Vol. 67/No. 32 September 22, 2003

30th Anniversary of U.S.-Backed Coup in Chile

In revolution, price of

defeat is very high



(feature article)

*****

(Second part. For part one, click here)



BY ELIZABETH STONE

The Cubans recognized that one of the reasons for Washingtons fury against Allende was his well-known support for the Cuban revolution. Allende was a friend of Che and Fidel and he frequently spoke in support of Cuba in his speeches. More important, Chiles extension of diplomatic and trade relations to Cuba was the first big breakthrough against Washingtons policy of isolating Cuba in Latin America. A year later came the invitation to Castro to come as an official guest of the UP government. This was the first time that Castro was able to visit another Latin American country in eleven years. During this three-and-a-half week trip, Castro was greeted by hundreds of thousands of Chileans. He spoke to large rallies of workers, peasants, and students.

The Cubans and Castro identified themselves with the UP government and its anti-imperialist measures. At the same time, however, Castros political line for Chile, and his projection of what the workers needed to do to carry the struggle forward, was in opposition to the line of the UP leadership. This is shown clearly in the speeches he gave while he was in Chile.

Castro arrived in Chile about a year after Allende was elected, which was at a relatively early stage in the bourgeois challenge to the UP government. Nevertheless, the right-wing attacks were already underway. The first reactionary march of the upper and middle-class women took place while Castro was there, and these actions were directed, in part, against him.

In expressing his opinion on these events, Castro had to take into consideration that he was a visiting head of state and that right-wing forces were attacking the UP by claiming that he was intervening in Chilean politics. Despite this, he was able to find ways to present his view that a revolution was needed, and was possible, in Chile. To help explain this, he filled his speeches with lessons from the Cuban revolution, describing how it was that the Cuban masses were able to defeat imperialism, how the Cubans were united precisely because they were defending a system that had ended class exploitation, how the Cubans were organized in mass organizations, and how they had defeated the Batista army and the imperialist invasion, arms in hand.

Castro was always careful to make it clear that he did not think, as the UP leaders did, that the electoral victory and reforms of the UP government represented a revolution. Speaking to students at Concepcion, for example, he described what was taking place in Chile as a revolutionary process, and then he went on to say: This must be clearly understood; a process is not yet a revolution. A process is a road; a process is a stage that is beginning.

Later in the speech he said, The experience we had [in Cuba] was different from yours. I dont believe theres any easy road to revolution, but I know you Chileans will find a solution to all these problems. Of course, it is a political axiom that there can be no revolution without the total destruction of the old bourgeois state.

Castro also explained his view of the election of Allende: When Popular Unity won, there were many dangers, many obstacles. The electoral victory was like a door slightly ajar. But it was, nevertheless, a breach, an opening, a little slit if you would.

He saw this breach as part of a sharpening class struggle that would end either in revolution or a terrible defeat. This is the way he described the situation at a news conference in Santiago:

A revolutionary process or a revolutionary crisis is scientifically determined at the moment when the struggle between antagonistic interests becomes acute, when the privileged and the powerful feel that their interests are threatened to such an extent that they resort to every imaginable procedure and weapon in their effort to crush the revolutionary movement. Undoubtedly, this is the struggle that is being waged in this country now. It is obvious, and everybody is aware of it. Now then, this is unequivocal proof of what youre going through And I hope that all of you, especially all the revolutionaries, are convinced of this fact. A revolutionary process is a revolutionary process. Its a serious problem, a very hard struggle.

The price that has to be paid when a revolutionary process is crushed is a very high one. The price that nations have to pay for defeat is a very high one, and so is the price paid by the peoples movement. This is because when these processes become acute and the privileged classes, driven by hatred, are out to prevent changes in society, they resort to every procedure, even extreme violence and the most horrible crimes. We find proof of this in historic contemporary events. Mankind has been accumulating experience of this sort for almost 100 years.

Therefore in my opinion, this is a revolutionary process. And its imperative that revolutionaries realize this. The reactionaries are aware of itand how! They have their strategy and plans, a whole series of schemes instigated from the outside. One can see the CIAs hand behind many of their actions. We are more than familiar with that hand, because its been pretty active around our country for many years.

Castro constantly sought to educate those he spoke to on the rapacious and violent nature of the ruling class and imperialism, preparing them for what was to come. This was in stark contrast to Allende and the UP, who sought to reassure people about the possibility of a peaceful road. Several months after he was elected, for example, Allende explained in an interview with Régis Debray that he did not think Chile would see a serious economic attack from the imperialists:  I believe that they will not do anything of this nature; firstly because as I say, we have acted within the laws of Chile, within the Constitution. It is for this reason, Régis, that I have maintained that victory through the polling booths was the way to preempt such a policy, because this way their hands are tied.

At the end of the tour, after Castro had gotten a better first-hand view of what was happening, he became more outspoken about his warnings about the need to mobilize the masses for a revolutionary struggle to defeat imperialism and the reactionaries. His entire farewell speech, given at a mass rally in Santiago, was dedicated to this theme:

All obsolete social systems and societies have defended themselves when threatened with extinction. They have defended themselves with tremendous violence throughout history. No social system ever resigned itself to disappearing from the face of the earth of its own free will

Because, as I have said on other occasions, the revolutionaries are not the inventors of violence

What do the exploiters do when their own institutions no longer guarantee their rule? How do they react when the mechanisms they historically depend upon to maintain their rule fail? They simply go ahead and destroy them

Every revolutionary process teaches the people in a few months things which, otherwise, would take them dozens of years to learn.

This involves a question: Who will learn more and sooner? Who will develop more awareness faster? The exploiters or the exploited? Who will learn faster from the lessons of this process? The people or the enemies of the people? (Exclamations of The people!)

Are you absolutely sureyou, the protagonists in this drama being written by your countryare you completely sure that you have learned more than your exploiters have? (Exclamations of yes!)

Then allow me to say that I dont agree this time with the masses. (Applause) .

I was amazed when I heard the President [Allende] say that a very important newspaper in Washington or New York had published statements by a high-ranking government official who said that The days of the peoples government in Chile are numbered. (Boos)

I would like to point outnot that government officials rudeness, intromission, his arrogance, his offensiveness, his insolencethat its been many years since some crazy U.S. official said that the days of the Cuban Revolution were numbered. (Shouts and exclamations) .

We should ask what grounds they have for such optimism, for such assurance. What is the assurance based on? And you are the only ones who can supply the answer.

Or maybe youd be interested in hearing the opinion of a visitor who is not a tourist? Do I have your permission to give it? (Exclamations of Yes!)

All those in favor, raise your hands.

(All hands go up)

Well, in view of the permission granted me in this plebiscite (Shouts of Fidel, Fidel, Fidel!) to express my opinion on matters of concept, I say that assurance is based on the weakness of this revolutionary process, on the weakness of the ideological battle, on the weakness of the mass struggle, on weaknesses displayed in the face of the enemy. (Applause) The outside enemy, which supports the inside enemy, is trying to take advantage of the slightest crack, the slightest weakness.

In fact, I could also say that your efforts to consolidate your forces, to unite them and to increase them, have been weak.

Youre going through a period which is very special, but not a new one, in the arena of class struggle.

There are countless examples of this. Youre going through that period in the process in which the fasciststo call them by their right nameare trying to beat you out of the middle strata of the population.

There are places where I found the revolutionaries kind of hard-hit, and there are places where they even looked demoralized.

If I werent sincere, if I didnt believe in the truth, I wouldnt dare say what I have just said. It might even sound as if I were saying something that the enemy could use to his advantage, to gain ground. No! The only way in which the enemy can gain ground is by deceit, by confusion, by ignorance, by the lack of awareness about problems! (Applause)

If you want my opinion, the success or the failure of this unusual process will depend on the ideological battle and the mass struggle. It will also depend on the revolutionaries ability to grow in numbers, to unite and to win over the middle strata of the population

The people are the makers of history. The people write their own history. The masses make history. No reactionary, no imperialist enemy can crush the people! (Applause) Our countrys recent history proves it!

How did we manage to resist and why? Because of the unity of our people. Because of the strength that such unity generates.

I said that it would take two hours for us to get together 10 times as many people as there are here now. And I also say that we can mobilize 600,000 men in arms within 24 hours! (Applause)

A close unbreakable unity exists between the people and the armed forces of our country. This is why I say that we have a strong defense.

Theres one thing that the experts in war and history and the professional soldiers know, and that is that man plays a decisive role in battle, that moral factors play a decisive role in battle, that the morale of the combatant plays a decisive role in battle.

Those familiar with history and great military deeds know that when forces are united, inspired and deeply motivated, they can overcome any obstacle. They can assail and take any position and make the most incredible sacrifices.

What is it that gives our people this deep motivation in their unity against danger from the outside? The fact that, when it comes to defending our country, that country is not divided between millionaires and paupers, between wealthy landowners with all the privileges in the world and miserable peasants without land or work, living a life of poverty. The fact that our country is not divided between oppressors and the oppressed, between the exploiters and the exploited, between ladies overloaded with jewelry and girls forced to lead a life of prostitution. (Applause) Our country is not divided between the privileged and the dispossessed.

(Last of three parts)





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