Ln September 4, Chile will have to vote to approve or reject the new Constitution, prepared for a year by a Constituent Assembly. Opened thanks to the popular revolt that broke out in October 2019, the Chilean constituent process is a decisive historical moment at the international level. It concerns all those who want to put an end to neoliberalism and build just, united, democratic and ecological societies.
From France, we, academics, jurists, lawyers, elected officials, scientists, artists, community activists, we are committed alongside the campaign to approve this draft Constitution and we support the adoption of the new Constitution of Chile. If the peoples of Chile approve it, this new text will put an end to a Constitution imposed in 1974 by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006), which institutionalized a savage neoliberal model reducing fundamental human and social rights, privatizing entire swaths of activity and precarious the lives of the vast majority of the population.
Chile was the laboratory of this disastrous model, imposed in an authoritarian and repressive regime, which has since been reproduced in much of the world. The assessment of forty years of neoliberalism is clear: Chile is one of the most unequal countries in the world. A country where human rights are violated by the state and companies. A country where the exploitation of territories – and in particular of the lands inhabited by indigenous peoples – leads to the sacrifice of entire areas.
A Model Constitution for the World
A country where debt is a condition of daily survival. A country where retirees survive on average on 288 euros per month. A country where water is a commodity and where rivers dry up so that the wallets of agribusiness and mining industries can be filled. A country where health and education are a market. A country where the right to strike is hardly guaranteed.
This constituent process thus represents a historic moment, because it calls into question the neoliberal model which has provoked or aggravated disasters: explosion of inequalities and segregation, environmental depredation, destruction of solidarity, soaring nationalism, hatred and the logic of ” scapegoat “…
The search for new economic and social alternatives represented by the Chilean constituent process is therefore particularly important at a time when, everywhere in the world, we see that the crisis of capitalism is once again turning against the most deprived populations, while that, at the same time, the ecological crises directly challenge our development models.
An inclusive and equal democracy
In a global context marked by the extension of authoritarian logics, the Chilean constituent process is a hope for the forces of emancipation. Participative and equal, the process was articulated around territories and student, ecologist, indigenous, feminist and trade union struggles. These popular mobilizations, which have challenged the neoliberal system on a daily basis for decades, have been the basis of the progress of the draft Constitution, which opens a horizon of profound social democratization.
The draft Constitution recognizes the plurinational and intercultural character of the Chilean Republic, to guarantee respect for the rights to self-determination and autonomy of indigenous peoples and nations. The proposal for a new Constitution guarantees sexual and reproductive rights, in particular the right to decide on the voluntary termination of pregnancy – a first for a Constitution – the right to a life free from gender-based violence.
It promotes the construction of a justice system with a perspective based on gender, human rights and an intersectional approach. It proposes an inclusive and equal democracy, to progress towards real equality, with the participation of at least half of women in all state bodies, public and semi-public companies. It provides for the adoption of measures to ensure the representation of sexual and gender diversity.
Recognition of the rights of nature
It promotes the transition to a social state whose role is to protect and guarantee fundamental individual and collective social rights: right to health; public, free, secular, quality, non-sexist, intercultural education; the right to social security through a public system; labor rights to ensure decent jobs; recognition of domestic and care work; trade union rights for the public and private sectors; the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike.
It proposes important advances to guarantee land and environmental rights: it recognizes water as an inappropriate and non-exchangeable common good. It recognizes the rights of nature, such as the protection of water, glaciers, biodiversity, wetlands, native forests and soils, as well as the State’s responsibility for prevention, adaptation and risk mitigation to deal with the ecological crisis we are going through.
At this historic moment for Chile and the world, we hope that the new Constitution will receive broad approval, to advance important rights in Chile and inspire transformative change in many parts of the world.
The first signatories of the tribune: Eve Chiapellosociologist and director of studies at EHESS; Francoise Combesastrophysicist and professor at the Collège de France; Philippe Descolaanthropologist and professor emeritus at the Collège de France; Virginie Despenteswriter; Didier Fassinanthropologist, sociologist and physician, professor at Princeton and director of studies at EHESS; Donna HarawayEmeritus Professor of History of Consciousness and Women’s Studies at the University of California-Santa Cruz; Valerie Masson-Delmottemember of the IPCC, paleoclimatologist and director of research at the CEA; Albert OgienEmeritus Research Director in Sociology, CNRS; Carlo Rovelliphysicist and philosopher at the Luminy theoretical physics center; Isabelle Stengersphilosopher and professor emeritus at the Free University of Brussels; Jeremiah SwitzerlandGeneral Delegate of Our Affair to All, an NGO for climate justice; Jacques Testartbiologist, president of the Citizen Science Foundation association; Bruno Thereteconomist and research director emeritus at the CNRS.
The complete list of signatories by clicking on this link