These are convulsed times in the world, what doubt. We are living the consequences of a pandemic that has already caused the death of 500 thousand people in the world and increasing, in addition to some 15 a thousand deaths in Chile alone, so we were forced to spend the winter in our houses in confinement.
Before that, an explosion of social energy released with a force rarely seen exposed the failures of the Chilean neoliberal model and the need for a profound change in the foundations of the system, in order to establish a new social pact based on a new constitution.
The world is no stranger to this scenario, since social protests have been triggered in many countries in the last decade due to various problems, although they are mostly due to common themes: greater social rights; the crisis of representativeness of politics; the corruption; and the crisis of liberal democracies.
Before this, people, the villages, citizens have risen up against these injustices, just as it says Get Up, Stand Up.
There is another iconic song in the fight for human rights in which, prophetic tone, Peter Tosh Sing that there will be no peace until we have equal rights and justice, a motto that has not lost its validity over the years.
In Handsworth Revolution, Steel Pulse sing clearly:
“I don't want favors
Because there is still hunger
Innocent doomed
Bad salary, hard work
Only Babylon thrives”
“Chile woke up” and has been the epicenter of these protests globally. The 25 October last year, more of 1,2 millions of people marched peacefully in Santiago alone, it is believed that until 3 million across the country.
“Poverty“, of YoyYo awareness, gives an account of some of the causes of the social outbreak.
At once, the feminist movement summoned similar figures on 8 March and also spread the LasTesis performance throughout the world.
Without reaching the magnitude of the Chilean collective, a deep song of women's power is Greatest Threat To The Status Quo of Jah9 in collaboration with the already promoted Vaughn Benjamin (Midnite, Akae Beka).
Another serious problem is racism, still hit hard. In the United States it is brutal until today and the death of George Floyd sparked protests across the breadth of that country; In Chile we also have the same scourge suffered by the Mapuche people and the native peoples, besides the foreigners, mainly those with darker skin.
“War”, song inspired by a speech by Su Majestad Imperial Haile Selassie I before the United Nations in 1966, expresses a powerful message against racism.
In a context with many of these problems, Reggae was forged, thus arose and developed, in the middle of the ghettos, with serious social problems similar to the current ones, reason why its characteristic voice of protest maintains great validity to this day.
