Capacious and Territorial: The Left and the Course of the Social Revolt in Chile

This article develops how the 2019 social uprising in Chile linked anti-neoliberal and anti-authoritarian causes with those dedicated to social justice in race, environmental, indigenous, labor, gender, and sex relations. Protestors, moreover, articulated their visions for change in public squares and settings. In identifying these characteristics, the article asserts that the protest movement should be understood as being both capacious and territorial. These two characteristics, moreover, have long characterized the Chilean Left and made it well suited to take advantage of the present protest conjuncture. Yet if capaciousness and territoriality have granted vibrancy and possibility to the protest movement, they nonetheless have also presented it with significant challenges. This includes the fact that seizing territory, often including the destruction of property, helped to delegitimize the protests among right-wing sectors and broader publics. The article thus ultimately underscores the promise and shortcomings afforded by leftist forms of street protest.