The Revolution Will Be Feminist — Or Not At All

Chile will be the first nation worldwide to write a new constitution with the equal participation of women and men. This historic transformation was propelled by the leadership of Chilean women who declared in the streets that “the revolution must be feminist or not at all.”

Feminism does not negotiate. It can’t simply ask for improvements to public policies. One of our critical demands here — “Not one [woman] less”— alludes to our insistence that we stop being killed, that we stop being raped. A feminist cannot ask to be killed a “little” less, since the role of feminism is to undo the patriarchy. As feminists, we want to end an entire social system that is fed by machismo. This radicalism is feminism’s greatest contribution to the social explosion that, in just one year, was able to topple the core pillar on which Chile’s neoliberalism rested —its constitution.

This past Sunday, 78.3 percent of the Chilean electorate voted in a plebiscite to reject a constitution that represented the legacy of dictator Augusto Pinochet, and open the door to a participatory process to create a new document. The new constitution will be written by an equal number of women and men elected to a constitutional convention, a milestone that just five years ago would have seemed far-fetched and crazy. This outcome marks a great leap from the submission of the people to power of the people. Today, the working class, which for so many years was oppressed, massacred and looted by the bourgeoisie, rises up and establishes new margins, new ways to build. Today, we want it all. We aren’t demanding fixes, charity, reforms or welfare. Instead, our movement demands social justice, equity and parity.

“We aren’t demanding fixes, charity, reforms or welfare. Instead, our movement demands social justice, equity and parity”

The political class in uneasy. It trembles as it witnesses the insurrection of a people tired of being slapped around and lied to, that is walking firmly towards liberation and real equality.

While Chilean women have had the right to vote since 1934, it was only for those who could read and write. The society that was granting “permission” for women to vote was the same one that took away the right to study and learn to read and write. This paradox permeates all systems that consider total submission as a means of power; neoliberalism and machismo pair up here.

The gaze of women, missing for centuries in the construction of society, is evident by the absence of fundamental rights, in the static, obsolete and meager concept of family, in the definition of maternal and paternal roles, in the use and abuse of the land and the total lack of interest of society and public policies in the protection of children.

Today, the rebirth of a society begins. We reassess the concept of family, the reproductive role of women, of work and unpaid work, the right to our body, the respectful use of the land, of sexual diversity, the respect and autonomy for native peoples, and the protection of the environment. We call this the start of the "Feminist Constitution."

There will be a great deal of political and social movement in Chile, at least for the next two years. On January 11, 2021, the registration period for the constitutional convention candidacies expires. Up until now, a pact by the political class had prevented the possibility of writing the constitution by reserving that opportunity for those who belong to a political party. This is why those of us who have gone out to the streets to protest call for people to continue fighting, for we must finish eradicating these biased partisan agreements to achieve absolute popular power.

On April 11, 2021 the election of a155 convention delegates, which must reflect the equal participation of women and men and also the participation of indigenous people, will be held concurrently with the municipal and gubernatorial elections.

The 155 elected delegates will have as their sole objective the drafting of the constitution, with a two-thirds quorum. The new constitution can be written within a period of nine months that can be extended for three more months, after which the commission of conventionalists is dissolved.

The new constitution will be proposed to the people via another plebiscite on August 1, 2022, for which voting will be mandatory.

Chile begins to rewrite its story. Chile has just exploded.

Translated by Juana Ponce de León.