Resisting neoliberalism in Latin America: The 2019 Chilean revolt and the struggle for constitutional reform

Coming to us all the way from Chile, Pablo Abufom is the Sunday keynote speaker at the Second New Zealand Federation of Socialist Societies National Conference – Labour Weekend 2024. Pablo will speak to “Resisting neoliberalism in Latin America: The 2019 Chilean revolt and the struggle for constitutional reform.”

Please note: the Sunday keynote is a free event, open to anyone, irrespective of whether they have registered for the conference or not. Likewise for the Saturday keynote.

The theme for this year’s conference is “The Dual Crisis in Aotearoa.” The “dual crisis” is the idea that Aotearoa has periodically gone through simultaneous crises in its colonial and capital foundations. The current National-led coalition government is responding to crises in the neoliberal economic order and the relationship between Pākehā and Māori with another wave of austerity and wealth transfers to the rich and renewed attacks on Māori.

Pablo is a fourth-generation Palestinian living in Chile who has been involved in the struggle against neoliberalism in Chile for nearly 20 years.

While neoliberalism was achieved “peacefully” in Aotearoa in the 1980s through the Labour Party’s right-wing Rogernomics reforms, in Chile similar changes were brutally forced through by General Augusto Pinochet’s bloody campaign of murder and torture following a coup d’état in 1973. In 2019, protest erupted in Chile in response to a wide range of issues including cost of living, privatisation, and inequality, ultimately leading to a referendum that rejected the Pinochet-era constitution and committed the country to drafting a new constitution. Although the historical trajectories of neoliberalism in Chile and Aotearoa are not identical, they share the unenviable experience of being at the outer extreme of global neoliberal policy.

Pablo has been a student organiser, an activist for pension reform, and was a community organiser during the 2019 protests. As such, he is well-placed to speak to the theme of our conference. We look forward to hearing about his experiences organising during the 2019 protests and the resultant constitutional reform in Chile. There will no doubt be many insights for us to glean in the struggle against neoliberal capitalism in Aotearoa!

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Event Proceedings:
6:45 pm – Doors open
7:00 pm – Introduction
7:10 pm – Talk by Pablo
8:00 pm – Intermission
8:10 pm – Q&A

Please do arrive on time. Pablo’s talk will start at 7.00 pm sharp and if we exceed Thistle Hall’s capacity we may have to turn people away.