A FIRST WORD ON THE CHILEAN TRAGEDY

...Aggravating such difficulty was an internal economic crisis marked by inefficiency, mismanagement (in some, not all, industries), and runaway prices (at one point the government decreed a 300 percent price increase...

...Either the government recognizes, in time, that the middle class constitutes a major social force whose interests must be consulted and whose fears must be allayed—and we speak here not of a tiny group of capitalists, but of hundreds of thousands of people of quite modest means—or the Left decides that the course of democracy is a delusion, and that it must begin to prepare for the Leninist or Castroite dictatorship which the Miristas want...

...For not only did the middle class and the Christian Democrats stand in the way, not only would the army have responded with even greater bloodiness than it has shown in its recent repressions...

...an end to further agrarian reform: and a return to their owners of all enterprises seized during the recent strikes...

...Doing so will only delay reply...

...Somewhat earlier, demonstrations of militant housewives and conservative students—the famous pots-and-pans demonstrations—had inflamed middle-class aggression against the rotos (lowerclass poor...

...Partly because the popular front behind Allende was so heterogeneous in nature, and partly because Allende's own Socialist party was a melange of internally warring groups rather than a coherent socialist or social democratic party, the Allende government had put itself or allowed itself to be put into a hopeless position...

...In the May 1973 general trade union elections, the Mirista candidates received all of 1.9 percent of the vote...

...In reality, however, the path of "proletarian dictatorship" was not even a genuine option in Chile...

...He spent time in sterile ideological discussions with Regis Debray...

...He assaulted the Christian Democratic leaders as "fascists and * The role of the Chilean Communists has been extremely complex...

...Politically, that is the crucial question...

...Le Monde, November 8, 1973) that, in Italy, even a 50 percent electoral majority is not sufficient to assure a stable government of the Left—that an alliance with the Christian Democratic party is vital...

...For the coup, which at the very least the U.S...

...The strike of the business community in late 1972 brought about both a rapid economic deterioration and political polarization...

...the Chilean bourgeoisie— and the Latin-American Fidelistas...

...was rotten throughout, we take for granted...

...Office workers and government functionaries found jobs in the rapidly expanding bureaucracy...

...The discussion ought now to be undertaken, with great seriousness, by all those to whom the goal of democratic socialism remains urgent...

...At the same time, as the most thoroughly Stalinized of all Latin-American Communist parties, it continued to exhibit its old habits, struggling, for example, to maintain monopolistic control in the unions and other popular bodies that it controlled...

...Doctors and other professionals were busy ministering to whole new layers of Chilean society...

...By March 1973 the middle class of Chile (businessmen, shopkeepers, white-collar workers, government employees, professionals, technicians, small farmers, even the elite of the copper workers) had come to a collective decision to undertake a strong and active opposition to the government...

...These demands included the suppression of the Miristas, the extremist Fidelista and "Marxist-Leninist" youth organization...

...It is possible, though no one can say with certainty, that if Millas's proposals had been accepted by the Allende government, the internal situation might have been cooled and the signals enabling the military coup not given...

...The Christian Democrats, who in 1972 had turned sharply to the Right under Frei's leadership, now issued a series of demands they declared to be a condition for entering a coalition government and thereby assuring public order...

...That the Nixon administration bears a heavy responsibility for the coup is hardly subject to controversy...

...But in a country like Chile—burdened by its semicolonial past, characterized by a weak economy, a small working class, and a rather large middle class—a politics avoiding polarization and revolutionary rhetoric might have avoided the recent disaster...

...But meanwhile, in actuality, the Allende government continues essentially as a government of democratic reform, though elements near and around it make revolutionary noises...

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...It pressed the government to go further with nationalization and the creation of independent, extragovernmental agencies of power...

...As a result of this crisis, the left-wing socialist Vuskovic was replaced as minister of the economy by the Communist Millas, who put forward a program aiming at increased production (which Chile desperately needed), a guarantee of profits to the business world, and an end to further nationalization...

...These, very tentatively, seem to us some of the conclusions to be drawn from the Chilean tragedy...

...These external pressures were a major difficulty for the Allende regime...

...At first, segments of the middle class seemed sympathetic to the limited aims of the Popular Unity Movement...

...Of course, the authoritarians of the Left, from the Trotskyists to Paul Sweezey, have had their prescriptions ready: to them the lesson of Chile is that the Left fiddled around with democratic delusions, that it should have headed COMMENTS AND OPINIONS 11 straight for a dictatorship, and then there would have been...

...a major advance in trade union organization and the power of unions in regulating industry and the mines...

...Or is such an effort doomed to bring down upon itself violent counterrevolution...

...But if one wants to try to understand what happened and to try to extract some political lessons from this traeedy, primary attention must be paid to the inner dynamic of Chilean politics itself...

...Small shopkeepers found their business thriving, thanks to the new consumer power in the hands of workers, peasants, and the poor...

...The story of American efforts to strangle Chile economically by cutting off credits, dumping copper on the world market so as to lower the price Chile could obtain for her major resource, and hampering Chile's struggle for imports and her efforts to settle the claims of the expropriated foreign companies—all this is by now well documented...

...These are the fundamental questions posed by the Chilean experience: Can a small, semibackward, unevenly developed country such as Chile achieve sienificant social change, —change that moves or verges toward socialism, in a nonviolent, mandated, and orderly fashion...

...If there is any justice in the world, history ought to deal with him generously...

...A process occurred throughout the year which led to the polarization of the country into two irreconcilable camps, and which was marked by the ideological intoxication of all the political parties of the country: Right, Left, Center...

...The army was nursed along with favors...

...Thanks largely to the efforts of Allende himself and the Communist party, a truce was struck, which ended simultaneously the strike of business and the workers' occupation of enterprises...

...It certainly had a mandate to improve the conditions of the working class, widen the agrarian reform, and complete the nationalization of the copper industry (which must be regarded as a national rather than a strictly socialist measure, since just about everyone in Chile, including the bulk of the opposition to Allende, favored it as a step toward economic independence...

...In such a country, especially when a socialist government rests on a minority of the population, it must proceed so as to win the support of some segments of the middle class, neutralize other segments, and isolate still others...

...At this point, we now can see, it was all too late: there was no democratic or peaceful way out, or at least there were no forces of sufficient strength prepared to take such a way out...

...This means that the Miristas should have been held in check...

...10 COMMENTS AND OPINIONS But, as the economic situation worsened in consequence of American pressure, internal social dislocation, mismanagement, and other difficulties, the middle class began to suffer...

...In practice, what follows is the worst of both possible ways: the middle class is roused to fright and fury, yet as long as democracy continues there is no way to prevent it from exercising its political strength...

...Some of the political movements and parties behind the government enraged and frightened the middle class, which began to fear that a "proletarian dictatorship" was in prospect...

...But this program was not accepted.* From this point until the recent military coup, all political movements in Chile were in the grip of ideological paroxysm and a polarizing rhetoric that tore the country apart...

...Now these achievements lie buried under COMMENTS AND OPINIONS 7 a ruthless assault by a military that betrayed its word...

...His public posture grew uneasy, oscillating between extremes of language...

...The Miristas, representing no major social force in the country, are given free reign to roam the countryside, leading illegal seizures of land—in an atmosphere of polarization, fear, extremism...

...So, it seems fair to say, the relations between the government and the middle class during the first year and a half were, if not ideal, then at least not so aggravated as to threaten civil war...

...The CP tried over the past year or so to play a moderating role in the Popular Unity Movement—unsuccessfully...

...ITT, etc., all scheming to resume exploitation of Chilean resources...

...And then comes another, still more difficult set of questions: To what extent is the Allende experience in Chile unique...

...FROM THE MOMENT it took office, the Allende government suffered from a major handicap, one that it took into sufficient consideration only during the first two years of its rule: it had failed to gain a majority of the electorate and consequently could claim only to have obtained a limited mandate...

...Despite his errors, he gave his life for the peasants and the poor...

...In a country that has a large middle class, it is simply impossible to combine an effort at peaceful social transformation with the methods, atmosphere, and rhetoric of a Leninist or Castroite revolution...

...efforts made to negotiate partial agreements with at least some segments of the Christian Democrats (who, in the first period of the Allende regime, had not set themselves up as an unyielding opposition...

...An impossible situation...

...Whatever its failings and errors, the Allende regime had many positive accomplishments to its credit: a deepening of the land reform program that had begun under the previous Christian Democratic administration...

...What Millas was proposing was—if Marxist historical precedents are needed—something akin to, though obviously not the same as, the New Economic Policy (NEP) which had been put forward by Lenin in the early '20s in order to stimulate production and regain support among masses of peasants and workers alienated by the earlier COMMENTS AND OPINIONS 9 policies of War Communism...

...And some elements within the middle class voted for the less ideological among the pro-Allende groups, such as the left-wing split-off from the Christian Democrats...

...traitors," and then sent out feelers to form an alliance with their party...

...THE REACTION of the Allende regime to this growing and increasingly militant opposition during 1973 was a disaster...

...This means, in effect, that there grows on both sides an increasing contempt for democratic norms, on both sides a readiness to settle things by the gun...

...Must we renounce the viewpoint of democratic socialism, which proposes an organic linkage between its goals and its methods—democratic institutions, elections, orderly transition, the give-and-take of political debate, etc...

...A spirit of terror stalks through Chile...

...Clearly, these demands were meant to be rejected by the government, and so they were...

...That the role of the U.S...

...It means also that there is nothing in socialist principles that requires the nationalization of every industry, least of all one like the Chilean trucking industry...

...the suppression of the left wing of Allende's own Socialist party...

...12 COMMENTS AND OPINIONS...

...At the time Henry Kissinger, though nominally an adviser to President Nixon, made several openly hostile references to Allende— the same Kissinger whose first act as secretary of state in 1973 was to recognize the military junta which just had illegally seized power...

...while Washington was hostile to Allende's democratic government, the Pentagon kept supplying arms to the army which overthrew it...

...What deeper role the CIA may have had in the coup we still don't know, but we do know that all along...

...Fears of revolution were aroused, but revolution was not undertaken...

...Chile is not a banana republic, nor a new African nation...

...the extension, for the first time, of significant welfare and health benefits to the urban poor...

...According to Amnesty International, there was not a single political prisoner in Chile during the Allende period...

...At its peak, the left-wing parties comprising the United Popular Movement obtained 43.39 percent of the vote in the March 4, 1973, election...

...In the course of the strike, Chilean workers, prodded by the extreme Left, took possession of hundreds of enterprises...

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...The Communist party of Italy, through its Secretarygeneral Enrico Berlinguer, has stated recently (c.f...

...A democratic commitment—which is not some sort of "luxury" or "weakness," but the very essence of the socialist idea—enforces upon socialists in office, especially when they represent a minority of the population, certain constraints and costs...

...This process was accelerated late in 1972 by the Right, through a general strike of the business and industrial community which aimed at paralyzing the nation's sagging economy and at forcing the resignation of the Allende regime...

...And for this, too, the Nixon-Kissinger policy bears a heavy responsibility...

...The middle class is profoundly alarmed by the threats of "proletarian dictatorship" that it hears emanating from supporters and allies of Allende...

...and for the first time, there was an active call from some elements behind the United Popular Movement for the creation of organs of dual power (factory committees, soviets, etc...

...he permitted Fidel Castro, whom he had been warding off for two years, to barnstorm through Chile and indulge in rhetorical flights that he no longer used in Cuba...

...It opened negotiations with the Miristas, looking toward a merger, and it defended terrorism and the right of the Mirista militants to bear arms...

...It seems almost a miracle that nonetheless in the three years of the Allende government there were considerable successes, including a general rise in productivity during the first two years...

...More, obviously, remains to be said, and it is possible that my remarks here will require correction in some respects...

...Perhaps his finest moment came during his last message on the radio in which he urged the workers to stay where they were, not to march on the besieged Monada where, he knew, the military would stage a bloodbath...

...Allende himself—caught up in this turmoil, engulfed by waves of clashing rhetoric, more and more cut off from his own party—appeared to lose control of the machinery of government...

...Middle-class people profited from the Allende reforms at the outset...

...What the Christian Democratic leadership seems to have hoped would be a "white coup"—a kind of mild bloodletting after which the generals would step aside and let power fall to such politicians as Eduardo Frei-has in fact turned out to be a white terror, with hundreds, perhaps thousands dead, tens of thousands in prison, and a vicious dictatorship setting about to smash the workers...

...WHY DID the Chilean middle class end up so embittered and venomous in its attitude toward the Allende regime...

...MUCH of what happened in Chile this past year still remains unclear, but we can make out the general outline of things...

...For the increase of the pro-Allende vote came from poor peasants in the rural areas and slum-dwelling workers (pobladores) in the cities, while the middle class of Santiago and the other cities voted overwhelmingly against the United Popular coalition...

...the Chilean military...

...We must approach reality humbly.—OcTAvlo PAZ The brutal destruction of the Allende government by the military junta is a heavy blow to democrats and socialists everywhere who hope for peaceful change in their societies...

...It is greatly to Allende's credit that he does not succumb to the authoritarian lure of the latter course, but it is by no means to his credit that he fails to recognize the necessary constraints which the democratic course demands...

...We can assert as an axiom that the generals could not have moved had they not gained large popular support and either explicit or implicit encouragement from the opposition parties...

...All this took place in an atmosphere of substantial political freedom: the opposition parties functioned without hindrance, the press remained free...

...Technicians, after some adjustment to lower salaries in the copper mines, found they now had more control over the work situation...

...As it is, who has profited...

...To what extent characteristic of underdeveloped countries...

...And worst of all, he called upon the army to maintain order during the strike and factory occupations— thus, in effect, allowing the army to set itself up as arbiter of social conflicts...

...One may argue, with some pertinence, that the Allende vote here showed a substantial nationwide increase of over 7 percent and that this could serve as encouragement for the direction it was taking...

...True, but only up to a certain point...

...Consider these elements: a government based on a minority of the population, an economic situation rapidly deteriorating, a polarization of the country into two warring camps...

...But for the most part, all this was verbal, the rhetorical indulgence of inexperienced ideologues...

...winked at, is certain to strengthen the hand of those within the Latin-American Left who favor adventurism, violence, terrorism, dictatorship...

...Now it is true that this fact has been used by Social Democrats in Europe to justify ineffectuality and, at times, a virtual abandonment of socialist goals...

...While the frantic rhetoric of the far Left was mostly talk, without substance, and with no real potential for action, there began to develop a rhetoric of the Right, an outcry for order and the salvation of the nation, which was backed by the gun, the tank, the plane...

...but many, perhaps most, of the Allende supporters had neither taste nor desire for such a course...

...Things had not begun that way...

...The U.S...

...companies...

...The moment of possible reconciliation that would save democratic institutions while allowing for further, if more moderate, social progress had apparently passed...

...The Miristas quickened their ideological intimidation of the Left parties, chanting the rhetoric of revolution despite the fact that, at most, these sons and daughters of Chile's bourgeoisie numbered a few thousand and had no influence at all in the trade unions...

...But the bourgeois parties of the opposition got 54.7 percent of the vote—a clear majority...

...It is a country with large numbers of literate people, it has a long democratic tradition, and its political discourse has been markedly sophisticated...

...It took office in September 1970 with 36 percent of the total vote and with a majority of both houses in Congress opposed to it...

...IN EFFECT, then, we are saying that the Allende government might well have gone a little slower, might well have considered accepting the kind of program proposed by CP Minister of Economy Millas, in order thereby to have consolidated its support, increased production, stabilized prices, and defused the opposition...

...associated with insurrection...

...The crucial moment seems to have been in late 1972 or early 1973, though if the policy sketched here makes sense, it would obviously have been better to move in this direction a good deal sooner...

...It advanced proposals which can be regarded as of a social democratic character...

...the wonders of Eastern Europe and Cuba...

...Whether or not the CIA had a hand in the coup, it is a gross simplification to suppose that the coup was merely 8 COMMENTS AND OPINIONS or even mainly the work of American imperialism...

...Its enmity to the Allende regime was made plain from the moment the Chilean Socialist president took office in November 1970...

...But it did not have a clear-cut mandate from the majority of the people to reconstruct the society along socialist lines...

...These zigzags, signs of desperation and loss of nerve, ended with Allende alone in his palace, slaughtered by the army...

...And to what extent can one draw generalized lessons that pertain to Western advanced countries as well...

...It was indeed a bad moment for the Allende regime, its increase of votes notwithstanding...

...The Socialist party, already unhappy with what it regarded as Allende's temporizing, adopted as its slogan, "advance without concessions...

...Allende got himself caught up in a futile struggle with the Chilean truck owners, many of them small, independent operators...

...Increased tax burdens, inflation that wiped out the value of property holdings, an uncontrolled rise in price levels, and, most terrifying of all, the threat of revolution and terror—all these brought the middle class to a state of mind akin to Engels's petty-bourgeoisie enrage...

...There could hardly have been a worse atmosphere for the Allende regime...

...Finally, lurking in the shadows were the transnational corporations, the expropriated copper companies...