Organizers
say it was the largest-ever protest against the private pension
system in Chile
Hundreds of
thousands of people took the streets in cities across Chile Sunday to
protest the private pension system known as AFP, in what the
organizers call the largest march for the cause in the history of the
movement.
The march,
organized by workers' organizations and trade unions, kicked off at
11:00 a.m. local time in the capital city Santiago's in Plaza de las
Armas, as well as several other cities.
"We
hope today we will have a lot of people and show that the social
movements are saying, 'We don't want anymore AFP,'" a
protester with the Cabreados Movement told Chile's Bio Bio TV at the
demonstration in Santiago. "(AFP) is already a failure, and
our political actors need to know that the social movements won't
stop."
Luis
Messina, spokesperson for the CNT labor union, predicted that
Sunday's demonstration would be a "historic" march.
"Perhaps the largest in history," he said. The
protest comes after several marches in the country to demand
President Michelle Bachelet end the AFP private pension system which
puts the average retirement pension below the minimum wage.
The
contested system also forces workers to deposit a portion of their
wages and an administrative fee into accounts managed by private
hands. This system handles savings for about 10 million working
Chileans.
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report:
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