Chile, the gorillas are amongst us

95 Pages·1974·2.983 MB·English

by  Helios Prieto

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