"Chile : 40 years on"

Translated "Avante!" article by Jorge Cadima, Member of the PCP International Department

Pinochet’s military coup 40 years ago, yesterday, throwing down the Unidad Popular (UP) and destroying the Chile democratic regime. The Chile September 11 carries on encloses lessons of the greatest importance for our current struggle.
Eleven years before the UP electoral victory, the Cuban Revolution had been successful inspiring the peoples but planting fear among the continent’s dominant classes. In 1970, Chile was one of the few Latin-American countries which did not live under an intense dictatorship, at the service of imperialism and the national parasite oligarchies. The UP gathered round a programme of change, of an anti-imperialist nature, several political forces, among which the strong Communist Party, holding a great influence amid the workers’ class, and a Socialist Party, Salvador Allende’s party, which - rare indeed within the European continent - defended social progressive changes and anti-imperialist options, such as the copper industry nationalization, Chile’s economy pillar. And with that programme, he won the 4th September 1970 elections, with almost 37% of the votes. And therefore, he begun turning that same programme into reality.
From the beginning, the UP electoral victory, was the target of a fierce attack from both imperialism and Chile’s reactionary forces. Two days before the parliamentary session which was to inaugurate Allende’s presidency and, in the attempt of hindering the office seat, René Schneider, the Army Commander-in-Chief was assassinated. The clear signal of the though reality the UP was to be confronted with, was given: attempts, road transport sector lock-out ( most important for the country at that time), hoardings, in order to destabilize the economy and create conditions towards a military coup. Nevertheless the introduced social achievements by the UP government, reinforced the support, even electoral, of the progressive colligation parties. Feeling incapable to defeat the changing process within the current bourgeois democracy framework, the Chile oligarchy political forces (National Party and Christian Democracy) decidedly passed over unto the subversion field and coups. From the Washington headquarters, the popular movement was destroyed through violence and fierce repression.

The Chile UP experience, as (among many other examples) the 1936 fascist coup against the Popular Front government in Spain, the Greek fierce resistance repression during World War II ending, the coups in Iran, Guatemala or Indonesia, during the 50’s and 60’s, the wars against Korea and Vietnam, the “ tension strategy” in Italy in the 70’s, headquarters assaults and the bomb network in Portugal during 1975, the armed subversion against the Sandinist Nicaragua during the 80’s, recent coup attempts within countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, confirm that imperialism and the dominant classes - even by using a mouthful of words, such as freedom and democracy - do not hesitate in using the most brutal violence, and even destroy institutions that had served them, when they feel their privileges and their class domain are endangered.

The Chile coup does not signify Communist and Workers parties ought to step away from the electoral field or any other struggle, which allows to develop the force correlation. Even if they ought to propose “ historical compromises” in order to abdicate from the workers’ class and the popular masses’ interests and objectives. It signifies it is a serious error to underestimate and be unprepared for criminal violence, which the great capital and imperialism are able to perform or to have illusions about their nature. Criminal nature, brutally proved within Chile, in September 11, 1973. And currently threatens all the peoples throughout the Middle-East and world-wide, being a potential catastrophic military adventure.

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