[The following article was published in the August 30-September 7 issue of Avanzada Socialista, weekly newspaper of the Argentine Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores (PST- Socialist Workers party), just prior to the Chilean military coup that overthrew the Popular Unity regime of Salvador Allende. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
The workers are all wondering if what Chile has is socialism. This is a regime of tremendous political instability, in which the masses have been exposed for three years to the danger of a reactionary coup of the worst kind, capable of sweeping away with a stroke of the pen the colossal but fragile gains won under the Allende government; this is a regime in which the masses appear to be at the mercy of the "legalistic" goodwill of the military, for they lack powerful political and defense organizations of their own.
This is a regime in which the bourgeoisie retains ownership of most of the factories and means of distribution and through them continues to exploit the workers. This is a regime in which the military forcibly ejects the most combative workers and starving peasants from the factories and lands that they have occupied, a regime that subjects the masses to hardships comparable to those of previous oligarchic and imperialist governments. This is a regime in which the parliament, the supreme court, and key administrative posts are in the hands of the bourgeoisie and in which an oligarchical-imperialist constitution remains in force. Is this regime socialist?
Myth of the 'Chilean Way'
The bourgeoisie and imperialism on the one hand, and the reformist coalition of the ruling Unidad Popular [Popular Unity] on the other, both agree that the regime is socialist. The bourgeoisie does this in order to cast socialism and Marxism in a bad light; the reformists, and especially the Com- October 1, 1973
munist party —the main force in the government-do so in order to show the validity of their theory of a peaceful road to socialism, by stages —a "Chilean way."
We must categorically deny this view, which only sows confusion. What defines socialism is political power in the hands of the masseswhereby the bourgeois army is disarmed and the workers are armed; and economic power also in the hands and under the control of the masses - whereby the sources of wealth and the means of distribution are expropriated and the economy as a whole planned. At the head of these accomplishments must be a workers and people's or peasants government, supported by the big mass organizations (like the soviets in Russia) through which the workers exercise power, by means of a direct democracy that is much superior to that of a bourgeois parliamentary system.
This is not what is occurring in Chile. True, the masses have taken enormous strides forward, forcing the reactionary and military forces three years ago to accept a program of nationalizations, partial expropriations, social improvements, and democratic concessions. With the development of the cordones industriales [bodies of representatives of workers in a particular industrial area], it is possible that there are incipient forms of organizations similar to the soviets in Russia. And there are minority revolutionary movements that are calling for arming the masses and have begun to carry out political propaganda among the soldiers. But these economic and political advances are being held back by the Unidad Popular government itself, which emphatically says that "the masses must not be armed."
Example of a Revolutio: ary Leadership
There was a stage following the 1917 socialist revolution in Russia during which the situation became desperate. The country was devastated by civil war, and hunger reached intolerable dimensions. At that point Lenin, in order to get economic development going, proposed making certain concessions to the bourgeoisie.
He spoke to the workers and explained that the New Economic Policy was a necessary evil, full of dangers, that involved taking one step backwards in order to be able later to take two steps forwards, and that at that point more than ever the workers soviets had to be kept on a struggle footing. Lenin made all these warnings at a time when the tsarist army had been disarmed and the proletariat armed, when the old tsarist state apparatus had been completely dismantled and replaced by a new workers state, and when the masses were organized on a large scale into armed soviets!
Just compare the words of the great Russian revolutionist with the confusion-ridden frauds of the Chilean reformists!
While Lenin said that "the only guarantee of the revolution is the worker with a rifle in his hands," the Chilean Communist party says that "the interests of the developing revolutionary process are not in conflict with the existence of professional armed forces in our country that operate on the basis of the constitution."* This is the pretext the reformists use not to arm the masses by carrying out Leninist work in the armed forces. And not only this, but they also call on the military outright to co-govern.
Even in Absence of a Workers and Socialist Government, Defend Allende Against a Reactionary Coup
Neither the guns of the reactionary forces, nor the exploitative and
*Manifesto of the Central Committee of the Chilean Communist party, August 12, 1973, published in the daily El Siglo. The CP's policy of calling on the masses to place faith in the army is characteristic of the Communists not only in Chile. During the Torres period in Bolivia they did the same thing with regard to the Bolivian army, and now they are also doing it in Peru. This flows directly from a reformist policy of the CP, and not from any special characteristics of the Chilean military.
hunger-producing bourgeoisie; and neither imperialism, which plunders Chile, nor the reformists, who waver from one side to the other, are following any "Chilean way." The former speak the universal language of counterrevolution, while the reformists mumble the equally universal language, called Menshevism in Russia, that leads toward turning the masses, unarmed and defenseless, over to the counterrevolution.
Socialism will be achieved in Chile; of that there need be no doubt. But it will be arrived at, not through this "Chilean way" of the modern Mensheviks, but through the universal language of revolution, by breaking up the armed forces of the reactionaries, by expropriating the oligarchy, imperialism, and all the exploiters, by planning the economy under the direct control of the workers, and by relying for support on the "worker with the rifle in his hands."
This does not mean that we now join the bourgeois reactionary, and fascist organizations that, starting by overturning the government, hope to crush the masses.
As long as the workers, while developing their own independent organizations (among which the main one is a revolutionary party like that of Lenin and Trotsky), are not able to overcome the reformist government and impose a workers and peasants government, it is obligatory to defend the reformist government of Allende against a reactionary and fascist coup. For while it is possible for the forces of reaction to destroy reformism, it is not yet possible for the revolution to do so.
mediate payment of salaries; recog nition of the provisional committee and the affiliation with SMATA; and guarantees that there would be no reprisals by the bosses. Eighty hostages were held inside the plant, among them executives and members of the board of directors.
The entire automobile workers movement in Córdoba, the students, and the organizations of the revolutionary left mobilized in support of the Concord workers. What follows is a chronicle of the occupation and of this moving expression of solidarity.
First Day of Occupation
All the SMATA factories are abandoned at 2:00 p.m. and 6:00p.m.; Grandes Motores Diesel [GMD - Big Diesel Engines], which is a subsidiary of Fiat, does not even begin work because of the failure to meet the payroll. There are work stoppages in the automobile outlets. In the afternoon, the sixty companeros of the Delegate Corps at IKA (Santa Isabel) quit work and come to Concord.
At 7:00 p.m., two minibusloads of students arrive. A delegation of the PST and the JSA [Juventud Socialista de Avanzada - Vanguard Socialist Youth] also arrives at Concord with banners and placards. The Perkins workers on both shifts quit work; the afternoon shift arrives at the Concord gates with a big sign that says "Perkins Is Here." They receive the biggest applause from the Concord workers.
Second Day of Occupation
Early in the morning the police put up a barrier of armored cars and patrol cars and prevent anyone from getting near the plant. Relatives who bring food cannot get through. At 10:00 our vice-presidential candidate, Compañero Páez, arrives and is arrested by the police. Compañero Gregorio Flores vigorously denounces this act of repression over a megaphone.
At noon, 300 workers from Perkins march on Concord. Pressure begins to be exerted on the police, with some hand-to-hand struggling taking place. One officer says, "One has to know how to lose," and shoots his tear gas pistol from an armored car. It is a signal for a retreat. The barrier has been penetrated. Everyone rushes toward the factory fence and gates.
The SMATA Delegate Corps again decides to stage a two-hour work stoppage per shift that is to be observed in all the plants. Within the student movement, the Juventud Socialista de Avanzada stands out as an agitator for solidarity actions with Concord.
It is August 22. The CGT has called a meeting in honor of the Trelew martyrs. Our party and youth group, Socialist Groups, the Revolutionary Socialists, Acción Proletaria Proletarian Action), and rank-and-file sectors of the Peronist movement attempt to link the meeting to solidarity with Concord. First there is a march on the legislative building, and from there it proceeds to Concord. It is led by the PST and the JSA. Upon reaching Plaza Velez Sarsfield, more than twenty minibuses are "taken" and, filled to capacity, they leave for
Ferreyra. Once again, faced with the assault of 1,500 compañeros, the police pull back in disorganized fashion and retreat. Chants resound: "Let's get rid of the union bureaucracy" and "SMATA, right on; hit Rucci hard."
Minutes earlier, Compañero Páez had arrived at Concord after just being released; at the request of the workers, he speaks. When the demonstration arrives, he welcomes it on behalf of the compañeros of the Concord October 1, 1973
Commission. The first thing he does is pay homage to those who died at Trelew.
Next a compañero from the Commission speaks. He expresses thanks for the solidarity, joins in paying respects for Trelew, and denounces Governor] Atilio López, who is proposing negotiations on the basis of firing twenty militants named by the bosses and ending the occupation. Then, Salamanca, general secretary of SMATA, says: "Atilio López and Tosco [head ndi
PAEZ: Arrested during August take-over of Fiat plant in Cordoba.