Student Resistance in Chile

Student Resistance in Chile

April 28, 2005

Over the past week, Chilean high school and university students have escalated their ongoing struggle against government plans to privatize university education. A rise in the price of university student bus passes only added fuel to the fire.

Mass student demonstrations in various Chilean cities have frequently developed into street battles against riot police. Armored police water cannons are deployed by the authorities as common practice.

On numerous occasions, anarchists and other masked rebels have constructed street barricades and set them aflame outside of universities, also tossing fire and paint bombs at police and retreating onto university grounds when necessary, since the institution is considered to be a sanctuary (which police rarely violate). Rebel groups have released communiqués related to these actions, declaring that the struggle against the privatization of education is merely one front in the greater fight against capitalism and government.

On April 27, the Chilean “Day of the Police”, students in the northern cities of Arica and Antofagasta engaged in particularly ferocious confrontations with the forces of order, using cars as barricades. Rebel students at Antofagasta captured a riot police helmet, played football with it and then crushed it with a rock in celebration. Eight police officers suffered significant injury.