classical Leninism was outdated and unnecessary.
was going to demonstrate that the working class and the peasantry in alliance with 'the progressive bourgeoisie' could march along the 'peaceful road to socialism'.
Unfortunately the refused to the play the part allocated them in the script written by the Socialist Communist leaders. The capitalist class and stubbornly decided that their own class interests came first.
Instead of collaborating in the 'anti-imperialist it mobilised its forces to the Popular Unity government and the militants who supported it.
lost lives and tortured bodies of the Chilean working class are a grisly restimony to the fact that the class war can't be solved by collaboration and compromise.
this articie on tne events in Chile, ESTEBAN, Chilean section of the Fourth International, shows how the Popular Unity Front government's policies of containing the class struggle and insisting that workers moderate their demands so as not to provoke the bourgeoisie overthrow.
Chile lesso for workers movement and it is a lesson that must not be forgotten.
POPULAR UNITY'S policy of expanding the redistributing income in favour of the poor had, by the end of 1971, run down industrial and commercial stocks and the capitalists had made large profits. These profits were swollen by the government's policy of tax generous credit terms and other incentives that aimed to win the bourgeoisie the oligarchic The capitalists did not reinvest their huge profits back into economy but began to hoard goods and to speculate on the black market. Zealous The Christian Democrats' tactics of a war of attrition against the government were the best suited to undermine Popular Unity. These tactics were based on three basic tenets.
Firstly, that the Christian Democ rat party would present itself as a party of social change but at the same time it would be the zealous guardian of democracy against the 'totalitarian' attacks of Popular Unity. ed them to maintain a large popular base mainly made up of sections of the urban petty bourgeois, workers and particularly among the peasants.
ly been a rightist force which was indistinguishable the Secondly, a policy of 'civil disobedience' based on mass mobilisations against the govermmenl.lus was designed to shift the balance of forces in favour of the bourgeoisie for this purpose the ideological and political cowardice of the Unity leaders.
Finally, they used 'constitutional guerilla warfare' against the government, employing tactics like making anti-government parliamentary bloes delay Popular Unity legislation. They also used the institutions of the state such as the judiciary Contraloria which together with the Supreme Court was empowered to see that Presidential decisions did not Contravene te consutution.
These tactics all had the ultimate goal of preparing the conditions for a final showdown with the class. Thus the Christian Democrats were the axis of the ruling class opposition to the government.
wilfully The a member of the peasanis led to all the This strategy concessions, alliance at all levels, 'antiFreedom. anti-imperialist the country during pots'.
WaSO keep (nis against SUCI This allowcorulg Jules.
Inflation
National In March Democrat MPs - using could only Popular by introducing a special bill.
The of previous Unity was therefore industrial and financial Chile's 35,000 industrial units.
11911 Democrat's where it lay 1973 when the bourgeoisie working again. No move to oppose came from the government.
demanded an especially in parliament with the National Party, rent throuch to ioint street actions with the fascists of Fatherland and The first step in constitutional warfare against the government was the impeachment of Jose Toha, the Minister of the Interior. The joint opposition accused him of being incapable of keeping the peace in the bourgeolsit inspired demonstration of the 'empty The response of Popular Unity issue confined to parliament — a response which was to become a norm whenever they were under attack from the right. It made no appeal to its popular base to take extra-parliamentary action to defend the capitalists' opposition resorted more and more to such methods in order to obstruct the working of the cabinet, the reformists recoiled in horror from alu ministers, thus playing the game acthe bourgeoisie's 1972 the Christian introduced the Hamilton/Fuentealba Bill. This took away the right of the government to intervene in any enterprise or to expropriate and nationalise such enterprises. From then on the government out expropriations Hamilton/Fuentealba Bill even stripped away the legal validity government expropriations. The political project of Popular paralysed. At that time less than 300 commercial, enterprises had been taken over out of a total of The Bill was clear evidence of the Chrisreactionary aims.
But the government swept the whole affair under the parliamentary carpet that the August used this Bill By the middle of 1972 scarcity was getting worse. Inflation was moun### Industrial production declining and the black market was booming. The Popular Unity met at Lo Curro to try and find a way out of the impasse. ine goods and to make sure the capitalists invested their profits in the production of goods that were needed. Finally, he was for the suspension of payment of the foreign debt as a way of contronting the threat of im.
The Popular Unity leaders said that Millas' proposals were better suited to their strategy of working within the legal framework and gave a basis for a 1972. shopkeepers, were were not Millas' were adopted. Unity.
cabinet members demanded the replacement bourgeois parliament with a popular Very prominent in the leadership of the cordones were the left wing Communist Party, the Socialist Party right wing and the union bureaucrats bitterly opposed the cordones, saying Popular Assembly was taking shape in the south of the country in the inorganisations responded to the call of the MAPU regional branch - a split Christian Democrats which had joined Popular Unity - to set up a regional Popular Assembly.
leaders and the Communist Party bitterly opposed the Assembly calling it 'an ultra-left masquerade'. By the second half of 1972 the bourgeoisie was working at full speed to reorganise They knew the chips were down for real and they understood that they must unite as a class. However they knew that their traditional forms of political representation had become an obstacle to them organising their supporters around a unified strategy.
It was the bourgeoisie's "social vanguard' who led, encouraged and acted in the mass actions during the strike of the bourgeoisie in October There were the lorry owners, industrialists, land owners, doctors, technicians and so on wno gave enormous support to thi general strike. The strike was a national lockout. Its aim was to force either the government's capitulation or lead to its overthrow. Had it not been for the workers' resistance there is no doubt that the capitalists would have succeeded in their alms.
Nevertheless on 2 November the the armed forces to the cabinet. These sympathisers of Popular Iney were there to defend bourgeois legality and interests. Two trade union leaders were also made • their task was to put a brake on the rising mass move-
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Salvador Allende in Chile was go- ing to be the living proof that
The latter would have defected to the left if Christian Democracy had simp-