Chile: Six Years with the Junta

On September 11, 1973, the armed forces in Chile staged a coup that overthrew three years of Government by the Unidad Popular, a coalition of left-wing parties led by President Salvador Allende Gossens. Allende, widely proclaimed as "the first Marxist to be freely elected in a democracy", was murdered, his supporters were ruthlessly suppressed, and six years of fascism began. This article looks at what happened between 1970 and 1974 in Chile, examines the reasons for Allende's overthrow, and draws some lessons for New Zealand.

The fascist coup in Chile was one of the most brutal ever seen. Between 18-20,000 people were killed. It is difficult to gain a reliable estimate as so many people simply disappeared. From September 11 to December 31, 1973, 45,000 people were detained, and up to 80% of these were tortured and/or extremely intimidated.

In January, 1974, one 17 year old activist was arrested. According to an Australian paper, "he was tortured for 10 days by the Intelligence Division of the air force. They broke both of his legs and one arm and then set his whole body afire. Finally castrated, he was left to bleed to death. He resisted the torture and gave the military no information."

On the first night of the coup, a paramedic in a Santiago hospital counted 1,800 dead. Doctors were not permitted to treat wounded civilians; instead, their blood was drained from their bodies and sent to military hospitals.

The Chilean junta, led by General Augusto Pinochet, is still in power. Persecution, torture and denial of human rights for the people are still being widely used. On coming to power, the junta disbanded congress, outlawed political parties, suspended trade unions, closed opposition newspapers and imposed [unclear: strict] censorship on others. The constitution was sent flying out the door. Since then, a new constitution that makes a mockery of any democratic principles has been imposed on the country.

Chile before Allende

Chile was, and still is, a neo-colonial vassal state of the United States. Industry was monopolised and controlled by US multinationals, which gained, between 1953 and 1968, a 15-fold return on their investment. In 1970, one day's US profit would have paid the average Chilean daily wage to one million workers. A total of one billion US dollars was invested in the country. The copper mines (accounting for 21% of the world's proven copper reserves) were owned by US firms and most of the copper exports went to the US. Chile had very little else it could export.

Agriculture and land ownership was still on a pre-capitalist basis. Almost all the land was owned by a mere 2% of the population. Chile had to import food, and this made up 25% of the entire imports bill.

The country also had a severe balance of payments deficit, with the United States providing most of the loan and "aid" assistance. The possibility of cutting imports was not considered practical because a loss of machinery and spare parts would have throttled local industrial development. When the price of copper fell after the Korean war, inflation surged up to around 80% and stayed there.

"Marxists" at the Polls

Allende's Unidad Popular (UP) Party promised nationalisation of major industries (which had been reticent about training Chileans for the important, better paying jobs), banks and communications networks; sweeping land reform and improved standards of living for the poor. The CIA, and multinationals like ITT, which stood to lose a lot, did their best to prevent the UP from winning the 1970 election. CIA director, William Colby, staled in October 1973 that the CIA had infiltrated all political parties and given $400,000 to the anti-Allende press during the electoral campaign.

In the end, the UP won 36.3% of the total vote, marginally ahead of its nearest rival, the extreme right-wing National Party with 34.9%. As there was no clear winner, the Congress met to decide which of the candidates it would appoint as President. By tradition, the job should have gone to Allende as front runner, but it was not until Allende gave repeated assurances that he would always act in a "constitutional" manner that Congress decided to swing behind him.

The US acted with swift determination. "Not a nut or a boll will be allowed to reach Chile under Allende," stated the US Ambassador, Edward Kerry. "Once Allende comes to power we will do everything in our power to condemn Chile and Chileans to the utmost deprivation and poverty." The US Treasury's Export-Import Bank refused to extend credit. Credit lines from private banks were reduced from S220 million to $35 million. The World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (both controlled by the US) also refused to continue economic assistance.

Contrasting with this, military aid to the Chilean Armed Forces was stepped up, from $800,000 in 1970 to $12.3 million in 1973. The US also gave selected economic assistance to organisations in Chile which promoted anti-Allende activities.

The "Chilean road to Socialism"

On attaining office, Allende announced, "I will be the first President of the first authentically democratic, popular, national and revolutionary government in Chilean history." Copper prices fell, but reforms were attempted anyway. The poor ate better, received higher wages and special assistance.

The rich stayed rich, but they didn't like threats being made to their sources of wealth. It was the middle classes who bore the brunt of the UP policies and had to pay for the rising standard of living of the working class. And it was from the middle classes that the strongest opposition to Allende's rule came. As early as 1971, Chilean middle class women staged a "March of the Empty Pots" in protest at the rising costs and increasing shortages of food.

By mid 1973, truck driver-owners, copper workers, doctors, shopkeepers and many others had staged or were staging a series of crippling strikes. Despite gaining a 46% vote in the Congressional elections of March 1973, which maintained the UP's position as the largest single grouping, the coalition was unable to persuade its opposition to stick to the "constitutional" ground rules that it was itself so keen on observing.

Crucial Mistakes

Some of the factions within the UP (and some groups to the left of it) saw all too clearly the basic mistakes Allende was making: he was not prepared to put his trust in the working class. The UP was following a basic policy of trying to raise the living standards of the working class, yet it never tried to involve them in properly organising for their own defence.

On the other hand, the UP left the other classes in full control of the media, the courts, both houses of Congress (46% was not an absolute majority) and most important of all, the armed forces. The working class was powerless, while the others were left to work openly for Allende's downfall.

The Chilean Communist Party was a principal agent in this. It proclaimed, according to one commentator, "that there was an immediate threat of a civil war, and that this must be stopped by avoiding the creation of any problem for the government, by maintaining calm, by producing more and by collecting signatures against the war." Any revolutionary party that considers collecting signatures to be an effective deterrent to the rise of fascism is, of course, doomed to failure.

As the same commentator pointed out in 1973, "The overall aim of the right is to make the government retreat, and it is achieving this aim. At the present time, when the working class is still strong, the right knows that the best tool for crushing the workers is not civil war but the reformism of the UP, which serves as a brake on struggles."

Allende himself did not seem able to comprehend the reality of the situation. In an interview in the Australian Nation Tines (March 1973), he slated: "...the military institutions — the carabineros (Parliamentary police) and the civil police — which are professional institutions, with a profound sense of respect for the constitution and the law, something that is unique to this country...this is why I tell you that here there will not be an attempt of coup d'etat, that there will not be a civil war."

Meanwhile the military, with selective appointments, purges, and support from the US, was preparing itself for the coup. In an effort to appease the right wing, Allende actually appointed Pinochet as Chief of Staff! Other groups were also active. Roberto Thieme, leader of a right wing terrorist body called Patria y Libertad {fatherland and Liberty), announced in mid 1973: "If we have to burn half of Chile to save it from communism, then we will do it." His group cooperated with some members of the Armed Forces to stage an unsuccessful coup in June 1973, which was followed by 600 violent attacks on government and civil installations.

The truck owners' strike meant food supplies dwindled, fuel vanished and crop shortages loomed because seeds and fertilisers could not be delivered. Yet the truckers remained happy. Late in August, a Time correspondent discovered a group of them enjoying a large communal meal [unclear: o] steak, vegetables and wine near [unclear: Santiago] "Where does the money come from?" [unclear: h] asked. "From the CIA," they answered The CIA denied it at the time, but has [unclear: since] had its role in Chile fully revealed.

After the Coup

The coup was ruthless, and revealed the full extent to which the UP had been both unable to help the working class and the poor to defend themselves, and unable to persuade the middle classes to support the bourgeois democratic form of government once it was turned against them. Large scale massacres were carried out in the poblaciones (slum areas of Santiago that house half the city's 4 million people). A Chilean lawyer told a Newsweek reporter in October 1973: "I don't believe the stories they tell me, but after all the things the supporters of Allende have done to Chile they deserve whatever happens to them."

With the junta securely in power and supported by "moderate" groups, the United States was quick to lift its economic boycott and encourage others to do likewise. By March 1974, Chile had received a total of $621.8 million from foreign sources.

NZ's Response

Norm Kirk's government took just three days to re-establish diplomatic relations with the new regime. "I trust," Kirk stated "that progress along the road of peaceful social and economic change within a framework of respect for the law and the observance of human rights, will soon be resumed. This is clearly the wish of the great majority in Chile."

The junta rewarded him with a $1.5 million timber contract, while the FoL imposed a trade ban. New Zealand is the only country with this ban still in force, and it is interesting to compare the protests of our government and bourgeoisie to the complete economic blockade imposed by the US and its allies during Allende's term in office.

Hypocrisy in the Soviet bloc

The Soviet Union was an early proponent of a world wide trade ban. Yet although it denounced vehemently all those who argued against such a measure, the Soviets have not been loath to develop both banking and trade links with fascist [unclear: Chile] Last year alone, the USSR imported $100,000 worth of molbdenum oxide from Chile. Czechoslovakia, also proclaiming itself a boycotter, imported $293,000. East Germany, one of the strongest advocates of the boycott, operates a trade office in the Rumanian embassy in Santiago.

The Lessons to Learn

The Chilean experience provides us with several important lessons. The failure of the Allende government to recognise where its own strength lay has been covered, The above information on the attitude of the Soviet bloc should make us wary of its interests in the world. It would seem that the USSR no less than its rival superpower, the United States, is dictated to by the needs of its own imperialism, whatever rhetoric it may employ to suggest to the contrary.

For New Zealand there is one more point we could well take to heart. When the junta came to power, it embarked on a ruthless programme of driving down living standards among the working class and encouraging back the foreign investment. State 'interference' in the economy, 'excessive' state spending, and the work of trade unions were all severely restricted by the junta. By March 1974, real income in the lower income groups had fallen by, 60% As a direct result of the junta's policies, [unclear: an] estimated 85% of all Chileans were [unclear: thrown] below the poverty level.

New Zealand is not being ravaged by fascism. But it does share the same fundemental economic problem that plagued Allende's attempts to create a just society: we are dependent on foreign monopoly capitalism. In several circles in this country (including most notably the group inside the National Party headed by George Chapman, John Marshall and Derek Quigley), the exact same economic policies pursued by the Chilean junta are being advocated.

The degree of success they achieve depends very largely on the extent to which all those whose living standards are attacked can organise in their own defence. We must also oppose any attempts by foreign monopolies to get themselves in a position where they can dictate what New Zealand will do. And if the Chilean experience seems a bit far Fetched for the New Zealand context, it is worth noting that Chile had a tradition of parliamentary rule dating back 160 uninterrupted years before the fascists took over. Common decencies and tradition never stopped a fascist yet.

Simon Wilson.