Allende's Second Way

[James Farmelant]

I think that the central weakness of Allende's government
that was that it never was able to decide if it was a reformist
government or a revolutionary one.  Many of its supporters were 
clearly committed to a revolutionary transformation of Chilean
society and this commitment manifested itself in such actions
as factory seizures by workers and land seizures by peasants.
Yet, Allende himself and his closest associates seemed to
be committed to reformism - indeed Allende seemed to
think of himself as a sort of Chilean FDR or Leon Blum.
Therefore, he was always attempting to reassure the Chilean
bourgeoisie even to the point of accepting military officers
including General Pinochet into his cabinet.  Yet the Chilean
bourgeoisie and Washington paying more heed to the revolutionary
actions of the militant workers and peasants did not feel
very assured.  Whereas FDR was ultimately able to assure
the American bourgoisie that his reforms were not a real threat
to their longterm interests but on the contrary would stabilize
capitalism, Allende despite his best efforts was never able to
assure either the Chilean bourgeoisie nor Washington.  If
he had been a real revolutionary he would have armed the
workers but since he was a reformist he refrained from
taking steps that would be perceived by the bourgeoisie
and the military as provacative.  The result was that his regime
was left defenceless when the army decided to depose it.

		Jim Farmelant 
On Wed, 23 Sep 1998 11:52:11 -0400 Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com> writes:
>I was just on the phone last night with an old friend who had seen the 
>2
>films Peter is referring to. I told him that I didn't go because I 
>would
>have found it too aggravating. The notion that the Chilean army would 
>have
>respected democracy is misbegotten. In these films, it would have 
>provided
>the same kind of ghastly tension as a slasher film. When would the 
>monster
>Pinochet jump out of the closet with an axe in his hand? The audience 
>would
>want to yell at the screen. "Don't go there! There's an axe-murderer 
>in the
>closet." At least, that's what I would yell at the screen.
>
>The Chilean experience is a negative confirmation of Lenin's "State 
>and
>Revolution." He explains that the state is bodies of armed men that 
>defend
>the interests of the ruling class. The only way to achieve socialism 
>is to
>demolish the old state and replace it with one based on the armed 
>working
>class, known in Marxist jargon as the dictatorship of the proletariat.
>
>The horrible thing about Chile is not just that it resulted in mass 
>murder,
>but it also issued in the long wave of capitalist reaction that we are
>finally beginning to break out of. The Chicago School of economics 
>used
>Chile as a laboratory and the model was applied elsewhere, from
>post-Solidarity Poland, to Bolivia, to Thatcher's England to Yeltsin's 
>Russia.
>
>The best Marxist analysis of Allende's downfall is from the SWP's
>Pathfinder Press, titled "Chile's Days of Terror." I also recommend 
>Seymour
>Hersch's book on Kissinger which has some explosive revelations about 
>the
>role of ITT in fomenting the coup. Finally, for an expose of 
>Pinochet's
>economic "miracle," I recommend Joseph Collins's "Chile's Free Market
>Miracle: a Second Look," from Food First books.
>
>Louis Proyect
>
>(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
>

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