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The Center for Latin American Studies and the Berkeley Law School present a talk with Giorgio Jackson, one of the leaders of Chile’s student movement, from November 30, 2011.

Over the past 20 years Chile has made significant strides in expanding access to higher education. However, much of this expansion has been achieved through for-profit universities of uneven quality. Overall, the state pays only 15 percent of higher education costs, leaving families to come up with the rest, often by taking on heavy debt. In recent months, students have taken to the streets in the most massive and sustained set of demonstrations since the end of the Pinochet regime, protesting the inequalities and shortcomings of the education system. Similar movements throughout the Americas show the growing influence of the “Chilean winter.”

In 2010, Giorgio Jackson was elected president of Chile’s Catholic University Student Federation (Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad Católica de Chile or FEUC) and has become one of the principal leaders of the 2011 student demonstrations.

English translation of Spanish. The original is also available.

“If we are to address our common crisis as students, as current and future workers, as people living on this planet, we need to focus on building our power. Students are fighting amazing campaigns, but if we want to hold onto these changes, we have to organize beyond individual policy changes at our respective schools. We must organize for institutional power over our universities and create a way of holding onto that power.” – Jasper Conner

LINK: Interview with Jasper Conner in For Student Power

PDF: Toward a Student Unionism – Jasper Conner

Three students discuss the role of direct democracy and political demands in building a massive movement.

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