Chapter Nine. The World Economic Crisis, Chile And The Free Trade Agreements

Social movements in recent Chilean history have been relevant actors and protagonists in at least two distinct periods. One we will call splendor and death which refers to the Chilean road to socialism. The other is the resistance to dictatorship and to neoliberalism. In a third and later phase, corresponding with the transition or return to democracy, social movements have suffered the effects of their exclusion from the new governability pact. The e greatest resistance to neoliberalism came from the social movements' front and took shape in the eighties, under total Pinochet dictatorship. During the popular unity (UP), the conflict between the dynamics of the popular power and state dynamics could not find a way out. During the dictatorship, in the phase of reconstruction of the popular movement, the logic and protagonism of the social organizations was much more relevant than that of the parties. Keywords:Chilean social movements; neoliberalism; Pinochet dictatorship; popular unity (UP)