[Sithsaber]

Any chance this will go anywhere?

Chile students resume protests for free education
Riot police in Santiago The police said the clashes with hooded protesters were isolated episodes on Wednesday's march
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Tens of thousands of students in Chile have resumed their protests for free education with marches in major cities.

The march in the capital, Santiago, was largely peaceful, but there were isolated clashes, authorities say.

Riot police said that they had been attacked with petrol bombs. Police used water cannons and tear gas to break up one group of protesters.

Chilean students have been staging protests for free, high-quality education since 2011.

Wednesday's action was the second nationwide protest this year.

The police estimated the number of protesters in Santiago at more than 37,000 but organisers say 80,000 people took to the streets.

There also were protests in other Chilean cities, including Valparaiso, Concepcion, Temuco and Valdivia.

On the first national marches of 2013, in early April, more than 100,000 participated.

Although Chile's education system is regarded by many as one of the best in Latin America, students argue it is deeply unfair.

They say middle-class students have access to some of the best schooling in the region, while the poor have to be content with under-funded state schools.

There are no free universities.

The campaign for educational reform is the biggest protest movement Chile has seen since the return to democracy in 1990.

It started with a wave of mass demonstrations in 2011, which carried on throughout 2012.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22459229

[wat0n]

It's election year, that's why they are protesting.

I hope the next government won't budge in and give free university to everyone, though. It would be amazingly stupid to do so.

[Social_Critic]

Maybe they should have free trade schools for poor students, and full scholarships for the top 10 % in entrance exams. I don't think it makes sense to send everybody to university. And definitely not to study useless degrees.

[Sithsaber]

It's election year, that's why they are protesting.

I hope the next government won't budge in and give free university to everyone, though. It would be amazingly stupid to do so.

The article says they have been doing this since at least 2011.

[wat0n]

I know, I'm Chilean. Right now however they are protesting because they know that education will be a major theme in the elections - it's of course a tactical issue.

Last years' protests were smaller than those in 2011 but I'm willing to bet that this years' protests will be bigger than those of 2012 because of the elections. It's obvious, isn't it?

[Soulflytribe]

Right now however they are protesting because they know that education will be a major theme in the elections - it's of course a tactical issue.

Here in Brazil is the same thing. In election's years the cities turn into hell. Leftists rioting everywhere trying to "influence" the average citizen. Sometimes they even do strikes. Socialists tend to hate their own country.

[wat0n]

It's their right to protest, though I wish the protests wouldn't turn violent. Anyway, that's generally fault of other far-leftists who are not part of the student movement...

[Sithsaber]

Doesn't Chile have an entire holiday devoted to violent protest? BTW is it a recent thing or did it exist during the Pinochet years?

[wat0n]

You mean September 11th? It's not a holiday, though it was in the dictatorship of Pinochet and in the transition to democracy.

And yes, people tend to get violent on September 11th though I think most of the violence is not even ideologically motivated anymore but is just used as an excuse for some to riot.

[Sithsaber]

Why wouldn't it still be a holiday? It seems the country hasn't gotten anywhere near the "progressiveness" of the Allende years.

[wat0n]

Because Pinochet declared it a holiday to commemorate the "liberation of Chile of Marxism" (it was literally the "Day of National Liberation" from 1981 to 1998).

[Sithsaber]

I was thinking the day of the young combatant or some shit close to that.

[wat0n]

Oh, that's another one. That's on March 29th, to commemorate the murder of 2 communist brothers in the '80s. That's not a holiday, though, and even their mother has asked for people to stop rioting to commemorate their murder, though by now I think that the rioters also don't care about politics in this case.