Chile Before Allende

To understand both the significance of Allende's progressive administration and the events of the past few months, we have to look briefly at Chile prior to the formation of the Popular Unity government.

In essentials Chile was a neo-colony of the United States. The industrial sector was highly monopolised by giant US-owned corporations, while in the countryside much of the land was farmed on the basis of pre-capitalist relations of production.

US investments in Chile were about $1000 million, with $586 million concentrated in mining. Kennecot and Anaconda were in copper. ITT, General Motors and Ford had big holdings. Profits were high: for every dollar invested in Chile about four dollars per year flowed back to the United States. The daily profit that went overseas could have paid one million Chilean workers their daily wage.