Political memories and collective action: Political uses of the past in the NO + AFP movement in Chile

Abstract

This article addresses the meanings attributed to the past and their political uses in the NO+AFP movement in Chile, whose struggle is focused on the conquest of the right to decent pensions. We have carried out this study through a discourse analysis of interviews and documents produced by the movement, since these produce and circulate meanings of the past that have effects on the present. The results show that this movement constructs its own memory that gives legitimacy to its positions, while reworking the dictatorial past, tensing the hegemonic narratives around it, proposing a counter-narrative about the AFP system and alternatives to change it. We conclude that the political memories constructed by the movement are an adjuvant to its struggle, allowing the creation of new meanings about the past and a terminology with which to imagine other possible futures.