The lessons of Chile
Reform or revolution

On 11 September 1973 the head of the Chilean military, General Pinochet, launched a military coup against the Popular Unity government, it's Socialist President Salvador Allende and the Chilean masses.

Supported by the CIA, the army acted swiftly. Within hours workers' and student leaders were rounded up in Santiago football stadium and over the coming days and months, tortured and murdered by Pinochet's military junta. Allende, who had placed so much trust in the military, was killed by Pinochet's henchmen. Felipe Hernandez, a socialist activist told how workers heroicly resisted the coup:

"Several of the armoured tanks tried to smash through the barricades, but because the street was narrow and crooked, they made their way slowly. For the next half hour or so they contented themselves with spraying the whole area indiscriminately with machine-gun fire. Dozens and dozens of our people were killed or seriously wounded in the few hours of resistance. Others however still continued to blast away at the enemy."

Pinochet ordered the army to execute any workers who resisted arrest. All opposition was drowned in blood. All political parties were banned and a military dictatorship with Pinochet as president installed. Hernandez, like thousands of others was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured in a concentration camp. He survived. Others didn't. Over the next decade thousands of workers, socialists and communists 'disappeared'. Hundreds and thousands of Chileans were forced into exile.

These tragic events could have been avoided. Millions supported Allende's government and were prepared to fight to defend it. But the politics of Allende and the Popular Unity government proved incapable of defending the workers and peasants from the bosses and their military state.

The Popular Unity regime

In 1970, Allende was elected president of Chile, supported by the Popular Unity Coalition (UP). This was a coalition of the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and a number of small bosses' parties. For the workers and poor peasants, the election of Allende signalled a victory against exploitation and poverty.

Within the first year, the government gave some land to the peasants, increased wages by 35% and nationalised Chile's copper mines. Copper was crucial to the Chilean economy, but the industry was owned and controlled by US multi-nationals who systematically ripped off the Chilean masses.

However, the Popular Unity government had no intention of really challenging capitalist rule. Despite Allende's adherence to 'Marxism' this government was what Marxists call a popular front government - an alliance of workers' and bosses' parties in which the workers' parties agreed not to fight for their interests in the name of unity.

The socialists and communists argued that the first task was to build a strong 'national' economy. They argued this required an alliance with the 'progressive' Chilean bourgeoisie. In the future, once this 'democratic' and sovereign government had been established, then the workers could have their socialism.

But the workers and peasants were not prepared to limit their goals. Peasants refused to wait for government decrees that compensated the rich landowners - they seized the land for themselves. Workers began to organise in the factories, demanding the government intervene when bosses laid off workers, drove down wages or closed factories.

The Chilean bourgeoisie feared that the masses were growing in confidence and organisation. Such a movement had to be stopped before it went too far. The imperialists, in particular the US, refused loans to the government and attempted to put an embargo on Chilean copper exports.

The bosses' courts ruled Allende's reforms illegal. In June 1971, the Comptroller of the Republic, a powerful government official, ordered the return of a textile factory that had been nationalised to its owner.

In 1972 the bosses stepped up their offensive. An economic crisis was developing across Chile. Inflation stood at 100% and hoarding and speculation by distributors and shopkeepers caused widespread shortages.

In October the bosses' opposition declared Allende's government illegitimate and launched a truck owners strike (funded by the US) to bring the country to a standstill. The bosses were now openly sabotaging Allende's government.

What was the response of the Socialists and Communists? They appealed to the bourgeois opposition and turned to the military to restore 'order', placing 13 provinces under martial law.

But the military and its officer caste, pruned from the families of the Chilean bourgeoisie and trained by the USA, would never bring the bosses to 'order'. Only the workers and peasants could do that - and they did. They met he bosses strike with a wave of occupations. Workers' regional committees - the Cordones Industriales - spread across Chile. They organised the transport of food and materials and defence against the bosses fascist thugs. Committees of housewives opened the supermarkets, requisitioning food and distributing it amongst the poor. The workers were developing their own forms of revolutionary organisation and control.

After this militant response, the bosses were on their knees demanding negotiations. At this point a decisive revolutionary leadership could have smashed the bosses' system once and for all. The Cordones Industriales could have taken over the running of the factories and expropriated the bosses' land and factories and demanded the cancellation of debt repayments. In the face of fascist violence and the army revolutionaries would have organised workers' militias and lead an urgent campaign amongst the rank and file of army to win them to the side of the workers and peasants . In short, a revolutionary party would have prepared the workers for a revolutionary civil war.

This was not the strategy of the Socialists and Communists. Instead they invited the army into the cabinet! The Socialist Party Minister of Agriculture declared:

"The armed forces enter the cabinet to preserve the institutional system which the hottest heads in the opposition wish to destroy. In this way they help assure the conditions for the program to advance."

They believed it was possible to use the army and the capitalist state to protect their government. This was because they believed it was possible to use parliament to build socialism through peaceful and legal means. These leaders had learnt nothing from history. Every struggle against capitalism has shown that the civil service, the legal system, the police and the army all serve to defend the property and power of the bosses. As soon as their wealth and interests are threatened, they will mobilise this state apparatus to smash any militant opposition. That is why Marxists argue that only a revolutionary struggle to smash up this state, armed and lead by the working class is capable of defeating the capitalists. This is the real difference between reformists and revolutionaries.

Allende was so busy looking for allies amongst his enemies that he turned his back on an army of millions of workers and peasants who had the means to break the rule of capital. Instead of arming the workers, he gave more power to the military generals. Instead of supporting the workers and peasants occupations against the bosses, he declared them illegal. The government was so desperate to reassure the bourgeoisie that they were not a threat, that in January of 1973, the Communist Minister, Milas put forward a plan to return 123 occupied enterprises to their owners! The Cordones Industriales blocked this legislation through determined resistance.

After a failed attempt to oust Allende in the elections of March 1973, the bourgeoisie turned to the army. The events over the past months had shown that while Allende posed no threat, the workers movement did.

The workers knew that the army were preparing a coup. Army raids against trade union and left party headquarters were increasingly used to intimidate workers. In August a group of sailors and petty officers after opposing coup preparations and informing the Popular Unity parties, were arrested and tortured.

The workers were demanding arms and yet Allende and his government did nothing. When the coup came the workers were unarmed and powerless to resist. In the words of a worker Filipe Hernandez, who survived the coup:

"Allende, in many ways, was a father to us. We never had a President who was not only respected because of his high office, but who was actually loved by at least half of the population. But many of us feel that Allende made a big mistake when he would not give arms to the people to defend themselves against the possible coup. Allende argued, and so did many of his advisors, that by giving arms to the people the putsch would have arrived even sooner. He thought that we would have never had a chance, even if we would have had rifles and machine guns, standing up against an army that had cannons and bombers. He thought hundreds and thousands of us would have been massacred. But I fell that I would rather have died fighting than become a prisoner as happened to me. "

The greatest tribute we can give to Filipe and the millions of workers who have fought and died in the struggle for socialism is to learn the lessons of Chile - only a revolutionary party, clear in its goals and determined to lead the workers to revolution can ensure that we rid the world of Pinochets once and for all.

"Some students light a fire in the street out of the leftover banners and the next thing I know, we are all running like hell away from the 'guanacos' (lorries that launch sewage water with great force) and the tear gas bombs. It's all frantic and confused; I can't see much 'cos I've got a scarf over the lower part of my face to protect me from the tear gas, which is like breathing a cloud of white pepper."

Helen, an East London student, gave this account of a student demo in Valparaiso, Chile last May. 190 students were violently arrested, beaten up and released late at night. This, Helen was told, was just routine brutality against a demo.

The students were protesting against the "Ley Marco", the ending of state funding for universities. This is part of Pinochet's legacy. Chile is a training ground for radical cuts in welfare and education. So, expect Britain to follow suit!

This picture also exposes the lie that Pinochet must be released in the interests of "democracy". The police and the army still tower menacingly above Chilean society. Pinochet will be protected. The best form of solidarity with the Chilean students is to demand Pinochet's immediate extradition to Spain.

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Democracy: do we live in a democratic society?

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Police: whose side are they on

State & Revolution

Lesson of Chile