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From International Socialism, No. 62, September 1973, pp. 29–30.
Transcribed by Christian Høgsbjerg, with thanks to Paul Blackledge.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Chile: Reality and Prospects of Popular Unity
Kate Clark
Lawrence and Wishart, £1
WHILE this book provides a useful and readable background to the Popular Unity government, the analysis of the contemporary situation in Chile is marred by the author’s adoption of the line of the Chilean Communist Party. Asserting that the Chilean Popular Unity is presently travelling the ‘peaceful road to socialism’ – an assertion that is by no means proven – the author identifies the policy of the government with that of Allende and the Communist Party, and defines the MIR (Movement of the Revolutionary Left) as a group of irrelevant ultra-leftists.
By glossing over the important differences which exist within the Popular Unity (particularly with respect to economic policy) and by not appreciating the magnitude of the economic difficulties which were becoming apparent when the book was written (early 1972), the author manages to avoid almost any serious discussion of working-class action under the Allende government. As a result of these economic problems, and of the divergences within the Popular Unity, there has been a quickening of working-class struggle that tends always to break away from the reformist tutelage of the Popular Unity. This movement has its reflection in the political crisis within the Popular Unity. Of all this, there is not a hint in Kate Clark’s book.
By discounting MIR, by not mentioning the revolutionary tendencies within certain sections of the Popular Unity, and by ignoring the working class, the author is led to the conclusion that there are no revolutionary prospects in Chile aside from the reformist leadership of the Popular Unity. This book will not prove useful to revolutionaries, either in Britain or in Chile.
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Last updated on 2 March 2015