It Could Happen Here - The Anarchists of Chile feat. Andrew

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

The saga of Latin American anarchism continues as Andrew explores the 19th and 20th century history of anarchism in Chile.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. This is the chance to nominate your podcast for the industry's biggest award. Submit your podcast for nomination now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. But hurry, submissions close on December 8th. Hey, you've been doing all that talking. It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off

our second season digging into tech's elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. On Thanksgiving Day 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home, and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami?

Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. CallZone Media Welcome to It Could Happen Here. I'm Andrew Sage of the YouTube channel Andrewism, and I'm excited to discuss yet another facet of anarchist history from another part of the world. This time, we're taking a look at the history of anarchism in Chile. In my discussion of Peruvian anarchist syndicalism, I mentioned the cross-border

contacts between Peruvian and Chilean syndicalists, particularly of the IWW variety. So what else were they doing in that time? How did syndicalism get started in Chile? Let's find out. All credit due to the work of Larry Gambone's Anarchism in Chile and especially José Antonio Guterres Danton's 1872-1995 Anarchism in Chile. Without further ado, nos comencemos. During the French Revolution of 1848 that founded the French Second Republic, which was part of the so-called Springtime of the Peoples where revolutions swept through Europe, two notable figures of Chilean liberal revolutionary history happened to be at Paris at the time, Santiago Arcos and Francisco Bilbao. Paris at the time, Santiago Arcos and Francisco Bilbao. Santiago Arcos was a Chilean liberal who lived in exile in Paris because of his father's involvement with the independence government.

There he rubbed shoulders with French socialists and liberals alike, and also met Francisco Bilbao. Upon his family's return to Chile, they tried and failed to start a bank due to government pressure, so his father returned to Europe. But Arcos stayed in Chile, and after his father died, he got a hefty inheritance and would go on to take part in various struggles around Latin America. Arcos also famously wrote Frontiers and Indians, A Question of Indians, in which he advocated for killing off of the indigenous people because it was cheaper than maintaining a garrison to protect the settlers from attacks. Bit of a record scratch moment, but unfortunately typical of the time. Francisco Bilbao was another Chilean liberal who lived in Paris. Prior to his migration, he published a rather controversial article to Chilean sociability, La Sociabilidad Chilena, which was condemned by

Chilean authorities as blasphemous and immoral for its critiques of the church and state. After his condemnation, he moved to Peru, where he was condemned for criticizing the Peruvian president. So he left for Paris, and in Paris he met Arcos, and upon their return to Chile, together, Arcos and Bilbao founded La Sociedad de la Igualdad, or the Equality Society, which was marginally influenced by mutualist thought. You see, anarchism first came to Chile by way of the mutualist strain. Unfortunately, it was quickly suppressed by the conservative government, but not before the establishment of the country's first mutual aid society of as many as 100 artisans.

Those artisans would take part in the 1851 Chilean revolution against the conservative government, which unfortunately didn't succeed. After the failure of the revolution, the conservative government began a program of political persecution against the instigators of the uprisings, which included arrests and deportations. Bilbao and Arcos were among those exiled. Other mutual aid societies were formed in the late 1850s, as mutualism was gaining influence among artisans like printmakers, shoemakers, and tailors. In 1862, the mutual aid society La Unión was founded as a general mutual for all artists of all trades in Santiago and offered both workshops and medical services and established a school for artisans

and their children. By the early 1860s, there were some 70 cooperatives, both consumer and producer. By 1870, there were 13 mutuals which served to alleviate misery in spite of economic depression. La Union branched out to over a dozen cities, and in addition to education, health, and welfare, it formed a philharmonic society. So why do you think these orgs became influential? It's probably because they were practicing what they preached, showing the proof of concept of their ideas through practical application of the principles of liberty, mutuality, solidarity, and self-education. In 1872, the Chilean section of the International Workingmen's Association was established in Valparaiso, which was a major

coastal city in Chile. 1872 was also the year the anarchists were kicked out of the Internacional, so the Chilean section didn't last too long, but it did plant a seed. Libertarian ideas were spreading, particularly among the nitrate miners. Keep that in mind for later. Then boom, 1879, Chile goes to war with Bolivia and Peru and actually wins, which makes Bolivia landlocked and that's why it's still landlocked to this day. The war profited the Chilean and English nitrate mine bosses and the Chilean state, but of course, the workers themselves suffered. By 1880, there were 39 mutual aid societies responding to those

needs. After the war, in 1887, the Unión Republicana del Pueblo, or People's Republican Union, was formed, with an anarchist platform. Not long after, with a series of strikes by rail workers, miners, and others, the workers launched the first national general strike in 1890, and it was brutally crushed, and followed by further brutality, as in 1891, the President Balmaceda tried to press through reforms against the wishes of both Congress and foreign capital interests, which led to a civil war. The workers suffered, same old, same old, and Balmaceda was defeated and deposed, and then committed suicide. Truly revolutionary anarchism

came to Chile in the 1890s through an anarchist immigrant from Spain named Manuel Chinchilla. Chilean anarchist Carlos Horquera was influenced by Chinchilla and together they formed the Centro de Estudios Sociales, or Center for Social Studies, in 1892 and published the paper El Oprimido, The Oppressed. Another group of anarchists from El Centro Social de Trabajadores, or Workers' Social Center, founded the journal El Grito del Pueblo, The People's Scream. Among the other societies and papers forming during this period included Sociedad de Protección al Trabajador y Mutuo Apoyo, or Society for Workers' Protection and Mutual Aid, and El Proletario, the Proletariat.

In 1894, the Chilean mutualists formed the Federación de Trabajadores de Chile, or Workers' Confederation, the FTCH, which was the first national federation of workers in Chilean history. It wasn't all that radical, outside the context of conservative government, that is, as it fought for social reform, as well as the usual activities of education and health insurance, but it was influential. By 1925, it had more than 100,000 members In 1898, there was a general strike in the coastal city of Iquique And new societies were formed like Partido Obrero Francisco Bilbao Which became an anarchist group in 1899 And resistance societies were also formed for railway workers and carpenters

Which would go on to play a major role in the Santiago general strike of 1907 Magazines, as always, were also founded which would go on to play a major role in the Santiago general strike of 1907. Magazines, as always, were also founded, like La Tromba, El Rebelde, and La Antorcha. We also got to see the first demonstrations against military service and the army in Chilean history. Under the slogan, the army is the academy of crime. From 1900 to 1910, anarchists were the best organized of all the radical groups, according to Larry Gambone, particularly in printmaking, baking, shoemaking, and the docks. In 1900, there were 30 resistance societies, concentrated in central Chile among industrial workers. The resistance societies were decentralized, rotated positions, acted

autonomously, and were active in strikes. By 1910, there were 433 resistance societies, with a total membership of 55,000. The year 1900 also marked the establishment of man communalis, or brotherhoods, within the mutualist movement, which fused the mutual aid societies with trade unions. The first mancomunale, organized in Iquique, ballooned into a movement of 6,000 members, which was the majority of the nitrate and maritime workers in northern Chile. The mancomunale movement favored direct action and a much greater level of organization and solidarity than the resistance societies. The resistance societies were local, where communales spanned large territories,

uniting different trades on a city, then provincial, then national level. One of the accomplishments of these movements was the growing presence of worker strikes empowered by solidarity. In 1902, harbor workers staged a 60-day strike and in 1903, there was a general strike in the port city of Valparaiso, resulting in the murder of more than 100 workers by the state. That rebellion spread to the cities of Antofagasta, Iota and Coronel and lasted for 43 days. When the Mancomunales federated in 1904 as the Gran Mancomunal de Obreras, they brought together 20,000 members.

A year after their federation was the Red Week of 1905. Tired of the inhuman conditions, the cost of living, the high taxes, a workers' committee known as Centro de Estudia Sociedad at the Neo Obrero called all workers to join the strike and to support the cause. By October 22nd of 1905, 30,000 people had joined the uprising, including bushers, shoemakers, tanners, cigar makers, truckmen, tapestry makers, typographers, telegraphers, blacksmiths,

tinsmiths, bakers, and railway workers. The mere 1,800 police officers tried to kill the energy on the streets, as did the ruling class-funded White Guard, but despite their massacre of 250 workers, the movement continued to grow. By 1906, workers were active in the Federación de Trabajadores de Chile or the FDCH and students had organized the Federación de Estudiantes de Chile or FECH unfortunately the Mancomunale movement almost died after the 1907 depression

and severe military repression the worst instance of which was the Santa Maria massacre of Iquique where over three Thawis and Maitre minors and their supporters were killed by machine gun fire after going on strike for better living conditions than the company towns built around the mines. The company towns were run by the mine owners, who owned the workers' housing, owned the company store, monopolized all commerce, employed a private police force,

and paid workers in tokens instead of money. The strikers were joined by their wives, children, and other workers in the city of Iquique and had set up strike headquarters at the Santa Maria school. They were given an hour to disband or be fired upon. When they stood firm, a certain General Silva Renard, known as the Butcher of Iquique, gave his troops the order to fire upon the strikers, their wives, and their children. One eyewitness said, All eyes were fixed on them, just as all the guns were directed at them. Standing, they received the shots, as though struck by lightning they fell,

and the great flag fluttered down over their bodies. There was a moment of silence as the machine guns were lowered to aim at the schoolyard and the hall, occupied by a compact mass of people who spilled over into the main square. There was a sound like thunder as they fired. Then the gunfire ceased and the foot soldiers went into the school by the side doors, firing as men and women fled in all directions. End quote. Estimates vary, with conservative estimates placing the death toll at over 2,000, while José Antonio Guterres Danton's account reckons as many as 3,600. In any case, if all 3,000 of those miners were members of the Gran Man Comunal de Obreras, that'd mean roughly 15% of the movement was slaughtered in one massacre.

A significant tragedy for sure. Following the massacre, the movement formed the Federación Obrera de Chile, or FOCH, which aimed to pull together all the organizations involved in the struggle, whether anarchists, Marxists, or liberals. It was co-created by the once-vulterant Mancomunales and grew in militancy until it had fully adopted anarchist-syndicalist principles. Even the trade unions outside of the FOCH were anarchist-syndicalist. But eventually, the syndicalists and FOCH would be overtaken by the Marxists, following the rise of the Soviet Union and the deepening tensions between anarchists

and Marxists. Also in the 1910s, the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was rubbing shoulders with the anarchists, though he eventually became a communist of the Marxist variety. Meanwhile, the student org FUCH established a popular university to link workers and students and develop popular education. In 1912, the Federación Obrera Regional de Chile, FORCH, was formed, while 1919 marked the launch of the Chilean IWW, which expanded to 19 cities and a 10,000-strong membership. All the while, the strikes continued. 1919 marked yet another general strike. The nitrate mines weren't as profitable as they once were, creating more tension as workers were laid off.

The state was in debt, and with domestic disarray, it needed a distraction, so it tried to spark yet another war with Peru. Thankfully, the war never happened, but when it looked like it would be, it was roundly condemned by the FECH, as they should. But 1919 was also the year that reactionaries broke into the FECH's headquarters and burned down the building, while anarchist workers were being jailed, tortured, and murdered, all the way into the 1920s. Still, by 1925, there were 214 syndicates in Chile boasting the active

participation of more than 200,000 people. And it was the first year where a Chilean delegation of the IWW was able to participate in an IWA congress. Santiago had a rent strike, and yet still, worker blood was being spilled and tortured. And then a coup happened in 1925. Colonel Carlos Ibanez took power and by 1927 sought to fully abolish the labor movement. Union offices were raided, anarchist groups disbanded and journals shut down. The labor movement persisted, the ideas lived on but the anarchists were hit particularly hard. Next, we'll find out what happens in the rest of the 20th century for the anarchist movement in Chile. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast,

and we're kicking off our second season digging into how Tex elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong though, I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to god things can change if

we're loud enough so join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHot Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez.

Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home

and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Parenti. And I'm Jimei Jackson-Gadsden.

We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, the early career podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. One of the most exciting things about having your first real job is that first real paycheck. You're probably thinking, yay, I can finally buy a new phone. But you also have a lot of questions like, how should I be investing this money? I mean, how much do I save? And what about my 401k? Well, we're talking with finance expert Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it all down. I always get roasted on the internet when I say this out loud, but I'm like, every single year you need to be asking for a raise of somewhere between 10 to 15%. I'm not saying you're going to get 15% every single year,

but if you ask for 10 to 15 and you end up getting eight, that is actually a true raise. Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back talking about the history of anarchism in Chile. We're back talking about the history of anarchism in Chile. Veamos que van a hacer en el resto del siglo XX. Let's see what they get up to for the rest of the 20th century. In 1930, the industry that Chile had been relying on for years,

the one that had caused so much strife for workers across the country, had suffered a major blow. German scientists discovered a synthetic nitrate that was far cheaper than the natural one. Nitrate is used in both fertilizer production and munitions manufacturing. So with a cheap alternative to the form found in the ground, the meager livelihoods of thousands of workers was now under threat.

The mine owners may have had to reshuffle their finances a bit to recover from the loss of the booming industry. But it was the workers who dealt with the worst of such a crisis. They faced famine, mass migration and overcrowding, compounded by the existing economic pressures of the worldwide recession. The 1930s crisis hit the population hard, but they kept striking regardless. The dictatorship of Colonel Carlos Ibanez fell in 1931 due to all that popular unrest. Then things went from bad to worse. The center of workers' struggle in the city of Santiago, the headquarters of the Federación Obrera de Chile or FOCH,

where organizations of all flavors had worked together, came under attack in April 1934. The police and the white guards, which were a group of capitalist-funded meatheads, opened fire on the compound, killing seven workers and a child, while badly injuring around 200 others. In June of that same year, 1934, 477 peasants were slain in Alto Biobio, Ranquil and Lonquime, all fairly small towns in the countryside of Chile. Two years later, in December 1936, the Federación Obrera Regional de Chile, or FORCH, and the Chilean IWW worked together to form the Confederación General de Trabajadores, or CGT. It was their anarchist alternative to the communist and socialist-founded

Workers' Confederation of Chile, or CTCH, which they saw as more reformist. Together, they fought to achieve the eight-hour workday, Sundays off, indemnity for accident at work, monetary recognition for years of service, the right to retirement, and the right to an old age pension. Meanwhile, the Chilean Anarchist Federation, or FACH, got active and sent some brigades to support their comrades in the Spanish Civil War. During the Civil War period, anarchism had another upswing of popularity in Chile. But since the reformist union had legal and institutional backing, since the anarchists were being heavily repressed and since there was some disorganization among them, the anarchists had started to lose their popularity. Anarchist syndicalism had

declined significantly going into the 1940s while reformist syndicalism stayed strong under the control of the socialists, communists, and Christian democrats. In 1946, eight workers were murdered and many more were seriously injured by the police dogs at Pulmes Square in Santiago. The persecution of workers, and particularly anarchist workers, continued into 1947, as Pisagua, a notorious internment camp once used to detain gay folks during the Carlos Ibañez dictatorship, was transformed into a concentration camp for socialists, communists, anarchists, under President Gabriel González Fidela. The notorious Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet had a stint running the camp in that time as well.

So of course, fearing for their lives, anarchist organizations had to go underground. Yet even underground, they were able to accomplish some radical work. Yet even underground, they were able to accomplish some radical work. For example, the Luisa Michel Cultural Center, renamed in 1953 the Luisa Michel Libertarian School, which sought to educate female workers and later children as well. It had, at a time, over 70 students. It was able to last for a decade, up until 1957, despite authoritarian repression. In 1950, the anarchist syndicalist Ernesto Miranda

brought together 12 federations and several syndicates into the Movimiento Unitario Nacional de Trabajadores, or MONT, or Movement for Workers' Unity. Prior to the formation of the MONT, Miranda got started in the workers' movement at the age of 20, way back in 1932, while working in the shoe industry. He fought local Nazis and the police while taking part in various unions and unitary committees. Following the formation of MUND, 1953 saw the formation of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, or CUT, Chile's United Labour Centre. The initial aims and principles of cut were drawn up by members of the confederation general de trabajadores or cgt and anarchist cynicalists filled the shoe worker printer and maritime unions in the cuts declaration the workers proclaimed that the emancipation of the workers

is the work of the workers themselves and that quote the present capitalist system based on private ownership of land instruments and means of production and exploitation of man by man which divides society into antagonistic classes exploited and exploiters must be replaced by a social economic system that abolishes private property until a classless society is reached in which man and humanity are assured of their full development the central workers union will carry out a-vindicative action within the principles and methods of the class struggle, maintaining its full independence from all governments and partisan political sectarianism. However, the Central Workers' Union is not an apolitical union. On the contrary, representing the conjunctions of all

sectors of the working masses, its emancipatory action will be derived above the political parties in order to maintain its organic cohesion. The trade union struggle is an integral part of the general class movement of the proletariat and the exploited masses, and as such it cannot and must not remain neutral in the social struggle and must assume its proper leadership role. Consequently, it declares that all trade unions are organizations for the defense of the interests and goals of the workers within the capitalist system. But at the same time, they are organizations of class struggle that points to the economic emancipation of the workers as their goal. That is, the socialist transformation of society, the abolition of classes, and the organization of human life through the abolition of the oppressive state. End quote. The CUT tried and failed to call a general strike in 1955,

partially because, unbeknownst to them, the communist and socialist groups within the CUT had reached their own agreement with the government. By 1957, the CUT was severely split. The anarcho-syndicalists abandoned it in protest of its involvement in an electoral pact with the FRP, the Frente Amplio Popular, a left-wing party, during the lead-up to the presidential election in 1958. The anarchist-syndicalists rightfully believed that the cut getting involved with the political party would compromise working-class independence. However, that act of protest would also diminish the influence of the anarchists in the union movement. that act of protest would also diminish the influence of the anarchists in the union movement. 1957 also marked the rise of El Movimiento Libertario 7 de Julio, or the 7th of July Libertarian Movement, that brought together the anarchists and trade unionists from Osorno,

Temuco, Concepcion, Linares, and Talca, who were disposed after leaving the cult. It unfortunately dissolved a decade later as its participants got involved in other organizations. Ernesto Miranda, one of the co-creators of M.O.N.T., went on to create the Comité de Defensa de la Revolución Cubana, although by 1960 the Anarchist Federation, FACH, was already warning of the Cuban Revolution's involvement with Russia. Miranda later went on

to form the MIR, the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria, the Revolutionary Left-Wing Movement, in 1965, alongside anarchist-syndicalist Clotario Blest and Trotskyist Enrique Sepulveda. Clotario Blest had previously visited Cuba, which had impressed upon him the need for insurrectionary action. Upon his return to Chile, Blest formed the 3rd of November movement, M3N, to promote revolution and unite the revolutionary left against electoralism. Before the MIR was founded, there was the MFR, the Movement of Revolutionary Forces, in 1961, which brought together non-aligned anarchists, Trotskyists, Maoists, socialists, and communists in the trade union world. With the growing involvement of communist parties that eventually took over, the anarchists were eventually sidelined in the MIR,

and it was quickly known as a fully ML org. The MIR persists to this day. Thank you. better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things

that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh.

And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with.

His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. real job is that first real paycheck. You're probably thinking, yay, I can finally buy a new

phone. But you also have a lot of questions like, how should I be investing this money? I mean, how much do I save? And what about my 401k? Well, we're talking with finance expert Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it all down. I always get roasted on the internet when I say this out loud, but I'm like, every single year you need to be asking for a raise of somewhere between 10 to 15%. I'm not saying you're going to get 15% every single year, but if you ask for 10 to 15 and you end up getting eight, that is actually a true raise. Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Another organization was also founded in this time, the VOP, O Vanguardia Organizada del Pueblo,

which rejected the authoritarianism of the MIR with an ideological blend of anarchism and anti-authoritarian Marxism. Both MIR and VOP were doing their thing in workplace struggles and getting their financing through bank robberies, but this wouldn't last, and both groups would also face repression and reaction from the authorities. Then came 1970, with the election of popular unity candidate Salvador Allende to the presidency. Allende was considered a democratic socialist, the first Marxist democratically elected in Latin America. Allende declared an amnesty for all political prisoners and even took on members of VOP as part of his personal guard

or Grupo de Amigos Personales, GAP. By 1971, they already warned the president that the right was plotting to overthrow the government. But the president didn't take them on, so they took matters into their own hands and executed one of the key plotters in the coup plans. For that, they were punished. In 1972, workers began to take over their workplaces, as the US had imposed a trade and credits embargo in retaliation for the nationalization of US-owned copper mines. Neighborhood committees took goods from the

worker-controlled factories and distributed them amongst the communities. The FDR, or Frente de Trabajadores Revolucionarios, or Revolutionary Workers Front, played a major role in this process, proving that workers were quite capable of running a factory by themselves, and that government and bosses were no longer necessary. But for all his alleged socialist credits, Allende couldn't believe this was possible, so he sent observers to give orders within the affected factories. Meanwhile, peasants were taking over land and organizing through the MCR or Movimiento de Campesinos Revolucionarios or Revolutionary Peasants Movement. The government was feeling the pressure, applied from without and within.

By 1973, Henry Kissinger and the other demons of the US did a test run coup, but the people barricaded the neighborhoods and factories from the police and army. Being the first elected Marxist president of Latin America, Allende was patient zero for a pattern of interventions that would plague the region for years to come. After his three years of presidency and a second coup attempt, Augusto Pinochet took power in a US-backed coup. In 1973, a few months after the first coup attempt, tanks rolled down the streets of Santiago. A few months after the first coup attempt, tanks rolled down the streets of Santiago.

Thousands were tortured, raped, and murdered. Anarchists were disappeared. Those that escaped death found themselves in concentration camps, many of which were ironically established on the remains of the old nitrate mine villages. All political parties and trade unions were banned. Some courses at universities were closed down, denounced as the home of revolutionary sentiment. The secret police, Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, called folks in fear. The executed would be thrown into the sea, and Pinochet would go on to rule for nearly 17 years. In 1975, Anarchist Clotario Blest and Ernesto Miranda would activate the Committee of Defense of Human Rights, the CODE, which would become of vital importance for those persecuted by the dictatorship.

They would record the rights violations and rescue and help escape those being persecuted. 1778, the Codas managed to organize the first event during the dictatorship to commemorate International Workers' Day, which helped to disrupt the fair people had of the dictatorship. Six years after the coup, heading into the 80s, despite the repression, the anarchists were starting to reorganize alongside libertarian-leaning members of the former Popular Unity Coalition. They created the Umbrella Group, Socialist Ideas and Action, PAS, and took part in the struggles against the dictatorship in the 80s. In 1980, syndicates affiliated with Norway's IWA was able to secure the freedom of VOP members who had been imprisoned for nearly a decade, exchanging their imprisonment for exile, while the Marxist MIR managed to

assassinate the Chief of Army Intelligence Roger Vergara Campos and a few other significant military figures, as well as bombing US-affiliated corporations. In 1982, textile workers went on strike, despite the risk of repression, and they were joined by a solidarity strike by 1983, when children and teachers wouldn't attend school, people wouldn't buy anything, and workers would stay home. The police tried to disrupt the marches of the people. Two were killed as a result, and hundreds were arrested or wounded. But between 1983 and 1984, mass protests became more frequent, and the people defended themselves against the police with

molotovs, stones, and barricades. While anarchists were involved in these struggles, anarchist ideas were in the focus. The focus was on toppling the dictator. However, by 1984, you had a libertarian magazine called La Voz del Atarismo circulating. In 1987, the anarchist black flags reappeared in Santiago, Concepción, and Osorno. Social centers were also established with an anarchist streak, such as a center for social studies, Concepción, and Osorno. Social centers were also established, with an anarchist streak, such as the Center for Social Studies El Duende, the ELF in Santiago, and the Colectiva Anarquista Liberación, CAL in Concepción, both under the umbrella of the Taller de Análisis Sindical y Social, the Studio for Social Studies and Analysis, which was created with the aim of

brightening the space for the oppressed. A newspaper called Acrata, Anarchist, was published by Colectivo Anarchista Concepcion and the Bulletin Liberacion by the CAL. Accion Directa was published by Anarchist Comrades in Santiago. By 1989, Pinochet had to accept defeat and step down by 1990. Liberal democracy had returned, somewhat, to Chile. In the 90s, several anarchist groups formed, disappeared, and regrouped, and several anarchist publications were printed and spread. The Adiante Intercities Federation, Federación Anarquista Interciudadana, The Ham, o Juventudes Antimilitaristas, The Malo, the Movimiento Anarquistas Luis Olé,

the FAI Concepción, Colectivo Cultural Libertario Manatesta en Concepción, Red Anarquista, and various other groups in Villa Alemana, Osorno, Tenuco, Concepción, Valparaíso, Santiago, etc. José Antonio Guterres Danton, the author of one of the historical accounts I referenced, took part in several of these orgs, as well as their own collective, Arbol Negro, which entered delegations to the IWA Congress in Spain in December of 1994,

and took over the work of the IWW in Chile. As of the 21st century, several collectives and individuals are disseminating anarchist ideas and practices. Anarchist book fairs have been hosted in Santiago, and the Anarchist Federation Santiago has been working in organizing an anarchist platform. Anarchist-inspired or adjacent movements have lit the streets against the government, protest formations refuse central authorities, and indigenous Mapuche activists carry on their decolonial struggle against the state by various means, sometimes bordering on anarchic. And the Mapuche struggle in Chile, by the way, is a fascinating story that really deserves its own episodes, which I hope to explore in the future. Anarchist activists have also continued to be

killed by the police or other reactionaries following the return of democracy, such as Claudia Lopez Benahez in 1998 and Jony Cariqueo Yanez and Juan Cruz Magna in 2008. country, meant to cause damage to law enforcement, security forces, banks, and transnational corporations' property, but also cause an occasional injury or death to people. Gambone also writes that mutual aid societies still function, and in a society where the welfare state is practically non-existent, mutual aid plays a much greater role than elsewhere. Cooperatives, both agricultural and consumer, are found in Chile, although they don't have the same level of economic influence that similar movements have in Western Europe or Canada, and there are other libertarian-oriented developments as well.

Left-wing Christians and ex-Marxist Leninists who rejected the vanguard party formed local base committees working in poblaciones. They function as mutual aid societies and centres to organize local issues. End quote. I hope that the people of Chile, like everywhere else,

can find true freedom. After over a century of anarchist struggle, I hope they can find revolutionary success. Until that day, this has been Andrew Sage of Andrewism. It could happen here. Given the historical context of anarchism in Chile. Where might it go next? Hopefully

far. All power to all people. Peace. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly

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