Chile, the gorillas are amongst us PDF
Preview Chile, the gorillas are amongst us
Chile: The Gorillas are Amongst Us CHILE: 4~ Pluto Press Helios Prieto THE GORILLAS ARE AMONGST US Translated and introduced by Mike Gonzales Chile: Los Gori/as estaban entre nosotros First published by Editorial Tiempo Contemporaneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina Copyright© ETC 1973 This translation first published 197 4 by Pluto Press Limited, Unit 10 Spencer Court, 7 Chalcot Road, London NW1 8LH Copyright ©Pluto Press 1974 ISBN O 902818 56 2 Printed by C. Nicholls & Company Ltd The Philips Park Press, Manchester Cover design by Richard Hollis GrR For my friend Alejandro Alarc6n, tried by a military tribunal for the crime of being a politically conscious worker. CONTENTS Preface 9 List of abbreviations 17 Introduction 19 1972: The Struggle Deepens 23 The Electoral Struggle of March 1973 29 May to June 1973: UP Begins to Lose its Social Base 31 From the Attempted Coup (June) to the Successful Coup (September) 37 First Prelude to the Coup 44 II September 49 Resistance and Repression 6o A Defeat of Historic Proportions 71 A Tragedy Ending in Farce 78 Preface Chile: the peaceful road In 1970, Salvador Allende was elected President of Chile. 'The first Marxist to come to power by democratic means', announced the press. Across the globe, communist and socialist parties rapidly seized on Chile as living proof of the viability of the 'peaceful road to socialism'. Three years later, Allende and his government of Popular Unity were overthrown in one of the bloodiest military coups in recent history. In his last message Allende declared that the military would never rid themselves of the infamy this act had brought upon themselves and their allies. But there was little evidence of a sense of shame in the weeks that followed, as thousands of trade unionists and socialists of all persuasions were massacred. Those who in 1970 had celebrated Allende's victory so ecstatically now demanded the 'restoration of democracy'. It is a bitter irony. For it was precisely the 'democrats' in Chile, those who had governed under Allende for three years, who prepared the ground for the military coup, just as surely as the generals who executed it. Their 'peaceful road' had shown, yet again, the terrible consequences for the working class of parliamentary illusions - illusions that their capitalist masters peddle but do not share. In practice, the 'Chilean road to socialism' meant compromises with the right wing, deliberate sabotage of independent working-class initiatives, and a refusal to prepare or to carry through a struggle for power. 9
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