The Chilean bourgeois institutions, like an old rickety wardrobe, creak through all their cracks at the slightest breeze. This last month, these failing institutions have been brought to their knees, as the result of a bill that would authorise, for the third time, a withdrawal of 10% of pension funds by contributors from private pensions. President Sebastián Piñera was defeated on this issue and once again, it was the organisation of the working class that was the driving force of his defeat, expressed in a formidable mobilisation of dock workers and the threat of a general strike.

This year May Day has been marked amidst the spiralling barbarism caused by the ruling class’ handling of the pandemic and the crisis of capitalism. A massive, subterranean build–up of anger has taken place worldwide, yet the reformist workers’ leaders in many countries used the pandemic as an excuse to call off May Day rallies. Indeed, many of the same leaders have used the pandemic to champion ‘national unity’ and hold back the workers’ struggles throughout the last year. Nevertheless, wherever it was possible to do so, comrades of the International Marxist Tendency participated in May Day protests worldwide.