Last month, the message “March is coming!” began appearing among Chile’s teeming political graffiti. On Monday 2^nd of March, Chilean high-school students made good of the writing on the wall, taking to the streets in a mass organization of country-wide marches, sit-ins, walkouts and actions.

This resurgence of student activism marks a continuation of nationwide protests against Chile’s widespread systemic inequality. The student-led protests were against subway price-hikes, representing Chile’s increasingly high cost of living, which sparked October’s nationwide mass demonstrations and the following civil unrest.

What began as mass fare evasions struck a larger chord; turnstile jumping snowballed into a movement as Chileans used marches and strikes to protest structural problems stemming from austerity measures, public service cuts and long-festering inequality.

The protests began to dwindle in size and frequency by December, but this week saw youth movements rekindle Chile’s revolutionary flame.

Chile’s national Carabineros police cracked down hard on the high schoolers, fearing escalations like those in 2019. Al Jazeera reports dozens of minors arrested.

2019’s atmosphere of police brutality also continues, with a 17-year-old in Antofagasta and an 18-year-old in Meijollones sustaining serious eye injuries – the latter causing permanent blindness in one eye. Both injuries are the result of controversial police pellet projectiles, which caused 445 documented eye injuries in 2019, with many claiming police deliberately aiming to blind.

While brutality against minors may inspire calls to respond with similar violence, what the people of Chile need now is unity over conflict. The eyes of the world are upon these young people, a just cause can easily be disregarded as mindless youth violence by those caught in the crossfire – and politicians and the media are well accustomed to such spins.

The language of Rodolfo Lobos, Colonel of the Carabineros, demonstrated this process with intentions to “rigorously punish criminals” and “effectively neutralize antisocials and prevent future acts of vandalism.”

Similarly, Edgar Blanco, Mayor of Antofagasta, announced police surveillance in schools to ensure “truthful and key information is extracted that will allow the antisocials who oppose peace to be annulled.” This is a chilling use of military language of repression and interrogation when we consider that the targets are children.

Patricia Romo, president of the Antofagasta National Teacher’s Association, clarifies the government’s aims: “We cannot normalize the arrest of minors,” she told Al Jazeera, “We condemn the repression against our students.”

While it is true that arson, riots and looting have caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage since October, there is telling official silence from the opposite perspective. During October’s state of emergency, military deployment led to severe human rights violations – including killings. So far, protesters have suffered 3,500 reported injuries and over 30 people have died. Chile’s National Institute for Human Rights has filed lawsuits over illegal detentions, beatings and torture.

The selective silence of authorities continues into recent weeks, as supporters of the ruling party commit violence which far outweighs those of the protesters. Monday 24^th of February saw a 73-year-old man open fire on a march, leaving three people injured.

Despite all condemnations, a recent poll by CADEM shows two-thirds of Chileans believe the protests should continue. To contrast this, President Sebastian Pinera’s approval rate is 12%.

The protests mark the most significant chapter in Chile’s history since the end of Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship in October 1988, with many of the inequalities remaining as vestiges of this regime. Significantly for students, Pinochet’s educational reforms reduced government funding, encouraging privatization.

Figures from Time show the problem clearly: currently 62% of students attend privatized or semi-privatized schools, one of the highest proportions in the world. In 2018, 30% of public-school students scored highly enough to apply for college – compared to 43.5% from partially-private and 79% from fully private schools.

This level of educational inequality compounds already existing income inequality. 1% of Chileans currently hold 33% of the country’s wealth, leaving the country in the world’s top 20 most unequal. Combined with privatized healthcare and an average pension cut to the equivalent of $400 a month, the result is a society where only the top 20% earn more money per month than they spend on food, housing, transport, and basic services.

As is often the case, this is not just a national problem but part of a global trend under the deregulated open markets of neoliberal capitalism. Chile is touted as a success story by the U.S., with the Washington Consensus ensuring these economic policies and structural adjustment programs as conditions for loans by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. However, it is easy to see similar inequalities bubbling under the surface of the U.S. itself.

Too often in recent years, the responsibility for revolution has fallen upon the youth whose futures are threatened by systemic injustice, dismantled social security nets and climate change. With an increasingly educated and interconnected youth falling outside the age-range to vote for their own future, it is unsurprising that they are taking matters into their own hands. It is our responsibility to stand with them against changes that affect us all and to make the revolution as intersectional as possible.

It is hard to remain uninspired by those like Ayalen Salgado, spokesperson for the National Coordinating Assembly of Secondary Students, who proudly proclaim: “We don’t like to sit quiet while our rights get trampled … We’re a new generation. So we’re not afraid yet.”