To: Chilean Government 19 August, 2011
Mr. Sebastian Piñera
President of Chile
Palacio de la Moneda
Santiago- Chile
c/- Diego Velasco von Pilgrimm
Minister Counselor, Consul General of Chile in Melbourne, Australia>Level 13, 390 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC 3004.
Dear Mr. Piñera,
With the ongoing mass mobilisations of students, and their supporters, across Chile, we write to you to add our voices to those of our Chilean brothers and sisters in their struggle for free, quality education for all, at all levels; justice; and real democracy; amongst other demands.
We feel that quality education is a basic human right, not a luxury consumer good. As such, the Chilean State’s ongoing process of liquidation and commodification of public education (as embodied by the merger, closure and endemic under funding of municipal schools in poor neighbourhoods, the high level of student indebtedness, and the increasing precarity of employment for teachers, amongst others) is reprehensible, and that students have mobilised in opposition to this process is both reasonable and of a necessity to ensure the fulfilment of this right.
Finally, we remain concerned for the health and safety of the number of students maintaining a hunger strike, and for those partaking in demonstrations and occupations; we find it unacceptable that harm has, and may continue to, come to those mobilised for the basic right to free, quality education.
For an education for the people, not profit!
Yours Sincerely,
Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET)
Movement for Peace and Justice – Brisbane
Colombia Demand Justice Campaign
Chilean Popular & Indigenous Solidarity Network
Andrea Aguilera
Marisol Salinas
Mt Nancy Town No mining No Forestry Campaign Friends of the Earth Melbourne
Rodrigo Rojas
Rodolfo Allamand
Not final version, more people need to be added