Chilean student movement: from the streets to national congress

Abstract

The Chilean student movement, contrary to what one may think, is not a spontaneous act but the result of the establishment of a neoliberal economic model imposed during Augusto Pinochet’s regime in line with the student’s role as key participants of the main transformational processes in Chile.

Chilean students record their first public demonstrations at the start of the 20th century and they develop actively throughout the whole century, with a period of ostracism that begins with the military dictatorship due to repression suffered and ends after twenty years of the Concertacion’s government when Chilean students organize and take the streets demanding the end of profit and free, quality education. This movement calls into question government’s effectiveness and ends with its institutionalization by the election of its spokespersons as representatives in the Congress.