On September 11, 1973, exactly 50 years ago, a military coup, led by Augusto Pinochet, overthrew President Salvador Allende and his Government of Popular Unity, took power by force and imposed a brutal fascist dictatorship on the Chilean people.

A heinous act that communists, and certainly other democrats, have the responsibility and duty to mark.

Not letting fall into oblivion the brutal wave of violence that characterised the coup and horrified the Chilean people and the world.

An undying duty and responsibility, which takes on particular significance and importance in these days.

We will not forget, nor will we allow to be wiped from memory, the coherence and dignity of Allende who, faced with the coup and the bombing of La Moneda Palace, chose death rather than surrender.

We will not forget, nor will we allow to be wiped from memory, the barbaric torture, murders, cruelty, and the transformation of Santiago's National Stadium into a death camp.

We will not forget, nor will we allow to be wiped from memory the class hatred of big Chilean capital and the North American multinationals that were behind the coup and the military.

We will not forget, nor will we allow to be wiped from memory the central role played in the fascist coup, by the US Administration and the US secret services of the CIA, this all-pervasive organisation with a vast experience of interference and subversion throughout the world, a modus operandi of which the Portuguese Revolution was also a target.

In this regard, the statements made by Duane Clarridge, head of the CIA department in charge of Latin America, are revealing, when he stated in an interview with John Pilger, in a 2007 documentary by the Australian journalist, that Pinochet's crimes were worth it.

A macabre confirmation that brings to mind another statement by a senior North American official, Madelaine Albright.

The very same person who admitted that the death of half a million children in Iraq was worth it.

For these people, impervious to death and destruction, committed to doing everything to safeguard their dominance, everything was and is worth it, whether it be the deaths of the Chileans, the Yugoslavs, the Iraqis, the Libyans, the Syrians, the Ukrainians, the Russians, the Palestinians, the Sahrawis, of everything and all peoples who dare not to submit to their interests.

This was what was at stake in the fascist coup of 1973, on a continent that the USA considered and still considers its “back yard”, in a Chile where remarkable advances and achievements were being made for the people.

A process that united, around the patriotic and progressive programme of Popular Unity, communists, socialists and other democratic currents, with a prominent role of the class-oriented unionism and the youth.

A process that achieved outstanding successes for the Chilean people and that led to the improvement of the economic and social situation, the nationalisation of the copper industry and other key sectors of the economy, agrarian reform, in a courageous policy of national sovereignty and independence, of Latin American cooperation and of friendship and solidarity with the Cuban revolution and all the peoples of the world.

Advances and achievements inconceivable for US imperialism, which, faced with the outstanding advances, took measures and launched a large-scale offensive against the Chilean people.

Economic sabotage by large economic interests, economic and political blockade by the United States, criminal operations and attacks carried out by the CIA, which drew and alienated large sectors of the petty bourgeoisie.

A path of permanent destabilisation, coordinated with the big bourgeoisie and the most reactionary sectors of the Chilean Armed Forces, seeking at all costs to interrupt, by brute force, a deeply democratic and participatory process of change.

A coup that took place at the same time that the sinister “Operation Condor” was underway, which in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, imposed cruel dictatorships whose effects persist to this day with the struggle to clarify the drama of the missing.

A brutal reality that spanned across Latin America in the 60s and 70s, sending communists and other democrats into prison or hiding.

A brutal reality against which rose a vast wave of solidarity across the world, which sheltered many political exiles, prevented murders and freed prisoners, encouraged popular resistance against dictatorships.

A wave of solidarity, in which the April Revolution assumed a prominent role since it represented a powerful incentive and a factor of confidence in the liberation struggle of workers and peoples around the world.

And then through the active solidarity of the workers and Portuguese people in large mass initiatives.

This was the case at the historic Solidarity with the Peoples of Latin America rally promoted by the PCP on May 15, 1976, in Campo Pequeno, where, alongside comrade Álvaro Cunhal, spoke the leaders of the communist parties of Chile, Brazil and Uruguay, who fought in the harsh conditions of clandestinity.

That was the case when, after being freed with the contribution of a powerful international solidarity movement, Luis Corvalán, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Chile, participated alongside Álvaro Cunhal, in February 1979, in a huge Friendship rally, also in Campo Pequeno.

With the strength of the people, one by one, the military dictatorships were successively defeated, and fundamental freedoms and rights were progressively regained.

A path that in Chile was incomplete in the face of a “transition process” in which reactionary forces continued to hold important positions and where the struggle to definitively put an end to Pinochet’s legacy continues.

The fascist coup in Chile shows that big capital, whenever it feels its dominance in danger, is tempted to resort to all means and the greatest crimes.

A temptation that will only be stopped if faced with the combative unity of democrats and the firm resistance and struggle of the workers and peoples.

A way of operating that, beyond the different historical circumstances, always corresponds to the same script, a script against the people and that, there it is again, 50 years later and in all its breadth.

Boycotts, sabotage, coups, sanctions, war, death, destruction, promotion and support for the most reactionary and fascist forces.

A very visible promotion and support these days, in which far right and fascist forces are launched as spearheads and shock troops, based on a well-orchestrated strategy and with large-scale means and instruments.

Within the European Union, other structures, nations, falsely seen as beacons of democracy and human rights, these forces are trivialised, normalised and promoted, already participating in power in several countries.

It is in this context that this initiative assumes even greater importance in contributing not to forget what the Chilean September 11 was and represented.

Today, just as fifty years ago, it is necessary to intensify the anti-fascist struggle.

Resistance and struggle that involves fighting the brutal anti-communist ideological offensive, the very same that justified the coup in Chile 50 years ago, the very same that today seeks to justify attacks on peoples, workers, communist parties and other progressive forces.

A fight against the falsifying rewriting of History, against attempts to erase the crimes of fascism and hide its class nature as a terrorist regime of big capital, as it was in Portugal, but as it is, invariably, in other cases.

In Portugal, on the eve of the celebrations of the 50th. anniversary of the April Revolution, it is time to reaffirm what, despite being unfinished, it represented as a liberating advance for the Portuguese people and to firmly combat the falsification of History, the whitewashing of fascism and colonialism, the wiping out of the achievements of the Revolution and the role of the labour movement, the democratic movement, the creative intervention of the popular masses in what was the greatest event in Portugal in the 20th. century.

A fight that is inseparable from the fight for immediate objectives, for the general and significant increase in wages and pensions; to stop the rise in prices and the scandal of accumulation of profits by economic groups; to invest in public services and in the valorisation of their professionals; guarantee access to housing; to implement fiscal justice and respond to the problems of children and parents.

Objectives to be carried ahead, given the fundamental political options of the PS government with an absolute majority, accompanied by the PSD, CDS, Chega and IL.

Wrong political options, serving the interests of economic groups and subject to the impositions of the European Union and the Euro and their ruinous neoliberal policies.

This same old and outdated policy, which is worth remembering, was theorised by Milton Friedman and the “Chicago Boys”.

Theories that formed the basis of the economic policy of the Chilean fascist dictatorship and fuelled the so-called “conservative revolution” of Reagan and Thatcher.

These theories that are strongly promoted today and that seek to confuse liberalism with freedom, this liberalism on which the principles and foundations of the fascist coup in Chile and its disastrous consequences were based. This same liberalism whose experiences have proved and continue to prove to be incompatible with democracy.

Reality demonstrates how all fascist processes are deeply, ideologically and intrinsically anti-communist, and that they go hand in hand with big capital.

It is always by serving the interests of economic groups, and never acting against them, that fascism is founded and develops its power.

And it is increasingly evident in Portugal that the non-response by the PS government to the fair and pressing popular demands and the country's structural problems is favouring the progress and is instrumentalised by reactionary forces and projects that aim to call into question the democratic regime itself enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic.

It is therefore necessary to give shape to an alternative, patriotic and left-wing policy, which breaks with the right-wing policy that the counter-revolution implemented, which resumes the path that April traced, which crosses the doors that April opened.

By evoking the tragedy of September 11, 1973, we pay tribute to the Chilean workers and people, a tribute that we extend to Salvador Allende for the coherence and dignity with which he served his people and faced the plotters of the coup, an example of firm convictions and loyalty to the Popular Unity programme; we honour the memory of thousands of men, women and young people persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, murdered, missing, exiled and oppressed by the machine of horror that dominated Chile for 17 years and, as always, we express our solidarity with the communists and the other Chilean democratic forces, who today are fighting to definitively put an end to the legacy of Pinochet and his barbaric fascist regime. A solidarity that extends to those who oppose the manoeuvres of reactionary forces to subvert the constitutional process and prevent the drafting of a new, truly democratic Constitution.

Just as we pay tribute to those who, in the face of war and destruction, in the face of the impoverishment of the vast majority of Humanity and the huge profits of a very small minority, strive for the urgency of peace.

The exploitation, oppression, violence, poverty, disease, hunger, discrimination, degradation and destruction of the environment, to which capitalism condemns the majority of Humanity, demonstrate the relevance and importance of overcoming the current system and the development of revolutionary processes that aim at socialism.

Knowing that the experience of each country is unique and unrepeatable, let us learn from all of them, let us take advantage of the valuable lessons they give us, and Chile has many, as does Portugal, and so many other countries and peoples in the world.

The onslaught is huge, the means and instruments of those who carried out the coup in Chile and so many others around the world are immense.

But, as President Salvador Allende stated in his last message addressed to the Chilean people: “Go forward, knowing that, sooner rather than later, the great avenues will open again and free men will walk through them to construct a better society.”

Here we are, free men walking these avenues of freedom.

The people united will never be defeated!