A look at the epic events in Chile during 1925 which saw strikes, massacres, coups, elections, and a new constitution. The background of which was saltpeter and the rivalry between imperialism for dominance of the continent, its resources, and markets. Penelon was a figure with a long history in Argentine politics, central to the early Communist Party of Argentina before his 1927 expulsion, and first head of the Latin American Bureau of the Comintern.

‘Chile and Anglo-American Imperialism’ by Jose Penelon from Communist International. Vol. 2 No. 23. September, 1926.

CHILI used to be a semi-British colony. British and German capitalists owned the greater part of the mines and heavy industry. Since the war, forth American capital has developed very rapidly.

Little by little America has begun to supplant the former predominating British influence.

“La Defensa Obrera,” organ of the Tocapila Communists, writes on this subject: “British capital owns four railways in the salt region (the North). It also exploits saltpetre. Its great industrial enterprises receive big profits and secure all kinds of concessions. Large commercial stores and numerous banks are dependent upon British capital. Together with American capital they have an absolute monopoly of corn exploitation. They also monopolise the exploitation of wool (in the Southern region), which is of considerable importance in the country.

“British finance exercises widespread influence by means of loans. From 1885 to 1912, British capital provided £35,610,000 to Chili in loans as against £5,246,400 provided by German bankers. After 1912 the American bankers succeeded the British bankers. In 1921 and 1922, in these two years alone, American bankers issued loans amounting to 33,628,678 dollars.”

In the commercial enterprises in Chili, British capital in 1916 was represented in 143 enterprises with a capital of 14,563,140 Chilian pesos; in 1919, in 205 enterprises with a capital of 42,136,736 pesos. America, which in 1916 was represented by 68 enterprises with 9,274,504 pesos, in 1919 was represented by 97 enterprises with a capital of 46,985,462 pesos.

America has taken the place of Great Britain as supreme in the export and import trades. During the war, America developed trade with Chili on an enormous scale. To-day this competition is proving ruinous for England, which cannot regain its privileged pre-war position.

British and American capitalists have played an important role in recent events in Chili. British bankers financed and supported the coup d’etat against President Alessandri, the military dictator of the country. The subsequent military movement which overthrew the dictatorship of Altamirano received the financial support of the American banks.

The present intervention of the United States in the question of Tacna and Arica is a proof of the growing influence of imperialism over Chili, and the political consequences which may accrue from the economic domination of the United States over the South American countries.

The Working Class and the Poor Peasants.

The position of the working class in Chili is very favourable for widespread Communist agitation. The standard of living is very low. The average wages of the workers, according to the Labour Federation, may be estimated at about eight Chilian pesos; these wages are absolutely inadequate. We get this average by taking the wage basis as 5-15 pesos per day, which are the current wages in industry. Only a very small number of workers get a wage higher than 15 pesos.

The workers’ conditions as far as hours, housing, etc., are concerned are no better. Unemployment periodically attains great proportions in relation with industrial crises, especially in the mines. Energetic agitation is being carried on throughout the whole country at the present time about the housing question.

In agriculture the situation is also bad. According to the organ of the Labour Federation and the Communist Party of Tocopila, the existence of the corn monopoly is making itself felt. The position of the small peasants, owners of plots of land insufficient to provide for their own needs, is a very clear indication of the situation in agriculture.

In certain regions the workers lack the most elementary guarantees of meeting and association; the capitalists are real feudal lords, and Communist propagandists very often have to overcome innumerable obstacles in order to get into contact with workers who are victims of the bosses or of governmental reaction.

The miserable living conditions which are quite worthy of the name generally given to the Chilian proletariat–the “Roto” (the ragged)–are the essential corollary of this regime of exploitation. Illiteracy is widespread and 60 per cent. of the population can neither read nor write; drunkenness is an absolute pestilence. The cost of living has reached tremendous proportions. Recently the bourgeoisie demanded a revision of the taxes on the import of Argentine cattle which resulted in the price of a kilo of meat rising fabulously: five pesos a kilo, i.e., almost the equivalent of one day’s work for a great number of workers.

The terrible consequences of this situation of the working class and the poor peasants find their expressions in infantile mortality (under one year); in some districts this is one-third of those born, and throughout the country as a whole there are 264 deaths under one year out of every thousand births. Tuberculosis is rampant, and so also are innumerable other diseases of an epidemic nature, which are the result of the bad living conditions of the poor classes.

The Middle Classes and the Intellectuals.

Among certain strata of the middle class there is discontent caused by the constant aggravation of their economic position. The discontent of the petty bourgeoisie, the bureaucrats and the intellectuals is an important factor, which causes the bourgeois parties to follow a demagogic policy by seeking support amongst the working class and the discontented elements of the middle classes. Amongst the intellectuals there are some who sympathise with the working class. A section of the students also supports the working class struggle.

The financial situation in Chili, which was most difficult after the last crisis in the saltpetre industry (1921-22), the principal source of State revenue, does not promise the bureaucracy a flourishing future. The discontent even extends as far as the army. These political conditions are exploited by big American finance capital, which uses them to cover up the struggles of capitalist antagonism and to try to establish effective domination over its imperialist opponent.

The students, like in many South American countries, play a more or less revolutionary role, although at the bottom it is a movement with liberal-bourgeois tendencies. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the process of these class differentiations has not attained the same degree as the European countries and that there are fairly large numbers of students at the universities from proletarian or semi-proletarian families. As this process of proletarianisation of the liberal professions increases, and the position of the poor students deteriorates, the university gradually assumes a more distinct class nature, but at the same time produces a reaction among the students and the poor professionals, pushing certain strata into the ranks of the proletariat and evoking amongst them a movement of more or less radical tendencies, often of an anarchist nature, but which may be characterised as petty bourgeois revolutionism.

These elements play a fairly important role in the political life of Chili. The demagogic policy of the bourgeois parties, such as the Radical party, and the Democratic party find their best interpreters among these elements. A certain number come near to the Communist Party, the more easily since the latter has not yet completed its transformation into a real Communist Party and retains much of the prejudice and confusion of Social Democracy.

The Political Situation.

The political situation in Chili is very interesting. We are witnessing a change in the decisive holding of power, in which all the classes (particularly the big owners of the saltpetre mines) represented by British capital, are being replaced by the liberal bourgeoisie subjected to American capital. This liberal bourgeoisie conducts a demagogic policy in order to find support amongst the working classes and poor peasants.

The antagonistic struggle between the bourgeois classes has led to the decomposition of the old political parties and the commencement of a new regrouping; this has been transformed into a struggle for power and has disorganised the army.

This open struggle was caused by the triumph of the liberal bourgeoisie, which conducted a demagogic policy and looked for support amongst the working class; with the triumph of the President Alessandri.

This group was supported by American capitalism, which was most interested in destroying the power of the old bourgeoisie, consisting mainly of big proprietors and British capitalists.

The military coup d’etat of Altamirano was only an attempt to retain power in the hands of these big proprietors and British capitalists, who were an obstacle to the development of American influence. He was supported and financed by the British bankers; but those classes which formerly played a decisive role in the State were not in a position to go on ruling, or to obtain concessions which favoured their interests as opposed to the interests of the bourgeois strata of industry and trade, who for the most part were under American influence. The owners of saltpetre mines particularly exploited by the British demanded to be exempted from the export taxes, one of the most important resources of the State (71,973,870 pesos out of 317,314,652, without counting the State railways). Their plea was based on the crisis in the saltpetre industry. Naturally, these taxes would have been replaced by other taxes on other industrial and commercial branches.

This concession was not made. The supporters of the first coup d’etat wanted to follow this policy. But it was a policy which was impossible to carry out.

Very quickly a second military coup d’etat brought back Alessandri to power. Once more the bourgeoisie, middle industry and trade supported by American capital, got into power. The working class played a very important role in this new coup d’etat.

The demagogic policy of the bourgeoisie and the political crisis which followed caused very great agitation amongst the working class. The working class masses appeared a decisive force; at some moments one had the impression that the revolutionary proletariat would succeed in getting a majority in the Constituent Assembly. A closer tie was established between the students and the workers, and naturally, in order to defend their class interests, the various bourgeois classes had to try to make an alliance against the proletariat. The reaction first of all attacked the saltpetre workers of the North, the biggest masses of concentrated and organised workers, who were assuming an ever increasingly revolutionary attitude. This reaction destroyed the organisations and temporarily paralysed Communist activity. It also led to an increase in the exploitation of these masses by the saltpetre capitalists.

The Alessandri Government shot down the workers who had brought it into power, in favour of those who had made the first coup d’etat and dismissed Alessandri from the presidency in order to set up the military dictatorship.

The Referendum for a Constitution.

Amongst the projects for new “working class” legislation characteristic of the demagogic policy of attracting the working masses employed by the Alessandri Government, Alessandri has put forward plans for a new constitution, to set up a “strong” government in Chili, in place of the military government which has been making itself more unpopular everyday.

This new constitution establishes a form of government invested with extraordinary powers which annul all possibility of control. All other powers, including judicial power, are merely instruments in the hands of the president. At the plebiscite for this draft constitution the Communist, Radical and Democratic parties tame out in opposition, forming a kind of united front under the banner of parliamentary government. Governmental pressure, especially by the military element, was very great; the arrest of Communists, martial law in the Northern provinces, all possible measures to prevent propaganda against this project were brought into play. The results of this referendum, which cannot be taken as an indication of forces, were as follows: 127,509 votes for the Alessandri project; 6,825 votes for the Communist-Democratic-Radical opposition; 1,249 abstentions. But, we repeat, this result is not an effective expression of forces, as it was a put-up election.

At the time when the working class represented an immediate danger for the struggling bourgeois classes, who feared the consequences of this political crisis, the bourgeois fractions sought to come to an agreement. The relation of forces amongst the bourgeois classes separated from the proletariat did not permit a decisive triumph of one or the other. This was behind Alessandri’s attempt to form a single convention of all parties to propose a single candidate as president of the Republic. The Communists decided to participate in this convention to prevent the triumph of a military candidate.

After the regime of reaction against the Communists and the destruction of their organisation, printing press, etc., the proletariat seemed less dangerous to the bourgeois classes. The attempt at a united convention did not succeed. The bourgeois antagonisms were too great. The Radicals decided to maintain their candidature for the Presidency. This is probably the strongest party representing the Liberal bourgeoisie, and its action scotched the possibilities of arriving at an agreement.

The military forces once more had to play a decisive role. The War Minister, Colonel Ibanez, who had taken active part in the January coup d’etat (the recall of Alessandri to power), decided to renounce Alessandri who handed over his position to his old enemy in the presidential election, Luis Barros Borgono. The latter remained president.

The War Minister, Colonel Ibanez, is now a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic; it was this fact combined with the fact that Ibanez refused to hand in his resignation to the \Var Ministry that provoked the resignation of Alessandri.

Working Class Agitation and Social Legislation.

The Alessandri government, in accordance with its demagogic policy, made promises of the most advanced social legislation in order to satisfy the working class, which played a very important role in all these events. But this social legislation was really meant to increase the exploitation of the workers and to give the State new pretexts to augment the bureaucracy. A law on housing conditions, one of the most serious problems of the working class, was a cause of great discontent amongst the masses, who demanded that it really be put into force as this law had so far only remained on paper.

The Labour Federation has shown up the real essence of the law on compulsory insurance for illness, disablement and old age enforced by President Alessandri.

According to the calculations of the paper “Justicia,” this law will decrease wages by 2 per cent. monthly and the wages of the Northern mine workers by 3 per cent. While giving no real advantages to the workers, like most bour­geois laws in general, it is destined to bring the State n3,200,ooo pesos, per year. In 1924 the budget deficit was 131,449,033 pesos.

The bureaucracy, which in Chili is very numerous, has been increased by almost 2,000 for the purpose of applying this law. The 3 per cent. which the bosses must pay will only be a new burden on the workers, as is pointed out in a number of convincing examples in the manifesto of the Labour Federation. The advantages brought by this law are really absurd. Pension after 65 years; medical aid, pensions to invalids, to the extent of 50  per cent. or more according to the number of years during which this 2 per cent. is paid, a small sum in case of death–and that constitutes all the advantages for the workers.

In reality this social legislation, an expression of the reactionary attempts of the bourgeoisie directed against the organisations of the proletariat, pursues quite a different aim and is a symptom of the difficult financial situation of the State and of new forms of exploitation of the working masses. The State is endeavouring to bring about a cleavage in the midst of the workers, to create artificially a labour aristocracy and at the same time to increase the exploitation of the workers while creating advantages for the bureaucracy.

The social legislation of Chili has no other object; by its housing law and its law on insurance the government will only increase the ferment of the proletariat, its discontent with the bourgeoisie, and will even bring discord into the bourgeoisie, particularly amongst the petty and middle bourgeoisie, who to a greater extent than the big bourgeoisie are suffering from the direct results of the discontent of the proletariat.

Reaction in the North.

The political situation of which we have given a brief analysis, and the two coups d’etat changing the military dictatorship, evoked strong agitation amongst the working class. The discontent in the ranks of the proletariat assumed such a serious nature that it terrified the ruling party. The intelligentsia, the students, professors, etc., rallied to the workers and publicly announced their sympathy for the working class and Soviet Russia.

The Alessandri Government decided to take steps against the working class movement. The General Department of police sent a circular to all its branches informing them of the organisation of a new section. This was the “Central Information Bureau of the Social Movement” whose functions were as follows:  

Firstly, control over the organisation of societies in general and of workers’ unions and trade unions in particular. Secondly, control over the workers of these unions, over meetings and congresses with the object of getting acquainted with the resolutions and initiators of same.

Thirdly, control over the whole movement of the proletariat and over the activity of the organisations.

Fourthly, statistical data on these societies, on their membership with indication as to the social convictions they preach.

This circular is a sufficiently eloquent symptom of the fears of the government.

After a few months, in the North, in the region of the saltpetre industry, where the working masses are mainly concentrated and where they are well-organised and able, reaction attacked the working class organisations with particular force. The trade unions were destroyed; workers’ printing presses were burned and several hundred of the most active workers were killed, arrested or exiled.

In the province of Tarapaca recently the number of members of working class organisations was 12,000. In the port of Iquique, the 5,100 railwaymen have joined the federation. The new social laws and their application are evoking a number of conflicts between the administration and the railwaymen. In these conflicts the workers have got the upper hand. Throughout the whole region of the saltpetre industry a strong movement amongst the proletariat may be observed connected with the demand for increased wages, freedom of unions and distribution of the labour press. Big employers have not even permitted the application of the new social legislation; this led to a strike ending with the appointment of an arbitration commission on the proposal of the authorities. The commission worked out a collective agreement whereby certain of the workers’ demands were satisfied.

Meanwhile the workers were promised that no repressions whatsoever would be taken against the strikers. But the employers refused to observe these conditions.

A system of provocation started with the aid of which the capitalists succeeded in discharging a large number of workers, thus infringing the conditions of the collective agreement. At the same time the authorities demanded military reinforcements for the “maintenance of order.”

At the same time the electoral campaign commenced. The workers supported the electoral lists of the Communist Party. If the election had been conducted in an atmosphere of minimum guarantees of liberty, it would undoubtedly have brought the Party colossal success. This was a big threat for the capitalists who by no means wanted to be reconciled to the prospect of control by working class representatives.

Meanwhile, the workers conducted a syste1natic campaign demanding the application of social legislation which had been sabotaged by the capitalists wherever it was to a certain extent advantageous for the workers. “El Despertar,” an organ of the Communists, conducted a struggle against the monopolies and abuses of one railway company organised by British capital demanding that the railway roads under its exploitation be transferred to State hands, to end the high transport charges resulting from this monopoly.

This campaign of the Communists was welcomed with sympathy by the entire population.

The provocative conduct of the owners encountered the open sympathy and protection of the authorities. The British company was able to increase exploitation and deprive the workers of all their former gains by the aid of military authorities who destroyed the workers’ organisations.

In the Pisague Department reaction commenced. The authorities wanted to compel workers to hoist the national flag at all their meetings. The workers decided not to call general meetings until this order be withdrawn. At midnight on May 31st, without any preliminary agitation, 33 workers of this department were arrested, taken away to the port and then transferred to Quintera and embarked on a cruiser. On June 3rd, in San Antonia, a meeting of the Labour Federation was stopped; no detailed information has as yet been received about this.

The workers decided to reply to all this violence by a general 24 hours’ strike throughout the whole region, as a protest against this brutal violation of their rights.

During the strike an incident was provoked in the Corunna enterprises in which a member of the administration was mortally wounded. This served as a signal for the most savage reaction. Rumours circulated that the workers had organised a Soviet of Workers’ Deputies in the enterprise and had armed themselves with guns and dynamite. After this the military authorities did not hesitate; they brought artillery into action, killing men, women and children without discrimination. In the town of Huera, in the premises of the Labour Federation, the military authorities attacked a general meeting employing similar weapons.

The same wild reaction reigns in other enterprises in this district. Although the workers hoisted white flags as a sign of peace, the military authorities, accompanied by a member of the administration and the night watchman of the enterprise, broke in by force with a view to arresting those workers figuring in the black list. These workers were taken out, cruelly beaten up and shot. There were some cases of workers losing their reason, their sufferings being more than they could endure.

The government wrote to the General who organised this massacre: “Have recourse to the laws of the war period, in order to finish off all Communists.”

In the Party manifesto it is stated that the information spread by the military authorities about the arming of the workers is untrue. Even according to official information there were 30 workers killed, whereas not a single soldier suffered. In reality the number of workers killed or seri­ously wounded is much higher than the figure given. All this proves that there was simply a mass slaughter of unarmed and defenceless workers.

More reliable sources indicate that the number of killed and shot was close on 3,000. The number of wounded is also very high; more than 600 workers were arrested and more than a thousand exiled.

The printing shop of the journal “El Despertar” and the premises of the workers’ organisations were destroyed.

Then reaction spread over the entire region of the salt­petre industry. In Antofagasta, the Communist workers were exiled by hundreds. A trial was staged at which one of our comrades was brought up on the following charges: “While not entering into direct conflict with the Government, but with the aid of cunning and other methods, he did propagate and organise a society with the aim of overthrowing the social order, striving to bring about civil war by treason to the State Constitution and overthrowing the government in order to establish the Soviet form of rule in Chili.” On the basis of these ridiculous accusations the military court sentenced 11 comrades from Antafagasta to three to five years’ exile on the Southern Islands–noted for their terrible climate.

This monstrous sentence evoked the strongest protest even among the conservative classes. Even bourgeois politicians of the radical party had to leave the region owing to too sharp a protest against these abuses. Under pressure of public opinion, the government changed the place of exile of our comrades, but nevertheless endorsed the sentence despite the fact that everyone including one minister spoke of the corruption of the authorities of this district, who were completely under the thumb of the British capitalists.

Our comrades in Tocapila were also exiled and the paper “La Defensa Obrera” was closed down, also the journal “El Communista” in Antofagasta. In Tocapila seven Communists including four editors of “La Defensa Obrera” were deported simply on a government order. Later on they were released.

In other parts of the country, the Communist Party was also subjected to persecution, although not to the same extent as in the North. In the coal mines district quite a number of Communists have been deported.

At the present time the Party is practically illegal and the military censorship does not permit these facts to be fully described in the Communist organs which still continue to appear.

JOSEPH F. PENELON.

The ECCI published the magazine ‘Communist International’ edited by Zinoviev and Karl Radek from 1919 until 1926 irregularly in German, French, Russian, and English. Restarting in 1927 until 1934. Unlike, Inprecorr, CI contained long-form articles by the leading figures of the International as well as proceedings, statements, and notices of the Comintern. No complete run of Communist International is available in English. Both were largely published outside of Soviet territory, with Communist International printed in London, to facilitate distribution and both were major contributors to the Communist press in the U.S. Communist International and Inprecorr are an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/ci/new_series/v02-n23-1926-new-series-CI-riaz-orig.pdf