Allende will be smiling: Neoliberalism started in Chile, but is being buried now

Salvador Allende, the socialist president of Chile from 1970 to 1973, gave priority to fight against poverty and inequality. General Augusto Pinochet, in collusion with local oligarchs and the US government, overthrew Allende in a bloody coup. Besides bombing the presidential palace with the air force, Pinochet followed up with systematic killing and disappearance of thousands of leftists, student and trade union leaders and liberal intellectuals.

In 1980, he imposed a neoliberal constitution, which promoted and protected capitalism and privatised education, health care, water rights, utilities and pensions. This helped the private market to grow its profit freely, while depriving the poor and lower middle class access to education and health care. After the restoration of democracy in 1990, some amendments were made to the constitution. The socialist governments tried major amendments, but they were blocked by the rightwing coalition. The trade unions, students and the marginalised population took to the streets from time to time against social injustice. These were contained with the heavy hand of security forces. But when the conservative government of billionaire president Sebastián Pinera increased the cost of metro tickets by 30 pesos in October 2019, it became the tipping point. The protesters escalated the violence and paralysed daily life. Driven to the wall, the Pinera government sat with the protest leaders and agreed to their demand for a new constitution, among other things.

The result of elections held on May 15-16 for the 155-member new constituent assembly is like a political earthquake. As someone put it aptly, “the social uprising in Chile is not about 30 pesos, it's about 30 years”. The voters have punished the two coalitions, rightist and leftist, which have ruled the country for the last 30 years. Independent candidates have secured 48 seats, the left 28, the centre-left 25, and the rightwing coalition 37. The independents are mostly those who lead the protests. Many of them are leftwing community organisers and activists of traditional leftwing causes, including environmentalists, feminists, public housing advocates and community organisers.

The remaining 17 seats go to the indigenous people of Chile, whose existence or rights were simply ignored by the Pinochet constitution, one of the few constitutions in Latin America that doesn’t acknowledge indigenous people. The indigenous people constitute 13 per cent of the population. This is the first time ever the indigenous have been recognised and given guaranteed representation.

The new constitutional body is the first in the world to stipulate a roughly equal number of male and female delegates. A total of 699 women and 674 men stood in the elections. The women have got 77 seats and the men 78. The gender parity idea was opposed by rightwing parties, but it was overruled by the Congress.

The sound defeat of the rightwing, reduced to just 37 seats, means that they cannot block the proposals passed by two-third majority. The 20 per cent of the vote received by President Pinera’s ruling 'Chile Vamos' coalition is its worst electoral performance since democracy was restored in 1990.

Along with this election, there were also simultaneous elections for 16 regional governors, 345 mayors and 2,240 municipal councillors for the period 2021-2025. Although the final results of these elections will not be known until the end of the week, the preliminary results indicate a similar blow to the governing coalition, which lost important mayors' offices and regional governments. Meanwhile, the leftwing parties retained their municipalities and gained several others across the country, including in the capital Santiago. The communists doubled their mayoralties to six. The most significant victory was that of Irací Hassler in the symbolically significant commune of Santiago Centro in the capital. She defeated the current rightwing mayor, Felipe Alessandri.

Both the leftist and rightist coalitions, which have ruled Chile in the last three decades, have acknowledged their defeat. President Pinera said, “the citizens have sent a clear and strong message to the government and also to all traditional political forces. We are not adequately tuning in with the demands and desires of the citizens. We are being challenged by new expressions and leadership. It is our duty to listen with humility and attention to the message of the people. It is a great opportunity for Chileans to build a more fair, inclusive, prosperous and sustainable country.”

The Chilean neoliberal experiment, protests and end of neoliberalism should be a lesson for Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and other countries in Latin America, which have seen such protests against inequality. The Chileans have shown how the social disparity could be tackled democratically and relatively peacefully without too much bloodshed.

The new constituent assembly will draft a constitution within twelve months. Because the convention will have a veto-proof leftwing majority, the new constitution will likely include many of the long lists of social rights that those candidates campaigned on, including the rights to housing, education, health and, most importantly, a public pension system to replace the private saving accounts. Greg Grandin, a world-renowned historian on Latin America, tweeted, "Allende is smiling. Neoliberalism started in Chile. It will end in Chile”.

The author is an expert in Latin American affairs.