogue with the Executive, including the ACES (a confederation of Secondary School or Liceos).
Being students of the AUTONOMOUS establishments of CONES (another confederation of secondary schools) and ACES, we feel that the development of the
struggle over these three months not only spared nobody, but that the exclusion of ACES excludes a segment of the student population with broad national coverage.
The ACES, furthermore, is our political guarantee that our demands as secondary school students will not be betrayed:
A. Demunicipalisation without privatisation of all establishments
B. Accelaration of the reconstruction of facilities destroyed after the earthquake
C. TNE (discount pass for public transportation for secondary school students ) free of charge, 365 days a year, for all of Chile, including rural transport, since only in Santiago de Chile is working but not in other regions.
D. Paid work placements and improved conditions for technical-professional education.
iii. We insist that the responsibility for the deterioration of the state of health of students and proxies on hunger strike continues to lie with the government of Sebastián Piñera Echeñique. This government, with its ideological conditioning, continues to ignore the clamour of the majority of the country, who have understood and enthusiastically joined in with the demands of the students.
iv. All the school students and proxies on hunger strike in the Metropolitan Region are now based in the same establishment, the Liceo Dario Salas, since Friday 9 September, waiting for the government to give rapid and concrete responses to our demand.
All this in the context of the general struggles and the demands which are widely supported by our people: NO MORE PROFIT IN EDUCATION and for PUBLIC, FREE, HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION.
Santiago de Chile, September 11 2011
Johanna Choapa, 54 days on Hunger Strike, Liceo Darío Salas.
Maura Roque, 54 days on Hunger Strike, Liceo Darío Salas.
Karla Fernández, 21 days on Hunger Strike, Liceo Experimental Artístico
Quinta Normal. Francisco Garcia, 21 days on Hunger Strike, Liceo Ministro Abdón Cifuentes La Cisterna.
Silvia Mellado, 23 days on Hunger Strike, Proxy Liceo Dario Salas.
Sergio Yañez, 23 days on Hunger Strike, Proxy Liceo Dario Salas.
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