Chilean workers protest against the constitutional draft (+photos)

The demonstration was called by the United Workers’ Center (CUT) and was also attended by students, representatives of political and social organizations, and the population in general.

“Today we are in danger because the new text of the Magna Carta violates collective bargaining, the right to strike and freedom of association,” CUT President David Acuña told Prensa Latina.

Acuña expressed his regret that the Republican Party (far-right) and the conservative Chile Vamos coalition, which has a majority in the Constitutional Council, hijacked the process to install reactionary, medieval ideas and reduce collective and individual guarantees.

For his part, President of the National Association of Tax Employees, Jose Pérez Debelli, warned that the trend so far is to vote against the regressive and outdated basic bill.

The contents imposed by the more conservative sectors also threaten gender equality, voluntary abortion in cases of rape, inability of the fetus to survive, and danger to the mother’s life.

Former MP and activist in the Socialist Party, Fani Pollarolo, who denounced the decline in women’s sexual and reproductive rights and at work, warned: “Today what is imposed here is a constitution worse than that of (Augusto) Pinochet.” Achievements.

He also rejected the attempt to constitutionalize health pensions, which turned health into a business in a country where there are huge inequalities.

For Rosa Vergara, president of the National Association of Public Health User Councils, what they intend with this project is to give privileges to those who profit from people’s suffering.

He pointed out that 80 percent of the population serves in the public system, where there are not sufficient resources, and even more so now that about six thousand workers are scheduled to be laid off after the end of the epidemic.

The Magna Carta project being discussed today will be put to a public referendum on December 17.

jha/car