International Chile: 13 years after the Pinochet coup

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SOCIALIS ACTION SEPTEMBER 1! 186 7 IMELA Sept. 11, 1986, marks the 13th anniversary of the military coup in Chile. This was a black day for the workers and peasants of Chile. The coup-long anticipated by everyone-was savage and ruthless. Over 10,000 political activists and workers were massacred and thousands more "disappeared." For days afterwards, bodies could be seen floating down the river that flows through the capital city of Santiago.

Sept. 11, 1973, was also a black day for the workers and peasants of the rest of Latin America. They followed with great interest and deep sympathy the "experiment" in Chile of the "peaceful road to socialism" promised by Allende and the Unidad Popular (Popular Unity). They knew that the slaughter in Chile would be a harbinger of other slaughters in Argentina, Brazil, and elsewhere.

The U.S. government was the architect of the coup. Subsequent information exposed the central role of the CIA in planning and setting the stage for Pinochet's uprising. The U.S. government of Nixon and Kissinger secretly funneled billions of dollars to help destabilize the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. The coup could not have happened without the agreement and backing of the United States.

Pinochet did his work well. The unions were smashed, social funds for the elderly and unemployed were gutted, nationalized enterprises were re-privatized, and every attempt at protest was brutally suppressed.

Thirteen years later, however, it is the workers, peasants, and students who are again on the offensive. The Pinochet government finds itself isolated and on the defensive. Pinochet and his U.S. backers could knock the workers down but—in the long run—-couldn't keep them down. The defeat in 1973 was decisive but not permanent.

Ironically, U.S. imperialism, which put Pinochet in power to smash the aspirations of the Chilean people, is the force that has contributed to the new rise of the mass movement in Chile. The Draconian austerity policies of the U.S.-controlled World Bank have pauperized the workers, peasants, and even sections of the Chilean middle class to such an extent that they feel they have nothing left to lose.

Unemployment is up to 30 percent, and in the shanty towns unemployment stands around 90 percent for the youth. Over 80 percent of the population earns less than $100 per month. The pitiful pay doled out to those on "make work" unemployment programs——a scheme "made in the U.S.A."—has condemned the poorest Chilean workers and their children to virtual starvation.

In addition, the economic catastrophe that has hit Chile, part and parcel of the general world economic recession, has alienated large sections of the capitalist and upper middle class sectors which had supported the 1973 coup. Ruptures and cracks have developed even within the ruling military junta.

Since 1982, the masses of Chile have been challenging the Pinochet regime in sporadic waves of mass mobilizations. Strikes, marches, protests, street battles, and highly effective general strikes have been the means by which the Chilean workers have repudiated the Pinochet regime. Despite fierce repression that resulted in the arrest and mistreatment of tens of thousands of protesters and the killing of many others, the mobilizations continue. The 48-hour general strike called on July 2-3 was the latest blow against the regime.

The masses have crossed the Rubicon. But, un -fortunately, their leadership has not.

Gen. Augusto The main organizer of the first mass protests in Chile in 1982 was the bourgeois opposition, represented by the Christian Democratic Party and the Nationalist Party. Its goal was to use mass pressure to force Pinochet to step down and eventually hold elections. These are the same political parties that supported and cheered the Pinochet coup in 1973, providing the "butcher" with a political cover for smashing the workers.

The bourgeois opposition is united in the "Alianza Democratica" (AD), which is dominated by the Christian Democratic Party. It has steadfastly refused to allow any of the working-class political parties, like the Communist Party (CP) and Socialist Party (SP), into the AD.

The AD, however, has lost much of its authority with the Chilean masses because it has put a brake on further mass mobilizations in favor of negotiations with the Pinochet regime. Having used its "legality" to initiate a mass movement, the bourgeois opposition is losing its ability to limit the mass protests to the single agenda item of just removing Pinochet. For this, the bourgeois opposition needs the Communist Party.

Undoubtedly, the strongest workers' party in Chile Chile Newsiewer today is the Communist Party. The CP was severely repressed during and after the coup but it was able to maintain its deep roots within the workers' organizations. Being a highly centralized cadre organ -ization, the CP was much better prepared to weather the storm of repression and the consequent underground existence.

Unlike the Socialist Party, which is a much looser formation and is currently weakened by factional strife, the CP has emerged as the leading force in competition with the bourgeois opposition. Through its base in the trade unions and shanty-town organizations the CP has been attempting to organize an alliance with the bourgeois opposition to form a government without Pinochet.

Rebuffed by the bourgeois opposition, the CP formed the Democratic Popular Movement (MDP), which has, to a degree, filled the void created by the hesitancy and fear of the bourgeoisie to lead the mass movement. The role of the Stalinists has been to show the opposition capitalists that they need the CP if they are to control and limit the mass movement.

The CP does not call for a workers' and farmers' government as the best way to reinstitute democracy in Chile. Its goal is a bourgeois-democratic government and a capitalist army without Pinochet! This is the same army that slaughtered the workers 13 years ago.

Socialist Action is printing in this section of International Outlook an article on the lessons of the Popular Unity government in Chile because we believe the terrible defeat of 1973 has to be examined if the same tragedy is not to be repeated again. The Chilean masses, especially the workers, are currently saddled with a leadership that is conciliationist through and through. The CP and SP will bind the workers, peasants, and students of Chile to the same reactionary forces that stabbed them in the back on Sept. 11, 1973.

The Pinochet regime, despite the intransigence of Pinochet himself, is so full of decay and contradiction it may fall from its own weight if given a good push by the masses. When that happens the next tug of war will undoubtedly be between the masses, who want to take the power, and their leadership, who want to share the power with the old order. The article in this section shows what happens when the latter perspective predominates.—The Editors.