Chilean voices Activists describe their experiences of the popular unity period Colin Henfrey Bernardo Sorj SciELO Books / SciELO Livros / SciELO Libros HENFREY, C., and SORJ, B. Chilean Voices: activists describe their experiences of the Popular Unity Period [online]. Rio de Janeiro: Centro Edelstein de Pesquisas Sociais, 2008. 151 p. ISBN: 978- 85-99662-84-7. Available from SciELO Books <http://books.scielo.org>. All the contents of this chapter, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Todo o conteúdo deste capítulo, exceto quando houver ressalva, é publicado sob a licença Creative Commons Atribuição - Uso Não Comercial - Partilha nos Mesmos Termos 3.0 Não adaptada. Todo el contenido de este capítulo, excepto donde se indique lo contrario, está bajo licencia de la licencia Creative Commons Reconocimento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 Unported. BIBLIOTECA VIRTUAL DE CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS CHILEAN VOICES Activists Describe their Experiences of the Popular Unity Period Colin Henfrey Bernardo Sorj This publication is part of The Virtual Library of Social Sciences of The Colin Henfrey Edelstein Center for Social Research - www.bvce.org Bernardo Sorj Copyright © 2008, Colin Henfrey, Bernardo Sorj Copyright © 2008 of this on-line edition: The Edelstein Center for Social Research No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the copyright holder at the address below. Parts of this publication may be Chilean Voices reproduced for noncommercial purposes so long as the authors and publisher are duly acknowledged. Activists Describe their Experiences of the Popular Unity Period ISBN 978-85-99662-84-7 The Edelstein Center for Social Research www.centroedelstein.org Rua Visconde de Pirajá, 330/1205 Ipanema - Rio de Janeiro - RJ CEP: 22410-000. Brazil Contact: [email protected] Rio de Janeiro 2008 SUMÁRIO INTRODUCTION Introduction ...................................................................................................2 Chile and the Popular Unity Part I – The Industrial Sector .........................................................................9 Few foreigners knew much about Chile when, in September 1970, a Marxist president was elected. Yet the next three years were to make it a 1 The Chilean way to socialism: from company town to a nationalized stage on which the world watched the re-enactment of almost all the classic copper industry ........................................................................................12 problems of achieving socialism. In the last, bloody act, the name of Chile would be scored, like Spain’s, across the minds of a generation. 2 The Working Class and the Struggle for Power: from workers’ participation to the communal commands ...............................................25 The Popular Unity coalition supporting Salvador Allende with his programme for initiating a ‘peaceful way toward socialism’, won 36 per 3 Building the Industrial Cordons: Maipú-Cerrillos ................................40 cent of the votes, against 34 per cent for the candidate of the right-wing National Party. Much propaganda was to be made of this lack of an overall Part II – The Countryside ............................................................................53 majority. However, the Christian Democrats, who were previously in power under Eduardo Frei (1964-70) and won 28 per cent of the vote, had a 4 The Campesinos and Popular Unity: agrarian reform in the Central programme almost as radical as the PU’s, in the short term. Valley ......................................................................................................57 Following Allende’s victory, capital was rushed out of the country. 5 The Campesinos and Popular Power: building the revolutionary Congress, which was dominated by the opposition parties, still had to alliance .....................................................................................................72 confirm the election result. It did so only after Allende had undertaken to ‘respect the integrity’ of the Church, the judiciary and the armed forces. Part III – Shantytowns .................................................................................93 Soon afterwards, the army’s commander-in-chief, General Schneider, was assassinated. This turned out to have been an attempt by a small neo-fascist 6 A Mobilized Shantytown: New Havana ...............................................95 party, Fatherland and Freedom, to provoke military intervention. (It later emerged that the CIA was also involved.) The left, meanwhile, debated Part IV – Universities ................................................................................112 what all this meant for the future. It was in this climate that Allende took 7 The Students’ Polarization in the University of Chile ........................114 power on 3 November 1970. The PU was a broad left coalition. Its largest components were the Abbreviations and Glossary .......................................................................131 Communist and Socialist parties, which had combined in previous Chronology of Political Events in the PU Period ......................................135 elections. The former, dating from the twenties, was traditionally committed to an electoral strategy. With its roots in the nitrate mines of the Postscript ...................................................................................................143 north, it was strongest among industrial workers. The Socialist Party was What to read on Chile ................................................................................150 founded in 1933, by Allende among others. Though mostly Marxist, its followers ranged from Social Democrats to Trotskyists. 2 The Radicals and the MAPU (Movement of Popular United Action) officially neutral armed forces. The latter, it was hoped, would at least were the coalition’s junior partners. The Radicals were a long-standing divide in the event of a military coup, while victory in the congressional social democratic party. Having led a Popular Front in the thirties, they elections due in 1973 might pave the way for a Popular Assembly. This dominated centrist politics until the newer Christian Democrats overtook dominant, ‘gradualist’ position was particularly associated with the them in the sixties. Their association with the PU provoked two splits, Communist Party. Both points of view were represented in the other PU before and after 1970, further diminishing their numbers. parties, and it was precisely over these that the MAPU and the MOC were to finally split – the MOC to align with the ‘gradualists’, and the MAPU to The MAPU was much the youngest party involved. Formed in 1969 join with the MIR, Christian Left and sections of the Socialist Party by disillusioned Christian Democrats who adopted a Marxist position, it criticizing them as ‘reformists’. Even in 1970, perhaps their one clear point split twice in the PU period. First into the Christian Left, which dropped the of agreement was that the PU’s victory was a critical step forward. explicitly Marxist label, but stayed in the PU and attracted more Christian Democrats; and later into the Workers’ and Peasants’ Movement (MOC). Three years later, on 11 September 1973, the armed forces overthrew The latter was dose to the Communist Party and also remained in the PU, the PU in a particularly violent coup, even for modern Latin America. making it finally a six-party coalition. The one substantial left-wing party President Allende died defiant in the burning Moneda Palace. United outside it was the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). Cuban-influenced Nations sources estimate that thousands of his supporters were killed. A and of mainly student origin, it operated clandestinely until the PUs victory, minority died fighting against clearly impossible odds. Others were publicly then offered ‘critical support’ to Allende. shot without trial, to create mass terror, in the factories, slums and rural communities sympathetic to the PU. Many are known to have died under These parties naturally had differing views on Allende’s accession in torture. Thousands more were herded into gaols and concentration camps. these turbulent circumstances. For the Communist Party, Radicals and The military junta under General Augusto Pinochet adopted a clearly fascist many Socialists it vindicated the PUs premise: the strength of Chile’s position: it suspended all human rights, banned political parties and trade democratic traditions, even at moments of confrontation. For other unions, burned the electoral register and swore to ‘eliminate Marxism’ and Socialists and the MAPU and MIR, it had very different implications: that ‘re-establish Western values’. It rapidly aligned with Brazilian-led the Chilean ruling class would resort to violence when necessary. ideological warfare on a continental scale, and established a terror apparatus The PU’s philosophy was vague, though. In immediate terms it that was to systematically destroy a generation of left-wingers. aspired only to establish the would-be preconditions for a transition to Today, as the Chilean resistance develops, new forms of struggle socialism. These included the nationalization of major resources and have begun. Yet everywhere discussion of the PU continues, especially on monopolies, both Chilean and foreign-owned; measures