On Chile

29 years ago, following the coup in Chile, Italian anarchist communists wrote the following which we now present in order to remember the thousands of women and men who over the decades have fought and tried to resist against the Chilean dictatorship, paying for it with their lives and their freedom.

"On the 11th September 1973 the Allende government was overthrown and a fascist dictatorship was installed!!!

The united left in Chile, Unidad Popular, was carrying out a reformist project, a first experiment on the nation's road to socialism; the historical importance of this experience is immense as it allows us to make an analysis from which valuable lessons can be learnt regarding revolutionary strategy.

For some time now, Chile has become an epicentre of imperialist contradictions in Latin America, and over recent years the clash between the two basic classes, the bourgoisie and the proletariat, has become more and more radical.

Unidad Popular's project foresaw a change in the living conditions of the workers through reformist, civilizing, democratic action from within the framework of the bourgeois institutions. To help them in this work they sought and obtained an alliance with progressive bourgeois elements and with the national bourgeoisie who approved of a process of economic and political independence for Chile. It was with the support of these elements that Unidad Popular were able to take power in government. The electoral victory and the first nationalizations set in motion a movement which was to depart from the path of reformism - land and factory occupations created new power relations in the class struggle which was to become more and more marked.

The process could no longer restrain itself within the bounds of reformism and would have had to continue until such times as the bourgeois State would be destroyed and the proletariat would take over all the vital points of the country's economy.

The inability of reformism to manage and push forward such a process to the final clash marked the defeat of the Chilean proletariat.

The progressive bourgeoisie, having understood that the workers were a threat to their class interests, soon returned to that instrument which they have always used to defend themselves from the proletariat's attacks - a coup d'etat on the part of the fascists or the military. This same bourgeoisie which had at first supported Allende, was now siding with the other half of its own class and, united with them, would prepare the bloody defeat of the proletariat. While the workers went on pushing forward their interests, occupying factories and creating organs of direct democracy, the bourgeoisie was working towards stopping this whole process. Unidad Popular was unable to do anything - intent as they were on trying to conquer the progressive bourgeoisie and on observing the boundaries of constitutionality, restricted by their theoretical and strategic limitations, they could not understand the clash that was taking place by reasons of its very nature. The interests of the classes had emerged clearly with no mystification, so any indecision would mean sending the exploited classes to certain defeat, which then of course happened. The attempt to reconcile with the bourgeoisie instead of attacking it and engaging in an armed battle leading to the proletariat's victory was a grave error which will weigh hard on the entire South American continent for a long time to come.

The coup d'etat on the part of the national bourgeoisie with the support of American imperialism took the defenceless movement of the exploited by surprise. The heoic resistance of the Chilean comrades was not enough to defeat the bourgeoisie and the criminals who were the executors of the restoration which saw the unity of the national bourgeoisie and the imperialists, who have unleashed their anti-communism, killing and torturing and highlighting once again the real face of the bourgeoisie and the fact that there can be no compromise or conciliation between the classes of the exploiters and the exploited ." 

(1974)

And it was Pinochet's Chile which, flayed by one of the bloodiest counter-revolutions in memory, was used by the United States as an experimental laboratory for the capitalist strategies which we know so well today: social control, the security syndrome, privatization of the economy, dismantlement of state pensions and the temporarization of labour. That is why the heritage of mass struggle, self-organization and anti-fascism must still today feed our historical memory which is indispensable for the anti-capitalist struggles of today and tomorrow.

Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici

September 2003