The pressure cooker is about to explode.

On the eve of the two national strikes, the Ministry for Education recently announced that 122 secondary schools were closed and 62 others were occupied following protests about education reform.

A further 19 universities across the country experienced a similar situation, resulting in violent evictions and political repression at the hands of the Chilean police.

The students are demanding the right to free and quality education, a right that they would like enshrined in the Constitution and that should be allocated adequate funding as soon as possible.

“We would like to put an end to the educational system which originated during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and the Organic Constitutional Education Act (LOCE), legislation that appointed the State as regulator, delegating a large part of teaching to private entities,” pointed out the mobilised students.

Workers from the Confederación de Trabajadores Portuarios and trade unions associated with copper production amongst others have endorsed their demands.

Students and workers are now convinced that the funding for the education of Chile’s children should come from the red metal, copper, of which Chili is the largest global producer (35 per cent of global copper production).

The General Secretary of the Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad Católica, Diego Vela, stated that: “On the 26 of June next we are going to mobilise and we are going to cause paralysis on a national level. All the country’s ports are going to suspend their activities in order to secure free and quality public education.”

The Sindicato Interempresa de la Gran Minería y Ramas Anexas (SITECO), said: “The government’s intransigence is excessive and the promised consultations fail to hide their true motives: greed and selling off our social rights.”

The trade union explained to the public: “Copper, Chile’s wealth – which at one time was nationalised, is now in foreign hands…We are thousands of ordinary men and women who are united and mobilised and who are ready to shape the destiny of our country with our own hands.”

Bárbara Figueroa, the first women in Chile’s history to be elected President of the CUT was clear: “The President stated that Chile’s economy has grown by 5 per cent year on year over the last three years, exceeding the previous period, putting Chile neck and neck with OECD countries.”

She went on to say that: “However, when doing its analysis this government forgot to mention that only one part of society benefits from this growth,” which is substantiated by the fact that Chile, despite marketing itself to the world as the “Jaguar of Latin America” is, according to the GINI index, the most inequitable country in the world, outstripping the United States and Israel.

It should also be remembered that the last national strike in the country on 24 and 25 August 2011, culminated in the death of the young student, Manuel Gutiérrez who died from police gunfire and which remains unexplained.

Several opinion polls reveal that approximately 80 per cent of the Chilean population agree with the student demands which are henceforth supported by the country’s workers.

Cristian Cuevas, President of the Confederación de Trabajadores del Cobre told Equal Times that: We fully support the student’s mobilisation, because we have a responsibility to do so. This protest will take place on various fronts, which we hope will be supported by the masses because it is the prelude to what will take place on 11 July.”

He pointed out that “For the 11 of July strike we are also calling for the worker’s agenda to be included, none of the presidential candidates are very clear on this issue. We need to ensure that our issues are included in the agenda”.

The key themes for the strike action called by on 11 July are: “A new labour institution that includes both public and private sector workers in the formal and informal economies; an end to the AFP (pension fund management companies) and a new State-sponsored pension scheme; and taxation reform, that will allow for effective financing of rights such as education, health and housing.”