In Chile and Israel, a revolt against neoliberalism | Reflections on a Revolution ROAR
"...the recent outburst of mass demonstrations in Chile and Israel tells a different story altogether. Unlike Spain and Greece, where the economy has been stagnating or contracting for the past three years, and where unemployment is skyrocketing to obscene levels, Chile and Israel have been enjoying steady growth and low unemployment. Still, life in these countries is becoming increasingly unbearable for most of the lower and middle class.
As a result, these so-called neoliberal “success stories” are now both experiencing unprecedented social protests. And with the popularity of Netanyahu and Piñera collapsing, it is starting to look like 2011 could mark a watershed for these countries in their struggle for social justice."
"The fact that these protests are occurring in Chile makes them all the more relevant. During Pinochet’s brutal military dictatorship (1973-1990), Chile was considered the principal neoliberal laboratory in the world. Directly after the bloody US-backed coup against the democratically-elected socialist government of Salvador Allende, Milton Friedman, the godfather of the neoliberal Chicago School, visited Chile and advised Pinochet on economic reforms.
Immediately afterwards, a group of US-trained Chilean economists known as the Chicago Boys was brought in to oversee some of the most far-reaching neoliberal reforms ever attempted anywhere. The only reason they could be pushed through is because opponents of the regime were systematically exterminated — over 3,000 people were killed and at least 29,000 tortured. The reforms left Chile with one of the most market-oriented societies in the world."
According to the Guardian, the protests are the “latest evidence that long dormant Chilean youth are rebelling against the orthodox free market ideology that dominates everyday Chilean life. In recent years, for example, it was common for private hospitals to impose a 100% surcharge for babies born outside business hours.” It is against this autistic neoliberal idea that education and health care are services, not public goods, that young Chileans rebel."
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