Twenty years after General Pinochet's brutal Chilean coup exposed the "Popular Unity', PHIL ON THE MORNING of 11 September 1973, twenty years ago, tanks and aircraft attacked the Santiago Moneda palace, residence of Chilean President Salvador Allende. The nightmare of the left in Chile and internationally, a military coup against the left-wing Popular Unity goverment, was coming true.
Allende and his bodyguards came out of the palace with machine guns, scan ning the sky for attacking planes. Within hours both Allende and the peaceful road to socialism' in Chile were dead.
The right wing and the army took their revenge agamnst the len. in three days 30,000 trade unionists, socialists and communists were slaughtered.
A reign of terror which lasted more than 15 years under the Pinochet military government ensued; thousands were tortured or "disappeared'. Chilean workers were subiected to the mou radical mone. tarist economic policy in Latin America, one which created a wealthy middle class but drove millions of workers into dire overty Popular Unity, including the Communist. Socialist and Radical parties, had come to power in September 1970. Right from the start Allende tried to make concessions to the right wing; his cabinet included more members of the declining Radical Party than the much bigger Communist Party. Popular Unity committees organised for the election were disGradual reforms The policy of Popular Unity was one of gradual reforms in the interests of the working class. Many industries were nationalised and salaries substantially increased. Free milk was distributed to the poor, and public housing greatly increased. There was a surge of support for Popular Unity in the 1971 local clections.
But these successes for Popular Unity the banks and big financial institutions were not nationalised, the government had to borrow huge sums to finance its projects and inflation rocketed. Ironically the subscouch conomic chaos angonised the middle class, which Popular Unity had tried to woo by not going too fast'.
The government faced a huge campaign of destabilisation by the bosses. There was an investment strike. Wealthy farmers took their cattle over the Andes into neighbouring Argentina, rather than sell them in Chile. The press carried out a huge campaign against the government.
As the economy got into worse trouble, foreign companies refused to invest in Chile -all financial credit to Chile was ended.
In 1972 the gradualist strategy of Popular Unity went into bankruptcy. The determination of local reaction and imperalism to wreck the economy made it impossible to win over the middle class.
The destabilisation process reached a ncau in the autumn of 1972 when a bosses' strike was organised. Factories closed down: middle class truck owners went on strike, leaving transport paraBysca. Ine country grouno to a hall Popular Unity was itself divided. The right wing. led by Allende and the Communist Party advocated a continued "go slow policy - what they called 'consolidation' The left wing, the left of the Socialist party and its allies, put forward a policy of 'advance without compromise; to push forward to socialism by mobilising Chilean workers and farmers still suffer from Allende's disaster the workers. They were supported by the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) outside the goverment.
The workers had something to say about the situation. Against the hoarding of vital necessities, they organised local committees of supply and distribution to break the stranglehold of the black mar. ket. Popular Unity base committees were revitalised.
Peasants started to fight for control of the land by seizures of parts of big estates. Most important of all, when the hasses strike started, workers in the industrial zones -the cordones industriales-set up factory and area committees of resistance.
ane factory and newcoumood com mittees constituted embryonic organisa. tions of workers power; the workers were beginning to take power into their own hands. Popular power was emerging in Chile.
Opposed to mass action But the Popular Unity goverment opposed the self-organisation of the masses. As the bosses' strike developed, the government denounced the cordones indus. mates is Bicyal Instead of mobilising the masses, intervening to support the actions of the workers themselves. Popular Unity called in the army to break the strike.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 49. 18 September 1993, Page 14 proposes a number of
HEARSE draws the political lessons for the left today.