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(en) Chile, The Process of the Initial Construction of FEL (Libertarian Students Front (ca)
Date
Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:11:45 +0200
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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