The Battle of Chile: Part I (1975) Movie Script
1
THE BATTLE OF CHILE
THE STRUGGLE OF
AN UNARMED PEOPLE
A PATRICIO GUZMAN FILM
IN MEMORY OF JORGE MUELLER SILVA
PART ONE: THE
BOURGEOIS INSURRECTION
Six months before the bombing
of the La Moneda palace,
the Chilean people are
voting to renew Parliament.
The political forces are
divided in two blocks.
On one side, the
center right opposition
made up by the Christian
Democrat and National parties.
On the other, the
left wing parties,
grouped together in Popular Unity,
and supporting Salvador Allende.
The left, united, will
never be defeated!
The left, united, will
never be defeated!
Synch!
Cut!
Clapper!
Sir, who do you think will
win the elections on Sunday?
Well, I'm apolitical.
- Ma'am, who do you think will win?
- The opposition has to win.
The opposition?
By what percentage?
I've got no idea.
Frei! Jarpa! Labb!
All three are rubbish!
Frei! Jarpa! Labb!
All three are rubbish!
Who will you be voting
for in the elections?
For Volodia Teitelboin
and Eliana Aranibar.
How do you see the future?
We'll continue to progress
but we must keep fighting,
much more than we have done.
What can I say about Frei?
When he was in government,
I lived in a shack
that was falling down.
It was damp all the time,
and my four children
had bronchopneumonia.
I asked everywhere for help
and nobody listened to me.
But now, wherever
I go, I'm seen to,
and thanks to Allende
I've got a lovely house.
I don't have many comforts,
but we don't go hungry.
I'm retired.
I'm retired.
No government has ever
done what this government has.
Who's going to win?
Popular Unity, because the
workers have to decide Chile's fate.
What do you think of
the Christian Democracy?
I think that the Christian
Democracy is a party
which has always defended
the interests of its class,
but never the interests
of the working class.
Thank you. Over there,
Flaco. Film the drinks seller.
Excuse me, comrade.
Comrade,
who's going to win on Sunday?
I couldn't say.
- You couldn't say?
- No, sir. I've got no idea.
- Do you read the papers?
- Not a lot.
Who'll win on Sunday?
We will, the PU.
- We've got the majority.
- We'll get 45%.
Popular Unity is going to win
by an overwhelming amount.
It's the workers' government,
the people's government.
The people have
seen the benefits
that socialism brings
for all the citizens.
Thank you, comrade. Cut!
Good afternoon, Sir.
What percentage do
you give to Popular Unity?
The truth is,
Popular Unity is going to win
because we started out in 1970
with 36%,
and at the present time,
with all that we've seen,
and the people who are with
comrade Salvador Allende,
we're guaranteed
to get 43% and more.
43% and more.
Good afternoon, ladies.
Who will you vote for?
I'm voting for
Volodia Teitelboin
and Eliana Aranibar.
What percentage do
you give Popular Unity?
Over 40%.
And the food shortage?
I don't think there is one.
I haven't lost an
ounce of weight.
Recording!
Sir, what do you think
about the elections?
Popular Unity are going
to get less than 20%.
How do you see the future?
Whatever happens, we'll
still have lots of problems.
Sir, what do you think
about the elections?
- Leave me alone.
- Thank you.
What do you think
about the elections?
The opposition will win,
especially the National Party.
And the future?
Chile has to rise up with
freedom and democracy.
Good afternoon, Sir.
What do you think about
the elections on Sunday?
I think it's a plebiscite,
and on Sunday Chile is going to
decide if it wants Marxism or freedom.
How do you view the
future, after the elections?
The only solution is a
change of government.
Do you believe in elections?
Yes, of course.
Thank you.
Sir, what do you think about
the elections on Sunday?
I think that the Popular Front
is going to get a hammering
and it's going to be wiped out.
Do you believe in elections?
Yes, absolutely.
What percentages for Popular
Unity and the National Party?
30% and 70%.
- How do you see the future?
- The future?
Chile's always had
a promising future.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
Ma'am, what's your position
as regards the elections?
Jarpa and Alessandri.
What's your preference?
The National Party.
Do you believe in elections
or in other methods?
I think there has
to be a firm line.
There must never be any
question of playing with the people.
How do you view the
future, after the elections?
We have to work
hard to rebuild Chile.
Sir, who will you be voting for?
For Jarpa.
And who'll win the elections?
The elections? The
opposition will, easily.
And with what percentage?
65% at least.
And what will
happen in Chile then?
The government will have
to respect the majority.
Do you believe in elections
or in other methods?
- Elections.
- Thank you.
They should
impeach the President!
What?
They should impeach him
and throw him out on May 21!
He's destroyed the
country, ruined it,
and this is a corrupt,
degenerate government!
Degenerate, corrupt, filthy!
All those dirty communists
should get out of Chile!
On May 21, we'll
have, thank God,
the cleanest, finest
government we've ever had!
Democracy will win, and we'll get
rid of those rotten Marxist communists!
Who do you prefer
among the opposition?
Candidates? Jarpa
and Gustavo Alessandri.
- And what percentage?
- 100%.
My ideal would be 100%, but
really I think it'll be around 70%.
Power to the workers!
Comrade, what's your
opinion about the elections?
I say Popular Unity will win.
And to hell with the
"mummies" on the right!
We'll win with Popular Unity.
Here and everywhere else.
The "mummies" can drop dead!
What do you think
about the elections?
We have to fight
to get a big majority.
We who can see things
very clearly realize that
the only way to get power, given
that we've got the government,
is by winning the Chamber
of Deputies and the Senate.
What it really means is
getting a bit more power,
more power for the class.
But, even so,
it isn't the
definitive solution.
We believe that one
election more or less
won't solve the problem
and avoid the civil war.
The civil war is inevitable
and fundamental.
And it's going to happen,
because at present the classes are
becoming more and more polarized.
On one side, the bourgeoisie,
on the other, the proletariat.
That confrontation will come.
Forward without compromise!
As usual, the armed forces
guarantee order during the elections.
The opposition votes,
confident of victory.
With a two thirds
majority in Parliament,
it could remove
President Allende
by impeaching him.
For that,
they need more
than 60% of the votes.
For Popular Unity,
this is the first ballot with
all the opposition forces
since the presidential
victory in 1970.
It's also a chance
to measure their
electoral strength
after two years of
an economic boycott
imposed by Washington,
and internal opposition.
On Sunday, March 4,
at 8.00 a.m.,
voting has started.
Good afternoon, ma'am.
We're doing interviews
for Channel 13.
We'd like to know your views
and who you think will win.
- We're sorry to bother you.
- No, it's no bother.
I like Baltra. I voted for him.
- Baltra?
- Yes.
What do you think the
percentages will be?
- Do you want to come in?
- Yes, if we may.
Sir, we're doing
interviews for Channel 13.
Could you tell us how you
think the percentages will be?
- I don't know, I don't vote.
- You don't?
- You've got no preference?
- None.
You said you voted
for Baltra. At what time?
- You voted for Jarpa?
- Yes.
- At what time did you vote?
- At 11.00 a.m.
- In what commune?
- Nunoa, the National Stadium.
What do you think
of the elections today?
I think it's great,
and I think that
democracy is going to win.
What do you think will
happen in the future in Chile?
Everything will be sorted
out and we'll rebuild Chile.
Do you think the President
should be removed or not?
I couldn't say, but all
this has to be sorted out.
What did you think of Jarpa's
meeting here two days ago?
Fantastic! I saw it from here.
Did it really catch
your attention?
Of course! The crowds
and the enthusiasm,
and all very orderly.
Well, I thought it was
great, and we're going to win!
And what about the alliance
with Christian Democracy?
I think it's splendid,
really good.
You feel happy
about that alliance?
Yes, I do, because I
think it'll fix everything.
Thank you very much.
At 5.00 a.m.,
the first results
start to come in.
The Interior Minister,
General Carlos Prats,
ensures the maximum guarantees
of honesty for all the sectors.
Nevertheless,
before the count is finished,
some media are announcing
a victory for the opposition.
They don't say that
over 40% of the votes
are for the left.
The opposition,
who never doubted their victory,
celebrate the supposed
end of Popular Unity.
- What do you think of the elections?
- We're winning!
We've got over 60%!
What do you think
of the elections?
Fantastic! But we
were bound to win!
- Sir, what do you...
- Great!
I'm Argentinian and I'm
delighted that Frei has won!
It's terrific!
Chile needs a few more Freis.
Over here!
Come on, Flaco, move it!
- How do you feel about it?
- It's a great victory!
It's a fantastic success!
We're delighted!
How do you see the future?
A plebiscite, and
we'll win the elections.
Allende will have to
leave Chile immediately.
Would you impeach him?
Yes, of course.
Anyway, so long!
What do you think
about today's elections?
It's a triumph for democracy
and Chile will always be free!
What will happen now?
God forbid anything does.
All we ask is that
Chile is always free!
Are you in favor of
impeaching Allende?
Yes.
You don't think that
could cause a civil war?
- It doesn't matter.
- We've got the majority.
- What do you think of the election?
- We finally beat those bastards!
What do you think
of the election?
Very good, magnificent.
I'd just like to say that
it's really wonderful.
The PU ended up in the
garbage, to put it politely!
Who was your favorite?
Frei.
I am Alfonso Carrasco Cerda,
president of the Bank
of Chile retirement club.
I believe
that we have defended
democracy and freedom in Chile.
Would you like to
say anything else?
Yes!
Greetings to all the people who
have helped to free our country.
After midnight,
the final results spread
confusion among the opposition.
The dreamed-of number of votes
evaporates in disaster.
Popular Unity doesn't only
not lose electoral support...
It increases it.
Rejecting the calculations,
one sector of the
opposition talks of fraud
and sends its
troublemakers onto the street.
A few days later,
the Election
Examination Tribunal,
controlled by the opposition,
is obliged to confirm
the official results.
The opposition parties are very far
from the two thirds they'd dreamed of
in order to remove
Salvador Allende.
Popular Unity increase
to 43.4% of the votes,
and increase their
numbers in Parliament.
They obtain
unprecedented support
after two and a
half years in office.
For the opposition,
the swearing-in of the new deputies
marks the end of the electoral phase.
Honorable deputies,
do you swear or promise
to protect the
Constitution of the State
and defend, in the
exercise of your duties,
its true interests?
Yes, we do.
I hereby declare
you incorporated.
The aims of the present
session being completed,
it is now adjourned.
From now on, the White
House and the Chilean opposition
realize that the mechanisms of
democracy are of no use to them.
The votes won by the
Government coalition
show that the desire for social
change has not decreased,
despite the millions of dollars invested
by the North American government.
After March,
the strategy of the
democratic opposition will be,
paradoxically, that
of the coup d'tat.
HOARDING AND THE BLACK MARKEThanks to a complaint
lodged by a neighbor,
it was discovered that
here in 319 Copiapo Street,
the following stocks
were being hoarded.
20 tons of sugar,
400 boxes of toilet rolls,
500 boxes of detergent,
100 boxes of Nescaf, 100
boxes of condensed milk,
50 boxes of salmon,
large amounts of rice.
This will be sold
to the neighbors in this sector,
a large number of whom
are gathered here.
I'd say this sale will last
for approximately three days.
The Government strengthens the
Councils for Provisions and Prices.
In theory,
these are local organizations
to supervise food distribution
and report any
speculating by shopkeepers.
When the Councils
discover any hoarding,
the Government intervenes
and the products are put on sale.
In the warehouse belonging
to Mrs. Moreno Diaz,
the following goods were found.
310 packets of tea,
2 boxes of "350",
53 boxes of baby food.
All of it had been eaten
by mice.
I bought
detergent and two
little packets of tea,
because I didn't have
any more money with me.
I couldn't buy any more.
Well, I've got ten children,
and I have to waste the
whole morning looking...
We have to put an
end to the black market.
We have to close the
shops and jail the owners.
We have to do that
to scare those people
so they stop speculating.
I think there are
lots of provisions.
Look at how often we've
seen in the newspapers here
about all the tons of sugar,
all that stuff that's hoarded.
In March,
there are 3,000
COPPs in all of Chile.
In some cases, they
introduce ration cards
in order to
improve distribution.
What's the card? Can we see it?
It's my ration card.
I've got 14 rations.
I've got 2 stock cubes marked
down. No, 4 cubes, when they arrive.
If more come,
they give you more.
It's all rationed.
Coffee, milk, everything.
Can you get by on that?
Yes, we can get by.
And if we don't, then we try
to buy other things instead.
Will we collect the
vegetable you bought?
The main aims of the opposition
are to disrupt food supplies,
exhaust the reserve stocks
and sabotage harvests,
so as to increase the shortage.
Is there any oil?
I don't know if
there's any today,
but I got oil three days ago.
Would you like to say
anything to other comrades?
We're making a documentary.
I'll put up with everything
that happens so that
at least my children
can have a better future.
I approve of this government.
- Would you like to say more?
- No, that's all, thank you.
PARLIAMENTARY BOYCOTFor the opposition,
the example of the COPPs
is getting dangerous.
Congress
begins an indictment
against Orlando Millas,
the minister who
promoted the COPPs.
The opposition is using its
simple majority in Congress
to discredit the government.
Here are all the documents
which record the accusations.
In this case,
the opposition appoints
one of its deputies
to interrogate a neighbor,
a member of the COPPS.
What do they actually do?
How does this
organization COPP work?
As I think I already said,
COPP is an organization
of people, residents,
workers, housewives,
who join together and,
by a group decision,
are given the authority
to control, or
rather to oversee,
if there are sufficient
provisions or not
in their neighborhood.
That's what I'm trying to
get you to explain to me.
- Yes.
- You understand?
I'm just trying to guide you.
That doesn't mean that I'm
trying to get you to say something.
I like to be very
honest in my dealings.
If I can just
explain, I think that
the function of this
organization COPP,
is to fulfill the
role of ensuring
that people receive
sufficient provisions
for all the family groups
living in the neighborhood.
Although the opposition
fails to prove anything,
the accusation is maintained.
The procedure will be
repeated with other top officials.
The ministers either
give in or are expelled.
Through the accusations,
the opposition provokes
a conflict of powers
between Parliament and
the President of the Republic.
In all the cases, a
representative of the left
will demonstrate the legal
fragility of the accusations.
Consequently,
the Minister of State
is only responsible
for his actions to the
President of the Republic.
And he cannot be
subordinated, as regards
the appropriateness
of his actions,
to the view of the
majority in Congress.
That political judgement
is only granted to the
President of the Republic.
In the specific
case of Mr. Millas,
Minister of the Economy,
who is being indicted here,
the process of
indictment cannot be used
to pass judgement on the provisions
policy promoted by the minister,
on his price control policy,
or on the way in which he is
guiding the work of production,
provisioning,
and general distribution
of the Chilean economy.
Therefore,
not only is this
indictment invalid,
ineffective and illegal,
it is an indictment
which adulterates,
disregards and violates
the area which the Constitution
grants to the President
as regards his essential
prerogatives and authority.
Days later, in the
Chamber of Deputies,
the vote is held on
expelling Minister Millas.
In a period of three months,
the opposition remove
two of Allende's intendants
and seven of his ministers.
That is, one high ranking Popular
Unity official every ten days.
And they refuse to let us use
the laws which they
had in their hands,
and used against the people.
But then,
when we do it to defend
the legitimate government,
and the progress of the workers,
an attitude of resistance
appears in those sectors
which have all the guarantees
of the reality being
experienced by our country.
And this is a government
which isn't socialist.
It is a popular, democratic,
national, revolutionary government,
which must carry out a program
to open, as broadly and
as quickly as possible,
the path to socialism and the
transformation of our society.
LEGALITY OR ILLEGALITY
GOVERNMENT MUSRESPECT COURT DECISION
Shortly after,
the opposition
begins an indictment
against all the ministers
in the government.
This means the dismissal
of 15 ministers at one time.
However, popular pressure
forces one sector of the
opposition to pull back
and the maneuver fails.
It's the right who've
always been interfering,
trying to get us to bring
down the government.
But that'll never happen.
The workers elected this
government and it will continue,
and we'll defend it with
our lives if necessary.
If they want us on the
street, we'll be there,
and if we have
to fight, we'll fight,
as workers, in defense
of our workers' democracy.
On April 17,
the government decides to
expropriate legally another 49 industries
which are boycotting production.
In reply, Congress presents
a constitutional reform
which invalidates
almost all expropriations
already made.
The Christian Democracy
and the National Party
say that the Head of State
has no right of veto in this.
He has to promulgate the reform
and hand back the
factories without argument.
This means that Congress, by simple
majority, wants to deprive Allende
of an authority which
other Chilean leaders had.
Those men on the right
are getting huge salaries
and all they're doing
is wrecking the country.
Wrecking the country and
getting well paid to do it!
And we got a big surprise
when we saw that our
factory, our workplace,
had been completely dismantled,
because those gentlemen
had stolen all the machinery.
We don't want to have
anything to do with the bosses.
They've been dragging
their feet for a long time,
to such an extent that the companies
ended up being expropriated.
It's been proved that
the industrialists here
had started an open
boycott on production.
And we're against that.
I want this to be sorted out.
The government should
expropriate the industry
because we can't
work with the bosses.
What did they call this factory?
They called it "the jail",
because of the feudal
mentality that our bosses had.
And fellow workers
in other industries
called it "the Santa Elena
jail" because of the pressure.
On May 23, Eduardo Frei,
Christian Democrat
and ex-President of Chile,
is elected Head of the Senate.
One of his main tasks will be to
aggravate the conflict of powers.
If Allende rejects the reform,
and doesn't return the industries,
he'll be accused of
overstepping the constitution.
If he accepts, Parliament will then
have effective control of the State.
Allende considers this
position to be illegal,
and appeals to the
Constitutional Tribunal.
We understand
that at this moment
what is fundamental
is to reinforce
government policy
and conquer the instruments,
ensuring that there is
institutional permeability,
so that the
opposition understand
that they can't deny what
is vital to a government
to be able to defend Chile,
in the face of an
economic reality
which is the result, not
of errors made by us,
without denying the
ones we've made,
but of international
and national factors
which weigh heavy,
especially when a
government, like ours,
is confronted with imperialism,
and with a landowning,
banking and feudal oligarchy.
Those deputies who reject
the proposal, raise their hands.
Parliament will now seek a
definitive blockade of the government.
In the months of
April, May and June,
Congress declares a boycott
on any initiative by Popular Unity.
Result of the voting.
In favor, 52 votes.
Against, 81.
The Executive's
proposal is rejected.
The law to punish
economic crimes is rejected.
The law to create a Ministry
for the Family is rejected.
The law on readjustments and
salaries for workers is deferred,
and then got out of the way.
The law on workers'
participation in factories is rejected.
The law to create a
Maritime Ministry is rejected.
The law to set up
self-managing firms is rejected.
In the course of several months,
another 20 projected
laws lose their financing.
Nationalism!
Present!
Nationalism!
Forward!
Homeland and Freedom!
Nationalism!
Present!
This is a shock squadron
from the fascist group,
"Homeland and Freedom".
- Chile!
- One!
- Chile!
- Great!
- Chile!
- Free!
Forward Chile!
Institutional conflict alone
is not enough to
justify acoup d'tat.
It is also necessary to provoke
violence and social chaos.
That is the main aim
of this organization.
"Homeland and Freedom"
constitutes a tiny part
of the right-wing mass movement,
but its fascist ideology is
found in some opposition parties
and the armed forces.
Its leaders and ideologists
include former employees of the
U.S. information services in Chile.
Its patrons are the big
employers' associations,
the National Agriculture Society
and Manufacturing Development.
But their biggest helper is the
North American State Department.
In 1974,
some ex-officials
of that Department
reveal that at that time
the CIA had 40
first-class agents in Chile,
many of them instructors
for "Homeland and Freedom".
STUDENT DISTURBANCES
In April,
the opposition find a pretext
for continuing the social agitation.
The Government has presented
a bill on Education Reform
to democratize the old
educational structure.
Feeling itself threatened,
the opposition mobilizes
its troublemakers.
For the first time in Chile,
a large number of students
let themselves be used by
the more privileged classes.
The opposition parties,
professionals, and retailers' associations
support the street disturbances.
We won't be on the
defensive anymore.
We won't be the puppets
of reaction anymore.
Because from here on, comrades, we
have to make the questions into reality.
And we have to tackle
conflictive problems.
And we have to attack
whoever gets in our way.
And we're not going on the
streets to fight with right-wing kids.
The police and the
soldiers can see to them,
and put them out of action.
We have to see how
to confront the State.
It's a bourgeois State
which we have to overthrow.
Yesterday we saw various groups
making demands for
different things, and using
class comrades,
the Chilean reaction,
in what were really
subversive situations.
In other words,
what comrades think
about the
distribution situation,
about the law on
agrarian reform,
about the nationalization
of monopolies.
Those are fundamental questions
which we, as workers,
should consider,
and which we wish to
resolve with a plebiscite,
and not be dragged
along by the reactionaries,
with effective
mobilization of the workers.
We can't accept this
escalation day after day.
We've been
observing this situation,
and we said in October
that they were going
to prepare another one.
They're repeating themselves,
they don't even have
the initiative to change
what they did in October.
And we, the workers,
must go out now and stop
these people for once and for all,
and demand a plebiscite
on fundamental issues.
How are we going to
resolve the transport problem?
Every time they have
to attack the government,
they bring transport to
a standstill, don't they?
Because they
control the drivers.
Most of the drivers
have no class awareness.
They aren't in any union.
All they worry about is their
percentage, how much they'll earn.
They don't go to union meetings.
So there aren't many
unions doing well in transport.
Even the ones doing
well are doing badly.
Given the threat of a national
commercial stoppage next week,
there should be
immediate nationalization
of distribution monopolies.
Given the threat of a boycott
on production and economy,
the government must
issue an expropriation order
against those companies
which form part of the group of 90
still not in the hands of the workers.
The working class should
be integrated immediately
into the planning
of the economy.
There is no doubt
that at this moment
the resolutions must
deal with the problems
in the transport section.
We, the workers in the
Public Works Department,
have, at this moment, got
everyone ready to march,
and parade past Congress.
Any objections to that?
- To Parliament!
- To Parliament!
We ask our comrades in
the Public Works Department
if they can obtain means
of transport, trucks, vans,
in order to transport groups of
workers who will be leaving the factories.
There are trucks
and buses, comrade.
The left, united, will
never be defeated!
On April 27,
the Trades Union Council
calls a mass meeting in
support of the government.
They try, by means of
the workers' presence,
to prevent the
streets of Santiago
from being taken by
opposition agitators.
Power to the workers!
We want popular power!
The left, united, will
never be defeated!
The left, united, will
never be defeated!
People! Consciousness! Arms!
We want popular power!
Demonstrators passing the offices
of the Christian Democrat Party
are suddenly attacked.
Shots fired from the
windows kill one worker
and seriously
injure another six.
The people who provoked
us are responsible for this.
- And the dead and wounded?
- Who are they? Where are they?
One person was shot dead
and six wounded. We saw it all.
Are we supposed to let
people come and walk over us?
Who protected us?
You're justifying that death.
And you're speaking in the
Christian Democrat offices!
You can't push me around in
the Christian Democrat offices!
Senator, why did
you hit a journalist?
Fascists!
Where did they fire
from? At what time?
That isn't clear. It's
being investigated.
Anyway, it's the magistrate
who's in charge here.
In this case,
the police and everything
to do with public order
is subject to the
magistrate and the court.
That's what the code
on penal procedure says.
The influence of
the violent groups
is obvious in the
Christian Democrat Party.
Senator Juan Hamilton, from
the party's conservative wing,
refuses to make a statement.
- A moment's silence, comrades!
- Everyone keep calm!
Everyone move back a
bit, please, move back!
Comrade Jos Ricardo Ahumada!
Present!
Comrade Jos Ricardo Ahumada!
Present!
Comrade Jos Ricardo Ahumada!
Present!
- With your example...
- We shall overcome!
Please, comrades,
don't push! Don't push!
Popular Unity against
the criminal "mummies"!
Popular Unity against
the criminal "mummies"!
Comrade Jos Ricardo Ahumada!
Present!
30,000 people
turn up on April 30
to say farewell to
the dead worker.
Reckoning that
conditions still aren't right,
the opposition end this
period of street disorder.
The attempts to punish those responsible
for Ahumada's death are unsuccessful.
Justice acts with
obvious slowness.
The Supreme Court
ensures that the
sentence is never enforced.
OFFENSIVE BY THE
EMPLOYERS ORGANIZATIONS
Once again, our organization
is gathered together,
summoned by the
national leaders,
to study price increases
and establish our new tariffs.
Our first speaker
is the president of Chile's National
Confederation of Taxis and Buses,
Ernesto Cisterna Solia.
- An eye for an eye!
- A tooth for a tooth!
I think that this assembly
should say to the minister
that we are tired of seeing such
ineffectiveness and such inability
in solving our problems.
During the three
years of Popular Unity,
the American Institute
for Free Trade Unionism,
financed indirectly by the CIA,
directs its work towards
the Chilean organizations.
In April, 108 managers,
mainly from the
transport sector,
receive training in
the United States.
We mustn't confuse
awareness with patience.
We don't want politics with the
tariffs or with the organization,
but we need to survive.
We have to defend our interests,
and to do that we
must fight as one man,
with our National
Board of Owners,
and go out on the street
in such a way that they see us
and feel the strength
of our organization,
with bravery, with
fervor, but above all else,
as Chileans, and with dignity.
We can't keep on patching and
mending and wearing ourselves out.
The vehicles have got old,
and the bent backs of many of
the owners have grown old too!
Generations of them!
It's a matter of putting food
on the table, of surviving,
of holding out,
of being able to
save this sector,
because with that we are saving
the jobs of millions of people
who have faith and
confidence in this working man,
in this ill-treated transporter.
He's the person
who's building Chile!
He's the revolutionary!
Who can deny
that the moment has come for
the entire Chilean transport sector
without distinction,
fighting on a single platform,
to propose this
national stoppage!
In May, one third of
collective transport
is immobilized by a lack of
spare part from North America.
In 1973,
importations from the United
States drop to 15% of the total.
To protest against this state of
affairs, but also to aggravate it,
the owners of private
buses call an indefinite strike.
The state company,
with only 600 vehicles,
has to do the work normally done
by Santiago's 5,000 private buses.
To help ease the
effects of the strike,
workers bring factory
trucks onto the streets.
What do you think of the strike?
We all have to fight so that
the government
can have confidence
thanks to the workers.
- We must fight the strike.
- How do we do that?
By staying united.
- How far did you walk?
- About 70 blocks,
with my two kids.
What do you say?
I think that this is the moment
when the people
have to demonstrate
the capacity for struggle
which they have developed in
the course of this whole process.
And it doesn't matter what kind
of sacrifice we have to make,
as long as we can keep
working and producing.
Anyone else want to speak?
The "mummies" are waging
this campaign against us.
We're living on very poor wages,
but the workers must have
faith in this and be aware.
What do you say?
I'm a student, and I think
they're trying to paralyze the
country by any means they can.
In case of a possible
total transport stoppage,
the left-wing
carriers join together
and create the Patriotic
Recovery Movement.
Because of their support
of President Allende,
they are attacked
for being blacklegs.
I will respond to the
loyalty of the people
with the loyalty of
a militant socialist,
and as president of Chile
I will resolutely carry through
the program of Popular Unity.
We need
better and greater control
in the distribution of produce.
Listen carefully.
This is for those who believe
that I hesitate at times.
We must strengthen
popular power,
centers for mothers,
neighborhood groups,
the Councils for
Provisions and Prices,
the community commandos.
They must be strengthened!
The industrial belts
must be strengthened,
not as parallel forces
to the government,
but as popular forces united
with the forces of your government,
the popular government.
On May 28, retired
officers of the high command
send a public letter
to President Allende,
stating that the armed forces
will consider
themselves autonomous
should the government
violate the constitution.
Shortly before,
the high command had spoken out
against the proposed educational reforms.
On that occasion,
Rear Admiral Ismael
Huerta declared,
"We cannot accept
that future soldiers
"arrive at the barracks
converted into Marxists."
Since 1950,
more than 4,000 officers have
been on training courses in the U.S.
and in the Panama Canal area.
Over the two and a half
years of Allende's government,
the Pentagon has given them
45 million dollars
in military aid.
That is,
more than a third of all the
aid received in the last 20 years.
COPPER STRIKE
For the first time,
the opposition wins over
a sector of the proletariat.
In the "El Teniente" mine,
a group of workers go on
strike for economic reasons.
Traditionally well paid,
the copper miners are the
aristocracy of Chile's workers.
For the opposition,
the aim of the conflict
is to paralyze the mine.
20% of Chile's earnings
are produced here.
Fellow workers,
as well as Channel
13 television,
we have French
Television with us.
Comrades, hold up
your employment cards.
Let's show them that
we're all workers here.
"El Teniente", united,
will never be defeated!
First, let's solve the problems
of the "El Teniente" workers,
and then, if there's money left,
we can solve the other
problems in the country.
But the people we
represent come first,
then the rest of the country.
That's all, thank you.
We want a solution!
We requested permission
from the union leaders
to use this stage.
As workers
for Popular Unity,
we disagree
with the methods you're using.
We have said at all times
that above all other things,
the most important
is workers' unity.
We defend it here,
and within the party
alliance of Popular Unity.
You will be wondering
why we're here.
We support a return to work,
but not in factions.
Comrades,
we support a return to work.
Comrades.
Comrades.
We can't accept
that you continue to
use the policy of division.
No politics here!
Strike!
That same day,
and at the same time,
more than half of the 8,000
miners continue working.
Most of them work
overtime to ensure
that the basic work
in the mine is done.
Caletones has a staff
of almost 2,000 workers,
between office
staff and laborers.
And today, we've got
750 workers working.
So the industrial
part is almost normal.
And that means that
tomorrow, or Monday,
there will be total normality.
What should be pointed out here
is that there is a sector
which is fighting against a wall.
Their thesis is completely
out of all jurisdiction.
Even history shows
that the workers here
fought tirelessly
against the Yankee
until we took the
industry from him,
nationalized it,
and now it's Chile's.
It belongs to the Chileans,
not to any individual.
But it's our
responsibility to run it.
The workers are assuming
an almost total awareness.
It is only those in opposition
who insist on believing
that there are
left-wing bosses here.
No, there aren't.
The Christian Democracy has
got trade union representation here,
and a representative
on the Board of Directors.
So we're asking the left-wing
media, especially Channel 7,
who have given very little
importance to those still working,
to come and see for themselves
so that they'll stop lying.
You've started very
well, for a simple reason.
You've all come here to
film, and that's important.
But the press, Channel 13,
"El Mercurio", all those papers,
are just looking
at Rancagua city.
They think that's "El
Teniente", and that's bad.
Those of us who
are working at present
need this situation
to be sorted out,
not for the personal
benefit of the workers,
but for the benefit
of all Chileans.
You can take any
worker here and ask him.
Ask any of them.
Do you think you're dividing
the "El Teniente" workers?
No, none of us
want to divide them.
It's the enemy
who's dividing us.
- The enemy?
- The right.
They want us to
fight among ourselves.
The other day, the
strike leader said
that if blood had to
flow, blood would flow.
They want confrontation.
We have never, at any moment,
wanted to divide the workers.
The fact of the
matter is, I'm 43 now,
and I've spent a long
time, 27 years, in the mines.
I've seen all the
governments we had before,
and they all acted very
harshly with the working classes.
As that comrade said, I think
this government has been soft.
It's soft because it's a
workers' government.
But if we'd had a government
of another tendency,
at this moment a few
of us would be dead,
and there wouldn't be many
left-wing comrades here.
They'd all be right-wing.
We received threats,
they blocked the roads,
we couldn't get down the other
day, but we turned up for work.
We came down on
foot, went cross-country,
but at least we
managed to keep working.
There were even comrades
who worked three shifts
because you have to
keep the mine going.
We had agreed
to keep on working,
because there are certain machines
which can't be allowed to stop.
This job's got a
lot of responsibility.
We've got a lot of comrades
who still don't know
why they're stopped.
They don't know. That's a fact.
They're fighting with the police
because some guy
sets himself up as leader
and he puts on a show for them
and they follow him
like he was Christ.
I think we have to make our
fellow workers more aware,
and that's what our leaders
have to start doing now.
That's the reason
behind everything.
How can you prepare people?
Well, just by doing
what we're doing now,
acting as we are
in this stoppage.
I think I'm behaving well.
I'm responsible for what I do.
I'm independent, I don't
have any political party.
My interest is in working
for the progress of Chile,
not for my pocket.
I'm aware that if I
have a good wage
then it's only fair
that other workers
should have a good wage too.
Today, over 300
workers have turned up.
On the 03.00-11.00
shift, we had over 300.
It's getting back to normal.
The number of workers turning up
at their job goes up to 61% on May 7.
The mine's trains are
working day and night.
Strike!
The strikers, encouraged
by the opposition,
reject two settlement proposals
and demand a doubling
of salary readjustments.
Why are you striking?
We're demanding the 41%
that the company owes us.
How many days has it been?
It's been 21 days now.
What's going to happen?
It'll have to be settled
today or tomorrow.
Is this to do with
unions or with politics?
It's never had anything
to do with politics.
There's never been a politician
or a minister
or a deputy involved in this.
We're just workers
defending our rights.
And I think we have to win
because we elected our President
so that he'd defend
workers' rights,
not so that he'd
come and criticize us
when we ask for something.
- You support the President?
- Yes, I do.
The strike is damaging
the government.
Of course it's damaging it,
but I think that in all
these 21 days of striking,
they should at least
have settled the strike.
Into the square!
The strike leaders
need to have victims
so they can accuse the
government of repression.
For that reason, the police get
orders to act with the greatest caution.
As the police retreat
despite the stone throwing,
there is confusion.
While some want
to continue the fight,
others think it better to seize
the mining company's offices.
Let's seize the company!
I spoke to the governor
because I don't want any death.
- Who represents the workers?
- We do!
The leaders are over there!
And I also...
I also requested...
I also requested, comrades,
that with the same responsibility
as that of the "El Teniente" workers,
we are asking the
police forces here
that they should maintain
the same composure.
I asked them
that they should maintain
the same composure, comrades.
And now,
I want...
I want to say here this morning
that in the meeting
which we had with the
President of the Republic
on the 19th
I spoke to them
as an older brother
or a comrade would have done,
and I told them clearly
how serious it was
to stop the production
of copper now,
when we need more earnings,
when we don't have
the financing we need,
when we may not be able
to fulfill some
essential commitments.
At this moment,
especially when
the price of copper
has reached a
satisfactory level,
at this precise moment,
"El Teniente" is paralyzed,
just when it had achieved
an extraordinary output.
I spoke to them like a comrade,
with tenderness, with
respect, with affection.
Nevertheless,
economic criteria were stronger,
and so "El Teniente"
is at a standstill,
and that means
the loss of millions of
dollars for the country.
There could have been a solution
that certainly would have cost
less than a day's production.
But that would have
set a fatal precedent.
A readjustment on
top of a readjustment.
Today, I ask them
from here to understand
that being a copper worker
in this country is a privilege,
from a patriotic and
revolutionary point of view.
They are the workers who must
preserve the essence of our country.
We depend on copper
to be able to buy spare
parts, raw materials,
inputs, foodstuffs
and medicines.
I ask them from here, as
revolutionary comrades,
to reconsider their attitude.
We will propose solutions
which will mean more income
on the basis of producing more
copper and greater productivity.
I uphold our
revolutionary awareness,
and I tell them that I have
faith in the Chilean worker
who cannot forget imperialist
aggression and internal conspiracy!
The copper worker and
the agricultural worker
have to unite to defend
the future of Chile,
threatened from without
and hounded from within!
In the "Chuquicamata"
mine, on May 16,
the workers reject a stoppage
in solidarity with "El Teniente".
The same happens
in the "El Salvador" mine.
The opposition
fail in their attempt
to spread the strike
to other copper mines.
On June 6,
the strikers send a
commission to Santiago.
Congress, which had justified
oppression of workers in other times,
opens its gardens
to give the miners
money and supplies.
Parliament issues a statement,
which has no legal basis,
saying the miners are right.
And meanwhile,
donations continue to arrive.
For the wealthy sector,
helping the striking miners
has become an obligation.
I am firmly convinced
that this conflict
will have international
repercussions,
because here
what is at stake
is the firmness of the workers
in defending their conquests.
And on the other side
is the position of the
Supreme Government,
which, until this moment,
had turned a deaf ear
to solving this problem.
And the only culprits
of the prolongation of
these 37 days of strike
have got names.
It is a product
of the incapacity
of the ministers responsible
for mining and labor,
and of the copper bureaucrats.
For the first time,
a labor leader is received
in the Catholic University.
When 65% of the
miners at "El Teniente"
and 10% of the clerical
staff are back at work,
the leader Guillermo Medina
comes to receive the support
of the children of the well-to-do.
Workers and students,
forward together!
Workers and students,
forward together!
Down with incompetent
government!
The Catholic University students
become the main
agitators of the stoppage.
While the strike
eases in "El Teniente",
the opposition
politicize the conflict.
In Santiago, the
organization "Feminine Power"
starts to gather funds
for the miners' wives.
A large section of
the middle class,
consciously or unconsciously,
starts to join the
ranks of fascism.
- Nationalists!
- Present!
- Nationalists!
- Forward!
- National Front!
- Homeland and Freedom!
- Chile!
- One!
- Chile!
- Great!
- Chile!
- Free!
At the same time, in the
mining city of Rancagua,
shopkeepers,
professionals and carriers
call a stoppage in
solidarity with the strikers.
On June 10,
the opposition occupy the
city's radio station by force.
As Rancagua is too small to cause
any stir in the now lessening conflict,
they decide to
move to the capital.
On June 15, 3,000 strikers
arrive at the head office
of the Christian Democrat
Party in Santiago.
They make up approximately
25% of the mine employees.
Christian Democrat Youth!
The opposition calls
out its troublemakers.
The government responds
with a police presence
and the mobilization
of its militants.
Workers collaborate with
the police to impose order.
The agitators
provoke the police.
The left-wing workers
dismantle the barricades.
Come on, we have to clean
up the streets, comrades!
At midday,
the Popular Unity supporters gather
in front of the La Moneda palace.
The street battle
will go on until night.
VIOLENT CITY
Allende, Allende,
the people will defend you!
I'm here because I've
got class consciousness.
I'm here with my class comrades
defending the workers' government,
to the death, if necessary.
Let's create popular power!
I've been here since 10.00 a.m.,
firstly because
of my convictions.
I'm the father of 12 children.
I know this government's
fight isn't for me.
I don't have many days of
struggle and sacrifice left.
It's for my children.
What we're defending
is constitutional power.
We're against fascism.
We support the
popular government.
We think that what's going
on now is a just struggle.
We're here to defend
the position of all workers.
We don't want that,
because of a privileged group,
like the "El Teniente" miners,
this government
should have problems.
We'll defend this government's
position to the last consequences.
Comrade, why are you here?
I'm Chilean,
and I have to defend
Allende's government.
It's the people's government.
We can't put up with
fascism anymore.
It has to be stopped
now, for once and for all.
It's what the people want.
Wherever you go,
people want the same.
We've had enough of those idlers
getting paid for nothing in Congress!
That's the opinion
of all the workers,
of all the people
in the villages.
And we have to be
tough on speculators!
They have to approve
the law on economic crimes
so we can jail the
thieves and hoarders!
Do you want to
say anything else?
I've said enough.
- Popular Unity!
- We shall overcome!
The next day,
the last strikers are loitering
outside the Christian Democrat offices.
Many are returning
to Rancagua tonight.
A symbolic group goes
to the Catholic University.
In "El Teniente", 93% of the
staff have gone back to work.
On June 21, the
Trades Union Council
organizes a demonstration
of force against fascism.
Let's create popular power!
"PU", and no compromise!
Popular Unity against
the criminal "mummies"!
Popular Unity against
the criminal "mummies"!
Let's create a popular militia!
Let's create a popular militia!
Power to the workers!
If you don't jump,
you're a "mummy".
Via the "Voice of the
Homeland" transmitters,
we have the first
worker of the nation,
the President of the Republic,
comrade Salvador Allende.
While half a million demonstrators
gather in the center of Santiago,
nearby, watched by the police,
the last strikers
watch the event
from the roof of the
Catholic University.
I maintain
that never
in our history
was there an event
of the magnitude
and content of this one.
One has had to
innovate in all methods
to be able
to have even approximately
a dimension
of the extraordinary,
spirited and enormous multitude
which is filling the streets,
Moneda, Agustinas,
Amunategui,
Ahumada, Morand,
Hurfanos,
Teatinos,
most of the Alameda,
and the column which
set out from Tajamar
has still not been
able to arrive,
likewise the column
from Vicuna Mackenna.
Never in the history of Chile
were the people more
combative and more present!
We can feel history here!
We are reinforcing
our right to build
a future
of justice and freedom,
to make our way
towards socialism!
A week later, the
copper strike is over.
On June 28,
the 500 miners occupying
the Catholic University
withdraw in small groups.
In all, the conflict
has lasted 76 days,
and has cost the
state millions of dollars.
With this strike over,
Allende's adversaries
have tried almost everything
to topple his government.
They have one last resort.
The next day, June
29, at 9.10 a.m.,
the Number Two armored regiment
attacks the La Moneda
palace with 6 tanks.
Parliament, the Judicial Power,
and the opposition
parties are silent.
The rest of the armed forces
do not back up the action.
A little later,
Leonardo Henricksen,
an Argentinian cameraman,
films his last shot.
He doesn't just
record his own death.
He also records, two
months before the final coup,
the true face of a sector
of the Chilean army.
Watch out!
Watch out! Over there!
END OF PART ONE
THE BATTLE OF CHILE
THE STRUGGLE OF
AN UNARMED PEOPLE
A PATRICIO GUZMAN FILM
IN MEMORY OF JORGE MUELLER SILVA
PART ONE: THE
BOURGEOIS INSURRECTION
Six months before the bombing
of the La Moneda palace,
the Chilean people are
voting to renew Parliament.
The political forces are
divided in two blocks.
On one side, the
center right opposition
made up by the Christian
Democrat and National parties.
On the other, the
left wing parties,
grouped together in Popular Unity,
and supporting Salvador Allende.
The left, united, will
never be defeated!
The left, united, will
never be defeated!
Synch!
Cut!
Clapper!
Sir, who do you think will
win the elections on Sunday?
Well, I'm apolitical.
- Ma'am, who do you think will win?
- The opposition has to win.
The opposition?
By what percentage?
I've got no idea.
Frei! Jarpa! Labb!
All three are rubbish!
Frei! Jarpa! Labb!
All three are rubbish!
Who will you be voting
for in the elections?
For Volodia Teitelboin
and Eliana Aranibar.
How do you see the future?
We'll continue to progress
but we must keep fighting,
much more than we have done.
What can I say about Frei?
When he was in government,
I lived in a shack
that was falling down.
It was damp all the time,
and my four children
had bronchopneumonia.
I asked everywhere for help
and nobody listened to me.
But now, wherever
I go, I'm seen to,
and thanks to Allende
I've got a lovely house.
I don't have many comforts,
but we don't go hungry.
I'm retired.
I'm retired.
No government has ever
done what this government has.
Who's going to win?
Popular Unity, because the
workers have to decide Chile's fate.
What do you think of
the Christian Democracy?
I think that the Christian
Democracy is a party
which has always defended
the interests of its class,
but never the interests
of the working class.
Thank you. Over there,
Flaco. Film the drinks seller.
Excuse me, comrade.
Comrade,
who's going to win on Sunday?
I couldn't say.
- You couldn't say?
- No, sir. I've got no idea.
- Do you read the papers?
- Not a lot.
Who'll win on Sunday?
We will, the PU.
- We've got the majority.
- We'll get 45%.
Popular Unity is going to win
by an overwhelming amount.
It's the workers' government,
the people's government.
The people have
seen the benefits
that socialism brings
for all the citizens.
Thank you, comrade. Cut!
Good afternoon, Sir.
What percentage do
you give to Popular Unity?
The truth is,
Popular Unity is going to win
because we started out in 1970
with 36%,
and at the present time,
with all that we've seen,
and the people who are with
comrade Salvador Allende,
we're guaranteed
to get 43% and more.
43% and more.
Good afternoon, ladies.
Who will you vote for?
I'm voting for
Volodia Teitelboin
and Eliana Aranibar.
What percentage do
you give Popular Unity?
Over 40%.
And the food shortage?
I don't think there is one.
I haven't lost an
ounce of weight.
Recording!
Sir, what do you think
about the elections?
Popular Unity are going
to get less than 20%.
How do you see the future?
Whatever happens, we'll
still have lots of problems.
Sir, what do you think
about the elections?
- Leave me alone.
- Thank you.
What do you think
about the elections?
The opposition will win,
especially the National Party.
And the future?
Chile has to rise up with
freedom and democracy.
Good afternoon, Sir.
What do you think about
the elections on Sunday?
I think it's a plebiscite,
and on Sunday Chile is going to
decide if it wants Marxism or freedom.
How do you view the
future, after the elections?
The only solution is a
change of government.
Do you believe in elections?
Yes, of course.
Thank you.
Sir, what do you think about
the elections on Sunday?
I think that the Popular Front
is going to get a hammering
and it's going to be wiped out.
Do you believe in elections?
Yes, absolutely.
What percentages for Popular
Unity and the National Party?
30% and 70%.
- How do you see the future?
- The future?
Chile's always had
a promising future.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
Ma'am, what's your position
as regards the elections?
Jarpa and Alessandri.
What's your preference?
The National Party.
Do you believe in elections
or in other methods?
I think there has
to be a firm line.
There must never be any
question of playing with the people.
How do you view the
future, after the elections?
We have to work
hard to rebuild Chile.
Sir, who will you be voting for?
For Jarpa.
And who'll win the elections?
The elections? The
opposition will, easily.
And with what percentage?
65% at least.
And what will
happen in Chile then?
The government will have
to respect the majority.
Do you believe in elections
or in other methods?
- Elections.
- Thank you.
They should
impeach the President!
What?
They should impeach him
and throw him out on May 21!
He's destroyed the
country, ruined it,
and this is a corrupt,
degenerate government!
Degenerate, corrupt, filthy!
All those dirty communists
should get out of Chile!
On May 21, we'll
have, thank God,
the cleanest, finest
government we've ever had!
Democracy will win, and we'll get
rid of those rotten Marxist communists!
Who do you prefer
among the opposition?
Candidates? Jarpa
and Gustavo Alessandri.
- And what percentage?
- 100%.
My ideal would be 100%, but
really I think it'll be around 70%.
Power to the workers!
Comrade, what's your
opinion about the elections?
I say Popular Unity will win.
And to hell with the
"mummies" on the right!
We'll win with Popular Unity.
Here and everywhere else.
The "mummies" can drop dead!
What do you think
about the elections?
We have to fight
to get a big majority.
We who can see things
very clearly realize that
the only way to get power, given
that we've got the government,
is by winning the Chamber
of Deputies and the Senate.
What it really means is
getting a bit more power,
more power for the class.
But, even so,
it isn't the
definitive solution.
We believe that one
election more or less
won't solve the problem
and avoid the civil war.
The civil war is inevitable
and fundamental.
And it's going to happen,
because at present the classes are
becoming more and more polarized.
On one side, the bourgeoisie,
on the other, the proletariat.
That confrontation will come.
Forward without compromise!
As usual, the armed forces
guarantee order during the elections.
The opposition votes,
confident of victory.
With a two thirds
majority in Parliament,
it could remove
President Allende
by impeaching him.
For that,
they need more
than 60% of the votes.
For Popular Unity,
this is the first ballot with
all the opposition forces
since the presidential
victory in 1970.
It's also a chance
to measure their
electoral strength
after two years of
an economic boycott
imposed by Washington,
and internal opposition.
On Sunday, March 4,
at 8.00 a.m.,
voting has started.
Good afternoon, ma'am.
We're doing interviews
for Channel 13.
We'd like to know your views
and who you think will win.
- We're sorry to bother you.
- No, it's no bother.
I like Baltra. I voted for him.
- Baltra?
- Yes.
What do you think the
percentages will be?
- Do you want to come in?
- Yes, if we may.
Sir, we're doing
interviews for Channel 13.
Could you tell us how you
think the percentages will be?
- I don't know, I don't vote.
- You don't?
- You've got no preference?
- None.
You said you voted
for Baltra. At what time?
- You voted for Jarpa?
- Yes.
- At what time did you vote?
- At 11.00 a.m.
- In what commune?
- Nunoa, the National Stadium.
What do you think
of the elections today?
I think it's great,
and I think that
democracy is going to win.
What do you think will
happen in the future in Chile?
Everything will be sorted
out and we'll rebuild Chile.
Do you think the President
should be removed or not?
I couldn't say, but all
this has to be sorted out.
What did you think of Jarpa's
meeting here two days ago?
Fantastic! I saw it from here.
Did it really catch
your attention?
Of course! The crowds
and the enthusiasm,
and all very orderly.
Well, I thought it was
great, and we're going to win!
And what about the alliance
with Christian Democracy?
I think it's splendid,
really good.
You feel happy
about that alliance?
Yes, I do, because I
think it'll fix everything.
Thank you very much.
At 5.00 a.m.,
the first results
start to come in.
The Interior Minister,
General Carlos Prats,
ensures the maximum guarantees
of honesty for all the sectors.
Nevertheless,
before the count is finished,
some media are announcing
a victory for the opposition.
They don't say that
over 40% of the votes
are for the left.
The opposition,
who never doubted their victory,
celebrate the supposed
end of Popular Unity.
- What do you think of the elections?
- We're winning!
We've got over 60%!
What do you think
of the elections?
Fantastic! But we
were bound to win!
- Sir, what do you...
- Great!
I'm Argentinian and I'm
delighted that Frei has won!
It's terrific!
Chile needs a few more Freis.
Over here!
Come on, Flaco, move it!
- How do you feel about it?
- It's a great victory!
It's a fantastic success!
We're delighted!
How do you see the future?
A plebiscite, and
we'll win the elections.
Allende will have to
leave Chile immediately.
Would you impeach him?
Yes, of course.
Anyway, so long!
What do you think
about today's elections?
It's a triumph for democracy
and Chile will always be free!
What will happen now?
God forbid anything does.
All we ask is that
Chile is always free!
Are you in favor of
impeaching Allende?
Yes.
You don't think that
could cause a civil war?
- It doesn't matter.
- We've got the majority.
- What do you think of the election?
- We finally beat those bastards!
What do you think
of the election?
Very good, magnificent.
I'd just like to say that
it's really wonderful.
The PU ended up in the
garbage, to put it politely!
Who was your favorite?
Frei.
I am Alfonso Carrasco Cerda,
president of the Bank
of Chile retirement club.
I believe
that we have defended
democracy and freedom in Chile.
Would you like to
say anything else?
Yes!
Greetings to all the people who
have helped to free our country.
After midnight,
the final results spread
confusion among the opposition.
The dreamed-of number of votes
evaporates in disaster.
Popular Unity doesn't only
not lose electoral support...
It increases it.
Rejecting the calculations,
one sector of the
opposition talks of fraud
and sends its
troublemakers onto the street.
A few days later,
the Election
Examination Tribunal,
controlled by the opposition,
is obliged to confirm
the official results.
The opposition parties are very far
from the two thirds they'd dreamed of
in order to remove
Salvador Allende.
Popular Unity increase
to 43.4% of the votes,
and increase their
numbers in Parliament.
They obtain
unprecedented support
after two and a
half years in office.
For the opposition,
the swearing-in of the new deputies
marks the end of the electoral phase.
Honorable deputies,
do you swear or promise
to protect the
Constitution of the State
and defend, in the
exercise of your duties,
its true interests?
Yes, we do.
I hereby declare
you incorporated.
The aims of the present
session being completed,
it is now adjourned.
From now on, the White
House and the Chilean opposition
realize that the mechanisms of
democracy are of no use to them.
The votes won by the
Government coalition
show that the desire for social
change has not decreased,
despite the millions of dollars invested
by the North American government.
After March,
the strategy of the
democratic opposition will be,
paradoxically, that
of the coup d'tat.
HOARDING AND THE BLACK MARKEThanks to a complaint
lodged by a neighbor,
it was discovered that
here in 319 Copiapo Street,
the following stocks
were being hoarded.
20 tons of sugar,
400 boxes of toilet rolls,
500 boxes of detergent,
100 boxes of Nescaf, 100
boxes of condensed milk,
50 boxes of salmon,
large amounts of rice.
This will be sold
to the neighbors in this sector,
a large number of whom
are gathered here.
I'd say this sale will last
for approximately three days.
The Government strengthens the
Councils for Provisions and Prices.
In theory,
these are local organizations
to supervise food distribution
and report any
speculating by shopkeepers.
When the Councils
discover any hoarding,
the Government intervenes
and the products are put on sale.
In the warehouse belonging
to Mrs. Moreno Diaz,
the following goods were found.
310 packets of tea,
2 boxes of "350",
53 boxes of baby food.
All of it had been eaten
by mice.
I bought
detergent and two
little packets of tea,
because I didn't have
any more money with me.
I couldn't buy any more.
Well, I've got ten children,
and I have to waste the
whole morning looking...
We have to put an
end to the black market.
We have to close the
shops and jail the owners.
We have to do that
to scare those people
so they stop speculating.
I think there are
lots of provisions.
Look at how often we've
seen in the newspapers here
about all the tons of sugar,
all that stuff that's hoarded.
In March,
there are 3,000
COPPs in all of Chile.
In some cases, they
introduce ration cards
in order to
improve distribution.
What's the card? Can we see it?
It's my ration card.
I've got 14 rations.
I've got 2 stock cubes marked
down. No, 4 cubes, when they arrive.
If more come,
they give you more.
It's all rationed.
Coffee, milk, everything.
Can you get by on that?
Yes, we can get by.
And if we don't, then we try
to buy other things instead.
Will we collect the
vegetable you bought?
The main aims of the opposition
are to disrupt food supplies,
exhaust the reserve stocks
and sabotage harvests,
so as to increase the shortage.
Is there any oil?
I don't know if
there's any today,
but I got oil three days ago.
Would you like to say
anything to other comrades?
We're making a documentary.
I'll put up with everything
that happens so that
at least my children
can have a better future.
I approve of this government.
- Would you like to say more?
- No, that's all, thank you.
PARLIAMENTARY BOYCOTFor the opposition,
the example of the COPPs
is getting dangerous.
Congress
begins an indictment
against Orlando Millas,
the minister who
promoted the COPPs.
The opposition is using its
simple majority in Congress
to discredit the government.
Here are all the documents
which record the accusations.
In this case,
the opposition appoints
one of its deputies
to interrogate a neighbor,
a member of the COPPS.
What do they actually do?
How does this
organization COPP work?
As I think I already said,
COPP is an organization
of people, residents,
workers, housewives,
who join together and,
by a group decision,
are given the authority
to control, or
rather to oversee,
if there are sufficient
provisions or not
in their neighborhood.
That's what I'm trying to
get you to explain to me.
- Yes.
- You understand?
I'm just trying to guide you.
That doesn't mean that I'm
trying to get you to say something.
I like to be very
honest in my dealings.
If I can just
explain, I think that
the function of this
organization COPP,
is to fulfill the
role of ensuring
that people receive
sufficient provisions
for all the family groups
living in the neighborhood.
Although the opposition
fails to prove anything,
the accusation is maintained.
The procedure will be
repeated with other top officials.
The ministers either
give in or are expelled.
Through the accusations,
the opposition provokes
a conflict of powers
between Parliament and
the President of the Republic.
In all the cases, a
representative of the left
will demonstrate the legal
fragility of the accusations.
Consequently,
the Minister of State
is only responsible
for his actions to the
President of the Republic.
And he cannot be
subordinated, as regards
the appropriateness
of his actions,
to the view of the
majority in Congress.
That political judgement
is only granted to the
President of the Republic.
In the specific
case of Mr. Millas,
Minister of the Economy,
who is being indicted here,
the process of
indictment cannot be used
to pass judgement on the provisions
policy promoted by the minister,
on his price control policy,
or on the way in which he is
guiding the work of production,
provisioning,
and general distribution
of the Chilean economy.
Therefore,
not only is this
indictment invalid,
ineffective and illegal,
it is an indictment
which adulterates,
disregards and violates
the area which the Constitution
grants to the President
as regards his essential
prerogatives and authority.
Days later, in the
Chamber of Deputies,
the vote is held on
expelling Minister Millas.
In a period of three months,
the opposition remove
two of Allende's intendants
and seven of his ministers.
That is, one high ranking Popular
Unity official every ten days.
And they refuse to let us use
the laws which they
had in their hands,
and used against the people.
But then,
when we do it to defend
the legitimate government,
and the progress of the workers,
an attitude of resistance
appears in those sectors
which have all the guarantees
of the reality being
experienced by our country.
And this is a government
which isn't socialist.
It is a popular, democratic,
national, revolutionary government,
which must carry out a program
to open, as broadly and
as quickly as possible,
the path to socialism and the
transformation of our society.
LEGALITY OR ILLEGALITY
GOVERNMENT MUSRESPECT COURT DECISION
Shortly after,
the opposition
begins an indictment
against all the ministers
in the government.
This means the dismissal
of 15 ministers at one time.
However, popular pressure
forces one sector of the
opposition to pull back
and the maneuver fails.
It's the right who've
always been interfering,
trying to get us to bring
down the government.
But that'll never happen.
The workers elected this
government and it will continue,
and we'll defend it with
our lives if necessary.
If they want us on the
street, we'll be there,
and if we have
to fight, we'll fight,
as workers, in defense
of our workers' democracy.
On April 17,
the government decides to
expropriate legally another 49 industries
which are boycotting production.
In reply, Congress presents
a constitutional reform
which invalidates
almost all expropriations
already made.
The Christian Democracy
and the National Party
say that the Head of State
has no right of veto in this.
He has to promulgate the reform
and hand back the
factories without argument.
This means that Congress, by simple
majority, wants to deprive Allende
of an authority which
other Chilean leaders had.
Those men on the right
are getting huge salaries
and all they're doing
is wrecking the country.
Wrecking the country and
getting well paid to do it!
And we got a big surprise
when we saw that our
factory, our workplace,
had been completely dismantled,
because those gentlemen
had stolen all the machinery.
We don't want to have
anything to do with the bosses.
They've been dragging
their feet for a long time,
to such an extent that the companies
ended up being expropriated.
It's been proved that
the industrialists here
had started an open
boycott on production.
And we're against that.
I want this to be sorted out.
The government should
expropriate the industry
because we can't
work with the bosses.
What did they call this factory?
They called it "the jail",
because of the feudal
mentality that our bosses had.
And fellow workers
in other industries
called it "the Santa Elena
jail" because of the pressure.
On May 23, Eduardo Frei,
Christian Democrat
and ex-President of Chile,
is elected Head of the Senate.
One of his main tasks will be to
aggravate the conflict of powers.
If Allende rejects the reform,
and doesn't return the industries,
he'll be accused of
overstepping the constitution.
If he accepts, Parliament will then
have effective control of the State.
Allende considers this
position to be illegal,
and appeals to the
Constitutional Tribunal.
We understand
that at this moment
what is fundamental
is to reinforce
government policy
and conquer the instruments,
ensuring that there is
institutional permeability,
so that the
opposition understand
that they can't deny what
is vital to a government
to be able to defend Chile,
in the face of an
economic reality
which is the result, not
of errors made by us,
without denying the
ones we've made,
but of international
and national factors
which weigh heavy,
especially when a
government, like ours,
is confronted with imperialism,
and with a landowning,
banking and feudal oligarchy.
Those deputies who reject
the proposal, raise their hands.
Parliament will now seek a
definitive blockade of the government.
In the months of
April, May and June,
Congress declares a boycott
on any initiative by Popular Unity.
Result of the voting.
In favor, 52 votes.
Against, 81.
The Executive's
proposal is rejected.
The law to punish
economic crimes is rejected.
The law to create a Ministry
for the Family is rejected.
The law on readjustments and
salaries for workers is deferred,
and then got out of the way.
The law on workers'
participation in factories is rejected.
The law to create a
Maritime Ministry is rejected.
The law to set up
self-managing firms is rejected.
In the course of several months,
another 20 projected
laws lose their financing.
Nationalism!
Present!
Nationalism!
Forward!
Homeland and Freedom!
Nationalism!
Present!
This is a shock squadron
from the fascist group,
"Homeland and Freedom".
- Chile!
- One!
- Chile!
- Great!
- Chile!
- Free!
Forward Chile!
Institutional conflict alone
is not enough to
justify acoup d'tat.
It is also necessary to provoke
violence and social chaos.
That is the main aim
of this organization.
"Homeland and Freedom"
constitutes a tiny part
of the right-wing mass movement,
but its fascist ideology is
found in some opposition parties
and the armed forces.
Its leaders and ideologists
include former employees of the
U.S. information services in Chile.
Its patrons are the big
employers' associations,
the National Agriculture Society
and Manufacturing Development.
But their biggest helper is the
North American State Department.
In 1974,
some ex-officials
of that Department
reveal that at that time
the CIA had 40
first-class agents in Chile,
many of them instructors
for "Homeland and Freedom".
STUDENT DISTURBANCES
In April,
the opposition find a pretext
for continuing the social agitation.
The Government has presented
a bill on Education Reform
to democratize the old
educational structure.
Feeling itself threatened,
the opposition mobilizes
its troublemakers.
For the first time in Chile,
a large number of students
let themselves be used by
the more privileged classes.
The opposition parties,
professionals, and retailers' associations
support the street disturbances.
We won't be on the
defensive anymore.
We won't be the puppets
of reaction anymore.
Because from here on, comrades, we
have to make the questions into reality.
And we have to tackle
conflictive problems.
And we have to attack
whoever gets in our way.
And we're not going on the
streets to fight with right-wing kids.
The police and the
soldiers can see to them,
and put them out of action.
We have to see how
to confront the State.
It's a bourgeois State
which we have to overthrow.
Yesterday we saw various groups
making demands for
different things, and using
class comrades,
the Chilean reaction,
in what were really
subversive situations.
In other words,
what comrades think
about the
distribution situation,
about the law on
agrarian reform,
about the nationalization
of monopolies.
Those are fundamental questions
which we, as workers,
should consider,
and which we wish to
resolve with a plebiscite,
and not be dragged
along by the reactionaries,
with effective
mobilization of the workers.
We can't accept this
escalation day after day.
We've been
observing this situation,
and we said in October
that they were going
to prepare another one.
They're repeating themselves,
they don't even have
the initiative to change
what they did in October.
And we, the workers,
must go out now and stop
these people for once and for all,
and demand a plebiscite
on fundamental issues.
How are we going to
resolve the transport problem?
Every time they have
to attack the government,
they bring transport to
a standstill, don't they?
Because they
control the drivers.
Most of the drivers
have no class awareness.
They aren't in any union.
All they worry about is their
percentage, how much they'll earn.
They don't go to union meetings.
So there aren't many
unions doing well in transport.
Even the ones doing
well are doing badly.
Given the threat of a national
commercial stoppage next week,
there should be
immediate nationalization
of distribution monopolies.
Given the threat of a boycott
on production and economy,
the government must
issue an expropriation order
against those companies
which form part of the group of 90
still not in the hands of the workers.
The working class should
be integrated immediately
into the planning
of the economy.
There is no doubt
that at this moment
the resolutions must
deal with the problems
in the transport section.
We, the workers in the
Public Works Department,
have, at this moment, got
everyone ready to march,
and parade past Congress.
Any objections to that?
- To Parliament!
- To Parliament!
We ask our comrades in
the Public Works Department
if they can obtain means
of transport, trucks, vans,
in order to transport groups of
workers who will be leaving the factories.
There are trucks
and buses, comrade.
The left, united, will
never be defeated!
On April 27,
the Trades Union Council
calls a mass meeting in
support of the government.
They try, by means of
the workers' presence,
to prevent the
streets of Santiago
from being taken by
opposition agitators.
Power to the workers!
We want popular power!
The left, united, will
never be defeated!
The left, united, will
never be defeated!
People! Consciousness! Arms!
We want popular power!
Demonstrators passing the offices
of the Christian Democrat Party
are suddenly attacked.
Shots fired from the
windows kill one worker
and seriously
injure another six.
The people who provoked
us are responsible for this.
- And the dead and wounded?
- Who are they? Where are they?
One person was shot dead
and six wounded. We saw it all.
Are we supposed to let
people come and walk over us?
Who protected us?
You're justifying that death.
And you're speaking in the
Christian Democrat offices!
You can't push me around in
the Christian Democrat offices!
Senator, why did
you hit a journalist?
Fascists!
Where did they fire
from? At what time?
That isn't clear. It's
being investigated.
Anyway, it's the magistrate
who's in charge here.
In this case,
the police and everything
to do with public order
is subject to the
magistrate and the court.
That's what the code
on penal procedure says.
The influence of
the violent groups
is obvious in the
Christian Democrat Party.
Senator Juan Hamilton, from
the party's conservative wing,
refuses to make a statement.
- A moment's silence, comrades!
- Everyone keep calm!
Everyone move back a
bit, please, move back!
Comrade Jos Ricardo Ahumada!
Present!
Comrade Jos Ricardo Ahumada!
Present!
Comrade Jos Ricardo Ahumada!
Present!
- With your example...
- We shall overcome!
Please, comrades,
don't push! Don't push!
Popular Unity against
the criminal "mummies"!
Popular Unity against
the criminal "mummies"!
Comrade Jos Ricardo Ahumada!
Present!
30,000 people
turn up on April 30
to say farewell to
the dead worker.
Reckoning that
conditions still aren't right,
the opposition end this
period of street disorder.
The attempts to punish those responsible
for Ahumada's death are unsuccessful.
Justice acts with
obvious slowness.
The Supreme Court
ensures that the
sentence is never enforced.
OFFENSIVE BY THE
EMPLOYERS ORGANIZATIONS
Once again, our organization
is gathered together,
summoned by the
national leaders,
to study price increases
and establish our new tariffs.
Our first speaker
is the president of Chile's National
Confederation of Taxis and Buses,
Ernesto Cisterna Solia.
- An eye for an eye!
- A tooth for a tooth!
I think that this assembly
should say to the minister
that we are tired of seeing such
ineffectiveness and such inability
in solving our problems.
During the three
years of Popular Unity,
the American Institute
for Free Trade Unionism,
financed indirectly by the CIA,
directs its work towards
the Chilean organizations.
In April, 108 managers,
mainly from the
transport sector,
receive training in
the United States.
We mustn't confuse
awareness with patience.
We don't want politics with the
tariffs or with the organization,
but we need to survive.
We have to defend our interests,
and to do that we
must fight as one man,
with our National
Board of Owners,
and go out on the street
in such a way that they see us
and feel the strength
of our organization,
with bravery, with
fervor, but above all else,
as Chileans, and with dignity.
We can't keep on patching and
mending and wearing ourselves out.
The vehicles have got old,
and the bent backs of many of
the owners have grown old too!
Generations of them!
It's a matter of putting food
on the table, of surviving,
of holding out,
of being able to
save this sector,
because with that we are saving
the jobs of millions of people
who have faith and
confidence in this working man,
in this ill-treated transporter.
He's the person
who's building Chile!
He's the revolutionary!
Who can deny
that the moment has come for
the entire Chilean transport sector
without distinction,
fighting on a single platform,
to propose this
national stoppage!
In May, one third of
collective transport
is immobilized by a lack of
spare part from North America.
In 1973,
importations from the United
States drop to 15% of the total.
To protest against this state of
affairs, but also to aggravate it,
the owners of private
buses call an indefinite strike.
The state company,
with only 600 vehicles,
has to do the work normally done
by Santiago's 5,000 private buses.
To help ease the
effects of the strike,
workers bring factory
trucks onto the streets.
What do you think of the strike?
We all have to fight so that
the government
can have confidence
thanks to the workers.
- We must fight the strike.
- How do we do that?
By staying united.
- How far did you walk?
- About 70 blocks,
with my two kids.
What do you say?
I think that this is the moment
when the people
have to demonstrate
the capacity for struggle
which they have developed in
the course of this whole process.
And it doesn't matter what kind
of sacrifice we have to make,
as long as we can keep
working and producing.
Anyone else want to speak?
The "mummies" are waging
this campaign against us.
We're living on very poor wages,
but the workers must have
faith in this and be aware.
What do you say?
I'm a student, and I think
they're trying to paralyze the
country by any means they can.
In case of a possible
total transport stoppage,
the left-wing
carriers join together
and create the Patriotic
Recovery Movement.
Because of their support
of President Allende,
they are attacked
for being blacklegs.
I will respond to the
loyalty of the people
with the loyalty of
a militant socialist,
and as president of Chile
I will resolutely carry through
the program of Popular Unity.
We need
better and greater control
in the distribution of produce.
Listen carefully.
This is for those who believe
that I hesitate at times.
We must strengthen
popular power,
centers for mothers,
neighborhood groups,
the Councils for
Provisions and Prices,
the community commandos.
They must be strengthened!
The industrial belts
must be strengthened,
not as parallel forces
to the government,
but as popular forces united
with the forces of your government,
the popular government.
On May 28, retired
officers of the high command
send a public letter
to President Allende,
stating that the armed forces
will consider
themselves autonomous
should the government
violate the constitution.
Shortly before,
the high command had spoken out
against the proposed educational reforms.
On that occasion,
Rear Admiral Ismael
Huerta declared,
"We cannot accept
that future soldiers
"arrive at the barracks
converted into Marxists."
Since 1950,
more than 4,000 officers have
been on training courses in the U.S.
and in the Panama Canal area.
Over the two and a half
years of Allende's government,
the Pentagon has given them
45 million dollars
in military aid.
That is,
more than a third of all the
aid received in the last 20 years.
COPPER STRIKE
For the first time,
the opposition wins over
a sector of the proletariat.
In the "El Teniente" mine,
a group of workers go on
strike for economic reasons.
Traditionally well paid,
the copper miners are the
aristocracy of Chile's workers.
For the opposition,
the aim of the conflict
is to paralyze the mine.
20% of Chile's earnings
are produced here.
Fellow workers,
as well as Channel
13 television,
we have French
Television with us.
Comrades, hold up
your employment cards.
Let's show them that
we're all workers here.
"El Teniente", united,
will never be defeated!
First, let's solve the problems
of the "El Teniente" workers,
and then, if there's money left,
we can solve the other
problems in the country.
But the people we
represent come first,
then the rest of the country.
That's all, thank you.
We want a solution!
We requested permission
from the union leaders
to use this stage.
As workers
for Popular Unity,
we disagree
with the methods you're using.
We have said at all times
that above all other things,
the most important
is workers' unity.
We defend it here,
and within the party
alliance of Popular Unity.
You will be wondering
why we're here.
We support a return to work,
but not in factions.
Comrades,
we support a return to work.
Comrades.
Comrades.
We can't accept
that you continue to
use the policy of division.
No politics here!
Strike!
That same day,
and at the same time,
more than half of the 8,000
miners continue working.
Most of them work
overtime to ensure
that the basic work
in the mine is done.
Caletones has a staff
of almost 2,000 workers,
between office
staff and laborers.
And today, we've got
750 workers working.
So the industrial
part is almost normal.
And that means that
tomorrow, or Monday,
there will be total normality.
What should be pointed out here
is that there is a sector
which is fighting against a wall.
Their thesis is completely
out of all jurisdiction.
Even history shows
that the workers here
fought tirelessly
against the Yankee
until we took the
industry from him,
nationalized it,
and now it's Chile's.
It belongs to the Chileans,
not to any individual.
But it's our
responsibility to run it.
The workers are assuming
an almost total awareness.
It is only those in opposition
who insist on believing
that there are
left-wing bosses here.
No, there aren't.
The Christian Democracy has
got trade union representation here,
and a representative
on the Board of Directors.
So we're asking the left-wing
media, especially Channel 7,
who have given very little
importance to those still working,
to come and see for themselves
so that they'll stop lying.
You've started very
well, for a simple reason.
You've all come here to
film, and that's important.
But the press, Channel 13,
"El Mercurio", all those papers,
are just looking
at Rancagua city.
They think that's "El
Teniente", and that's bad.
Those of us who
are working at present
need this situation
to be sorted out,
not for the personal
benefit of the workers,
but for the benefit
of all Chileans.
You can take any
worker here and ask him.
Ask any of them.
Do you think you're dividing
the "El Teniente" workers?
No, none of us
want to divide them.
It's the enemy
who's dividing us.
- The enemy?
- The right.
They want us to
fight among ourselves.
The other day, the
strike leader said
that if blood had to
flow, blood would flow.
They want confrontation.
We have never, at any moment,
wanted to divide the workers.
The fact of the
matter is, I'm 43 now,
and I've spent a long
time, 27 years, in the mines.
I've seen all the
governments we had before,
and they all acted very
harshly with the working classes.
As that comrade said, I think
this government has been soft.
It's soft because it's a
workers' government.
But if we'd had a government
of another tendency,
at this moment a few
of us would be dead,
and there wouldn't be many
left-wing comrades here.
They'd all be right-wing.
We received threats,
they blocked the roads,
we couldn't get down the other
day, but we turned up for work.
We came down on
foot, went cross-country,
but at least we
managed to keep working.
There were even comrades
who worked three shifts
because you have to
keep the mine going.
We had agreed
to keep on working,
because there are certain machines
which can't be allowed to stop.
This job's got a
lot of responsibility.
We've got a lot of comrades
who still don't know
why they're stopped.
They don't know. That's a fact.
They're fighting with the police
because some guy
sets himself up as leader
and he puts on a show for them
and they follow him
like he was Christ.
I think we have to make our
fellow workers more aware,
and that's what our leaders
have to start doing now.
That's the reason
behind everything.
How can you prepare people?
Well, just by doing
what we're doing now,
acting as we are
in this stoppage.
I think I'm behaving well.
I'm responsible for what I do.
I'm independent, I don't
have any political party.
My interest is in working
for the progress of Chile,
not for my pocket.
I'm aware that if I
have a good wage
then it's only fair
that other workers
should have a good wage too.
Today, over 300
workers have turned up.
On the 03.00-11.00
shift, we had over 300.
It's getting back to normal.
The number of workers turning up
at their job goes up to 61% on May 7.
The mine's trains are
working day and night.
Strike!
The strikers, encouraged
by the opposition,
reject two settlement proposals
and demand a doubling
of salary readjustments.
Why are you striking?
We're demanding the 41%
that the company owes us.
How many days has it been?
It's been 21 days now.
What's going to happen?
It'll have to be settled
today or tomorrow.
Is this to do with
unions or with politics?
It's never had anything
to do with politics.
There's never been a politician
or a minister
or a deputy involved in this.
We're just workers
defending our rights.
And I think we have to win
because we elected our President
so that he'd defend
workers' rights,
not so that he'd
come and criticize us
when we ask for something.
- You support the President?
- Yes, I do.
The strike is damaging
the government.
Of course it's damaging it,
but I think that in all
these 21 days of striking,
they should at least
have settled the strike.
Into the square!
The strike leaders
need to have victims
so they can accuse the
government of repression.
For that reason, the police get
orders to act with the greatest caution.
As the police retreat
despite the stone throwing,
there is confusion.
While some want
to continue the fight,
others think it better to seize
the mining company's offices.
Let's seize the company!
I spoke to the governor
because I don't want any death.
- Who represents the workers?
- We do!
The leaders are over there!
And I also...
I also requested...
I also requested, comrades,
that with the same responsibility
as that of the "El Teniente" workers,
we are asking the
police forces here
that they should maintain
the same composure.
I asked them
that they should maintain
the same composure, comrades.
And now,
I want...
I want to say here this morning
that in the meeting
which we had with the
President of the Republic
on the 19th
I spoke to them
as an older brother
or a comrade would have done,
and I told them clearly
how serious it was
to stop the production
of copper now,
when we need more earnings,
when we don't have
the financing we need,
when we may not be able
to fulfill some
essential commitments.
At this moment,
especially when
the price of copper
has reached a
satisfactory level,
at this precise moment,
"El Teniente" is paralyzed,
just when it had achieved
an extraordinary output.
I spoke to them like a comrade,
with tenderness, with
respect, with affection.
Nevertheless,
economic criteria were stronger,
and so "El Teniente"
is at a standstill,
and that means
the loss of millions of
dollars for the country.
There could have been a solution
that certainly would have cost
less than a day's production.
But that would have
set a fatal precedent.
A readjustment on
top of a readjustment.
Today, I ask them
from here to understand
that being a copper worker
in this country is a privilege,
from a patriotic and
revolutionary point of view.
They are the workers who must
preserve the essence of our country.
We depend on copper
to be able to buy spare
parts, raw materials,
inputs, foodstuffs
and medicines.
I ask them from here, as
revolutionary comrades,
to reconsider their attitude.
We will propose solutions
which will mean more income
on the basis of producing more
copper and greater productivity.
I uphold our
revolutionary awareness,
and I tell them that I have
faith in the Chilean worker
who cannot forget imperialist
aggression and internal conspiracy!
The copper worker and
the agricultural worker
have to unite to defend
the future of Chile,
threatened from without
and hounded from within!
In the "Chuquicamata"
mine, on May 16,
the workers reject a stoppage
in solidarity with "El Teniente".
The same happens
in the "El Salvador" mine.
The opposition
fail in their attempt
to spread the strike
to other copper mines.
On June 6,
the strikers send a
commission to Santiago.
Congress, which had justified
oppression of workers in other times,
opens its gardens
to give the miners
money and supplies.
Parliament issues a statement,
which has no legal basis,
saying the miners are right.
And meanwhile,
donations continue to arrive.
For the wealthy sector,
helping the striking miners
has become an obligation.
I am firmly convinced
that this conflict
will have international
repercussions,
because here
what is at stake
is the firmness of the workers
in defending their conquests.
And on the other side
is the position of the
Supreme Government,
which, until this moment,
had turned a deaf ear
to solving this problem.
And the only culprits
of the prolongation of
these 37 days of strike
have got names.
It is a product
of the incapacity
of the ministers responsible
for mining and labor,
and of the copper bureaucrats.
For the first time,
a labor leader is received
in the Catholic University.
When 65% of the
miners at "El Teniente"
and 10% of the clerical
staff are back at work,
the leader Guillermo Medina
comes to receive the support
of the children of the well-to-do.
Workers and students,
forward together!
Workers and students,
forward together!
Down with incompetent
government!
The Catholic University students
become the main
agitators of the stoppage.
While the strike
eases in "El Teniente",
the opposition
politicize the conflict.
In Santiago, the
organization "Feminine Power"
starts to gather funds
for the miners' wives.
A large section of
the middle class,
consciously or unconsciously,
starts to join the
ranks of fascism.
- Nationalists!
- Present!
- Nationalists!
- Forward!
- National Front!
- Homeland and Freedom!
- Chile!
- One!
- Chile!
- Great!
- Chile!
- Free!
At the same time, in the
mining city of Rancagua,
shopkeepers,
professionals and carriers
call a stoppage in
solidarity with the strikers.
On June 10,
the opposition occupy the
city's radio station by force.
As Rancagua is too small to cause
any stir in the now lessening conflict,
they decide to
move to the capital.
On June 15, 3,000 strikers
arrive at the head office
of the Christian Democrat
Party in Santiago.
They make up approximately
25% of the mine employees.
Christian Democrat Youth!
The opposition calls
out its troublemakers.
The government responds
with a police presence
and the mobilization
of its militants.
Workers collaborate with
the police to impose order.
The agitators
provoke the police.
The left-wing workers
dismantle the barricades.
Come on, we have to clean
up the streets, comrades!
At midday,
the Popular Unity supporters gather
in front of the La Moneda palace.
The street battle
will go on until night.
VIOLENT CITY
Allende, Allende,
the people will defend you!
I'm here because I've
got class consciousness.
I'm here with my class comrades
defending the workers' government,
to the death, if necessary.
Let's create popular power!
I've been here since 10.00 a.m.,
firstly because
of my convictions.
I'm the father of 12 children.
I know this government's
fight isn't for me.
I don't have many days of
struggle and sacrifice left.
It's for my children.
What we're defending
is constitutional power.
We're against fascism.
We support the
popular government.
We think that what's going
on now is a just struggle.
We're here to defend
the position of all workers.
We don't want that,
because of a privileged group,
like the "El Teniente" miners,
this government
should have problems.
We'll defend this government's
position to the last consequences.
Comrade, why are you here?
I'm Chilean,
and I have to defend
Allende's government.
It's the people's government.
We can't put up with
fascism anymore.
It has to be stopped
now, for once and for all.
It's what the people want.
Wherever you go,
people want the same.
We've had enough of those idlers
getting paid for nothing in Congress!
That's the opinion
of all the workers,
of all the people
in the villages.
And we have to be
tough on speculators!
They have to approve
the law on economic crimes
so we can jail the
thieves and hoarders!
Do you want to
say anything else?
I've said enough.
- Popular Unity!
- We shall overcome!
The next day,
the last strikers are loitering
outside the Christian Democrat offices.
Many are returning
to Rancagua tonight.
A symbolic group goes
to the Catholic University.
In "El Teniente", 93% of the
staff have gone back to work.
On June 21, the
Trades Union Council
organizes a demonstration
of force against fascism.
Let's create popular power!
"PU", and no compromise!
Popular Unity against
the criminal "mummies"!
Popular Unity against
the criminal "mummies"!
Let's create a popular militia!
Let's create a popular militia!
Power to the workers!
If you don't jump,
you're a "mummy".
Via the "Voice of the
Homeland" transmitters,
we have the first
worker of the nation,
the President of the Republic,
comrade Salvador Allende.
While half a million demonstrators
gather in the center of Santiago,
nearby, watched by the police,
the last strikers
watch the event
from the roof of the
Catholic University.
I maintain
that never
in our history
was there an event
of the magnitude
and content of this one.
One has had to
innovate in all methods
to be able
to have even approximately
a dimension
of the extraordinary,
spirited and enormous multitude
which is filling the streets,
Moneda, Agustinas,
Amunategui,
Ahumada, Morand,
Hurfanos,
Teatinos,
most of the Alameda,
and the column which
set out from Tajamar
has still not been
able to arrive,
likewise the column
from Vicuna Mackenna.
Never in the history of Chile
were the people more
combative and more present!
We can feel history here!
We are reinforcing
our right to build
a future
of justice and freedom,
to make our way
towards socialism!
A week later, the
copper strike is over.
On June 28,
the 500 miners occupying
the Catholic University
withdraw in small groups.
In all, the conflict
has lasted 76 days,
and has cost the
state millions of dollars.
With this strike over,
Allende's adversaries
have tried almost everything
to topple his government.
They have one last resort.
The next day, June
29, at 9.10 a.m.,
the Number Two armored regiment
attacks the La Moneda
palace with 6 tanks.
Parliament, the Judicial Power,
and the opposition
parties are silent.
The rest of the armed forces
do not back up the action.
A little later,
Leonardo Henricksen,
an Argentinian cameraman,
films his last shot.
He doesn't just
record his own death.
He also records, two
months before the final coup,
the true face of a sector
of the Chilean army.
Watch out!
Watch out! Over there!
END OF PART ONE