The Allende Government’s Attempt to Achieve Major Transformations in Chile: Lessons from Hope and Failure

Abstract

This chapter tells one of Latin America’s unique stories: the purpose of President Salvador Allende’s government to achieve important economic and social transformations in democracy. During the Cold War, while the USA and the USSR were confronting each other in every corner of the globe, the project that was called “a transition to socialism in democracy” was taken on with great hope in Chile and closely observed by many countries of the world, especially in Europe. Even today, many continue to ask the pressing question, if that experience was feasible or was it condemned to fail. The real questions are as follows: Which and how many changes can a government implement within the frame of democratic procedures and institutions? How much flexibility did our political system had to absorb major shifts in people’s participation and economic reforms?

Appendices

Annex 1

Extracts from the Popular Unity Government Program

What Has Failed in Chile Is the System

It is a system which does not correspond to present-day requirements. Chile is a capitalist country, dependent on the imperialist nations and dominated by bourgeois groups who are structurally related to foreign capital and who cannot resolve the country’s fundamental problems—problems which are clearly the result of class privilege which will never be given up voluntarily. A large number of Chileans are underfed. According to official statistics, 50% of children under 15 years of age are undernourished. This affects their growth and limits their learning capacity. This shows that the economy in general and the agricultural system in particular are incapable of feeding Chile’s population in spite of the fact that Chile could support a population of 30 million people right now—that is, three times the present population.

The Strengthening of Democracy and Working Class Progress

The Popular government will guarantee the exercise of democratic rights and will respect the social and individual liberties of all sectors of the population. The freedom of worship, speech, press, and assembly, the inviolability of the home, and the right to unionize will be made effective, removing the present obstacles put up by the dominant classes to limit them.

In order to put this into practice, the unions and social organizations formed by manual workers, white collar workers, peasants and rural workers, shanty town dwellers and inhabitants of low-income neighborhoods, housewives, students, professional people, intellectuals, craftsmen, small and medium businessmen, and other groups of workers will be called upon to participate in government decision-making at the relevant level. For example, in the social security institutions, we will establish a system of management by the contributors themselves, ensuring that the government bodies are elected democratically and by secret ballot. As for firms in the public sector, their governing committees and production committees must include direct representation of manual and white collar workers.

The Construction of the New Economy

The central policy objective of the united popular forces will be the search for a replacement for the present economic structure, doing away with the power of foreign and national monopoly capital and of the latifundio in order to initiate the construction of socialism.

The process of transformation in our economy will begin with the application of a policy intended to create a dominant state sector, comprising those firms already owned by the state and the business which are to be expropriated. As a first step, we shall nationalize those basic resources like large-scale copper, iron, and nitrate mines and others which are controlled by foreign capital and national monopolies. These nationalized sectors will thus be comprised of the following:

• 1. Large-scale copper, nitrate, iodine, iron, and coal mines

• 2. The country’s financial system, especially private banks and insurance companies

• 3. Foreign trade

• 4. Large distribution firms and monopolies

• 5. Strategic industrial monopolies

In carrying out these expropriations, the interests of small shareholders will be fully safeguarded.

Intensification and Extension of the Agrarian Reform

In our view, the agrarian reform process should be complementary to, and simultaneous with, the overall transformation which we wish to promote in the country’s social, political, and economic structure, such that its implementation is inseparable from the rest of our overall policy. Existing experience in this matter has shown up gaps and inconsistencies which suggest a reformulation of the policy for the distribution and organization of land ownership on the basis of the following guidelines:

• 1. Acceleration of the agrarian reform process, expropriating the holdings which exceed the established maximum size according to the characteristics of the different regions, including orchards, vineyards, and forests, without giving the landowner the priority right to select the area to be retained by him.

• 2. The immediate cultivation of abandoned and badly exploited state lands.

• 3. Expropriated land will be organized preferably on the basis of cooperative forms of ownership. The peasants will be given titles, which confirm individual ownership of the house and garden allocated to them, and the corresponding rights over the indivisible land of the cooperative as long as they continue to be members. When the circumstances warrant it, land may be allocated to individual peasants, with the organization of work and marketing being promoted on the basis of mutual cooperation. In addition, lands will be allocated to create state agricultural enterprises using modern technology.

• 4. Minifundia properties will be reorganized by means of progressively cooperative forms of agricultural work. Small and medium peasants will be given access to the advantages and services provided by the cooperatives operating in their geographical area.

• 5. The defense of the indigenous Indian communities which are threatened with usurpation of their land will be ensured, as will be the democratic conduct of these communities and the provision of sufficient land and appropriate technical assistance and credit to the Mapuche people and other indigenous groups.

The Popular Unity Government Foreign Policy

The assertion of full political and economic autonomy for Chile.

The establishment of diplomatic relations with all countries, irrespective of their ideological and political position, on the basis of respect for self-determination and in the interests of the Chilean people.

Ties of friendship and solidarity will unite Chile with dependent or colonized countries, especially those who are fighting for their liberation and independence.

The promotion of strong inter-American and anti-imperialist sentiments based on foreign policies which are the expression of entire nations rather than on policies formulated solely by foreign ministries.

Efforts by nations to achieve or maintain self-determination will be given decided support by the new government as a basic condition for the existence of international peace and understanding. As a consequence, our policy will be one of alertness and action in defense of the principle of nonintervention, and we shall resist any attempt by the imperialist nations to discriminate, pressure, invade, or blockade. We shall reinforce our relationships, trade, and cultural exchanges and friendship with socialist countries.

Annex 2

First 40 Measures of the Popular Unity Program

• 1. An End to Enormous Salaries! We shall put a limit on the high salaries earned by those appointed directly by the President. We shall not allow people to hold simultaneously various paid posts such as advisory posts, directorships, and representatives.

  We shall do away with administrative promoters and political mongers who use their official positions to promote their own ends and the interests of their friends and business and political acquaintances.

• 2. More Advisors? No! All civil servants will belong to the normal staff grades, and none will be exempted from the administrative statute’s conditions. We will not have any more advisors in Chile.

• 3. Honest Administration. We shall put an end to favoritism and grade jumping in the public administration. It will not be possible to remove civil servants from their posts without due cause. Nobody will be persecuted for his or her political or religious beliefs. We shall ensure the efficiency and honesty of government officials and the civil treatment of the public.

• 4. No More Unnecessary Foreign Trips. Foreign journeys by government officials will not be allowed, except for those that are necessary in Chile’s interests.

• 5. No More Use of Government Cars for Pleasure. Under no circumstances will the government’s cars be used for private purposes. Those vehicles, which are available, will be used in the service of the public: for transporting school children, for transporting people requiring medical attention from low-income housing districts, or for police duties.

• 6. The Civil Service Will Not Enrich Its Employees. We shall establish strict control over the incomes and property of high-level public officials. The government will no longer allow public officials to use their position to enrich themselves.

• 7. Fair Pensions. We must put a stop to millionaire-level pensions whether they be for parliamentarians or any other public or private group, using the resources to improve pensions at the lower end of the scale.

• 8. Fair and Timely Retirement. We will give retirement rights to all people over 60 years of age who have been unable to retire because their contributions have not been paid.

• 9. Social Security for Everyone. We shall incorporate into the Social Security System all people in small- and medium-scale commerce, industry, and farming and independent workers, artisans, fishermen, small-scale miners, and housewives.

• 10. Immediate and Full Payment of Pensions and Benefits. We shall finally pay the increases in pensions due to retired members of the Armed Forces, and we shall arrange for the proper and due payment of retirement pensions and widow’s pensions under the Social Security System.

• 11. Protection of the Family. We shall set up a ministry for the protection of the family.

• 12. Equal Family Allowances. All family allowances will in the future be fixed at the same level.

• 13. Children Are Born to Be Happy! We shall provide free education, books, materials, exercise books, etc., for all children throughout the basic level.

• 14. Better Meals for Children. We will provide breakfast for all children in the basic level and lunch for those children whose parents cannot provide it.

• 15. Milk for All Chilean Children. We guarantee a daily ration of half a liter of milk to all Chilean children.

• 16. Family Welfare Clinics in All Poor Areas. We shall set up family welfare clinics in all working class neighborhoods, slums, and squatter settlements.

• 17. Real Holidays for All Chilean Students. The best pupils selected from the basic educational level throughout the country will be invited to the Presidential Palace at Vina del Mar.

• 18. Control of Alcoholism. We shall overcome alcoholism, by providing possibilities for a better life and not by repressive means. We shall stop abuse of the drinking laws and licensing regulations.

• 19. Housing, Lighting, and Drinking Water for All Chileans. We shall undertake an emergency plan for the rapid building of houses. In addition, we shall ensure the provision of drinking water and electric lighting in every block.

• 20. No More Readjustable “CORVI” Payments. CORVI, the Housing Corporation’s dividends, and the loan repayments it receives will no longer be readjusted in line with rising prices.

• 21. Fixed Price Rents. We shall fix rents at an amount corresponding to 10% of family income as a maximum. Key rights will be abolished immediately.

• 22. Vacant Sites, No! Housing, Yes! We shall build on all disused public, semipublic, and municipal sites.

• 23. Property Taxes on Mansions Only. We shall free from the payment of property taxes the owners of dwellings with a surface below 80 square meters as long as the owner lives there permanently and the house is neither a luxury house nor a beach villa.

• 24. A Real Agrarian Reform. We shall intensify agrarian reform, which will also benefit medium- and small-scale farmers, minifundia holders, sharecroppers, employees, and temporary rural laborers.

• 25. Medical Attention Without Bureaucracy. We shall eliminate all the bureaucratic and administrative obstacles, which hinder or make difficult the provision of medical attention to contributors and unemployed people.

• 26. Free Medical Attention in Hospitals. We shall abolish payment for medicines and examinations in hospitals.

• 27. No More Artificially High Prices for Medicines. We shall drastically reduce the price of medicines by lowering the import duties and taxes on the raw materials.

• 28. Scholarships for Students. We shall establish the right of all good students to obtain a scholarship for the basic and middle school levels and university education, taking into account performance and the family’s economic resources.

• 29. Physical Education and Popular Tourism and Holidays. We shall promote physical education, and we shall establish sports fields in schools and all neighborhoods. Every school and low-income urban or rural housing district will have a sports field. We shall organize and promote low-income tourism and holidays.

• 30. A New Economy to Put an End to Inflation. We shall increase the production of items of popular consumption. We shall control prices and prevent inflation by immediately setting up the new economic structure.

• 31. No More Links with the International Monetary Fund. We shall renege the commitments with the International Monetary Fund. We shall put an end to the continual shameful devaluation of the escudo.

• 32. No More Taxes on Food. We shall stop increases in taxes, which affect basic food necessities.

• 33. Abolition of the Sales Tax. We shall abolish the sales tax and replace it by another more just and expedite tax system.

• 34. No More Speculation. We shall severely penalize economic crimes.

• 35. No More Unemployment. We shall ensure the right of all Chileans to work, and we shall prevent unjustified dismissals.

• 36. Work for All Chileans. We shall immediately create new sources of employment by implementing plans for public works and house building, by setting up new industries, and by carrying out development projects.

• 37. The Riot Police Unit Will Be Disbanded. We shall ensure law and order in lower- and middle-class residential areas and the protection of the individual. The police and detectives will be restricted to crime prevention duties. We shall disband the Riot Police Unit incorporating its members into the normal duties of police vigilance against delinquency.

• 38. An End to Class Justice. We shall set up a rapid and free legal procedure, in which the neighborhood committees will cooperate, to examine and resolve special cases such as quarrels, ruffianism, abandonment of the home, and acts that disturb the community.

• 39. Legal Advice Bodies in All Neighborhoods. We shall set up legal advice bodies in all low-income neighborhoods and districts.

• 40. The Creation of a National Institute of Art and Culture. We shall create a National Institute of Art and Culture and schools for training in the arts in all districts.

Robinson Rojas Archive: http://www.rrojasdatabank.info/chile1.htm