Chile: 45 years of military coup
The continuity of the model and the need for a new political alternative.
At noon on Tuesday 11 September 1973, FACH aircraft flew over La Moneda bombarding during 15 minutes, and it reached the peak of the day chosen to overthrow Allende and end a revolutionary process that is expressed beyond the government itself, initiating a counter process 17 years based terror, torture and disappearance of thousands of workers, women and young rebels by the State, thereby transforming the political architecture, economic and social life to our present. A 45 years after the coup and remember the fallen who were killed by militants in a new world, entering into a red thread then that merits re open debates when pinochetista logic remains the soul of the Chilean political system.
A 45 years of a blow to the labor movement
The coming to power of the UP[i] in 1970 It was part of the progressive advance of the labor movement, both in consciousness and organization. Allende's government, the growing influence of masses of the revolutionary left as the MIR[ii] and the emergence of the industrial cordons as glimmers of dual powers of workers' control, They shaped the political scene in the early 70s'. With the UP election victory set in motion the "peaceful road to socialism", under the logic of gradual reforms to overcome the social character of State, finding its limits in confidence about Congress without breaking with the institutional structure, thus it was increasingly stressing society, Among the advances that lived the working class and bourgeois counterpart looked like their class interests they are questioned, thus prepared was organizing a counter-revolution by national capitalists with US aid for military intervention.
Alerts about a possible coup there was always an active social response, Industrial Cords day 5 of September, solo 6 days before the coup, wrote in a letter to the government realized what was coming, "he warned fellow, with respect and trust that we still have him, if not satisfied with the program of the Popular Unity, If you do not trust the masses, you will lose the only real support that has as a person and leader and will be responsible for leading the country, no civil war, which it is already in full swing, but the cold slaughter, planned, of the working class conscious and organized in Latin America "[iii], that letter had its counterpart on Tuesday 11 September 1973.
Since that date a dictatorship imposed by 17 years under Pinochet led by State Security Doctrine, applying a systematic policy of repression, persecution and violation of human rights, shared policy with other Latin American regimes in those years, Seeking to root an important revolutionary flow in a continent polarized. The particularity of our country is that a true capitalist "revolution" was launched during the dictatorship established Neoliberalism.
Pacted transition, 30 years later
The transformations of capitalist production mode lived during the years of dictatorship could not have been implemented without the terror and genocide from the State he sought at first physically exterminate every organization of the labor movement, The plan continued with a capitalist revolution by installing Neoliberalism, a state liberal orthodoxy that sought the total liberation of private benefit on the basis of a program of privatization and deregulation.
Next month marks 30 years of the plebiscite 1988[iv], referendum vote that put the continuity of the dictatorship in a period losing strength, mainly the role of the mass movement that responded with great days of nationwide protest[v]. Those milestones called into question the possibility of a favorable outcome to negotiations agreed to certify impunity and maintain the economic basis of Neoliberalism. Finally thanks to the "Coalition of Parties for the No", which later it becomes the "Concertación" sways towards institutionalizing a democratic solution outside the social mobilization that could have influenced the foundations of the system.
After the victory of the "No" and elections to come, the Coalition plays a fundamental role in not set a different alternative to the liberal orthodoxy that underpins the economic foundations of the country, an active part in continuity model, Constitution both 80 'and its maturation, besides perpetuating democracy protected by bipartisanship.
It is so economically reproduce after the foundation of the dictatorship, giving rise and shape institutions with that antecedent, He contributed to the complicity of genocide and impunity for human rights violators, this pattern was enjoying Pinochet until the last day of his life as a senator, among many torturers who never had trial or punishment. The latest contribution to the silence of impunity was the promise of closing Punta Peuco by Bachelet, who could maneuver in the last days of his government to reverse[we].
The "second transition" Pinera, the model and does the Frente Amplio as an alternative?
Elections last year expressed the crisis of bipartisanship, fissure that began with student demonstrations that put into question the educational model, subsequently mobilization against pension model and recent women's movement, all with their different developments were massive and impossible demands aimed at resolving under the shackles of inherited political regime of the dictatorship.
Thus it began to break the apparent calm that ruled the Coalition for 20 years and he unhooked a crisis of representativeness, among other factors contributed to the implosion of the main hegemonic bloc that has ruled the country, the New Majority Coalition reversed as the Communist Party inside, plus emerging new political references - election, the Frente Amplio, It is occupying 20 MPs and a senator in parliament. Piñera's victory responds to said logic rather than their own proposals, But in the few months of his term agenda he has pointed sharpen the model, in his words during the first public account: "A second transition"[vii].
The weeks that have preceded this 11 September were marked by a central debate on human rights, we refer primarily to debut and farewell Mauricio Rojas as Minister of Culture, who had stated that the Museum of Memory was a "mounting"[viii], having a strong response from the cultural and artistic world with the poet Raul Zurita's call to boycott, in 48 hours they managed to remove it from the Ministry. Mauricio Rojas held that character in the curriculum as a "convert", which went from MIR to be a right-wing and liberal ideas, facts belied by former militants of MIR[ix].
Pinera policy in the attempt to recompose the regime proved not to be firmly supported as expressed by the decline of its advanced on Human Rights, the instability of the representativeness of the regime remains in dispute. Piñera thus speak of the "second transition" taking up the narrative of the 90 ', but this time putting in front on the notion of mismanagement of governments of the Concertación / New Majority was "good management" of its mandate, which would lead the country to economic development. In fact it translates into giving up a series of reforms of continuity amid a global scenario of economic instability, looking reinvigorate the profitability of private business with the excuse of low growth the previous government.
Piñera has so far managed to have some authority to legislate, because there is not a real opposition, however his blow could not perform on memory and Human Rights, their only defeat so far and showing that their progress is more a lack of opposition and alternative policy to a real defeat of the last manifestations of street unrest.
The Broad Front actor who breaks as cleft bipartisanship quickly finds its limits under the logic that expresses the model itself, because on one hand I wanted to establish itself as an alternative to neoliberalism but acts in the eaves of the institutions without politically demarcated, Unlike, It is an active part in parliament to demonstrate their ability to "governance", This is demonstrated in the Committee on Children promoted by the Government, Answering the call to the agreements on "the big issues Country"[x], update signed FTA with Canada, country holding the 60% investment in the extractive industry, He participated with two deputies (Gael Yomans Libertarian Left and Democratic Revolution Maite Orsini) in the Working Committee which passed by the previous "Young Statute" to the parliamentary vote[xi].
On Human Rights they have not been controversial exceptos, Amid the debate by Mauricio Rojas, Gabriel Boric of the autonomist movement came to "discuss" with the left according to "relativize human rights", Quickly finding the right echo in seeking to acknowledge receipt of their actions while being questioned. In the same area two deputies of the Liberal Party were part of the sanction of Parliament against Congresswoman Pamela Jiles (PH), who faced the UDI Deputy Urrutia after his sayings terrorists trying to victims of human rights[xii], Guillermo Teillier Communist Party also voted for the sanction. This last fact shows the reactionary character of Congress.
Extended front over its own institutional abuts limit, since the maturation and integration of private business on speculation of social rights make it impossible to reformulate the political regime without touching the interests of big capital, therefore the minimum program of the Frente Amplio they can not carry out without confronting the trapped laws of the Constitution of Pinochet, policy that proved not want to play, since the general horizon between the Frente Amplio party is the parliament and / or government as a strategy, therefore its primary concern is to demonstrate the bourgeoisie governance.
That's why we believe that the accelerated adaptation of the FA is essential to have a broad anti-capitalist voice that can play as an alternative after more than 4 decades of neoliberal progress.
Exit the pinochetista heritage, anticapitalist and feminist necessarily a task. The last elections showed the crisis of representativeness of the political regime that has been underpinned by the great social mobilizations, the rise of the student movement at the time and the current feminist movement that carries emancipatory potential that questions the basis of production and reproduction of this system. There is a potential social protest has been motorizing with central demands that can not be resolved within the framework of neoliberalism, we believe that force must be translated into proposed.
The appearance of the Frente Amplio responded to this process but with a limited purely electoral, In that sense they pose internal convergences have more disagreements and agreements that could coexist peacefully[xiii], putting even the great political debates, including differences over the role of Human Rights and acting that have been in parliament, It is a worrying development for the role of deputies of convergence.
For this reason it is necessary to open a debate on the anti-capitalist left at 45 years of the military coup and 30 years of the transitional agreement that perpetuated the legacy pinochetista, propose a dialogue leading to overcome the dispersion and disintegration in view of a political unit as an alternative, which differs from the internal convergences of the FA whose end the institutional scope, but political agreements for a way out of neoliberalism, supported by social mobilization and contributing towards a policy for 99%, anticapitalist and feminist. Our proposals in a new commemoration of the coup, against skepticism "it failed" and against the reconciliation pact posibilismo, No forgiveness, nor forgetness.
Joaquín Araneda, anticapitalist movement
[i] Popular unity, formed by the Socialist Party, Communist party, Radical party, Popular Unitary Action Movement, Left Radical Party and Popular Action. In addition to having the support of the Central de Trabajadores Clasista (CUT)
[ii] Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria,
[iii] Industrial Cords letter to partner Allende, 5 September 1973.
[iv] National Plebiscite 1988, between "Yes" or "No" to the continuity of Pinochet.
[v] Days initiated during the 80 ', most took place on 2 Y 3 July 1986, happening the "burned case" that produced mass protests at funerals. Year attentive to Pinochet and the landing of weapons discovered in Carrizal Bajo, period look for an exit route sectors election.
[we] Pulse, Third. 13 of March 2018
[vii] News, 01 of June 2018 http://www.ahoranoticias.cl/noticias/nacional/226074-cuenta-publica-discurso-completo-del-presidente-sebastian-pinera.html
[viii] The counter, 13 of August 2018 http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2018/08/13/debut-y-despedida-mauricio-rojas-sale-del-ministerio-de-las-culturas-ante-presion-por-ddhh/
[ix] Pascal Allende, former Secretary General of the MIR.
[x] Commission participating Gabriel Boric (MA) and Natalia Castillo (RD).
[xi] See, https://anticapitalistasenred.org/2018/07/17/la-ofensiva-contra-la-juventud-del-gobierno-de-pinera/
[xii] T13, 19 http April://www.t13.cl/noticia/politica/video-indignacion-pamela-jiles-dichos-del-diputado-urrutia>
[xiii] The counter, 25 http July://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/sin-editar/2018/07/25/movimientos-en-proceso-de-convergencia-en-el-frente-amplio-realizaran-congreso-en-septiembre/
