A-Infos (en) Anarkismo.net: Chile, Elections DATE: A step in a long road ahead by Oliver Evans (ca) [machine translation]

FIGHT ---- The historic role of the University of Chile in higher education in the 
country, while the main "public university" is also reflected in the importance of the 
Student Federation of the University of Chile (DATE) in the student movement. In this 
regard the recent elections mark a milestone in the deployment of Intent Revolutionary 
Left (IIR) since through Fighting Platform are positioned as an alternative to the bet and 
the Young Communists autonomism. In this sense it is important to analyze which implies 
from a class perspective, the emergence of such alternatives that go counter to the 
analyzes and projections made by the traditional media. ---- "Choosing to Fight DATE: with 
one foot in the street and another in college" 11/09/2012  ---- The historic role of the 
University of Chile in higher education in the country, while the main "public university" 
is also reflected in the importance of the Student Federation of the University of Chile 
(DATE) in the student movement.

In this regard the recent elections mark a milestone in the deployment of Intent 
Revolutionary Left (IIR) since through Fighting Platform are positioned as an alternative 
to the bet and the Young Communists autonomism. In this sense it is important to analyze 
which implies from a class perspective, the emergence of such alternatives that go counter 
to the analyzes and projections made by the traditional media.

As a caveat, it is necessary to clarify that to refer to this juncture I consider 
essential to avoid two common readings made on charges of representation within social 
movements, readings that share the same conception of power as potestas, despite 
responding at positions which are usually considered as antithetical. The first of these 
readings, identifies driving the social movement with the actions of their leaders by 
reducing the activities of the foundation to a passive role, or at best merely responsive. 
The second reading, reducing the role of the leaders to a purely formal role, saying they 
were the "foundation" who "independently" of its leaders determine the course of a 
political process. Both readings, "modernism" and "basismo" respectively, are unable to 
account for the complex web of relationships that exist within social movements. Taking 
into account the above and compared to the results of the elections of the DATE, it is 
important to note that the electoral situation not a victory (or defeat) by themselves to 
any political sector, nor can deny its effect on the correlation of forces that are set to 
face the political processes that must confront the student movement in the next period. 
In this sense, one can argue that the election results determine a field of possibilities 
and political opportunities for the different political forces present in the University 
of Chile, however, how these opportunities are realized will depend on the role they play 
each of these forces.

In my view, the focus should be an analysis of the election DATE must be in the 
characterization of the field of possibilities, leaving aside the temptation to focus on 
the task of identifying the factors that explain these results. While this analysis is 
necessary, it is for self evaluation and that each of the policy areas that directly or 
indirectly involved in this election, you must perform.

Convergence:

The election results FECH, marked one of the most important milestones in the process of 
convergence to the IIR has made in the last two years. Successful fight in this election 
is an opportunity for the IIR to build unity through diversity and complementarity in 
pursuit of common goals. In other words the creation of space Fight as convergence of IIR 
represents the possibility of overcoming the mechanical unit (one that is made from 
ideological or social identity) and the instrument unit (one that is made from the 
electoral calculus) to advance in forms of organic unity, ie one in which political 
differences are complementary in achieving certain common objectives.

Constitution Project:

Convergence processes described above are supported only on the basis of the establishment 
of common objectives and thus necessarily involves the design of a concrete political 
transformation project temporarily bounded. In this sense, the program's ability to fight 
and dispute it, opens the opportunity for the left to overcome the political construction 
based on the very nature of an agitational slogan and therefore can now give the IIR.

Visibility of policy alternatives:

The convergence and establishment of projects by the IIR are processes that respond more 
to work up to the elections, as their results. However, the possibility of a political 
alternative visible from the left with a class perspective, it is a possibility much more 
sensitive to the results obtained in this election. Thus, having obtained the Vice FECH to 
position and visible political alternative spaces beyond the immediate insertion of the 
IIR, in other words it is an opportunity to overcome the political marginalization of the 
radical left.

Bring in practice these opportunities for IIR implies facing a series of challenges that 
are starting to see in the 2013 projections. Next year will be marked by the presidential 
and parliamentary elections at the national level, and attempts to redirect the resolution 
of the crisis in education toward institutional channels, in other words the student 
movement will be marked by discussion of impact or not in government programs of the 
opposition. At this point the role played by DATE, and so what you can do to fight from 
the vice presidency will play a leading role in the future of the student movement. Thus 
the challenge of the student movement in this period will reactivate mobilization levels 
needed to affect structural changes to the education system, both nationally and locally 
for each university. This is only possible to the extent that the student movement, in 
both social and political force, proven himself as an actor with the ability to achieve 
concrete progress. In this sense, what is at stake in conflicts such as the crisis of the 
U.Chile Hospital, the possibility of reforming systems Uchile access and influence from 
the university community directly in the discussion of the new budget allocation criteria 
University, is the ability to articulate the IIR local conflicts with the demands raised 
by the national student movement, as exemplified by the experience of the recent 
mobilization of the University of Concepción.

Nationally, the challenge of IIR from FECH should focus on how you can build up strength 
after recovering its impact on public policy. While it is important to recover the 
transversal motion, this is not remedied positioning our demands at parliamentary level or 
programmatic discussion ahead of the presidential elections. Instead mainstreaming, 
recover while passing through the massive, this is not sufficient if not accompanied by a 
process of re-articulation of the social fabric that allows the generation of struggles 
common to different sectors, leaving the formality of the demands citizens.

The possibility that these opportunities are realized in practice depends on the work they 
do from here on the various forces of the IIR at the University of Chile, and this measure 
will only be through the daily commitment and political maturity left can meet the high 
expectations that have been raised since the triumph in the DATE.
Oliver Evans


Published in the magazine "Diagonal Perspective"

"Choosing to Fight DATE: with one foot in the street and another in college" 11/09/2012
Related Link: 
http://www.perspectivadiagonal.org/elecciones-fech-un-paso-en-un-largo-camino-por-recorrer/
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