The new stage in Chile:
Interview with a
This contradictory process was economic crisis been for the workers thrown for a loop in 1981 and especially 1982 by an economic crisis that was more rapid and extensive than anything ever seen before in Chile.
At the start, a lot of major financial groups went bankrupt because, big as they were, they were not solid enough to
Chilean revolutionist hold up in the situation created by the
They were hard world economic crisis.
hit in particular by the falling prices for raw materials, including copper, which is the country's major export.
Despite the semifailure of the general strike called in Chile on June 23, it seems clear that a new period has opened in the country that will be very important for the
Latin American and world workers movement.
It is necessary, therefore, to look more at the political life of the Chilean left and workers movement, in particular in connection with such big events as the mid-June
National Day of Action and the attempted general strike.
Shortly after the calling off of the general strike, Jean-Pierre Beauvais, a journalist of Rouge, the paper of the French section of the Fourth International, was able to interview a Chilean revolutionary leader.
able to interview a Chilean revolutionary leader.
and then the text of the interview, which has been somewhat abridged.
The general strike call issued by the Workers National Command (CNT) and the truckers union was not generally followed. On June 26, three days after launching took this decision because they wanted to make a positive response to the Catholic
The Chilian conference of bishops had called on the government and the opposition not to "let yourselves be caught up in a spiral of violence."
Since the full facts are not yet known outside Chile, it would be speculative to try to draw a balance sheet of an action that some Chilean opposition leaders have
"defeat."
not hesitated to call a
Will the upsurge of mass mobilizations of the workers and the poor that has de-
The extent of the economic, social, and politveloped in recent months be halted?
ical crisis and the isolation of the dictatorship indicate that it will be difficult for the regime to accomplish that.
Will the process of recomposition that has been going on in the Chilian workers movement and the opposition be affected by this setback, and if so, how? The first indication of the answer to this question will become clear in the coming tests of the struggle, some of which have already been scheduled for the next few weeks.
that the authority and influence of the Christian
In any case, it seems likely after playing a key role in launching the action,
Democratic union leaders who, demonstrated their desire for "dialogue"
On the general situation in Chile and the analysis of the recent developments, challenged.
we interviewed a representative of the MIR (Movement of the Revolutionary Left), the best known of the Chilean far-left organizations.
Since the start of the 1970, under the Allende government, as well as throughout the dark years under the Pinochet tyranny, despite a somewhat uneven course of political development, the MIR has remained the main component of the Chilian revolutionary left.
the reformist framework of Allende's Unidad Popular, as well as in the resistance to the dictatorship, the militants of the MIR have continued to play a leading role.
In publishing this interview, we are obviously not endorsing all the positions the
This is an act of solidarity. It is also a reflection of a reality. No Chilian revolutionary activist working to achieve the clarification and recomposition that are so necessary when the "Pinochet era" is coming to an end can fail to consider the positions of the MIR.
Jean-Pierre BEAUVAIS
How do you analyze the
Question.
crisis of the Pinochet dictatorship?
Beginning in 1978-79, the
Answer.
Chilian masses began to emerge from the retreat that followed the coup d'etat and defeat of 1973. Gradually the conditions developed that made it possible to organize the people's forces socially and politically.
This is also the period when the dictatorship took a series of initiatives, in particular at the constitutional level, designed to give legitimacy to its rule. It considered a complete restructuring of political and social life and the institution, beginning in 1989, of a sort of "controlled democracy."
Beauvais's introduction follows, Beauvais' introduction follows They explained that they with the dictatorship will be seriously
The prebiscite held in 1980 was part
And, at first glance, it of this perspective. seemed to reflect a certain stabilization of the regime on the basis of a favorable relationship of forces. That is, at first glance it did, because at about the same time the reorganization that was underway in the people's movement was reflected by a very important strike - the strike of the Panal workers, which they maintained for two months. This was an exemplary strike in its combativity, its methods of organizing and fighting, and above all in the fact that it got solidarity from the workers and people's organizations nationwide.
Q. Then the economic crisis started.
The deepening and widening of this crisis over 1982 was reflected in a 14 percent drop in industrial production, a 28.3 percent decline in the building industry, and a 14 percent decline in trading.
Officially 21.9 percent of the working age population was unemployed. In fact, if you add those who the regime calls "beneficiaries of the minimum employment program," that is, people who do tasks such as sweeping the streets in order to collect a little dole money, the figure is 30 percent.
In 1982, according to the official figures, the average buying power of wage workers dropped by 15 percent, and 810 enterprises had to close their doors.
Practically all sectors of the economy are overburdened by massive indebtedness, and the country's entire financial system is virtually bankrupt. Per capita, Chile has the world's greatest foreign debt. There is no way it can pay the interest owed to the big American banks, unless they are prepared to grant new loans!
There's no need to go on. This hopereveals the total failure of less crisis the monetarist model imposed by the dictatorship and the imperialists.
What have been the effects of this
Q. inside the regime?
A. Once this situation developed, the conflicts among the various sections of the bourgeoisie sharpened, and their alliance around the government started to break down.
cost of the crisis? What means should be used to assure the survival of bourgeois rule in this situation? Somewhat schematically, we can say that it was around these two essential questions that the differences among different sections of the bourgeoisie have appeared.
Roughly three groups have emerged.
One favors maintaining the monetarist approach and carrying it further. Another is for increased state intervention in economic life but combined with setting up a corporativist-type political-social organization. A third grouping is favorthat is, it looks to a consensus of bour- able to a relative political liberalization, geois currents, including the Christian
Democrats, as the only way of assuring that social control" will be maintained.
On the economic level, this political liberalization would go hand in hand with a certain amount of protectionism.
And what have the effects of the 5
movement, for the poor masses?
The other big result of the crisis is the fact that the mobilization of the masses for their concrete demands has assumed new dimensions. ship inside the country has made analysis of the development of all sorts of struggles for immediate demands, both legal and illegal. 172 such struggles in total. In 1982,
This figures reflect an extension of people's mobilizations to most categories throughout the country. course, such mobilizations are strongest in the main industrial centers — Santiago,
Concepcion mining centers. Another point, to clarify the full extent of this develop-
The number of struggles for immediate demands in 1982 that I gave was by itself more than the total of all such struggles waged between 1974 and 1981.
This economic crisis, the contradictions in the ruling bloc, and the government's growing difficulty in preventing or controlling mass mobilizations, taken together, indicate the scope of the dictatorship's crisis.
Did the mass mobilizations continue to grow after the end of 1982?
Yes. In fact, they took on a new scope after August 19, 1982. It was on that day that we had our first mass street demonstrations [since 1973]. then the mobilizations grew month by month to culminate in the big demonstrations of May 11 and June 14. It became evident that the people's movement was becoming a fundamental factor, an obstacle to the regime's attempts to find a solution to the crisis.
Nonetheless, the general strike last week was a semifailure.
To understand what happened, obviously you have to take into account first the stepped-up repression, censorship, and so forth. take into account the present situation in the trade-union movement.
In our view, the revival of the workers movement since 1978-79 has been marked by two parallel and interacting tenden-
On the one hand, you have the reorganization of the trade-union leaderships from the top. This reflects the comeback of traditional Chilian trade-unionism, the trade-union-movement that historically organized the working class. This movement today is divided up into several
The CNS (Coordinadora Nacional Sindical, National Trade-Union Coordinating Committee) includes essentially Christian Democrats, as well as Communist and Socialist trade-unionists). The UDT (Union Democratica de los Trabajadores, Democratic Union of Workers) includes Christian Democrats influenced by the U.S. trade-union organizations (the AFLCIO). The CTC (Sindicato de los Trabajadores del Cobre, Copper Workers Union) has a Christian Democratic leadership, even though this includes some unionists linked to the left.
I should also mention the ANEF (Public Workers Association) and the CEPCH (Confederation of White-Collar Workers in the Private Sector. Both define themselves as "moderate."
At the leadership level, this brand of trade-unionism has inherited the faults of the old Chilian trade-union movement - bureaucratization, the lack of effective links with the base units, and delibermaintained divisions that foster
On the other hand, there is a growth of a rank-and-file trade-union movement in the workplaces, which is often coordinated at the local level through clandes-
This rank-and-file trade-union moment has a democratic life and real participation by the workers in mak-
It is the expression of a new trade-union activism that is vigorous, militant, and jealous of its independence from the bosses and the bourgeoisie.
This rank-and-file trade-union movement has shown its capacity to organize struggles and conduct actions that go as far as factory occupations and mean confrontations with the dictatorship. In this movement, even though it includes the most diverse political tendencies, there is a prevailing spirit of unity and a general understanding of the need for overall
Over these past months, this rank-and file trade-union movement has played a leading role in the mobilizations, but at the same time the traditional leaderships have not been replaced.
Q. And these are the leaderships that took the initiative of launching the genthe beginning, the strike call reflected a demand from the ranks. A few weeks ago, for example, the delegates present at the CTC congress demanded a national strike for democracy, that is, a political confrontation with
With the mobilization gathering steam, the leaders, essentially those linked to the
They did so out of necessity, in order to control the movement, channel it, and gain political advantage out of it. Hence the contradictions that were clear in the streets themselves between the slogans of the rank-and-file structures ("Democracy Now!") and those of the leadership calling for "liberalization."
You were talking about the union leaders linked to the Christian Democratic Party, who played the most prom-
But about those linked to the Communist Party and the Socialist Party?
A. They have not been inactive, and their role cannot be underestimated. But they are targets of repression and in most cases do not have clandestine leadership structures. They have been tied down by repression much more than the Christian Democrats, some of whom have been interviewed by the press and been able to speak out even when they were imprison-
What's more, the CP and SP unionists are paying the price for their old orientation, which amounted to abdicating their role to the Christian Democrats. Arguing that they had to shield themselves from repression, they often helped Christian Democrats into the leading posts. the Christian Democrats knew how to take advantage of this.
What was the MIR's position toward the tests of these past weeks?
A. For a year, the MIR's line has been to build at the rank-and-file level for a workers and people's general strike that would be led by the left forces and which would be able to draw in other sections of society that are suffering from the crisis — a general strike to overthrow the dictatorship.
In our opinion, last week the necessary conditions for such a general strike had not yet been assembled. The leadership of the movement, in particular, for the reasons I have noted, was still largely in the hands of the Christian Democrats, some of whom were notoriously linked to imperialism.
More than ever, as the crisis of the dictatorship accelerates, political clarity is
The bourgeois opposition, of which the major component is the Christian Democratic Party, is trying to put itself forward today as a credible alternative. But its plan calls for subordinating the interests of the masses to compromises with imperialism, to the monopolies, and to the armed forces. It offers Chilean society no guarantee for a better future.
What can assure the overthrow of the dictatorship and the establishment of full democracy for the masses?
Who will guarantee that the repressive apparatus of the DINA-CNI will be abolished and that the murders and torturers will be tried and punished?
Who will guarantee that the cases of the "missing persons" will be cleared up?
Who will guarantee that the armed for ces and the police will be democratized and that the people's militias needed to protect the rights of citizens against the threat of another coup d'etat will be set
Who will guarantee that the courts will be reorganized and that those judges who have been accomplices of the tyranny will
Finally, who is going to guarantee the expropriation of the trusts that are re sponsible for the poverty, hunger, and for the pillage of our resources?
This is why we are fighting to make sure that the popular resistance - which we are striving to build - to make sure that the left as a whole, that all consistent democrats reject any social pact. No class collaborationism. No subordination of the people's interest and the interests of the nation. This is the prerequisite for es tablishing the democratic, popular, revolutionary alternative that we are fighting for. Last week's events confirm that this is both possible and necessary.