Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

In Chile during the period of the People's Unity (Unidad Popular, UP) government (1970–3), people's power was conceived by revolutionary-oriented currents as the movement toward socialist transformation by self-organization, self-management, and the construction of participation and decision structures from below. It was a concept supported by mobilizations, organizations, and alliances of political parties, unions, students, community organizations, and peasants. From the 1960s to 1970, several workers' and community organizations emerged in Chile, especially those linked to the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), founded in 1965. The most important organizations of people's power arose in poor areas of Santiago and in industries and factories. On a theoretical level, people's power complemented the analysis and interpretation of working-class reality in Chile, giving strategic direction to the programmatic proposals of the parties of the revolutionary left. Organization, party, government, and territory became part of a new political language in the midst of a situation of institutionally radicalized political conflict, which was ultimately crushed by the coup of 1973. The traditional left, comprised mainly of the Communist Party (PC) and the Socialist Party (PS), upheld the concept of consolidating the Salvador Allende government with the support of social movements. ... log in or subscribe to read full text