Three Chilean student organizers will speak at UCLA on Wednesday to advocate for social revolution and access to free education.
The Student Collective Against Labor Exploitation, or SCALE, will host Gabriel Gac, Pablo Silva and Melissa Feritto, anarchist student organizers who have participated in a series of Chilean student protests in recent years.
The three Chilean students began a tour around the U.S. in January. At UCLA, they will talk about the student movement in Chile, the creation of popular power and the anarchist struggle in their country to bring about reform.
SCALE is hosting the event to “stop the assault on public education in California,” according to SCALE’s Facebook page.
Chilean students started leading protests in their country after becoming dissatisfied with the lack of government funding and involvement in their higher education system, as most universities there are private.
Since the country transitioned from a dictatorship to a democracy in 1990, no new public university has been founded, although the number of college students has significantly increased. Most university students attend for-profit, private universities, according to the New York TImes.
Gac said he wants to see a student movement that will fight for free education and for popular power to arise in the U.S.
“The U.S. is very individualistic sometimes. The importance for us is the collective,” Gac said. “Real power lies in the workers; they build things and build knowledge.”
Juan Torres, a second-year history student and one of the main organizers of the event,said he thinksUniversity of California students face similar struggles to Chilean students, ashe does not think students are adequatelyrepresented in the UC and the cost of educationhas risen in recent years.
Torres said UC students can learn from the Chilean students about how to empower themselves and gain better representation in the school system.
“If you notice, structure of representation is nonexistent. (Students) don’t get to choose who are the UC presidents, who are the chancellors, who are in the Board of Regents,” Torres said.
SCALE members said they believe the University of California should fund itself solely from state taxes on corporations and eliminate student fees.
Gac said that he and many other Chilean students want college to be public and free for all students, ending all profit in the school system.
Gac is a militant member of the Frente de Estudiantes Libertarios, a political student organization in Chile that promotes social anarchy.
He said the organization tries to build bridges between student and labor movements. He added that he thinks it is essential to eliminate class struggles by rebuilding a new type of anarchist society where every aspect of life is democratized.
Silva is an editorial member for the anarchist journal Solidaridad. He also founded a bookstore where social and political organizations hold meetings. Feritto is one of the founding members of La Alzada, an anarchist feminist group. She focuses her efforts on improving areas where issues, such as gender violence, are present.
“They don’t want just a reformist type of change. They want a big social transformation in their society,” Torres said.
The Chilean organizers will speak at 6 p.m in Haines 39 on Wednesday.