Maria Fragou is Greek and lives and works in Chile since 2010. By experiencing firsthand and actively participating in the mass mobilizations that convulsed the country she below gives us further information about the big revolution that began in October 19^th 2019. She also explains the structure of the motion, the “atmosphere” that prevails in the world and the results of this general strike.

What studies have you made?

I studied Chemistry in Thessaloniki’s Aristotelian University. I took a postgraduate program about environment’s technology in London’s Imperial College and a master about environmental sciences in Barcelona’s Autonomous University.

How many years do you live in Chile and what forced you to move there?

I live in Chile for the past 10 years, since September 2010and I came here because I found a job in Chile’s public University, as deputy teacher in Geography class.

How and why did the revolution in Chile began?

The revolution began because of a raise in the Metro’s ticket price stated by a private company manages the transport network in the metropolitan area of Santiago, capital of Chile. Even though it was a small raise -the amount of 4 cents of euro- people took that as the drop that overflowed the glass. That way, they found the cause to get out in the streets and protest over the last 30 years, as they say in a famous cue over here. “These 30 years” are referring to the amount of time that has passed since the end of Pinochet’s dictatorship. During this dictatorship many changes in the way the state worked happened. Welfare state ceased to exist and Chile became a state that had a “customer relationship” with the citizens. There have been too many structural changes to the Chile's social policy, resulting in the economic downturn of the lower classes and in a terrible exploitation and destruction of the environment.

What were the main demands of it?

At the beginnings of the motion, when people went out on the streets to protest, they didn’t request anything specific. It was ideas and ideals give or take. Which means they demanded dignity, peace, -because the government ordered the army to go out on the streets-, justice, equality, equal allocation from the riches etc. The most important request, though, and the one that “crystallized” all the other demandings was the alteration of the Constitution. The change in the constitution is the one thing that will make alterations in many other basic things possible. More specifically, in the education system, which is in a really bad situation, in the ability of people to send their children over to private schools and in the health system which is also really bad and neglected.

How was such a big motion organized? Where was it guided from?

The motion is a really special one because there are neither leading personalities nor a party to lead it. It is massive, with a totally folk basis without political complexion. It’s very exceptional that people shout “We are neither on the left nor on the right. We are the ones below and want to protest about those above!”

In what way was the mobilization of people achieved in these marches?

In the mobilization of the citizens a critical role played the social media, like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. People were able to communicate and <<self-organize>>through them. It was, also, very common to have a call being made for gatherings in streets, in parks, and people actually going. These calls through the Internet, therefore, had a large resonance.

Do young people participate in the movement?

The movement began from student pupils, Junior and High school students, who massively decided to start using the Metro without paying. Therefore, youngsters not only take part in this movement, they started it.

What is the environment like, after the new conditions and the retreats of the government?

The Chilean citizens, due to the wide dislike against its politicians, whether it is the left or the right, do not consider enough the small retreatments that the government has done, like give some allowances to people, undo the raise in the price of the Metro ticket etc.

What was the city like during the three day strike?

The image of Santiago and of other cities in Chile, was not anything particularly interesting during the strike. In Chile, though, it is not common to have to have general strikes, like in Greece. The fact that the general strike was announced for two days for two weeks straight, was unprecedented and of great significance, because a large number of people was able not to go to work and continue to join the marches. Now, both in Santiago and other cities, are looking like battlefields. In the heart of Santiago, there are a lot of streets who are lacking traffic lights, sidewalks are destroyed and safety bars are gone. In the morning, when we go to work, we still see around us whole yards or land burned down and fires from the barricades that are created during the night.

What do you think was achieved by this strike?

Aside from our obvious win, meaning the decision of the government to create a new Constitution, not only in a Parliament level but also with the contribution of the people from social marching, another one has sprung… So the main win was that the citizens got to << know each other>> in public spaces, in the streets, in parks, to chat, to see one another. The Chilean community is very self-based. I think that Capitalism had drifted them so far apart that there was no social flow anymore. Here, the economic differences are so gigantic that the poor are <<envying>> the rich and the rich are afraid of being robbed by the poor. Therefore, the Chilean society was torn and this uprising managed to bring them closer. Through this insurrection, people are no longer at loggerheads but are together against something much bigger… The political class and the neoliberal economic policy.