Santiago
MAY 4 - During the past two weeks, Santiago and other cities have been the scene of street demonstrations that reflect the sharpening social and political tensions in Chile.
Daily, the right wing brought hundreds of secondary-school students into the streets to demonstrate against the government's proposed educational reform, the Escuela Nacional Unificada [ENU - Unified National Education]. Behind the students followed shock troops of the right. They stoned buildings, such as the offices of the leftist dailies Puro Chile and Ultima Hora, the headquarters of the Socialist party, the home of left-wing legislator Mireya Baltra, and finally the governmental palace. The street demonstrations were combined with student strikes.
Public Works employees took over the offices of that ministry, and highways were blocked in support actions. Their struggle is around economic demands, but it also has important political ramifications. In response to the accusation by Allende and such reformist sectors as the Communist party that the strike action was inspired by right-wing sentiments, the president of the National Association of Workers in the Ministry of Public Works, Alberto Gálvez, made some strong statements: "Let there not be the least doubt that if the president calls us, we will go over the heads of not only the congress and El Mercurio [a right-wing newspaper], but also of the Contraloría (federal control office], the courts, and the armed forces. Even though we reach a state of civil war, the workers will not be held back by these reactionary institutions. ... Our movement has arisen out of the workers' need to increase their income, given the fact that Public Works is one of the most neglected sectors."
He stated that between 50 and 60 percent of the Public Works budget goes to private contractors, who are 620
doing a fantastic business at the expense of the workers.
In addition, he denounced the bureaucracy: "It is the managers who enjoy a kind of all-embracing authority. A government of the workers must be based on the power of the masses. We demand not only a raise in wages, but also that the power of the people be exercised from the bottom up and that decisions affecting the ministry be taken by the ranks."
He added that the workers are demanding that the Social Area [staterun sector of the economy] be expanded, that private contracting be eliminated, that the workers have the right to supervise the managers and remove them, and that there be an end to the payment of incorrect wages. Finally, he said that if the necessary funds are lacking, payment should be stopped on the foreign debt, and on the stocks of private companies and state-run industries. "If this is done, there will be enough money to pay the workers," he said, speaking for the 30,000 workers he represents.
After several days of continuous right-wing demonstrations, leftist students decided to counteract them by also taking to the streets. In Santiago, they held a meeting in Caupolicán theater to discuss the problem of the ENU. Upon leaving the meeting to stage a demonstration, they had to confront the right-wing bands that were operating in the central part of the city. Similar clashes also occurred in other cities; the rightists, who up to that point had been operating with impunity, saw their path blocked.
On June 27, the CUT [Central Unica de Trabajadores- Workers Central Union] called a workers demonstration in support of the government. As one of the branches of the march was moving through downtown Santiago, it was attacked by gunfire from the headquarters of the Christian Democratic party. The result was several workers wounded and one killed. The dead man was José Ricardo Ahumada, a construction worker and member of the Communist party. The police charged the workers. At a rally shortly afterward, Allende made a speech in which he attempted to pacify the workers.
The funeral was held on April 30. It drew an impressive hour-and-a-half parade of 150,000 persons in a repudiation of faseism. Together with the tepid, reformist slogans of the CP could be heard others, chanted by the revolutionary left: "Create, create people's power," "Create, create, a popular militia," and "Workers to power."
The left staged another gathering on May Day, although this time the turnout was smaller - around 80,000. The explanation for the difference in size lies in the fact that the funeral was an outraged rejection of fascism, whereas on May 1 the workers were to be treated to the reformist talk of Jorge Godoy, president of the CUT, and Salvador Allende. Both the Communist leader and the president of the republic appealed for calm and passivity, and even went so far as to make more or less veiled attacks on the workers vanguard and the revolutionary left. In spite of this, militant slogans were still in evidence, occasionally chanted in direct response to the reformist ideas that were being aired. A demagogic reference to Cuba and Vietnam, for example, prompted the chant "Move forward without compromising, as in Cuba and Vietnam."
The reformist point of view was represented essentially by the CP. The revolutionary left consisted of the left wing of the Socialist party, the MIR [Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria - Movement of the Revolutionary Left, and, on a lesser scale, the left MAPU [Movimiento de Acción Popular Unitaria - Movement for United Popular Action] and the Partido Socialista Revolucionario [PSR— Revolutionary Socialist partyl, Chilean section of the Fourth International.
It is worth nothing that after a long absence, the Trotskyist movement is again making its presence known at the May Day demonstrations this year. It took part in the demonstrations in Santiago and Valparaiso. Its banners — the only ones in the Santiago meeting-carried slogans like "Workers Control," "Nationalize the Banks," "Workers Militias," and "Workers Government." A few incidents occurred between reformists and revolutionists during the meeting, but nothing serious.
Tensions are continuing to mount, with reports of clashes between fascist bands and squatters or workers. Santiago is currently affected by an urban transport strike, and although this one is qualitatively different from the bosses' strike last October - this time it is the workers themselves who are paralyzing transportation in support of their demand for higher wages -the interference of the right wing in the present strike cannot be denied.
And while the dynamism of the fascist bands has led to an intensification of activity by the revolutionary left, the serious organizational weaknesses of the working class nevertheless remain.
At first, a GIS member, speaking for all the groups and a number of individuals as well, said that "if indictments must come down, let them indiet us all." The GIS members declared that the Grenoble center had performed about 500 abortions, all of them free, since it was founded.