Thirty years have passed and, although the dictatorship ended, the political class, of all stripes, made no substantive efforts to democratise politics or to modify the economic model of injustices and abuses installed by Pinochet and the Chicago Boys. This political class subordinated itself to big business in order to support it in the reproduction of its wealth and, what is more serious, accepted its dirty money and fell into corruption.

The neoliberal model has built a solid wall that separates Chileans and excludes native peoples. We are not all equal in terms of justice, economic life, work, health, education and housing and, above all, 90% of the elderly suffer the precariousness of starvation pensions.

But the time has come. A new generation dared to confront the model of injustice. The youth installed hope in the hearts of millions of compatriots. This is our debt to them.

First in 2006, and then in 2011, young people led the way with their demand for non-profit, quality education. But other struggles were added to this: women for their freedoms and rights, environmentalists for the protection of ecosystems, the enemies of the AFP and the Isapres for decent pensions and the right to health care without discrimination.

Young and old, men and women, sexual diversity and the different peoples that inhabit our territory joined forces and began the journey to demand changes in favour of justice and against abuses and inequalities.

The great national majority came to the conviction that without these changes there will be no peace in the country, without these changes the insecurity of the Chilean family will persist and without these changes the future of children will continue to be uncertain and many of them will be pushed into crime and drug trafficking, as is happening today.

18 October 2019 was a decisive milestone in the struggle to destroy the wall that divides us. And then, with the installation of the Constitutional Convention, the hope of building a better country, founded on a new Constitution, was consolidated. Because it has become clear that the Guzmán-Pinochet Constitution has only served to enrich a minority and violate the rights of the majority.

The election of Gabriel Boric is the inevitable result of the secondary movement of 2006, which culminated in the beginning of the constitutional discussion. Therein lies his experience, which the older generations did not have to challenge the existing model. The Party of Order has been defeated, but it is still waving its yellow hand.

Boric has expressed a clear commitment to the defence of the freedoms that have been won and now intends to promote the transformations demanded by citizens. These transformations are the best guarantee for peace and security. This is a decisive moment. The destiny of the country is at stake.

Structural reforms of the new government

The reforms that Boric’s programme commits to, will make it possible to build a decent, fairer and more balanced society. They are reforms that hurt the powerful, but they are unavoidable in order to build social tranquillity and move towards economic development. They stand out in particular:

  1. Putting an end to profit in the social area so that education, health, welfare and housing are universal social rights.
  2. Transform the rentier-extractivist production model to build a diversified economy. And that adding value, together with science and technology, will make it possible to recover growth and raise stagnant productivity.
  3. Build a diversified economy to offer quality jobs to all Chileans and put an end to precarious and informal employment.
  4. To move towards real regional decentralisation so that political democracy becomes effective and so that the economy can develop its full potential, currently limited by centralism.
  5. To end the repression of women’s social, political and economic rights, with equal pay for men and women; and the installation of a National Care System that vindicates and values women’s work in the home.
  6. Favour a decisive protection of the environment and the defence of ecosystems over any corporate economic interest. This is the guarantee to end the sacrifice zones, defend communities and protect the fauna and flora of our country.
  7. To favour the recovery of the State as an entrepreneur and above all as a defender of the weakest. An active State that puts an end to the subsidiarity installed in the 1980 Constitution.
  8. A real commitment to the right of indigenous peoples to build their own economic, political, social and cultural destiny.
  9. Promote an international policy that is functional to the proposed economic and social transformations. This means priority alliances with countries that value universal social rights and also with those that have taken the path of productive transformations. And, of course, putting an end to the rhetoric of regional integration in order to advance an effective commitment to diplomatic and economic alliances with Latin American countries.
  10. The tasks of transformation are not easy to carry out. They require a powerful accumulation of forces to confront the economic power and the Party of Order, which runs through Chilean politics, nowadays tinged with yellow.

Boric’s government will have to rely fundamentally on the social movement to push for the dismantling of neoliberalism. In the first place, the workers, the real generators of wealth, who until now have been turned into disposable instruments for the enrichment of 1% of the population.

Secondly, women, crushed by long-standing injustices, and who now, with parity and the National Care System, will become an unprecedented potential for the economic development of the country.

Thirdly, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, cornered by the collusions of big business, and beset by the lack of support from the state, as well as by the high credit levels of the financial system, including the Banco del Estado.

Fourthly, social and territorial organisations throughout the country will be able to recognise themselves in a decentralised system and offer their economic and political initiatives to the central power.

Finally, in the concentrated and abusive economy in which we live, it is necessary to turn consumers into a FORCE to support the transforming government in order to confront, without hesitation, collusion and favour competition.

The firmness of the new government and the FORCE of the social mobilisations are the best guarantee to confront the blackmail of those who try to stop the transformations. The Party of Order, its yellow operators and the oligarchic Senate do not have enough power either to weaken the Constitutional Convention or to challenge the initiatives of a government that has the majority support of the citizens.

The way is open, then, to tear down the wall that divides us. We have a pressing urgency for now. It is time to initiate the changes that our country needs to unite the entire Chilean family and also to recognise the demands of the native peoples. Hope must become reality.