Capitalists in Crisis: the Chilean Upper Class and the September 11 Coup

Abstract

of Chile, they mobilized the military forces and launched a campaign of repression against many of those groups and individuals who had been involved in the socialist programs of the Unidad Popular government of Salvador Allende. The junta was committed to reversing the radical social changes of the previous three years, to crushing the leftist groups which had propelled the changes brought during the Allende administration, and to destroy the system of parliamentary democracy within which this movement had come to power. The more chilling and violent aspects of the junta's rule-the imprisonments, the torture, and the executions, as well as the outlawing of political parties, the massive police searches of homes and of whole neighborhoods, and the confiscation and burning of books-were all vigorously justified by the policy of extirpating Marxism from Chile. Similarly, military and police forces were widely used to crush resistance in, and to terrorize, the many communities of worlkers and peasants who had participated in the seizing of factories and land from their former upper class owners. With these brutal attacks the military also brought an end to a rather unique era of modern history when the world's attention had been focused on a popular movement that had sought to bring a socialist transformation in a society that still retained an open and relatively democratic political system. For some the coup was seen as a great tragedy for democracy. Much less apparent than the overt repression were the many actions of the junta which demonstrated its profound commitment to the interests of a narrow coalition of the largest property owners and the representatives of the most powerful foreign corporations with investments in Chile. Many of the junta's actions appeared aimed not just at beating down the left but also at reimposing the dominance of the owners of capital in Chilean society. Shortly after the coup, the government promptly announced that several hundred enterprises seized during the Allende administration would be given back to their previous owners. The status of most of the expropriated agricultural estates was left in doubt but it was clear that some would revert to private owners. The junta also