On The Grassroots Struggle To Create A New Constitution In Chile

Yesterday (4th September) New Zealand’s Chilean community voted overwhelmingly to approve a draft constitution in their homeland. It has been described as the world’s first truly feminist, environmental, and indigenous constitution. In Wellington the vote was 84% to approve and just 16% rejecting, and in Auckland it was 72% to 28%.

The votes were called out one-by-one and an audible groan could be heard among the small crowd at Wellington’s Mercure Hotel, just after 6pm, Sunday night, as the first vote – quite possibly the first in the world – was called out: rechazo – reject. A much louder cheer went up for each of the next four “apreuba” – approve – votes.

With New Zealand’s votes totaling just 1,045 they’re not going to have any significant impact on the outcome of a plebiscite with around 15 million eligible voters. But the size of the victory – which has been reported on Chilean TV – will be welcomed by supporters of the draft constitution. Polls in Chile have had “aprueba” trailing “rechazo” in recent weeks.

Elizabeth Paine compares the significance of the Constitution and the events leading up to it to the French Revolution. Paine arrived in New Zealand in 1976 as a six-year-old refugee from the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Her dad had been a union organizer and active supporter of the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende, over-thrown in a bloody coup three years earlier.

Like tens of thousands of other he was imprisoned and tortured. Thousands more were executed, or disappeared.

Paine, a history graduate, says the despertar – or awakening - in Chile of the past three years – has been inspiring. She wants people to know that this is a constitution that was written not by lawyers and professionals but by a representative assembly reflecting the full diversity of Chile.

“It was absolutely amazing to me, to see people from all walks of life, artists, midwifes, indigenous people writing a new constitution.It’s a powerful statement,” she says.

Paine is right. It is an incredible story, a truly historic event, that’s largely been ignored by local media, despite Chile’s relative proximity to New Zealand and despite the many parallels in the countries’ histories. Both are settler colonial states – with a shared history of dispossession and oppression of indigenous peoples. In more recent times, both New Zealand and Chile embraced neo-liberalism with a zeal rarely seen in other countries.

The Origin Story

In most tellings, this plebiscite had its genesis in a 30-peso (about 6 cent) hike in subway fares in 2019, which sparked a schoolkids’ rebellion.

Auckland University Centre for Latin American Studies director, associate professor Walescka Pino-Ojeda says on one level that’s true, but she dates the beginning of the social movement to overturn the Pinochet-era constitution to the so-called Revolucion Pinguina ( Penguin Revolution) of 2006. At that time, the protests and school occupations took their name from the blue and white school uniforms worn by secondary school students in Chile.

Pino-Ojeda says the school strikes and occupations, involving close to 800,000 school kids, took aim at an education system that provided a first-rate education system to the children of the elite, and a third rate one to everyone else. The massive social inequalities of Chile were front and centre among the children’s demands.

In one unforgettable event the teenagers who had barricaded themselves into their school took to sharing their lunches with the homeless. “These protests were organized by the first generation born into democracy,” Pino-Ojeda says. She says the students were demanding a change to the system but quickly realised that a large part of the problem was the country’s existing constitution.

The dictatorship’s parting gift

The 1980 constitution was the dictator Augusto Pinochet’s parting gift to the nation. It was drafted by the law professor and far-right senator Jaime Guzman. It cemented in place the neo-liberal reforms introduced by Pinochet under the guidance of Milton Friedman’s “Chicago boys.”

Guzman, Pino-Ojeda says, was extremely intelligent but fanatically rightwing, an adherent of Opus Dei, and part of a rightwing movement in Latin America which took its political cues from Franco’s Spain, and its economic cues from US neo-liberals. In New Zealand terms, the constitution reads like a document drafted by the Business Roundtable’s Roger Kerr with assistance from “morals” crusader Patricia Bartlett.

But it being Chile, the military also had input, ensuring that it continued to appoint its own leadership, and guaranteeing it representation in the Senate.

Pino-Ojeda says the constitution, “which was agreed on by a group of white men”, was about limiting the role of the state and retaining the power of the elites: be they business interests, the leaders of wealthy municipalities or the military.

It resulted in a minimal state where the likes of water, pensions and healthcare were all placed in the hands of the private sector.

In 2011, protests erupted again. This time they were started by university students – many of whom at been active in the Penguin Revolution – and this quickly grew into a much wider social movement including indigenous communities, pensioners, and workers. It was a rebellion against an entrenched system that profoundly disadvantaged the poor and marginalized groups : “And in that sense, it was a rebellion against Pinochet’s legacy, but the students weren’t necessarily aware of that.”

Pino-Ojeda says this rebellion was very different from the movement that bought Allende to government in the early 1970s. In contrast to that movement, which was led by political parties, the new generation of protestors was more organic and to some extent, weary of organised political parties. She says those protests resulted in some concessions – free education for some based on either grades or deprivation – but it didn’t change the system per se.

The concessions lowered the pressure, but the pot continued to simmer. Then in 2019 it boiled over.

How a hike in metro fares led to a constitutional revolution

It was that 30-peso hike in metro fares that saw the pot begin to boil. Schoolkids simply refused to pay it. They took to jumping the barriers, holdings protests and demanding reform

The response from the then-president Sebastian Piñera was brutal. The police and army took to the streets with a level of force that makes the police reaction to the 1981 Springbok Tour look like Gandhi-inspired policing.

Metro stations were torched, with many believing agent provocateurs were responsible. For an outsider looking in it seemed like a tailor-made law and order crisis that would presumably see the population falling behind a President cracking down on anarchic youth. Instead, 4 million Chileans took to the streets in support of the students. One and a half million marched in Santiago alone. These were the biggest protests in the country’s history.

“A beautiful aspect of the protests was that you never saw one political flag being waved. It was totally grassroots driven. And the [only] flags that were waving in these marches were the Chilean flag, and the indigenous Mapuche flag.”

There were grandparents and babies on the protests which had a festival-like atmosphere. A stand-off between the rightwing government and a vast political movement was developing. The government knew that it wasn’t going to end by itself, and that its prior attempts to use state violence to deal with the protests had backfired spectacularly.

This is when a former student leader and leftwing member of the chamber of deputies, Gabriel Boric, stepped forward with a proposal to break the impasse. The plan envisaged a two-part plebiscite. The first part would decide whether the country needed a new constitution, and the second would decide whether this document should be drafted by politicians and legal experts, or by a constituent assembly representative of all of Chile. Nearly 80% voted for a new constitution and the same number supported the formation of a constituent assembly.

Last March, Boric was elected president of Chile

The feminist wave

Most of what’s being described went largely under the radar of the Western media, but one event did make global headlines. A feminist collective, Las Tesis, created a street performance called “The Rapist is You.” It became a sensation, sparking a wave of mass performances around the globe.

Not since the Madre de Plaza de Mayo vigils in neighbouring Argentina had a women’s protest in Latin America sparked such international interest. But whereas the Argentinian protests were a silent rebuke of the crimes of Argentinian’s military by the mothers of the disappeared, the Chilean protests were made up mainly of young women who were as joyous as they were angry.

The nuances of “The Rapist is You” were no doubt lost on most of us outside Chile. The chant included a verse from the anthem of the police force, references to torture, and a celebration by women of their sensuality that comprised a direct rebuke to victim blaming. Pino-Ojeda believes “The Rapist Is You” phenomenon helped to place feminism firmly on the constituent assembly agenda.

Women comprised 50% of the assembly membership. One of the recommendations of the draft constitution is that all government and private sector companies be required to have 50% female representation.

The Constituent Assembly

The 155-strong assembly elected an indigenous Mapuche professor and activist, Elisa Loncon, to lead it in the first half, while in the last 6 months it was led by a medical doctor, María Elisa Quinteros. The constituent assembly included representatives from Chile’s 11 indigenous communities – including the Polynesians of Rapanui.

Pino-Ojeda says the draft constitution which emerged from the assembly is a profoundly Latin American document, based on the struggle against neo-colonialism.

She says it embraces the concept of buen vivir – to live well. “It means to live not only in harmony among ourselves, but with Mother Nature. The main concept that is in the new constitution is that human beings are intertwined with nature that we are not divorced from nature,” she says.”This is a form of knowledge that is not coming from universities and from Western forms of understanding. It is deeply indigenous.”

One of the main criticisms of the draft constitution is its length. With 388 articles it would be the world’s longest constitution should the draft be adopted in full. (The 1980 constitution has 128 articles.)

Pino-Ojeda says it goes into details that probably don’t belong in a constitution. “This is a draft. And if approved, it will go through processes of refreshment, for refurbishment. And when these principles are converted into law, then it is going to be different.” She says it’s important to remember that it is a document from sectors of society which have literally never had a voice in the nation’s history. They had a lot they wanted to say.

The political right in Chile has spent huge amounts of money campaigning against the draft constitution. Pino-Ojeda accuses them of using Trump-like tactics to discredit it. “They are instilling a climate of terror.”

The Trump comparison was also made by the three other Chileans living in New Zealand spoken to during the writing of this article. They described a well-funded campaign of misinformation and scare-mongering (the communists will ban religion and take your assets) taking place mainly on social media.

Pino-Ojeda says the rightwing establishment’s rejection of the draft constitution was to be expected, but the rejection by elements of the centre-left came as more of a surprise. “There are social and ethnic elites, who identify with Europe and the US, and they don’t want to relinquish the privilege of feeling superior to the poor and indigenous communities.”

The economists vs The Economist

In an open letter, 40 leading international economists - including the likes Thomas Piketty, Mariana Mazzucato, Ha-Joon Chang, James K Galbraith and Jayati Ghosh – have declared their support for “the visionary document that the Constitutional Convention has produced to ensure sustainable growth and shared prosperity for Chile.”

It is worth quoting the letter at length.

“We believe that the new Constitution sets a new global standard in response to the crises of climate change, economic insecurity and sustainable development. The economic provisions of the Constitution would represent a gradual but substantial advance for the people of Chile.

“The approach to gender issues in the Constitution marks a great leap forward in the economic model of development. For the first time, a constitution recognizes care work, social reproduction, and women's health as fundamental to the prospects of the economy.

“The approach to public services and social security is another source of inspiration. By establishing new institutions for the provision of universal basic public services such as education, health and social security, Chile successfully applies the lessons of recent history that show the importance of these services for both short-term economic resilience and economic growth. long-term.

“The Constitution's tax policy mandates promise to address Chile's economic inequality - one of the highest in the OECD - while improving tax collection to OECD standards, reducing reliance on extractivist revenues, and contributing to sustainable public finances.

“The approach to work represents an important and democratic response to our times. By consecrating rights to work and collective action, the [draft] Constitution aims to compensate for the crisis of precariousness that affects economies around the world.

“Finally, the approach to the central bank sets a new global reference By enshrining the mandate that takes into account financial stability, job protection and environmental care, the Constitution establishes a responsible structure for the central bank that fits in the 21st century.”

By way of contrast, The Economist, a long-time cheerleader of neo-liberal economics, published an editorial illustrated by a picture of the constitution printed on a toilet roll. Under the headline “Magna mistake,” The Economist said that Chile’s draft constitution is a fiscally irresponsible left-wing wish list, and urged voter to reject it. It would be tempting to call this a new low for the magazine. But that would be to overlook the magazine’s 1973 craven editorial in the wake of the Pinochet coup. At that time, the Economist had declared:

…If a bloody civil war does ensue, or if the generals who have now seized power decide not to hold new elections, there must be no confusion about where the responsibility for Chile's tragedy lies. It lies with Dr Allende and those in the Marxist parties who pursued a strategy for the seizure of total power, to the point at which the opposition despaired of being able to restrain them by constitutional means.

Allegedly…the military had no choice. According to the Economist, the responsibility for the death of thousands and the torture of tens of thousands at the hands of military (brought to power with the active assistance of the CIA) rests solely with Chile’s democratically leader, Salvador Allende.

No mention, of course, of the covert role played by Britain in trying to prevent Allende’s election victory. “Disgusting,” is Pino-Ojeda’s succinct summary of the Economist’s editorial.

From Pinochet’s concentration camp to a polling booth in Wellington

Luisa Caroca Gandarillas, a scrutineer for the Socialist Party of Chile at yesterday's voting booth in Wellington, was literally conceived in one of Pinochet’s concentration camps. Her father, Luis Caroca, was a student leader and activist in the Chilean Socialist Party. On the evening of 11 September 1973, aged just 19, he was arrested. For the next 30 months he was taken from prison cell to military camp to concentration camp. For 12 of those months, he was “disappeared,” with his family having no idea of whether he was alive or dead.

Luisa isn’t sure of the exact details and there are elements to the story that would be right at home in one Isabella Allende’s novels.

Luis taught himself to knit and proceeded to obtain the brightest colour wool he could. He then made himself a sweater which he wore day in, day out in the heat of the desert sun while he dug trenches where the bodies of his executed compañeros would later be buried. Meanwhile, his girlfriend, Julia Gandarillas, heard through a clandestine network that Luis was alive and imprisoned, and that he was being held in captivity back in his hometown of Iquique.

Each day Julia took a stroll, getting as close as she could to a telecommunication centre which the military had taken over and were known to be operating as an internment camp. One day she saw a prisoner wearing a multi-coloured sweater in the sweltering desert heat and knew immediately it was her boyfriend.

When Julia finally got permission to visit Luis in prison he proposed. Later they were married in a prison cell with rings he had made by melting down silver pesos. In Latin America, even in dictatorship, conjugal visits are allowed in prison, and that’s how Luisa came to be conceived in one of Pinochet’s concentration camps

International pressure on Chile to release political prisoners, saw the junta offering some inmates a choice between completing their sentences – 15 years in Luis’ case - or exile. Luis and Julia chose exile and in 1976 they arrived with a then two-year old Luisa in Copenhagen. In the late 1990s, the family which now includes four daughters, returned to Chile. Luis is retired but still politically active and a strong supporter of the new constitution. Julia works for the Ministry for Women and is also an enthusiastic supporter of the draft constitution.

Luis is helping build a memorial for the victims of the dictatorship in the fishing village of Pisagua. A once prosperous town thanks to its proximity to a saltpetre mine – an essential ingredient in gunpowder. The town’s main hotel was used as a concentration camp by the Pinochet regime and Luis is now, with the help of architecture students, trade apprentices, and the support of the government, transforming it into a permanent reminder of the evils carried out by the dictatorship.

“It’s a symbolic action to get some recompense for the crimes committed against them and the loss of the lives they would have lived in Chile,” Luisa says.He’s also taking a class action against the government to obtain recognition for the suffering endured by political prisoners during the dictatorship - there are just two survivors left. And Luisa says her mum, Julia, is “an incredible fighter for women’s rights.” A former director of women’s refuges, Julia has run workshops with the country’s police and military in an effort to rid them of their entrenched misogyny.

But Chile remains a divided country. A few years back, as a multi-lingual public servant Luisa was asked to translate on a visit to the Gallipoli exhibition at Te Papa by the visiting Chief of Chile’s Armed Forces. The Chief in other words, of the organisation, responsible for the torture of her dad, and tens of thousands of others, and the murder of thousands. As she guided him around the exhibition, she couldn’t help but note the similarities between the First World War trenches the trenches her father was forced to dig in the desert of northern Chile.“I think it speaks to my professionalism that I didn’t mention my family’s experience at the hands of his army,” she says.

Luisa can’t pinpoint one clause in the constitution that explains the sense of hope that the document gives her. “It’s just everything. It’s the glimmer of hope it gives, the ambition, that people will be able to live a dignified life. But there is also something very exciting that my birth country - which I love very much will be the first in modern history in a global scale to have a constitution written by ordinary men and women, for the environment, for its indigenous people and for the future”.

Editor’s Note: Within the next 24 hours, the outcome of the vote will be known. Opinion polls suggest the reformers will lose. If so, that will not be the end of this extraordinary battle. Werewolf will continue to report on this story. In passing, the disinterest of local media in the Chile vote seems quite telling. Events that occur elsewhere that (a) do not reflect superpower rivalries or that (b) lack a direct NZ involvement seem to be routinely ignored by our mainstream media.

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