Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
id594815328
For socialists in Western Europe or North America, Allende’s election showed that revolutionaries could come to power through democratic means, that socialism did not have to mean an end to political pluralism. For those in the socialist and nonaligned world, it was further evidence of a revolutionary tide gathering global strength. At the same time, Allende’s victory marked the failure of a sustained US-led effort to prevent revolution in Chile. It provoked deep concern and hostility among Latin American elites, as well as in Washington and other Western capitals, where it was feared that the Chilean example might spread to Europe.
✏️ What Allende’s victory meant to different parties around the world. 🔗 View Highlight
id594815932
socialist countries, visiting the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Yugoslavia, as well as Cuba
✏️ List of socialist countries to study followup 👓 socialism 🔗 View Highlight
id594816035
Allende’s government transformed Chile with a massive land reform, the nationalization of key industries and raw materials, and the mass construction of housing. The government expanded education and health care in a way that gave priority to the needs of women and children as the “basic unit” of society.
✏️ Socialist initiatives in Chile 🔗 View Highlight
id594816086
UP introduced equal pay and recognized illegitimate children, while also giving workers a new role in the operation and planning of the economy. The government also began providing representation and autonomy for indigenous peoples. In international affairs, Allende’s Chile pursued Latin American integration and engagement with socialist states as part of an independent foreign policy that emphasized ideological pragmatism and noninterference in the affairs of other states.
✏️ More initiatives 🔗 View Highlight
id594816199
However, UP did not control Congress, and a political stalemate gradually developed.
✏️ A barrier to progress.. a divided government. 🔗 View Highlight
id594816229
debates on the Left grew increasingly polarized, and the domestic opposition became increasingly intransigent and violent, with support from Washington and other foreign capitals. Outright terrorism, opposition marches and lockouts, and a nonstop hostile media campaign reached a crescendo. The US stranglehold on the Chilean economy tightened, as the Nixon administration found ways to turn the screws. The dark forces of imperialism and fascism seized the initiative, and eventually they acted through the military to overthrow Allende, unleashing a wave of terror and bloodshed from which Chile has yet to fully recover.
✏️ The rising opposition that culminated with the coup 🔗 View Highlight
id594817051
For Allende, true socialism meant sovereignty, and political and economic democracy. Political democracy meant pluralism, both within and beyond the popular movement. The popular movement was composed of different historical currents, including socialists, communists, democrats, and radicals, all of which had a role to play in the struggle around a central socialist-communist alliance. The challenge was to coordinate this movement and build an evolving platform of common demands that would together channel the popular thirst for change. Economic democracy meant the democratic allocation of resources to benefit the people as a whole. Together they precluded economic and political subordination to external forces, or to a domestic elite. These three pillars constitute the core of Allende’s political thought.
id594818068
His only true enemies were fascism and imperialism, and their allies in praxis within the Chilean elite.
✏️ Everyone else he would try to build unity with, educating and correcting adversaries rather than destroy them. He differentiated between people and concepts. 🔗 View Highlight