Response to the Chilean Coup of 1973

  

                        Chilean president Salvador Allende speaks before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on December 4, 1972. (Bettmann / Getty Images)

We have a new post up on N.S. by DSA leader David Duhalde about the Chilean Coup of 1973, and U.S. Socialists response.

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/immediately-after-the-1973-chilean-coup-us-socialists-supported-those-fighting-for-freedom

 

Immediately After the 1973 Chilean Coup, US Socialists Supported Those Fighting for Freedom

 

BY

DAVID DUHALDE

The moment that Salvador Allende was violently deposed on September 11, 1973, democratic socialists in the US knew it was a crime. They joined others around the world organizing solidarity efforts and supporting political refugees.

 

In August, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and several congressional leaders visited Brazil, Colombia, and Chile to meet with leftist activists and elected officials — a goodwill trip that the Wall Street Journal dubbed “AOC’s Socialist Sympathy Tour.” In Chile, Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues insisted that the US government declassify more documents related to Washington’s support for the coup that overthrew socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973.

Bowing to pressure, the State Department released several of President Richard Nixon’s daily briefings concerning the Chilean military’s movement against the democratically elected government. As the memos show, Nixon knew at the time of the coup that Allende was open to a “political solution” (likely holding a plebiscite) and hoped to “fend off a showdown,” which he never got the chance to do. The revelations confirmed that the United States went into the putsch with its eyes wide open and still backed a coup that wiped out Chilean democracy.

AOC and the delegation’s successful push for declassification is the latest action in nearly five decades of US democratic socialist solidarity with Chileans, stretching back to the Democratic Socialists of America’s two predecessor organizations: the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM). While not the primary US movers of what became known as Chile Solidarity — the global social movement supporting democratic rights in the Southern Cone country — DSOC and NAM, in their publications and organizing, played a real role in opposing Chile’s military dictatorship.

In Jacobin. 

https://jacobin.com/2023/09/chile-coup-allende-dsco-nam-democratic-socialists-america-aoc

 

Chilean president Salvador Allende speaks before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on December 4, 1972. (Bettmann / Getty Images)

 

 

Socialists and Immigration

By Duane Campbell

In spite of the economic boon for the wealthy, working people in the U.S. have yet to receive a significant improvement in their standard of living for over 30 years.  At the same time, democratic forces are once again confronted with anti-immigrant campaigns- this time fostered and promoted by a president of the U.S.

As socialists, we stand with and among the U.S. working class in opposition to the rule of the transnational corporations and their exploitation of the economy and their despoliation of our lives, our society and our environment.

We are currently experiencing a major restructuring of the global economy directed by the transnational corporations to produce profits for their corporate owners. The impoverishment of the vast majority of people in pursuit of profits for a small minority has pushed millions to migrate in search of food, jobs, and security.  Global capitalism produces global migration. Along with wars NAFTA and other “Free Trade” deals each produce a new waves of migration.

Socialists support the rights of working people to organize, to form unions, and to protect their rights and to advance their interests. Unions have always been an important part of how socialists seek to make our economic justice principles come alive.  Working people - gathered together and exploited in the capitalist workplace-are well positioned to fight their common exploitation.

A better world is possible

Harry Targ

There's something happening here

What it is ain't exactly clear…

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound?

Everybody look--what's going down?

There's battle lines being drawn

Nobody's right if everybody's wrong

Young people speaking their minds

A gettin' so much resistance from behind…

Everybody look--what's going down?

We better stop, now, what's that sound?

Everybody look--what's going down

(From “For What It’s Worth,” Stephen Sills, Buffalo Springfield, 1967)

Meetings in Mexico, New York City and Richmond, California indicate a new time emerging. 

The Center for Global Justice, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico sponsored the conference “Moving Beyond Capitalism” (with a variety of partnering activist and scholarly organizations) which was held from July 29 to August 4. About 200 participants came from Mexico, the United States, Central America, China, and Israel. Some were progressive academics, others community activists, environmentalists, film makers, artists, and trade union representatives. The support staff included activist retirees, mostly United States citizens, who live in San Miguel.

Immigrant Women's Lives- International Women's Day

Exploring Immigrant Women's Lives on International Women's Day

On March 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) – a holiday that originated in the United States and was later codified by the Socialist International in 1914. IWD reminds us that the struggle for women’s rights and liberation is an international struggle. This International Women’s Day we should remind ourselves of the role played by immigrant women in the U.S. These women, our ancestors, came seeking a better life. They got jobs as maids and nannies, in factories and on farms. Too often they were disdained by the immigrants who had preceded them. The same is all too true today.

Last fall I attended a webinar that featured DSA Honorary Chair Gloria Steinem. The webinar was sponsored by We Belong Together, “an initiative of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, with the participation of women’s organizations, immigrant rights groups, children, and families across the country.” Steinem noted that “Historically, globally, it is women who have been on the road. If you look at refugees, migrants, those who are affected by conflict and need to find work and 
move for a better life, the majority have been women. Immigration is a women’s issue, and we need to change consciousness to help people understand this truth.”
(photo. D Bacon)

DSA on Daily Show

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Alternative Christmas

Just for Fun

It’s always nice to take a moment out of the frenzied capitalist madness that is the holiday season these days and enjoy a good break. That’s why I saved the videos of our phenomenal speakers at the 2011 DSA national convention until now.

Go to the DSA video channel to see the following:

• Sarita Gupta, Jobs with Justice
• Jose La Luz, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
• Eliseo Medina, Service Employees International Union
• Harold Meyerson, The Washington Post
• John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation
• Joslyn Williams, Washington, DC Central Labor Council

Enjoy!

In solidarity,

Maria Svart

National Director