Socialist Organiser

The weekly of the fused Workers Socialist League, July 1981 to April 1984

Fight thie

Socialist Organiser no. 137, 23 June 1983 · scan p. 1 · about 584 words

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NAMON MOAN AT TO CONDO! NITO have been circulating duplicated In response to this a further, documents advocating radical 900 strikers, as Pinochet bluntly clandestine, meeting of the alternative policies including a Danoraftho Corialict terror is losing its grip threatened to imprison trade union leaders.

we are goug w give new vinn thom what all of you are asking for -a heavy hand". . And he warned political leaders, "Politicians, sirs, go away from here, we do not want you any more"

As the copper workers stood firm, Pinochet put two mines under military control, and threatened to exile union leaders in the remote north of the country. The ten-year ban on political activity was re-emphasised by interior minister General Montero, as police rounded up more conner workers' leaders. and loadore of tha conatmintion Workers National Command met and called for an all-out indefinite general strike from Thursday June 23.

As a further body blow to Pinochet, the announcement of the strike call was made by Adolfo Quinteros, president of the confederation of truck owners, which had once been a base of Pinochet's support. - Quinteros was promptly arrested - but this alliance between the truck owners and the militant workers is a symptom of the isolation of Pinochet's regime from the mass middle class support which it once mobilised in the overthrow of Salvador Allende's 'Popular Unity' government.

The June 11 day of protest had produced surprising levels of support from the well-to-do as well as the working class districts of the Chilean cities. Pinochet's disastrous monetarist economic policies, bringing 30% unemployment, the collapse of Chilean banks, and a 20% drop industrial production last year, have alienated the wealthy landowners and the industrial capitalists as well as the working class.

Chile's economic plight rules out the kind of economic concessions to the workers which defused mass strikes in Brazil in 1978-9. The options are limited.= Within the ranks of the armed forces grouns of voung officers break from the IMF and a moratorium on debt payments -which could only be implemented through the removal of Pinochet.

With the General formally installed in office until 1989, and no. established political structure to fall back upon, there are few safety valves available if the general strike proves solid, and succeeds in breaking down the barriers of fear which have held back wider opposition, sections of the armed forces may see a pre-emptive coup and a switch of policies as the only way to head off a pent-up explosion of potentially revolutionary dimensions.

Pinochet, on the other hand, appears to be looking to a combination of brutal repression with political confusion as the means to stem the tide of revolt.

Swallowing earlier arrogant words, he has announced that 120 leading Christian Democratic politicians are now free to return to Chile:

The massive resurgence of working class struggle in Chile, however, cries out for the development of a revolutionary leadership politically independent of the Christian Democrats - who welcomed Pinochet's 1973 coup - and committed to secure the rights of Chile's workers and peasants through the overthrow of capitalism.

The Thatcher government in Britain is eagerly courting Pinochet's junta as part of its deve. lopment of 'Fortress Falklands' Admiral Montero, head of the Chilean navy and a member of the junta, is making an official visit this week.

The workers' movement must mobilise the fullest possible solidarity with the Chilean workers - through an immediate boycott of Chilean trade, and espe cially of military supplies Pinochet.

← Contents of Socialist Organiser no. 137

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