Chilean anti-student police violence

This video is called Chile students rally for free education.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Chilean police attack free education protesters

Thursday 09 August 2012

by Our Foreign Desk

Police used water cannon to break up a protest by thousands of students demanding free education in Chile’s capital Santiago on Wednesday.

During the confrontation, hooded vandals set ablaze three city buses amid violence that left dozens arrested and injured.

The crisis over education reform in Chile remains unresolved despite more than a year of demonstrations by students, teachers and families.

The marches have been mainly peaceful but often end with clashes between police in riot gear and groups of vandals armed with sticks who loot shops and hurl rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Chile’s government said student leaders cannot be exempt from responsibility for the burning of the Transantiago buses in Wednesday’s protest, during which 75 people were arrested and 49 policemen were injured.

“The leaders are opening the doors to vandalism and delinquency,” presidential spokesman Andres Chadwick claimed.

“How much more should we put up with these illegal marches that call on school takeovers and that threaten a violent August?

“What does that have to with education?”

But the students rejected the claims. “I deeply regret what is happening in the streets of Santiago, but the government is responsible because of its indolence and silence to all proposals,” said University of Chile student federation president Gabriel Boric.

“We’ve tried all ways to reach out and have a dialogue.”

Mass demonstrations initially raised hope across Chile for education reform.

But more than a year after the first protests, politicians and students have toughened their stance and the system still fails families with poor quality public schools, expensive private universities, unprepared teachers and banks that make education loans at high interest that most Chileans can’t afford.

President Sebastian Pinera’s approval ratings have plunged with the protests that have focused Chileans’ attention on academic and economic inequality.

Mr Pinera has refused to radically change the education system.

But student leaders want to change the tax system so the rich pay more.

They also want the state back in control of the mostly privatised universities.

They say change will come only when the private sector is regulated and education is no longer run for profit.