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8 - Social work in times of political violence: dictatorships and acts of resistance from the Southern Cone
- Edited by Vasilios Ioakimidis, University of Essex, Aaron Wyllie, University of Essex
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- Book:
- Social Work's Histories of Complicity and Resistance
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2024
- Print publication:
- 14 June 2023, pp 121-133
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Summary
Introduction
The profession of social work developed in Latin America through crises and upheaval from the beginning of the 20th century. A wave of dictatorships affecting Latin American countries in the 1970s and 1980s severely impacted on social work education and practice, having consequences in professional and political terms that can still be observed (Sepúlveda, 2016). In this chapter we aim to contextualise and revisit the period of dictatorships in the Southern Cone, the geographic and cultural region composed of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay – the southernmost area of South America.1 These three countries experienced dictatorships in overlapping years (Chile 1973– 90, Uruguay 1973– 85 and Argentina 1976– 83), and their dictators had close reciprocal links, as Operation Condor and the exile of so many people have demonstrated over the decades. Despite the fact that these countries have diverse experiences regarding the politics of memory and reparation, a public agenda for recognition of the recent past and its atrocities has already been established. It is precisely that agenda which has also permitted the observation of practices of resistance, abandoning the idea of victims of dictatorship and recognising the capacity of many people, some of them social workers, to contest, subvert and resist the hegemonic order imposed under conditions of political violence. For our colleagues who were detained and disappeared while fighting for a free and equal society, remembrance it is an act of justice. In particular, it is crucial to remember what happened in the heart of social work during those dark years and ask ourselves why attempts were made to erase our history and our voices were silenced by the military forces.
The chapter is based on an extensive dialogue between the two authors and engagement with primary and secondary sources, as well as interviews with Uruguayan colleagues. The scarcity of written material about the impacts of the dictatorship on the development of social work in Uruguay caught our attention, so their testimonies were invaluable. We are confident that this chapter will contribute to a better understanding of the political and cultural effects of political violence on social work and the critical perspectives that some colleagues were able to uncover in the complex context of dictatorship in this region.
7 - Business As Usual? Social Work and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chile
- Edited by Michael Lavalette, Liverpool Hope University, Vasilios Ioakimidis, University of Essex, Iain Ferguson
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- Book:
- Social Work and the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 23 March 2021
- Print publication:
- 19 October 2020, pp 53-60
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Summary
The first case of coronavirus in Chile was confirmed by the Department of Health on the 3 March 2020, when the country was still facing political uprising and massive riots that had started on the 18 October 2019 (18-O). The national plebiscite scheduled to be conducted in April 2020 – an agreement obtained as a consequence of protests aiming to define the end of the Political Constitution created during the Pinochet dictatorship – had to be postponed because of the sanitary crisis. The government established partial lockdowns and quarantines during the first months in some sectors of some cities. These selective measures that aimed to protect the functioning of markets and the health of the economy have resulted in Chile remaining in Phase 4 of the outbreak – that is, uncontrolled and widespread community transmission.
Despite policies aiming to protect market functioning, unemployment reached 11.2 per cent between March and May, a record-high level in the past ten years. Debt, precariousness and poverty have increased (Fundacion Sol 2020), to the point where a new wave of riots was unleashed in late May due to food unavailability and lack of support in the poorest areas, which was fiercely repressed by the police. “The Chilean system is even crueller than coronavirus” stated the protesters’ banners, referring to the consequences of the neoliberal experiment that historically had made Chile recognised around the world (Harvey 2005). Recently, the measures adopted by the right-wing government of Sebastian Pinera to address the corona crisis have included the launching of a new Employment Act allowing companies to suspend employment contracts or negotiate reduced work schedules with their employees; the offering of loans to families to cover subsistence needs which are granted by private banks; and the delivering of food boxes in the poorest areas – food bought from the biggest supermarket chains. These, among other strategies implemented by the government during the last months, have served as opportunities for implementing profit generation in times of crisis, as Naomi Klein (2007) has identified in her celebrated book, The Shock Doctrine.
This is not new in Chile. Even more, it was precisely the indignation of Chilean people against ‘the shock doctrine’ implemented during the dictatorship (1973– 1990) to install the neoliberal model and its effects in daily life which resulted in 18- O, one of the most significant political uprisings experienced by the Chilean society in the last century.