The left falling asleep sleeps away from the stream

Santiago de Chile, January 29 (Prensa Latina) The founders of the revolutionary faith set objective and subjective conditions in the field.

But no revolutionary – from Lenin to Fidel Castro – waited for this moderation of conditions to start the fight. Instead, these rules became the bible of social democratic reformism, the guardian shadow of capitalism.

We are in Chile in front of the ruins of an oligarchic state. The objective conditions for the revolt of the socialist left have never been better. The clamor for a leadership that organizes and directs the social and political struggle has not found an echo in cases where initiatives are possible.

The parties – large, medium and small – and social organizations – large, medium and small – are making exits through the forum, and their emergence to reality, including in crude elections that promote the carnival of candidates that are chasing citizens.

The situation in the country is similar to the situation in the thirties of the last century. The institution of the oligarchy was in crisis. Commander of the Air Force, Marmaduke Grove Vallejo, led the coup d’état that declared June 4, 1932, the Socialist Republic.

The push was enough to oust President Juan Esteban Monteiro, whose role was limited to managing the crisis. Arturo Puja Osorio, an army general, presided over the Government Revolutionary Military Council. Even El Mercurio newspaper declared itself socialist and the Edwards family shared ownership of the newspaper with their workers.

The first socialist republic of Latin America lasted only three months. But in that short period, he made important demands from people who were indebted to the bone. The leaders of the movement were persecuted, but out of that bold group was born the Socialist Party and the initiatives that in 1936 became the Popular Front.

Two years later, this alliance won the presidential election, defeating the right-wing candidate, Gustavo Ross, the former finance minister. Pedro Aguirre Cerda, the leader of the right wing of the Radical Party, was the winner with the support of the Communist, Socialist, Democratic and Socialist Radical Parties.

Don Tinto, as people call him (Aguirre’s Serda Viña Ochagavia) was defeated by TB three years later. However, his government kept its promise to boost industrialization in the country.

He created Corfu, the parent company of many national industries – which the dictatorship privatized after 35 years -. His slogan also made “judgment is education” which saved millions of Chileans from the darkness of illiteracy.

Of course, other waters today flow along the River of History. Nonetheless, the rosary narration of civil wars, coups, pogroms, military riots, and political assassinations should be useful in drawing lessons. The institutional crisis of the oligarchy (which cannot be addressed now) has parallels in the past.

In the 1930s, Chile faced a period of political and social instability exacerbated by the global capitalist crisis. Just like today. Italian Fascism and German National Socialism threatened European liberal democracy and Soviet socialism. In Chile, a Nazi party emerged, and brown militias stormed the union buildings and attacked the Socialist and Communist demonstrations.

Today, threats of a fascist nature have re-emerged. In the United States, nearly 75 million votes supported a violent and racist choice. Armed brigades terrorize immigrants and blacks. In Chile, the extreme right, which aspires to become a bastion of dictatorship, is reborn.

José Antonio Cast’s Republican Party had historical roots in the National Socialist movement led by Jorge Gonzalez von Marais in the 1930s. In the National Action Party and Estanquero magazine by Jorge Pratt in the 1960s; The National Libertad Front, led by Pablo Rodriguez in the 1970s, aims to displace the liberal right because it is outdated and incapable of containing socialism.

It seeks to seize power – by reason or by force – and to turn the state into a haven for the values ​​of the homeland, family and property, and a nursery for political illusions that are filled with hatred.

The current political crisis is exacerbated by the dispersal of candidacies for the Constitutional Conference, which threatens to hand over the future constitution on a golden platter to a disciplined and united minority in defense of its class interests. Almost 80 candidate lists demonstrate the dramatic absence of the guiding axis for a popular and democratic alternative.

The lack of a left with a socialist and anti-capitalist horizon left a space full of social democratic sectors. But its links to neoliberalism are so apparent that it elicits massive public disapproval and disgust.

Below the surface, however, is a latent left. A large sector longs for a participatory democracy that respects the dignity of the people. This left in latency requires the direction of struggle and organization.

The fighting and broad spirit must be restored in October – November 2019. That would allow socialists, Latin Americans, feminists, and environmentalists in these times to stand up.

You must defeat the Penelope knot for those who live waiting to “meet all conditions”. Conditions have ripened and will start to rot if we do not act now.

* Chilean journalist, founder and director of Punto Final

JCM / RC / MCD