Tomás Hirsch from Europe: Chilean Model is exhausting the people
Categoria: Tomas Hirsch
The ex presidential candidate, Tomás Hirsch visited Belgium and in different conferences and interviews, on being asked about the possibility of a coup d’etat, declared that the power of the Armed Forces is a risk, besides responding to questions about the functioning and social consequences of the Chilean economic model, facts that betray the lie of the image of the country promoted by the Concertación governments.
“There are a series of instances of power that make the Armed Forces become a risk”, on being asked about the possibilities of a new coup d’etat in Chile. To highlight this possibility Tomás emphasized the need to “take away power from the Armed Forces”, completing the military trials, obligatory military service, the law that designates 10 per cent of the sales of Codelco (national copper industry) to them, modify their pay structure, make the accounts transparent and decrease the military budget.
In an interview for the Belgian magazine “Nouvelle”, the ex candidate of Juntos Podemos listed the challenges, according to him, that present day Chile faces: first, a democratic Constitution with a proportional electoral system, and administrative decentralization. In economics, to guarantee the six basic human rights, re-nationalise copper and change the royalty system, protecting the environment together with the integration of Chile into Latin America that can happen through the reduction of the military budget, communicational and energy integration.
Tomas’ tour of Europe has served to discuss the real consequences of the Chilean neoliberal model, “The economy grows and the situation of the people becomes more and more exhausting”.
Therefore, “the Chilean pension system – shown overseas as a great national invention – is one of the bases that sustains the neoliberal system” allowing the concentration of capital in the hands of the big private conglomerates – which today are multinational – starting with the money of the workers.
Upon being asked why, in spite of the worsening of the quality of life, the people do not react, Tomas indicated: “The model operates above all in the heads of the people, showing that everything is advancing in the direction of success. While someone is indebted, they cannot educate their children, they live with job instability, take sleeping pills, etc. Everything is going well, however I am not. It is me that has not managed to get on the gravy-train, I am isolated, I have dedicated myself every day to work, I didn’t join a union so that they couldn’t throw me out, I didn’t demonstrate because probably the problem is mine and maybe next year they will give me a few pesos and I can buy this little car that my neighbour bought”.
The system ends up giving “students free credit cards: they leave full of debt, lacking a voice and straight off to work. This is not a problem of people; it is a problem of the model that must be changed”.
In regard to Juntos Podemos Mas, Tomás indicated that there are “two axes of work, electoral and mobilizations. We want to get involved in the different social conflicts. We want to prepare people with a new style of doing politics. Participative, transparent, open politics that are carried out based on the expression of the needs of the population”.