Santiago
On June 29 desperate sectors of the right attempted a coup d'etat here.
In view of the gravity of the situation, the CUT [Central Unica de Trabajadores - Workers Central Union] found itself forced to call for seizing the factories as a preventive measure.
The working class carried this out. In the face of the rapid response by the workers, many of the plotters stayed under cover and the putsch was quickly put down.
Many workers took advantage of the occasion to demand that their places of work be added to the nationalized sector.
Another important consequence of this attitude on the part of the workers was the strengthening and partial arming of their defense committees.
The workers guarded their places of work day and night. Some factories have already been intervened, and not a day passes without at least another one being taken over.
There are very interesting cases such as the Luccetti noodle factory and the Loncoleche powdered milk plant in the Vicuña Mackenna Cordón. They were seized while the tanks were at the gates of La Moneda [the presidential palace]. The cordón strongly supported these take-overs, consi ering that these plants were essential to popular consumption. Now the distribution of their products is controlled by the workers, fundamentally by the cordón's distribution body as well as the one of the homeless people's association. Thus the cordón has won its demand that the interventors of both factories be persons in whom it has confidence.
The case of the Vinex factory is also very important, but for another reason. The workers had already taken it over before June 29. They demanded that the manager of this state-owned factory be fired. The majority of the workers as well as the trade-union leaders belong to the same party as the manager-the Socialist party.
Faced with government procrastination in solving the problem of the Vinex factory, the cordón decided to appoint the interventor itself, naming one of the employees of the plant, who was nominated by the trade union and approved by the rank and file. This is the first case in which the cordón has assumed this kind of responsibility, and with the help of the cordón the Vinex factory has started to sell the wine it produces.
In the Cerrillos Cordón many takeovers are also being carried out and the organization of defense committees is moving ahead steadily. The factories in the vanguard of this cordón are Textil Artela and Cristalerias Toro. Because of the scarcity of glassware, the latter is considered strategic. And Textil Artela, which is on strike, wants the factory confiscated by the state and put under the direct administration of the workers. The comando revolucionario de huelga [revolutionary strike committee], which was formed to lead the union in the conflict, is in agreement with this.
By comparison with the other cordones, the Cerrillos Cordón has the advantage of being closely linked to the peasant organization in the area.
In the other cordones in Santiago we have also seen the same agitation, as in Panamericana Norte and Macul, where factory seizures have become the order of the day recently.
Another combative sector is the hospital workers, who during the days when the curfew was in force held all the hospitals and were ready to treat the compañeros who fell wounded.
I should also note the seizure of ENDESA [Empresa Nacional de Electricidad _ National Plectricity Comna. tricidad - National Electricity Company), which controls the distribution of electricity to Santiago and Valparaiso.
In the rest of the country, similar things are happening, although to a lesser degree, as in Concepción and Valparaiso, for example.
The right began to send up a cry of alarm over the first seizures and the setting up of the first defense committees, and, although they are continuing to do so, their tone of protest has begun to drop to a lower register.
The armed forces, especially the navy and the air force, have begun to carry out raids, looking for alleged arsenals. Sometimes they find arms; other times not.
The parties of the revolutionary left, including the left wing of the SP, have stepped up their campaign aimed at the ranks of the armed forces and are trying to strengthen popular power.
The tension has dropped in Chile but the present "calm" is very relative. It is expected that the right will attempt another coup. The sectors of the right that favor a "constitutional" solution are constantly shrinking.
On the other hand, the situation of the UP leadership becomes more difficult every day. Because of the coup, it had to appeal to the masses. Allende called on the workers to come with "what they had," just as CUT called for taking over factories as a preventive measure and alerted the defense committees.
Although, in his speech on the afternoon of the coup, the president gave credit for crushing the uprising to the 986
armed forces, the generals did not want to enter the cabinet unless Allende promised first to clear out the factories and other things like that. In these conditions, an acceptance by Allende would have meant a complete surrender to the right and a break with the masses, who are far from being beaten and are more than ever demanding new advances. The new cabinet is almost the same as the last. This doesn't mean that the government isn't still looking for a deal, but this is becoming more and more difficult.
Popular power is growing and the confrontation is coming ever closer.