Rebels with a cause

Great vibes in Parque Forestal a few days ago as thousands of school and university students continued their campaign against education fees with a massive march through the city centre. I caught the march outside Belles Artes Museum and then continued through the park as a carnival atmosphere took hold. Banging drums, waving banners, chanting, dancing and using the only weapons they have, their voices, the youth of Santiago made itself heard. There were many adults as well on the march but really this belongs to the kids and they are certainly going to make themselves heard.

The demonstration that rolled through the park on its way to La Moneda seemed to go on forever as most schools in Santiago affected by the new government proposals had taken the day off in order to protest. Every time I looked back, the river of people stretched all the way to the main road as more and more students came into view, waving all kinds of protest material from massive banners that had obviously been painstakingly created to scraps of paper with anti-government slogans.

I walked with them in spite of being unaffected myself by the proposed changes. Having missed the protests in the UK against the elitist reformation of the education system, I was keen to show my solidarity here. It was a strong moment of people coming together, made stronger still by the tender ages of the majority of the demonstrators. The air was filled with passionate cries of the youth and highly-charged beats from the legions of drummers who energised the masses.

I didn't make it down to La Moneda as I'm a busy man but unsurprisingly it kicked off with a certain section of people and los Carabineros but not before an absolutely sensational re-enactment of Thriller, involving hundreds of Chilean students. I'd seen loads of these guys dressed up as zombies in the park but had been unaware of their intentions, assuming instead that it was some sort of 'look the government is turning us into the living dead'-type thing. Shit, had I known that downtown Santiago was going to witness such a spectacle I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Here it is:

This march last Thursday followed on from a march the previous Thursday (which I missed due to being in the south) and there is another scheduled for this coming Thursday. The spirit of public dissent is massively alive in this country. I put it down to the years of dictatorship oppression that prohibited large-scale manifestations and suppressed the masses. The silver lining of that dark period is the legacy of self-expression and public solidarity that was born from its shadows.