By Nikos Mottas
There is another September 11, one that communists, socialists and progressive people around the world remember for very different reasons from the date that dominates mainstream Western political memory. On 11 September 1973, in Santiago de Chile, a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, with the active support of the United States, overthrew the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende.
President Allende died heroically while defending the presidential palace. In the years that followed, tens of thousands of people were imprisoned, tortured or persecuted, while more than 3,000 were killed or forcibly disappeared. Thousands were arrested. The popular singer-songwriter Víctor Jara was tortured and murdered only days after the coup, while the notorious Caravan of Death carried out dozens of political executions across the country. The Pinochet dictatorship was ruthless and brutal.
More than half a century later, the Chilean coup remains one of the clearest historical examples of how far imperialism and the bourgeoisie are prepared to go when their class interests and political power are threatened. Its lessons acquire renewed significance today, at a time when the United States is once again openly reinforcing its political, military and economic presence throughout Latin America, seeking to secure markets, strategic resources, alliances and geopolitical influence across the continent. The experience of 1973 therefore cannot be treated merely as a dark chapter of the past. It belongs directly to the political struggles of the present.
We will not dwell here on the criminal role of the United States and the CIA in the overthrow of Allende’s democratically elected government. This has been extensively documented. The more important issue is what Chile teaches us about the so-called “peaceful transition” to socialism or, in other words, the “democratic” and parliamentary road to socialism.
The experience of Chile tragically confirmed the basic lesson of the Paris Commune, which Marx and Engels pointed out in the preface to the 1872 German edition of the Communist Manifesto: “the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes”. As V. I. Lenin stressed in The State and Revolution, the working class must “break up, smash the ‘ready-made state machinery,’ and not confine itself merely to laying hold of it”. In place of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the working class must establish its own state power: the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The anniversary of the violent 1973 coup in Chile is therefore an opportunity to reflect once again on crucial questions confronting the revolutionary movement. Marxist-Leninist theory and historical experience have already provided answers to these questions: the character of the state and political power, the attitude towards social democracy, the road to socialism and the necessity of revolutionary rupture.
The Chilean experience provides a particularly clear lesson about the so-called “peaceful transition” to socialism. It stands as a warning against the opportunist myths promoted by various petty-bourgeois currents, from Eurocommunism to the so-called “Socialism of the 21st century.”
In the era of imperialism, socialism cannot be achieved through “democratic and progressive reforms.” Socialism cannot be reached through the parliamentary mechanisms of bourgeois democracy. Throughout the twentieth century, the international communist movement was repeatedly trapped by opportunist illusions concerning a supposedly “democratic road to socialism.”
The experience of the Communist Party of Chile, which sought a peaceful and parliamentary transformation of the bourgeois order, remains a tragic but valuable lesson. The bourgeois state does not cease to be a bourgeois state because communists or left-wing forces participate in its institutions. Its army, police, judiciary, bureaucracy and repressive mechanisms remain instruments of class power. Chile demonstrated this with blood.
More than half a century after the coup, we honour the workers, communists, militants and ordinary people who gave their lives defending the Popular Unity government. We honour President Salvador Allende. But commemoration alone is not enough. The task is also to draw the political conclusions that remain indispensable for the struggles ahead.
Chile teaches us that the bourgeois state does not become neutral because a left government wins elections. It does not cease to defend capitalist power because socialist forces enter parliament. And imperialism does not abandon its interests because a government has received a democratic mandate.
The ruling class has never surrendered its power voluntarily. That lesson of the other September 11 remains as relevant today as it was in 1973.
More than half a century later, the Chilean coup remains one of the clearest historical examples of how far imperialism and the bourgeoisie are prepared to go when their class interests and political power are threatened. Its lessons acquire renewed significance today, at a time when the United States is once again openly reinforcing its political, military and economic presence throughout Latin America, seeking to secure markets, strategic resources, alliances and geopolitical influence across the continent. The experience of 1973 therefore cannot be treated merely as a dark chapter of the past. It belongs directly to the political struggles of the present.
We will not dwell here on the criminal role of the United States and the CIA in the overthrow of Allende’s democratically elected government. This has been extensively documented. The more important issue is what Chile teaches us about the so-called “peaceful transition” to socialism or, in other words, the “democratic” and parliamentary road to socialism.
The experience of Chile tragically confirmed the basic lesson of the Paris Commune, which Marx and Engels pointed out in the preface to the 1872 German edition of the Communist Manifesto: “the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes”. As V. I. Lenin stressed in The State and Revolution, the working class must “break up, smash the ‘ready-made state machinery,’ and not confine itself merely to laying hold of it”. In place of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the working class must establish its own state power: the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The anniversary of the violent 1973 coup in Chile is therefore an opportunity to reflect once again on crucial questions confronting the revolutionary movement. Marxist-Leninist theory and historical experience have already provided answers to these questions: the character of the state and political power, the attitude towards social democracy, the road to socialism and the necessity of revolutionary rupture.
The Chilean experience provides a particularly clear lesson about the so-called “peaceful transition” to socialism. It stands as a warning against the opportunist myths promoted by various petty-bourgeois currents, from Eurocommunism to the so-called “Socialism of the 21st century.”
In the era of imperialism, socialism cannot be achieved through “democratic and progressive reforms.” Socialism cannot be reached through the parliamentary mechanisms of bourgeois democracy. Throughout the twentieth century, the international communist movement was repeatedly trapped by opportunist illusions concerning a supposedly “democratic road to socialism.”
The experience of the Communist Party of Chile, which sought a peaceful and parliamentary transformation of the bourgeois order, remains a tragic but valuable lesson. The bourgeois state does not cease to be a bourgeois state because communists or left-wing forces participate in its institutions. Its army, police, judiciary, bureaucracy and repressive mechanisms remain instruments of class power. Chile demonstrated this with blood.
More than half a century after the coup, we honour the workers, communists, militants and ordinary people who gave their lives defending the Popular Unity government. We honour President Salvador Allende. But commemoration alone is not enough. The task is also to draw the political conclusions that remain indispensable for the struggles ahead.
Chile teaches us that the bourgeois state does not become neutral because a left government wins elections. It does not cease to defend capitalist power because socialist forces enter parliament. And imperialism does not abandon its interests because a government has received a democratic mandate.
The ruling class has never surrendered its power voluntarily. That lesson of the other September 11 remains as relevant today as it was in 1973.
* Nikos Mottas is the Editor-in-Chief of In Defense of Communism.