Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: Chile's Progressive Victory

Suzi talks to Pablo Abufom (https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/pablo-abufom) about the historic victory for progressives in the election held in Chile on May 15-16 (https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/05/chile-may-elections-constitutional-convention-new-constitution-frente-amplio-chilean-communist-party-alliances-left-bloc). This outcome would have been unimaginable just two years ago, after nearly fifty years of neoliberal governance, first under Pinochet’s brutal military dictatorship until 1990, then the so-called center-left Concertación. We can thank the social protests of October 2019 for this epoch-making achievement, showing that mobilized popular forces could win against the long entrenched center and right. A key demand that emerged and united the protestors was for a new constitution to replace the fraudulently approved 1980 Pinochet Constitution which had cemented neoliberal, repressive rule against any attempt to create a more equitable society. That new constitution would not be written by members of the political class, but by delegates elected by the people, with gender parity and indigenous representation. Pablo Abufom was in the thick of the 2019 protest movement (https://blubrry.com/jacobin/51276508/jacobin-radio-october-uprisings-in-chile-and-lebanon/) and spoke to us about it at the time. He returns to explain what has been won by the new left coalition Apruebo Dignidad in the elections, as well as the possible pitfalls that lay ahead.