assembled at the gates. There were police with rifles in a truck. When the workers saw Colwin coming they started chanting "victory, victory".
Colwin then made his speech to the crowd. You could feel the tension at that time in the mood of the workers. They were on an up and up. Alan: So how many workers died in the Hartal on that day? Bala: Nine, in different places across the country. Alan: But the government was ousted wasn't it? Bala: Yes it was. The cabinet was so uncertain of the situation that they decided, during the morning, to seek security on a British warship in Colombo harbour - the HMS Newfoundland.
Effectively they left the country and went onto British territory. That is a rather significant fact.
At 2.00 in the afternoon the Prime Minister, Dudly Senanayake, declared, from the war ship, a state of emergency, the first time (since independence) that the Pubic Security Act had been brought into operation. From that the police got the orders to shoot to kill. I think most of the killings took place after that. Alan: So was Sammiokkoddy right when he said it was a missed revolution? Bala: I still say it could not have gone that Alan: So what was the outcome of the Hartal? Bala: The LSSP high command met and decided to make an announcement that the Hartal would end as planned at midnight. It had been called for a day and they felt that they should stick to a day.
Many of the struggles continued as did the repression. The people remained on the streets. The state of emergency continued as well. But on the price of rice -the original cause - there was a victory in the sense that the proposal was withdrawn and the price of rice went down. economic policy in Latin America, one which created a wealthy middle-class but drove millions of workers into dire poverty.
Popular Unity, including the Communist, Socialist and Radical parties, had come to power in September 1970. Right from the start Allende tried to make concessions to the right wing; his cabinet included more members of the declining Radical Party than the much bigger Communist Party. Popular Unity committees organised for the elec Gradual reforms
The policy of Popular Unity was one of the working class. Many industries were nationalised and salaries substantially increased. Free milk was distributed to the poor, and public housing greatly increased. There was a surge of support for Popular Unity in the 1971 local elections.
But these successes for Popular Unity were purchased at a high price. Because the banks and big financial institutions were not nationalised, the government had to borrow huge sums to finance its projects and inflation rocketed. Ironically the subsequent economic chaos antagonised the middle class, which Popular Unity had tried to woo by not going 'too fast'
The government faced a huge campaign of destabilisation by the bosses. There was an investment strike. Wealthy farmers took their cattle over the Andes into neighbouring Argentina, rather than sell them in Chile. The press carried out a huge campaign against the government.
As the economy got into worse trouble foreign companies refused to invest in Chile - all financial credit to Chile was ended.
In 1972 the gradualist strategy of Popular Unity went into bankruptcy. The determination of local reaction and imperialism to wreck the economy made it impossible to win over the middle class.
The destabilisation process reached a head in the autumn of 1972 when a bosses' strike was organised. Factories closed down; middle class truck owners went on strike, leaving transport paralysed. The country ground to a halt. August 2003 saw hundreds of thousands of public sector workers in Chile stage the country's first general strike since 1986, when workers took to the streets in defiance of General Pinochet's brutal dictatorship 30 years after Pinochet's bloody coup exposed the bankruptcy of the cross-class politics of "Popular Unity", PHIL HEARSE draws the political lessons of that doomed project, which revived the worst elements of the 1930s Popular Fronts.
Popular Unity was itself divided. The right wing, led by Allende and the Communist Party advocated a continued 'go slow' policy - what they called 'consolidation".
The left wing - the left of the Socialist party and its allies, put forward a policy of "advance without compromise; to push forward to socialism by mobilising the workers. They were supported by the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) outside the government.
The workers had something to say about the situation. Against the hoarding of vital necessities, they organised local committees of supply and distribution to break the stranglehold of the black market. Popular Unity base committees were revitalised.
Peasants started to fight for control of the land by seizures of parts of big estates. Most important of all, when the bosses' strike started, workers in the industrial zones -the cordones industriales - set up factory and areas committees of resistance.
The factory and neighbourhood committees constituted embryonic organisations of workers power, the workers were beginning to take power into their own hands. Popular power was emerging in Chile Opposed to mass action
But the Popular Unity government B
opposed the self-organisation of the masses. As the bosses' strike developed, the government denounced the cordones industriales as illegal. Instead of mobilising the masses, or intervening to support the actions of the workers themselves, Popular Unity called in the army to break the strike.
Trade union leaders toured the factories telling the workers to rely on legality'; to leave things to the government.
Throughout the period of Popular Unity government the armed forces and the capi. talist state remained intact. No attempt was made to win rank-and-file soldiers to the side of the government.
This revealed the whole paradox of Popular Unity; in the name of the working class and socialism it had captured the gov. apparatus of repression stayed intact
The army remained the final guarantor of the position of the right wing and the bourgeoisie. At the beginning of 1973 pressure from the right wing built up. Middle class students from the Catholic University demonstrated against the government. The whole of the bourgeoisie clamoured for the army to intervene and overthrow the "Marxist' government.
The military carried out hundreds of raids on factories, left wing offices, shanty towns, union offices and workers homes "looking for guns'.
On 29 June 1973 the Second Armoured Division led by Colonel Robert Souper attempted a coup. But only a small part of the armed forces joined him. Troops loyal to Allende easily defeated the coup, as thousands of workers mobilised on the streets. Popular Unity committees decided to distribute arms to the workers.
That evening over a million workers marched to the Moneda Palace. As Allende urged caution on the crowd they shouted *execute the plotter, hit the reactionaries hard, arm the workers.' Last chance
For Allende and his government this - was the last chance. The defeated
coup put the right wing on the defensive. The workers were infuriated They wanted guns. During the day they had occupied their factories and wanted to keep them. It was a decisive moment.
But Allende and Popular Unity, instead of mobilising the workers and crushing the right wing, decided that further concessions were the only way out
Allende invited a wide range of right-wing figures to join his cabinet, in particula Christian Democrats. On August 10 he agreed that the military also join the govern ment.
By these hasty and desperate conces sions, Allende only signalled his weakness to the right. The military became convincer that they could easily overthrow him. Or September I the blow was struck
Chile went into more than 15 wears of the darkness of military dictatorsic and brutal repressior
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26 soclal * September 2003