Popular Unity (Chile)

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Popular Unity
Unidad Popular
Political positionLeft-wing
Factions
Centre-left to far-left
Colours  Red
AnthemVenceremos

Popular Unity (

political alliance in Chile that stood behind the successful candidacy of Salvador Allende for the 1970 Chilean presidential election
.

History

Successor to the

Party of the Radical Left, but in 1972 it joined the opposition (inside the Confederation of Democracy
).

UP's leader,

Nixon administration. The Unidad Popular coalition itself experienced political conflicts. Generally, the Communist Party, the Radical Party and later MAPU/OC advocated more cautious policies, whereas a part of the Socialist Party supported more radical changes and was often supported by MAPU and Christian Left.[1][2]

The Pact of Popular Unity (Pacto de la Unidad Popular) was signed on 26 December 1969 in Santiago by following representatives of political parties:

  • Luis Corvalán, General Secretary of the Communist Party
  • Aniceto Rodríguez, General Secretary of the Socialist Party
  • Carlos Morales, President of the Radical Party
  • Esteban Leyton, General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party
  • Jaime Gazmuri, General Secretary of the Popular Unitary Action Movement
  • Alfonso David Lebón, President of the Independent Popular Action

In August 1973 the Christian Democrats cooperated with the right-wing

Chilean coup of 1973
, the effective end of the UP government and —for 17 years— of democracy in Chile.

Allende's administration

President Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende's election in 1970 represented several important developments internationally and domestically. He was the first democratically elected socialist leader in Latin America. In contrast with Fidel Castro's armed people's revolution, Allende proposed a peaceful and legal transition to socialism respecting the constitutional order. Popular Unity had the support of the plurality of Chileans, and initially this support continued to grow. Allende was elected with 36% of the popular vote in 1970. Five months into his presidency, his approval rating had grown to 49%.[3] This was where his support peaked. Following severe inflation and food shortages Allende's popularity started to dip. With 44%., the Popular Unity progressed in the 1973 legislative election but did not win the majority. The right did not have enough congressmen to destitute Allende, the country was plunged into a political crisis on top of the economic crisis. The left-wing government and the right-wing opposition in Congress were unable to reach a compromise on economic policy. The political violence exploded during 1973 with a first attempted coup d'Etat on 29 June and the assassination of Arturo Araya Peeters, aide-de-camp of Allende, the 27 July. Finally, anti-socialist elements in the military, with support from US intelligence agencies, orchestrated a successful coup d'état on 11 September 1973. The leader of the coup, Augusto Pinochet, seized power and assassinated the leaders of the Popular Unity.

The UP's early economic success was short lived. Despite winning the presidential election, the legislative and judicial powers were still held by the opposition, making it difficult for the government to legislate. The United States, under the Nixon administration, prevented the renegotiation of national debt and placed an

embargo on goods from nationalized companies. In response to these efforts, Allende expanded the money supply, and inflation skyrocketed. Food shortages worsened as the embargo limited imports and hoarding in the black-market limited access to food.[3]

Platform

The UP promoted the peaceful transition to socialism. This primarily involved the nationalizing of certain industries and agrarian reform. The UP intended to nationalize basic sources of wealth held by foreign companies and internal monopolies. This included mining of copper, nitrate, iodine, iron, and coal; the country's financial system, especially private banks and insurance companies; foreign trade; production and distribution of electricity; air, rail, and maritime transportation; all petroleum-based goods; iron, steel, cement, and paper. Agrarian reform would include the

expropriation of latifundios, or large holdings of land. In addition to these policies, the UP promoted improved social security and public health, an improved and expanded housing sector, gender equality, and the extension of the right to organize unions.[4]

Policies

The expropriation of the first company, a textile factory, was announced on December 2, 1970. Others followed over the next several months, and the opposition congress unanimously approved a constitutional reform for the nationalization of copper and other resources, expropriating large foreign companies without compensation. There was considerable redistribution of income and falling unemployment. Only the banks resisted the UP’s attempts to nationalize them.[3]

The main beneficiaries of both Eduardo Frei and Allende Land Reform were the peasants already working the land. The process was similar to that of sharecropping, in which the owners of the land pay people to work the land. The peasants working the land keep a percentage of the profit, the rest goes to the owner. The reform policies rarely addressed the small land holders, turning them against the Allende government. Although the UP did not gain full power of the government with Allende’s election, it did gain the administrative and economic ability to limit the power of business owners through expropriations and strengthen the urban working classes and rural peasantry. One large difference between Christian Democrat and Popular Unity governments was their reactions to tomas, or seizures of land by the peasants. Frei’s government would not expropriate any land that had been seized, but Allende accelerated expropriations. This led to a massive movement to seize land. In 1967, there were 9 seizures, but in 1971, there were 1,278.[5] Half of these seizures occurred on farms below the land limit of expropriation. The government established peasant councils that were supposed to represent peasant interests. Their failure in doing this played a large role in Allende’s loss of favor among the peasantry. A series of programs, including pay equality, resulted in diminishing incentives to work, and productivity fell. The agrarian reform under Popular Unity resulted in a significant rise in peasant standard of living, an increase in peasant political awareness and activity, and the expropriation of all latifundios. It also was not as extensive, or as successful, as it was expected to be, and Allende lost their potential support.[5]

Composition (1969–1973)

Party Main ideology
Socialist Party of Chile Marxism, democratic socialism
Communist Party of Chile Communism, Marxism–Leninism
Radical Party
Radicalism
Radical Left Party (1971-1972) Social democracy
Social Democratic Party Social democracy, Social liberalism
Popular Unitary Action Movement Marxism, Liberation theology
MAPU Obrero Campesino Christian socialism, Liberation theology
Christian Left Party of Chile Christian socialism, Christian left
Independent Popular Action Left-wing nationalism, Populism

Electoral results

Chamber of Deputies
Election year # of
overall votes
% of
overall vote
# of
overall seats won
+/–
1973 1,605,170 (#2) 44.23
63 / 150
New
Senate
Election year # of
overall votes
% of
overall vote
# of
overall seats won
+/–
1973 940,512 (#2) 42.75
11 / 25
New

Symbols

  • 1969–1972
    1969–1972
  • 1972–1973
    1972–1973
  • 1973
    1973

See also

References

External links