The Working-Class Vote in Chile: Christian Democracy versus Marxism

Abstract

There is abundant comparative evidence that political parties differ substantially in the support they receive from different social classes, whether or not their appeals manifestly have class content. In particular, Socialist and Communist parties, for reasons inherent in their theoretical position and political programmes, have focused their organizational efforts and agitational appeals on urban industrial workers. And, wherever such parties have gained mass followings, their predominant core resides in the working classes. 'No other party,' as Seymour Martin Lipset puts it, 'has been as thoroughly and completely the party of the working class' as the Communist Party.' Chile is the only country in Latin America (Cuba excepted) in which the organized working class in politically and socially significant and is led by Marxian socialists and communists. The socialist movement has had a political base in the working class for many decades, especially among miners, and in the 'fifties, based on growing working class support, it began to become a serious contender for political power. Between 1952 and 1956, the working-class movement became increasingly unified; on the trade union level, a central labour organization, Central Unica de Trabajadores (C.U.T.) was formed; and in the political arena a broad electoral bloc emerged uniting the major parties of the left, the socialists and communists, and several splinter parties, in a coalition called the Popular Action Front (Frente de Accion Popular-F.R.A.P.). While the organized strength of the labour movement declined under the quasi-caudillo Ibafiez regime, 1952-8, working-class militancy and combativeness rose. The number of strikes, the number of workers affected and of man-days lost were all far higher during this period than the preceding post-war years.2 From F.R.A.P.'s formation in 1956 to the present, its electoral strength has risen rapidly. In the presidential elections