After our meeting with Camila Vallejo and Francisco Figueroa and Giorgio Jackson, the question came up how we could support Chile's revolutionary student movement. We certainly cannot walk side by side with Chile's youth but what we can do is devote one of our daily rides to the masses of students who claim their rights for free education on a daily basis.
So next time you ride your bicycle, stop for moment and take a snap shot of yourself and your bike and post it on the wall of Ride for your Rights! with the words:
My name is ...
I ride for Chile in ...
Let's ride people!
My name is Julian Walkowiak
I ride for Chile in St. Petersburg, Russia
Everyone who has been with this year's Ride for your Rights! group knows that every day holds at least half a dozen unexpected surprises. The latest event of the unexpected however, was by far the most thrilling one I had come across since the creation of Ride for your Rights!
On the other side of the continent a young lady in Chile has become President Sebastián Piñera's rival number one.
(Source: roadendless)
Camila Vallejo (president of Chile's leading student body Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile) "has presided over the biggest citizen democracy movement since the days of opposition marches to General Augusto Pinochet a generation ago", the Guardian reports. Over the last 6 months Camila and her followers have occupied the streets day after day to challenge the Chilean education system. The Guardian further reports
In support of their demands for free university education, since May they have organised 37 marches, which have gathered upwards of 200,000 students at a time (08.10.2011).
Despite receiving death threats on a daily basis, Camila pursues to mobilise the youth and dignifies politics again.
On Tuesday I had the honour to meet Camila and Giorgio Jackson at a seminar called "Participation and Higher Education" organised by Campus Europae and GUE-NGL inside the European Parliament. Camila and Giorgio talked about the injustice of the Chilean system and appealed to politicians and students of Europe to support their fight for a democratic system.
On behalf of the Ride for your Rights! movement I thanked Camila for being an inspiration to all of us and gave her one of our T-shirts.
Over lunch we came up with an idea how we could contribute to the student movement in Chile as well. More news on that coming soon.
Despite the rumors that our adventure had come to an abrupt stop in a Czech pub, we'd like to inform all our friends and readers that we'll be bringing the remaining travel diary back to this outlet very shortly. We did stop publishing - for that we apologize - but we didn't stop riding for our Rights!
SPOILER ALERT!
We all arrived safely and on schedule, we all went back home (well, almost everyone), we had our closing conference and there are many amazing stories we'd like to share with you. Stay tuned and don't miss out on our stories from the Ride, on the riders' profiles, on the facts of life and many more surprises we have to show you.
