John, GGJ joins peoples’ movements in Bolivia and Chile to celebrate breathtaking victories to defeat right-wing forces of fascism and dictatorship. This month in Bolivia, the Movement for Socialism (MAS), won the first round of elections in a landslide. This follows an illegal coup d’etat last year that ousted President Evo Morales and brought Jeanine Áñez to power through corruption and violence. MAS returning to power by winning an astonishing margin, a year after a U.S.-backed coup, is testament to years of sustained organizing of social movements with Indigenous leadership and popular power organizing.
In Chile,
jubilant residents of Santiago celebrated as they overwhelmingly voted to reject the constitution from the brutal regime of General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, setting in motion a path to a new constitution.
"We demand that the new constitution be plurinational, anti-patriarchal and anti-racist, and that it guarantees the demands established
during all these years of social struggles: Right to decide on our bodies; territories free of extractivism and sacrifice zones; social justice and popular participation; the right to housing, health and quality education,” read a statement from the World March of Women’s Chilean Chapter (WMW).
Chile's plebiscite victory is the sweet fruit of decades of courageous movement building and
resistance against unspeakable repression from dictatorships to the crushing neoliberal policies that were implemented with the complicity of the US.
“We owe this victory to the young people who had the courage to jump the turnstiles (in protest of the fare hikes) and the participants of Plaza Dignidad who
were central to the the social uprising and the thousands of men and women who joined to fight for social justice and came out to the polls rejecting the constitution that has caused so much harm to the people,” said Mafalda Galdames, Co-Founder of the National Association of Rural and Indigenous Women in Chile (ANAMURI) and member of the WMW.
GGJ’s Executive Director, Cindy Wiesner, concurred: “This is where the hope lies— the bold and continued resistance of social movements and an unwavering resolve by the people to defeat destructive forces. GGJ membership extends our solidarity with the social
movements of Chile and Bolivia, who offer the world and our movements here in the U.S. a powerful reason for hope at a time of unprecedented crisis. We know that we too can change the course of history.”
The confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett a week before a pivotal U.S. election has been widely condemned by
civil society groups, science and climate journalists, and movements, who see this brazen maneuvering by Republicans as a way to privilege their power and party over the wellbeing of people. “The mass uprising of young people in Chile were feminist in nature. The Chilean people successfully mobilized against a repressive government to transform their democracy to redefine their political and social values in a new constitution. Here in the U.S., we are
confronting white supremacy and the suppression of democracy as we see with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, which we strongly repudiate given the threats she poses to reproductive and LGBT rights,” said Kitzia Esteva-Martinez, Grassroots Feminisms National Organizer at GGJ.
As election day approaches, we also bear witness to the powerful ways communities are
training and preparing to defend the electoral process in the face of blatant violence and intimidation tactics from white nationalists, and to provide safe access to the polls at early voting sites and on election day. We are inspired by the level of mobilization of frontline communities across the U.S., and we are energized by the victories of movements in Chile and Bolivia that embody resilience and grit and a deep love for their peoples.
We Resist to Live, We March to Transform!
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