From a social outbreak to the Constitutional Convention: the case of La Primera Línea (frontline protesters) and people with disabilities as emerging social movements in the struggle for recognition

Abstract

Since the Chilean social revolt that began on October 18, 2019, groups and movements are emerging to fight for the recognition of stolen dignity. One of them is composed by people with disabilities, a group historically classified as depoliticized; and the other, the La Primera Línea (frontline protesters), described as an anonymous group delegitimized for confronting the police forces with the aim of protecting the citizen protests that happen behind their backs. Both collectivities are invisibilized, lack recognition in the social order, and are labeled as impaired, and violent, respectively, both excluded from organized protest and from the cross-cutting demands that trigger the revolt. In this article, we will observe the actions of these two collectivities and their different forms of manifestation during the Chilean popular revolt, and analyze them from the theoretical contributions that Nancy Fraser and Judith Butler have made to the theories of recognition. We seek to move from the contempt and exclusion to which these groups have been subjected, towards the utopia of recognition through the normative path of the ongoing constitutional process.