Rodrigo Acuña
New South Wales Parliament Theatre
24 June 2008
It is customary throughout Latin America (like in other parts of the world) to honour important historical figures on the anniversary of their birth. Poets are often bestowed this honour, as are political leaders who are considered to have made a particular contribution to human freedom, social justice, and of special importance to the Third World, national liberation.
Given his vast contribution to Chilean and Latin American politics throughout his life as a student activist, Senator and then President of the Republic of Chile from 1970-1973, I think Dr Salvador Allende Gossens deserves this honour. As the political tide in the last few years has begun to turn in favour of progressive politics throughout Latin America, Allende merits closer attention as a man who believed people should be politically mobilised and have wide access to work, health, education and culture - essentially live with dignity.
Allende the Student Activist
Salvador Allende was born on June 26 1908 in the port city of Valparaíso. The son of Salvador Allende Castro and Laura Gossens Uribe, Allende’s middle class family had long been involved in progressive and liberal politics. Accustomed to political discussions at home, Allende was also influenced by the Italian immigrant and Anarchist shoe-maker Juan Demarchi. Entering the medical school of the University of Chile in 1926, the young Allende was soon active in politics during the tumultuous 1920s and 1930s.
While the youth in Chile, during the late sixties and seventies, would often be unaware, or at least, not give this era of Allende’s life due weight, the 1920s and 1930s provided the young leftist with vast experience in street politics, state repression and a deep conviction that his country needed radical change. Arrested in 1931 for his demonstration against the authoritarian Ibáñez regime, in 1932 he backed the short lived 12 days Socialist Republic of Chile, led by Major Marmaduke Grove, which attempted to bring some order to the ravages that the 1929 Wall Street Crash had imposed on Chile.[1]
For having supported Grove, Allende was again imprisoned and having undergone five trials, was only absolved of all charges after a general amnesty was granted. But after his release and graduation in medicine, Allende found it difficult to find work in his profession, eventually employed in a morgue to perform autopsies, while continuing his research into Chile’s health problems.[2] In 1933, along with figures like Grove, Allende established Chile’s Socialist Party. Appointed to lead the new organisation in Valparaíso, in 1935 he was arrested and imprisoned after “Chile’s government cracked down on striking workers, labour leaders and leftists.”[3] Exiled to the fishing village of Caldera, Allende was released at the end of 1935 after Grove – by that time a senator – campaigned rigorously throughout the country for his freedom.
Allende the Politician
With the election of Allende to Congress in 1937, his long life as a politician commenced – albeit as a special breed that constantly talked to his electorate and believed in genuinely pursuing their demands. When he became the Minister of Health in September 1939, as part of President Aguirre Cerda’s government, Allende carried out many progressive policies such as: the creation of maternity care programs; pensions for widows; free lunch programs for children and safety regulations to protect workers.[4] He also drafted legislation, which, once enacted in 1952, saw the establishment of Chile’s National Health Service that brought medical care to roughly three million people.[5] In November 1941, when President Aguirre Cerda died of a heart attack, and his substitute in the Radical Party moved to the political right, Allende resigned from the Cabinet.
As the decades passed, as a senator, Allende’s stance on major issues remained the same: he demanded higher wages for workers, access to adequate health care and education, believed that the Chilean left should have a Latin American outlook as opposed to pursing Moscow’s policies[6], and unequivocally, opposed U.S. interventionism in the region. When Fidel Castro and the 26 of July Movement overthrew the U.S. backed thug Fulgencio Batista in Cuba in January 1959, Allende arrived a few days later in Havana to lend his support for the new government.[7] Similarly, during Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s attempt to overthrow another Washington lackey, this time in Bolivia in 1967, Allende’s support went beyond eloquent speeches as he obtained safe passage for the few surviving guerrillas after the Argentine-Cuban rebel was captured and executed with the aid of U.S. military advisors.
Known as la muñeca de oro (the golden wrist), because of his ability to negotiate outcomes favourable to his constituency under circumstances in which other politicians would have capitulated, given such little room to manoeuvre, the socialist senator was admired, and indeed feared, for this skill. And yet, despite his ability to persuade opponents to often concede key political positions, Allende had a strong sense of ethics. According to one Soviet analyst, Allende was not a “down to earth person” but “idealistically minded, motivated by noble ideas and easily persuaded to do things which were not reasonable, economically or politically, and to take gambles, which he lost. But no one ever actually doubted his honest intentions as a person and his integrity as a politician.”[8]
The North American journalist Marc Cooper, who worked as a translator for the president as part of the Popular Unity (UP) government, gives us another perspective. He writes:
“Salvador Allende was a hectically complex and contradictory figure – romantic and rebel, revolutionary and parliamentarian, Socialist and mason, physician and master politician. He had few counterparts among politicians of the twentieth century. Even his most bitter detractors had to admit that few men were as politically canny. He was, indeed, the master of the felicitous maneuver. Yet at the same time he was desperately honest."
For thirty-five years he battled indefatigably for the interests of the rotos [the broken ones] without ever being accused of betrayal or sell-out. More than any single individual Allende could claim credit for the myriad social legislation that made Chile, even before his election, one of the most advanced democracies in the hemisphere.[9]
Finally, Cooper adds that when Allende spoke to crowds of up to 200,000 workers, they would “hang on his every syllable” and his style was more akin to a “patient teacher, careful to review every detail.”[10]
Allende the President
When Salvador Allende became president in 1970, his supporters were ecstatic while Chilean politics took on important international dimensions sending shock waves throughout Richard Nixon’s administration. The man who had once joked that on his tomb would be engraved the words “Here lies the next President of Chile”, finally won as the world’s first democratically elected Marxist leader with his broad leftist coalition known as the UP. Allende had in fact run for the presidency three times prior to 1970: first in 1952, then in 1958 – which he barely lost to the banker-industrialist Alessandri by 30,000 votes[11] – and in 1964. In the 1964 elections, like in 1958, Allende stood a serious chance of winning the presidency, which is why the U.S. Government – through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – found it necessary to ensure that the candidate, more amenable to Wall Street’s interests, won, spending US$3 million on an anti-Allende propaganda campaign.[12]
Most serious accounts of president Allende and the UP government leave few doubts as to their commitments to carrying out serious change. Historians Collier and Sater, who are certainly critical of Allende, state:
“From the beginning, the new government strove hard to fulfil its program. It greatly increased social spending, and made a determined effort to redistribute wealth to the lower-paid and the poor. As a consequence of higher wages and new initiatives in health and nutrition, many poorer Chileans, perhaps for the first time in their lives, ate well and clothed themselves somewhat better than before.”[13]
If Allende and his ministers seemed to be acting frantically during their administration, it was because Chile needed – and in fact still needs – deep reforms to address widespread injustice. As the UP’s own political program noted before taking office, the Andean country was incapable of feeding its own population due to idle lands “in spite of the fact that Chile could support a population of 30 million people” – that is, three times the amount of inhabitants for 1970.[14] In power, Allende and his team (with compensation), nationalised public utilities, non-foreign banks, a number of basic industries and U.S. copper firms – which led the latter to pursue fierce illegal retaliation which harmed the Chilean people. Prices on goods and rents were frozen while the UP provided credits to small and medium size businesses.[15] In Allende’s Chile, children received free milk in schools while hospitals where ordered to stop turning away patients who could not pay for their own medical attention.[16]
Like all governments and social experiments, Allende’s administration and some of his personal decisions were far from perfect. One of Allende’s biggest regrets was his decision not to call a plebiscite early into his government. Such a plebiscite, if successful, would have convoked a “people’s assembly”, which, amongst other things, would have drafted a new constitution, strengthened the presidency and established a unicameral legislature.[17] On the economic front, Allende and the UP made several mistakes. In a speech to workers at the former Sumar textile plant on January 18, 1973, Allende himself reflected on some of his government’s economic and political errors. They included:
“Not having renegotiated the Chilean foreign debt the day following his installation as president instead of in late 1971…
Not having explained at the proper time the imperialist reaction to Chile’s sovereign action in nationalizing the big copper mines.
Not having been aware that the Chilean process is much more difficult than those revolutionary processes which reached power after confrontation and armed struggle.”
And finally:
“Not having made an internal inventory of the critical economic situation which the popular government inherited in 1970.”[18]
Like Tomás Moulian, one of Chile’s most distinguished sociologists, I would add that the UP should have been much more cautious on economic matters – not because I disagree with its economic vision, but rather, because the huge correlation of forces against it perhaps warranted more gradual reforms.[19] Taking the above criticisms into consideration, it must be remembered that Allende was forced to meet in secret with high members of the military before taking office in November 1970, while in October that same year, the CIA was already looking for members within the Chilean armed forces to stage a coup.[20]
Despite the huge pressures that Allende and his team faced in office, the dialogue between the president, his supporters, and some opponents, continued. People of faith were more than welcome to have a place in Allende’s Chile while the press – which included some rather powerful elements that received funding from the CIA – did not have their rights curtailed. More importantly, during the UP, Chilean culture flourished like never before. According to Chilean novelists Fernando Alegría:
“The Popular Unity parties mobilized a whole world of poets, painters, musicians, and actors. The call was direct: take the jam to the streets, go from the circus tents to the plazas and parks of Chile, from the imposing, patrician stage of the municipal theatre to the makeshift bleachers of O’Higgins Park.”[21]
New publishing houses and magazines were supported through government grants, while Chileans, perhaps like never before, fed their thirst for knowledge.
Having declined to live in La Moneda palace – the official presidential residency – Allende instead used the building to carry out his duties while constantly hosting delegations of workers, peasants, artists and intellectuals. These people – together with the millions of men, women and youths whose names will not be found in the history books – were the ones that were going to build a more humane, just and independent Chile – a socialist Chile.
Conclusion
Finally, in conclusion to this talk, I would like to ask the following and yet simple question: where can we find examples of Allende’s thinking and actions today? In Chile, perhaps the new mobilisations by students and trade unions are rekindling of the flames that burnt during the 1960s and 1970s. Last year in August, on the issue of industrial relations, the country witnessed the largest demonstrations since the end of the dictatorship with over 600 arrests.[22] While the incumbent administration certainly deserves some credit for pursuing policies in healthcare, women’s rights and in attempting to come to terms with the country’s military past[23], Bachelet’s commitments to neoliberal economics are lamentable - to put it mildly. Similarly, this is the case regarding her close strategic ties to the United States – what she calls a “convergence with the hegemonic power”[24] – in a time when many seek stronger unification of Latin American nations and a rejection of the Washington Consensus.
Outside of Chile, I think Allende’s ideas and historical example are in a healthier state. The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez may not be the most diplomatic head of state, yet there should be few doubts that his government is challenging local elites and the Washington Consensus. His administration, for example, has forced foreign corporations to pay adequate taxes (for a change), while his efforts to forge a unified and independent Latin America, through the development of organisations like UNASUR (the South American equivalent of the European Union), are posing United States with the biggest strategic challenge in the region since the 1959 Cuban revolution. Developments in Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic are also positive.
Returning to Chile though, current and future generations will always have a rich legacy to draw upon in Salvador Allende’s ideas and actions, as an exemplary political leader who chose to fight for the type of society in which intelligent, compassionate and dignified human beings would like to inhabit.
ENDNOTES
[1] Amongst several of Grove’s decrees, he established DFL 520 which enabled the government to seize any industry considered “essential” to the national economy. This decree would later in fact be used by the Popular Unity administration. On DFL 520 see Simon Collier and William F. Sater, A History of Chile, 1808-2002, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004; first published 1996), p. 342. On Grove see ibid, p. 224-225 and Jack Ray Thomas, “The Evolution of a Chilean Socialist: Marmaduke Grove”, The Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 47, no. 1, February 1967, p. 22-37.
[2] James D. Cockcroft, ‘Allende’s Words Then and Now’ in Salvador Allende, Salvador Allende Reader: Chile’s voice of democracy, edited by James D. Cockcroft and Jane Carolina Canning (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2000), p. 6.
[3] Ibid., p. 7.
[4] Cockcroft, ‘Allende’s Words Then and Now’, p. 8.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Given their strong alliance on most national issues, Allende was always diplomatic in expressing the differences between the Socialist Party of Chile and the Communist Party. Nevertheless he did express them as can be seen in a 1964 interview he granted Canal 9 TV. See: Salvador Allende, Salvador Allende 1908-1973: Obras Escogidas (Santiago: Ediciones del Centro de Estudios Políticos Latinoamericanos Simón Bolívar y Fundación Presidente Allende (España), 1992), p. 200-201.
[7] Archivos Salvador Allende, “Socialismo Bolivariano”. Online at: http://www.salvador-allende.cl/biografia/tiempo_y_camino6.pdf. Viewed 20/05/08.
[8] Jonathan Haslam, The Nixon Administration and the Death of Allende’s Chile: A Case of Assisted Suicide (London: Verso, 2005), p. 18.
[9] Marc Cooper, Pinochet and Me: A Chilean Anti-memoir (London: Verso, 2002), p. 17-18.
[10] Ibid, p. 18.
[11] Cockcroft, ‘Allende’s Words Then and Now’, p. 9.
[12] Peter Kornbluh, The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, revised and updated edition (New York: The New Press, 2004; first published 2003), p.4.
[13] Collier and Sater, A History of Chile, 1808-2002, p. 330.
[14] Popular Unity Program in Allende, Salvador Allende Reader: Chile’s voice of democracy, p. 261.
[15] Cockcroft, ‘Allende’s Words Then and Now’, p. 13.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Collier and Sater, A History of Chile, 1808-2002, p. 333.
[18] Allende cited in Edward Boorstein, Allende’s Chile: An Inside View (New York: International Publishers, 1977), p. 247.
[19] Tomás Moulian, Conversación Interrumpida con Allende (Santiago: Universidad ARCIS, 1998), p. 87-88.
[20] Haslam, The Nixon Administration and the Death of Allende’s Chile: A Case of Assisted Suicide, p. 58, 63.
[21] Fernando Alegría, Allende: A Novel, trans. Frank Janney (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1993; first published in Spanish 1989), p. 207.
[22] Rodrigo Acuña, “The Real September 11”, New Matilda, September 12, 2007.
[23] Nikolas Kozloff, Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008), p. 10, 169-70.
[24] Acuña, “The Real September 11”.