llustration by Maddy Kloss Some of the snapshots from Chile’s ongoing student movement depict a lighthearted mobilization. Led by the charismatic Camila Vallejo, the students have used Twitter and Facebook to stage kiss-a-thons and superhero-themed costume protests. But other images have been more violent. Protesters have taken to the streets and set fire to government buildings and private businesses. In return, they have been bombarded with w...
...erations of US foreign policy in the Americas are clumsily bifurcated. On one side of the divide are the guaranteed allies: partners in free trade and the hosts of US military bases. These countries, among which are Colombia, Chile and El Salvador, receive glowing praise from Washington for their commitment to democracy, moderation, liberal values and economic openness. On the other side of this false division are the confrontational anti-America...
...ut this policy or that, but really an all-out war over public education,” he explains. In the past several years, there have been numerous flare-ups of protest activity centered on equal access to quality public schools, from Chile to Québec to Chicago. Jones believes that recent shifts in the political landscape, along with enhanced potential for collaboration between organizations, signal that activists are on the verge of a transformational mo...
...being. As far as democracies go, the United States consistently ranks among the lowest in voter turnout. Other Western democracies make far better showings, in terms of democratic participation — in particular, Australia and Chile. So what about these democracies continues to encourage voters to participate in the system? What about these voting booths is so attractive on their election days? The most obvious factor at play is that some of thes...
...nations on Heritage’s list are Singapore (government-run universal healthcare), Australia (free universal healthcare), New Zealand (mixed public-private system), Switzerland (individual mandate), Canada (single-payer system), Chile, Mauritius, Ireland (two-tiered public-private system), and the United States (individual mandate by 2014). How can economically freer nations than the US also be more “socialist?”...
...often over the impassioned pleas of environmentalists and indigenous groups alike. The Belo Monte Dam in the remote Brazilian state of Pará and the HidroAysén Dam (actually a compilation of five different dams) to be built in Chilean Patagonia are the most visible of these projects. They represent the greatest challenge faced by states today: Balancing energy needs with the preservation of cultural and ecological heritage. The first of these site...
...grassroots parent organizations partnered with the NAACP in a lawsuit challenging the city’s planned school closings. In a global context where education has sparked larger, much more radical demonstrations in places such as Chile and Québec, even today’s small, localized protests in American cities are hard for officials to ignore. City administrations across the country are undoubtedly feeling the pressure of grassroots activism, and increasin...
...or the 99.99% of us that never knew Thatcher or her family personally, we speak of her exclusively in relation to her politics. It was not Margaret the mother of two children who cut social services, endorsed dictatorships in Chile and Indonesia, and brought working-class movements to their knees, but Thatcher the Prime Minister. The former died on April 8th, while the latter’s political legacy is very much still alive. Therefore, I see no reason...
...ous for the ‘disappearances’ of its most outspoken critics, but it also created the ‘Brazilian Miracle’— the liberalization of South America’s largest economy. The same characterization can be made about Pinochet’s mandate in Chile. Is capitalism at the end of a sword justifiable? Longstanding American foreign policy in the region says yes. The United States has a long history of backing right-wing capitalist dictators as part of its Cold War con...
...who see Kissinger as one of the great war criminals. Evidence that he broke specific American and international laws is clear and readily available; indeed he is currently being sought for questioning by judges in Argentina, Chile, and France, which he fled after being served a court summons. The issue, however, has yet to be taken seriously in mainstream discourse. Why does the mounting legal case against a father of American postwar foreign po...
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