- by Graham Holton
- The Guardian
- Issue #2208
Coup of 11 September 1973. Bombing of La Moneda (presidential palace). Photo: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile – wikimedia.org (CC BY 3.0 CL)
The commemoration of the victims of the 11 September Coup in Chile has been marred by state violence. The important day commemorates the violent overthrow of the elected government of President Salvador Allende by General Augusto Pinochet.
Pinochet’s military dictatorship ruled Chile from 1973 until 1990. The military took over the direct control of the Chilean state and the country’s economic structure. Under the dictatorship, more than 3,200 people were killed or ‘disappeared,’ and more than 40,000 people were tortured. The coup was supported by the US government and assisted by Australia’s secret service, ASIO.
From a Marxist perspective, the anniversary of the violent coup is significant, because it was connected to class power, the destruction of Popular Unity’s socialist projects, as well as the beginning of a brutal dictatorship. The military government set out to destroy Popular Unity organisations and violently repress the trade union movement.
Allende’s Popular Unity government had attempted to move Chile toward socialism through constitutional and electoral means. Its program involved nationalisation, agrarian reform, expansion of social ownership, and rural land redistribution.
The Coup remains an extraordinary historical event for the international left, as it demonstrated that winning elections did not protect a government attempting a fundamental transformation of property relations.
Each year on 6 September, thousands of people, organised by political and human rights groups, walk to the General Cemetery in Santiago. They carry pictures of the 1,500 family members whose whereabouts remain unknown. It highlights the ongoing search for the victims of the dictatorship.
On 11 September, thousands of people marched to mark the 53rd anniversary of the military coup. It continues the long-standing tradition of dancers placing flowers at the National Stadium in remembrance of the victims who were detained and tortured at the centre.
Some protesters threw stones, fireworks, and firebombs at the police, who used tear gas and water trucks to clear the streets. Masked protesters erected barricades and hurled Molotov cocktails, stones and fireworks at officers. The government reported 198 violent incidents and 284 arrests, including 31 minors. Arrests were up 80 per cent from last year.
Human rights groups, trade unions, student organisations, and the National Human Rights Table took part in the march, stressing the need to protect memory spaces and ensure accountability for past and present violations. There were strong denunciations of President José Antonio Kast’s recent cuts to public funding for human rights institutions dedicated to historical preservation and reparation. Activists and groups called on the government to maintain funding museums and sites of memory.
The continuing conflict over historical memory was particularly visible this year because President Kast’s government chose not to hold an official state commemoration of the coup’s anniversary, for the first time since Chile returned to democracy in 1990.
In an argument similar to John Howard’s rejection of a “black armband view of history,” Kast argued that Chile should not remain “condemned” by its history, but look toward the future. Chilean people continue to fight for an honest reckoning with their history.
POEM
September 11, 1973
Juan Garrido Salgado
In memory of all those who struggled for freedom and justice in Chile against the fascism of Pinochet
Santiago, September 11, 1973
was a dark spring
of terror, flames and fumes
Two jets
flew like the veil wings of death
Made in the USA
Soldiers in the streets formed part
of a scaffold of violence from the sky
rivers of blood ran through our mouths
Made in the USA
On the table dark flowers grew
beneath our nocturnal silence
The singer was tortured;
socialism was a harvest burning in the field
Made in the USA
Victor Jara sang his ultimo poema
in the stadium of pain and howls of horror
An hour before he was shot
his guitar was burnt.
Wounded doves, wounded words
embers in an eternal song
Made in the USA
September 11, 1973.
From the North, Kissinger awakes
to converse with Nixon in the White House
the two of them were smiling
that morning in September
Made in the USA
Victor Jara was a political folk singer, killed by Pinochet’s regime
Victor Jara
