It is time to leave behind the bureaucratic administration of neoliberal prescriptions. What is required today is a project of reforms that truly benefits the great majority and paves the way for a new Welfare State.
(By René Leal Hurtado, Doctor of Sociology. El Siglo, Santiago). Every 11th September, memory is clothed in black in Chile. Today, more than half a century later, the spectre of fascism is once again prowling. Faced with this threat, our challenge is not to repeat the epic struggle of the 70s, but to build a new one, different but equally profound, capable of confronting the present with intelligence and courage.
The crisis we are experiencing is not merely cyclical: it is organic, of the State in its entirety, as Gramsci would describe it. A long-standing fracture in which the compromises between the dominant and the dominated are becoming blurred. The ruling class can no longer manage to expand or absorb new sectors; on the contrary, it is fragmenting. And with this, a hegemonic vacuum opens up: political society and civil society have grown apart, leaving the State without a solid historical foundation. It is no coincidence that this crisis reached its highest point in the social uprising of October 2019.
In this scenario, the right will not hesitate to resort to fascism to preserve its privileges. The left, on the other hand, has the opportunity – and the responsibility – to offer a different way out: an alternative that thoroughly overcomes neoliberalism and reconstructs a State capable of responding to the majority. It is not just about winning elections with Jeannette Jara at the helm, but about initiating a political shift that goes beyond the simple replacement of elites.
For this, Unidad por Chile must grow and mature, learning from its previous experiences in government and acknowledging its mistakes. It is time to leave behind the bureaucratic administration of neoliberal prescriptions. What is required today is a project of reforms that truly benefits the great majority and paves the way for a new Welfare State.
This path will only be possible if social movements actively participate in this coalition, returning to the State its social role and its connection with the citizenry. Only then can a national-popular bloc be built that re-establishes the universal purpose of politics and confronts the scandalous levels of inequality that currently mark the country.
On this point, it is worth recalling Keynes, not because he proposed socialism, but because he showed that capitalism could be reformed to survive. With his ideas on the Welfare State and demand-side intervention, he managed to transform a system in crisis after the Great Depression, improving the living conditions of millions of workers.
Keynes ironically noted that “capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the most unpleasant of people will somehow work together, for the most unpleasant of reasons, to the benefit of all.” A sharp description of the system’s moral contradictions: capable of generating progress from selfishness, but at the expense of ethics and the common good.
Today, faced with the advance of the far-right and the crisis of neoliberalism, that lesson remains valid: it is not enough to manage what exists. Capitalism must be seriously reformed, its excesses regulated, and we must champion a State that guarantees social justice, equity, and dignity for the majority.
In short: if we want to stop fascism, we must bid farewell to neoliberalism and welcome a true Welfare State.