A-Infos (en) Chile, The Process of the Initial Construction of FEL (Libertarian Students Front (ca)

Acronyms: --ACES: Asamblea Coordinadora de Estudiantes Secundarios/Coordinating Assembly 
of High School Students -ACL: Asamblea de Convergencia Libertaria/Libertarian Convergence 
Assembly Bandera Negra/Black Flag -Confech: ConfederaciÃn de Estudiantes de Chile/Chilean 
Student Confederation --CRA: Corriente Revolucionario Anarquista/Revolutionary Anarchist 
Current --CSL: Colectivo Senda Libertaria/Libertarian Path Collective --CUAC: Congreso de 
UnificaciÃn Anarco Comunista/Unified Anarcho Communist Congress --FAC: Frente Anarquista 
Cordillera/Anarchist Cordillera Front [Cordillera means Southern Andes] -FECh: FederaciÃn 
de Estudiantes de la Universidad Chile/Student Federation of Universidad de Chile --FEL: 
Frente de Estudiantes Libertarios/Libertarian Students Front [also known as Fel]--JJ.CC.: 
Juventudes Comunistas/Young Communists [also known as âla Jotaâ] --K.A.P.A.: Kolectivo 
ActÃo, Pienso y Aprendo/Act, Think, and Learn Kollective --MLJM: Movimiento Libertario 
JoaquÃn Murieta/Joaquin Murieta Libertarian Movement

Fel's formation takes precedent to a distant time, embedded in the diverse social 
experiences by anarchist/libertarians in the Chilean student movement, which in this 
document we are not able to review. We will, however, discuss recent experiences within 
the cycle of struggle by the university student movement of the mid 90's that are relevant 
to the reached understanding by various groups and collectives within the 
anarchist/libertarian current.

Notable were the 1997 mobilizations to stop the approval of the Higher Education Merits 
Law. The first semester of the school year was marked by marches and occupations in which 
a new type of political organization could be noted anchored in the social movement that 
exerted and asserted new ways to construct politics from below that took distance and 
criticized traditional leftist organizations. Thus, the process of the student movement of 
the late 90's and early 2000 can be read on two levels. First, at the leadership level, it 
was characterized by a marked presence within the leadership of the main federations by 
the traditional left (especially JJ.CC.) which prevented the movement from radicalizing 
further. In this way, the movements leadership moved toward alternative proposals within 
the left (e.g. âla zurdaâ) that despite presenting a renewed discourse, "neo-left" and 
"autonomy," did not differ much from the previous leaderships, especially for its 
conciliatory character and leadership directives. The student movement leadership, besides 
not manifesting the radicalization zest by large segments of the student base, acted (and 
still continues at that) as a buffer to the clashes between the student movement and la 
ConcertaciÃn government. [La ConcertaciÃn, or the Concert of Parties for Democracy, is a 
leftist coalition that includes the Socialist Party and Christian Democratic Party that 
governed Chile from 1990 to 2010.]

On the other hand, it is possible to establish a document about the movement that 
represents the makeup of studentsâ organized. Gradually, they became more radical 
(especially in their speech) but lacked the ability to expound their own project. The 
grassroots movement reacted to what the leadership expressed, abnegating dialogue as the 
way yet unable to give coherence and consistency to the possibility of direct action in 
the social struggle.

In this context, several anarchist/libertarian clusters germinated in parallel form 
(although there was some level of contact but not highly influential) that began to 
develop a loosely-based campaign aimed at enhancing the dynamics of a movement from below 
that sought to impart libertarian discourse and practice.

During that time, particular ascriptions of native (Chilean) anarchism were created 
without being able to speak specifically of a libertarian movement as such. In 1999 the 
Unified Anarcho Communist Congress was founded in Santiago and transpired one of the most 
significant experiences. In later years of this organization, which expanded to 
Valparaiso, plus to other such groups (Joaquin Murieta Libertarian Movement of Temuco or 
the Libertarian Convergence Assembly in Concepcion, as examples) work to confluence and 
promote activism within the university spaces.

In this process, one must add the expectations that came about from the mobilization of 
high school students in 2001, the emergence of new clusters (such as ACES)--which will be 
addressed in a future memo.

A higher level of contact took place between the aforementioned groups and with the 2002 
university protests it became clear that there was desire for greater coordination and 
discussion between the different clusters mobilizing in various cities. The confluence of 
demands debated and the national mobilizations underscored that every day the libertarian 
presence increased in which the difficult notion was assessed that we could achieve more 
by acting autonomously. The increased presence and libertarian influence could be 
monitored in the growing ability to fill the directive void within the student base, as 
seen in the election in late 2001 of a few members of CUAC as low level advisers to the 
FECh. [FECh is the most influential student union in the
country.]

A document from the student Front of CUAC-Santiago notes: "Our Front, which commenced its 
work during the first half of 2001, began to discussion its initial components in order to 
address the various challenges that lay ahead during this initial period of student 
organization ( ...) The questions appeared alongside student milestones of the period and 
in this document we will attempt to address the most essential issues. How to be 
protagonists for the majorities in defense of democratic demands, stalled for years by 
FECh directives? How to make the FECh a real expression of the struggles from below? How 
to build student power objectively, restoring
the FECH as a true organic federation?"

As noted, the active anarchist organizations began to structure internal clusters of 
different spaces for political discourse, as in ACL and CUAC with the creation of their 
respective "student fronts," which gave eventual impetus toward national convergence. In 
Santiago, some comrades who belonged to K.A.P.A. (Act, Think, and Learn Kollective) 
initiated some fledgling student work and decided to strengthen this space of ââ 
convergence in conjunction with CUAC colleagues.

During the 2002 mobilizations, political discussion quickly accelerated between 
organizations who were working within this level. Around that time a call was made to 
comrades in each region [the Chilean statesâ political/geographic form of organization is 
regional--15 in all], who were not necessarily politically active in the aforementioned 
organizations, but participated in the same libertarian political sensitivity, i.e. they 
were related to this project because they felt part of the student movement from below. We 
can say that from its inception, one of the main features of Fel, at least in Santiago, is 
that its foundation represents not only the political discussion by anarchists and 
anarcho-communists, but responded with equal regard to the needs arising from the student 
struggle base.

In this context it became clear that there was a need for the configuration of a national 
grouping that would unite the student work displayed disparately. A work by a comrade who 
had considerable influence in this process noted as follows: "The main obstacle we faced 
in the last year was the lack of coordination at the national level, the dispersion and 
atomization. It is necessary that we begin immediately to overcome these shortcomings and 
to have further coordination with our demands and struggles."

With that in mind, the same comrade said: "On the 21st, we experienced a natural 
convergence in Valparaiso along with the comrades of that city (CUAC members and 
independents), comrades who came from Santiago (CUAC-FE and independents), comrades from 
Serena (Libertarian Path Collective) and comrades from ConcepciÃn (ACL). While we held 
some differences, we saw that we were basically in agreement in regards to the 
mobilizations [referring to the students mobilizations] and that our proposals pointed 
toward the same
direction that we were all part of the fight and wanted to collaborate in action, as well 
as consolidate forces on the way. We began to discuss the possibility of higher levels of 
coordination needed to face a struggle that, by necessity, must be given national 
consideration. Shortly after comrades from Temuco (MLJM) joined and along with the them 
the idea emerged of ââconvening a national meeting of libertarian university students. The 
idea was to create a basic form of coordination among university students that held 
similar practices, who knew each other for some time, and shared certain basic principles 
in order to outline a libertarian alternative for the mobilizations to come."

Throughout this process there were elements in common yet it is not possible to speak of a 
common political perspective. We sought to specify basic objectives that would enable to 
solidify this convergence project. The same comrade noted that in the face of the common 
convergence of the 2002 mobilization and in the face of the proposal to conduct the first 
national gathering of libertarian students: "We have taken important steps today to 
discuss on the table our demands in the drafting of a petition that serves to unite all 
students in the country under some basic demands. This will further facilitate the unity 
of the revolutionary left and anarchists in terms of specific objectives, but we must 
prepare for a long struggle that has just begun. We will encounter different stages and we 
cannot be confined to the narrow confines of the classroom. The struggles on the horizon 
should seek alliances with the affected social groups by this [capitalist] model of 
exploitation and exclusion, so as to give definite blows to the system (...)"

Parallel to this discussion, among the various anarchist groups at that time there was a 
process undergoing of meetings and un-meetings [disagreements] about organizational and 
political horizons. That process took place through the "Anarchist Initiative Encounter" 
that included participating members from CUAC, KAPA, Black Flag, and MLJM--to name the 
most noted. This process with all its flaws (because there was not much of an actual 
discussion) helped to define two different areas (in which we operate today) between the 
groups that claimed
anarchism and libertarianism. The most noted result was the exclusion of some individuals 
in CUAC who formed the CRA. We will not go into this, I mention this to explain the 
process of estrangement by the MLJM of Temuco, who despite having raised the need for a 
gathering of libertarian students chose to stay out of that [political] space during Felâs 
foundation because of its disagreements with the positions taken by the comrades involved 
at the time.

There were two positions that could not meet agreement because, in my opinion, responded 
to quite distinct conceptions of the political libertarian. While MLJM argued (and the 
other groups who were not involved in the student movement but acted in concord in other 
actions) that the convergence of the anarchist groups was the main task and that through 
this confluence greater influence of anarchist ideas could filter into society (conceived 
as "anarchist propaganda" rather than as social integration). The CUAC axis formed 
(especially the student front) along with KAPA individuals argued for the need to organize 
fronts of political activity in each sector where there was social integration. Example 
was the convergence taking place among students and among the people (Anarchist Cordillera 
Front). Thus, the Temuco MLJM withdrew from the Fel converge in the first congress held in 
May 2003 in Valparaiso. The majority of those involved [in Fel] sought to create a single 
organization on a national level, the MLJM only aspired to create coordination between the 
groups that had presence in the student movement. Once out of the process, they decided to 
proceed with the project that resulted in the creation of the "Anarchist Coordinator" from 
the years 2003 and 2004.

As already stated, the first Congress which formally founded our organization was held on 
May 21, 2003 in Valparaiso. In this instance, general points defined the convergence 
including the name, the idea that it was a social political space, the organization's 
regional sections, defined tactics like the demand for a tariff that differentially 
provides [for it] to be gratuitous [believe to be referring to education], the 
co-government [not sure what this means], and, as previously mentioned, it was a common 
space and not an organizational form of coordination between anarchist groups. Those 
involved were comrades from Serena, ValparaÃso, Santiago and ConcepciÃn.

As we understand, the convergence process enabled the involvement of more comrades who 
shared the delineations being fostered that led to the addition of the Arica [city] 
section-- a process that began in late 2003 and finalized in 2004. Also, the continuity of 
the Fel project not only progressed qualitatively on a merely student level, but also 
signified an important shift in the political arena for a larger cluster of comrades from 
a libertarian horizon who worked in different social spheres. A comrade from Arica pointed 
shortly before their inclusion: "We find it fantastic, we were one of the last to join 
this process of unification which we are willing to devote ourselves fully.. We believe 
that it contributes greatly to avoid the atomization of libertarian student organizations 
at the high school level and higher and contributes toward a discussion of a uniform 
nationwide program that can transcend with anarchists and that can directly intersect not 
only in the Us [universities] and colleges but society as a whole."

[Translated from the original document: http://www.fel-chile.org/blog/?page_id=38]
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