06/10/2012

Act in tribute to Pinochet in downtown Santiago:

The working class and the Chilean youth, drawing lessons from the counter-revolutionary coup of ’73, show in the streets how to face fascism!

Fascists enlist their demonstration of forces

Today Sunday June 10th in the famous Caupolicán Theatre, downtown Santiago, in Avenida Matta / San Diego neighborhood, there was a tribute to the tyrant Pinochet. The event was organized by the “September 11th Foundation” (name that “honours” the date of the bloody counter-revolutionary coup of 1973), headed by retired military and pinochetist politicians, along with CNI (National Intelligence Centre in Pinochet era) today “prisoners” in a luxurious prison called Punta Peuco. The aim of the tribute, according to the organizers, was to exhibit a documentary called “Pinochet”, which shows the vision of the ultra-right wing on the coup, and that has already been awarded a prize in a Cuban cinema festival of the worms in Miami, USA. Government officials and right-wing members of the Parliament were invited but they “regretted” not being able to attend.

1,200 people in total attended the event, including Augusto Pinochet Molina (Pinochet’s grandson who was expelled from the army for giving a rabid speech in Pinochet’s funeral claiming his grandfather was a hero for having won by himself the “Cold War” in Chile), a well-known Spanish franquist politician, the mayor of Miami, the representative of the Cuban community in Miami, an English representative of Thatcher and a representative of the French ultra-right wing, of Le Pen. 5,000 tickets were sold, as it is reported, they sold them all. However, little less than one-third was present. Before the act, the organizers had stated, with accurate class instinct, that “we the pinochetists have been silent for twenty years. They all have forged history, and it is time to talk. Chile is returning to the ‘70s and we would’t be surprised that the Popular Union showed up again”.

On the other hand, the human rights and relatives of disappeared detainees organizations called a “funa” (exposure) to prevent the gathering from happening. The CP parliament members and the Concertación tried to pressure the government and the city council to prohibit the act, to which the government replied: “All the Chileans, all of them, have the right to express themselves. We have always ensured that sacred right which our democratic Constitution defends. Although as a government we are not part of the act, we will watch, and we will put all the available means, to ensure that it is carried out normally”. To “level out”, the government authorized a concentration of the human rights organizations in Parque Almagro, about five blocks away from Caupolicán Theatre. Clearly this act, the one of Pinochet, was nothing but an open provocation of the pinochetist bourgeoisie, in the middle of the pre-revolutionary situation that Chile is facing, to make clear that “here we are, the pinochetists”, and also to check the real balance of forces between the classes. The policy of the Concertación, the CP, and also all the left-wing reformist, stated that it was a struggle “for democracy, for human rights, for historical memory, and against Pinochet murders, since the tribute violated the State of law and democracy”.

La vanguardia combativa sale al ataque

Last night, Saturday, until dawn, dozens of activists and relatives of the disappeared detainees chained themselves to the main entrance of Caupolicán Theatre, to try to prevent the event from happening. They were, of course, victims of repression, not only from the murderous police officers but also from the fascist bands that swarm by tens in this area, and that are organized from a nearby police station (they are the same bands that not long ago tortured and murderred a young homosexual worker in a park). There was no resistance to the repression and they all left after a while.

At about 9 in the morning today the assistants started to arrive to the pinochetist act and to the “exposure”. There was a bomb alert outside the theatre and when the cops of GOPE (Special Police Operations Group) arrived to defuse the alleged explosive device, they found with surprise that it only contained a leaflet that said in big letters: “NO FORGIVENESS, WE DO NOT FORGET!”

The murderous police guard a Pinochetist woman

In spite of the “pacifist and democratic” nature the convening organizations tried to give to the day, the deep rage and the thirst for class justice from the worker and youth vanguard could be felt in all the streets near the theatre. The cops set up a huge police operation, and closed a perimeter of more than 20 blocks to protect the fascists. Despite this, some confident fascists tried to walk to the theatre, and all the ones that went there were surprised by the dozens of barricades that were already being mounted at about 10:30 in the morning (the act was convened at 11) took spectacular beatings at the hands of the proletarian youth and combative workers. Only the actions of the cops stopped the furious actions of the workers against the pinochetists, who by now were, one by one, falling to the ground covered in blood.

At 11 a.m, the act began and outside the mass near 10,000 fighters (according to the cops, there were 3,000) surrounded the streets around the theatre, in more than 10 powerful barricades. Nobody thought about moving out until the fascists came out so as to give them what they deserved. The warm attempts of the CP and the human rights organizations to prevent the youth and worker vanguard from facing the pinochetist cops to try to get to the theatre were in vain. The CP and their friends were motioning to march to La Moneda, while they were accused by everybody of being cowards for not wanting to fight agaisnt the fascists. There could be heard angry shouts as: “You will see, you will see, every bullet will be returned!” and heartbraking songs in tribute to all that fell by the dictatorship. It was a great combat spirit and terrible rage against the pinochetist bourgeoisie. At every corner they were discussing that it was already seen that neither the pinochetist justice nor the bourgeois parliament could do justice to our martyrs. Independent activists faced the CP, shouting at them, accusing them of having disarmed the Industrial Cords in ’73 and that the “pacific way to socialism” was a great betrayal. Nobody was surprised by then that the cops defended the fascists and a monumental battle was being held in every street in the area.

Student's vanguard beat a Pinochetist woman

While the cops tried to move forward with its pickets, the barricades of the fighters were making them move back at every moment. Several retaining walls flew in the air with the fury, the stones, the sticks and all the weapons of the combative youth. Only the terrible teargases managed to prevent the mass rage from getting into the theatre.

In Parque Almagro, a furious mob of activists took down several cops from their horses and gave them what they deserved, leaving a badly wounded cop while the animals fled in terror without their riders. An old and huge church in the area, “Los Sacramentinos” ended up with all their windows broken, a car sale which had in their shop dozens of new cars from luxurious brands, ended up completely destroyed, and the vehicles suffered the same fate, while several bank branches were also destroyed, and a bicycle store was looted.

First thing in the morning it could be heard the shout: “Like the Nazis, it will happen to you... wherever you go we are going to look for you”. By noon the same cry changed: “Like the Nazis, it will happen to you... wherever you go we are going to expose you!”. But when the fascists were starting to come out, with more strength than ever, it was sung: “Like the Nazis, it will happen to you... wherever you go we are going to kill you!”

Just ending the Act, confrontation is inevitable, and the fight unleashes

At around 2: 30 p.m., the pro-Pinochet Act had ended with a defiant cry: "We must be prepared to return at any time to our trenches and again confront with Marxism". While everybody outside the Theatre was yearning to meet the fascists, hundreds of young neo-Nazis went in to "protect the elders". But they did not come out. The broadcasters reported that when they tried to leave, at seeing the barricades and the outraged mob shouting and waiting for them in the street, they decided to withdraw again to the interior of the Theatre to discuss what they were going to do. At that time, the more the activist groups approached the Theatre, the more the pacos (police) worsened the repression; however it was insufficient to suppress the deep outrage imbibing the street pickets. In the midst of this chaos, an important group of fascists tried to leave, protected by the neo-Nazis, who were armed with penknives, sickles, sticks and bottles. It was learned that a young activist girl received a stab in the leg at the hands of a fascist.

La juventud combativa persigue por las calles de Santiago a los fascistas-pinochetistas

And it happened what had to happen. In a corner of the neighborhood Avenida Matta a few hundred neo-Nazis (who protected some 200 old fascists) armed with knives, sticks and stones met face to face with equal number of spirited young people armed with sticks, stones, bottles and unwavering courage. The heavy street fighting, in which crossed from one side to the other - apart from a gigantic mutual hatred - spits, stones, sticks, blades, hand-to-hand fighting, etc., lasted little more than fifteen minutes.
The Pinochetist fascists, who received a brutal physical defeat, with dozens injured, bloody, unconscious, corbeled-teethed, broken-nosed, (both open and closed) broken-headed and the worst panics, were fleeing at the end like rats to a nearby subway station.
In this way the proletarian youth showed how fascism must be confronted on the streets and gave them their just award, -in spite of being in military inferiority, as the fascists had the armed neo-Nazis to defend them, all the strength of the murderous pacos (police) in their favour and the protection of "human rights monitors", who unsuccessfully, preached respect for"all human beings". All commented, in the heat of combat "these conchesumares (motherf...r) fascists, we should kill them -get the hell out of them, so they do not dare to go out on the streets again"

At the same time, a few blocks from this place, another group of young and spirited workers sparked a beating to a few fascists attempting to pass by unnoticed. In despair and panic, one of the pinochetistas drew a gun and shot six shots into the air to be able to boot his car, guarded by pacos. In the same corner, a luxurious car clearly transporting other pinochetistas, attempted to leave the place as quick as it could. While fleeing, huge stones that broke through the glass of the vehicle came from the crowd. A little girl warned her mother that two children were also in the car. His mother replied her, firmly, “The pinochetistas have never had compassion with our babies, children, women, or grandparents, and we should not have it either with them”. The answer quickly appeased the girl.

At that time, and with the despair of getting mass lynchings around every corner, the pinochetistas, alongside the pacos, decided to move those still at the theatre in buses escorted by the pacos’ Special Forces while the barricades of the sector were still burning.
At about 4:30 p.m. the Center was slowly recovering the calm, and let one see, in every corner, the aftermath of this great encounter: destroyed traffic lights, streets blcked by huge stones, sticks, smell of tear gas, water of the “guanacos” (spite-water armoured cars of the mutiny police), glass debris, bottles, bloodstains on the floor, etc.
The balance sheet given by the Government was 63 detainees (all of them, of course, from our people), 23 pacos injured (one of extreme gravity) and extensive damage to public and private property. Intending to lessen the severity of the street fighting, nothing was reported in the bourgeois media on the amount of injured either on the fascist side or on ours.

Fascism should not be discussed, it must be destroyed! 
The historic event demonstrated that the vanguard workers and youth are not willing to be brought once again to the trappings of peaceful means. Neither pardon nor oblivion! It was the most heartfelt slogan of the mobilization.
Fascists seek to lift head, while the combative vanguard already announced that it will not give them a respite. In the streets of Santiago the vanguard workers and youth gave a great example of how to deal effectively with fascism; it is not a case of discussing it but of crushing it.
While all the reformist left was meant to bring the mobilization to an act "in defence of democracy", the combative vanguard yearned for class justice applied to the torturers of the working class. A young woman displayed a poster who won the sympathy of the mass, and which expresses the class consciousness of the vanguard: "We are the children and grandchildren of the workers that you could not kill", in reference to a song by a combative punk band of the Basque country, dedicated to the memory of the fighters of the Spanish civil war, song that is considered an anthem for the vanguard workers and youth fighting on the streets of Chile.
Politicians of the Government, frightened by the situation lived yesterday, came to declare that they did repent "having supported a regime that violated human rights" and "should not revive the hatreds of the past, we must look to the future". At the same time, the Pinochetist mayor of Downtown Santiago said that it had been a serious mistake to authorize the Act as the day had turned into the worst nightmare of recent times.

Chile yesterday concentrated with spectacular force a confrontation between revolution and counter-revolution. The paladins of democracy will have to eat their words about "universal human rights" and "respect for all opinions and ideas". The vanguard cried really hard: "Fascism should not be discussed, it must be destroyed!". A great example for our Greek class brothers and sisters, who are carried by "anti-capitalist Democrats" to a deceit, i.e., to face fascism with elections and Parliament, reissuing the old and traitorous politicy of the "peaceful way to socialism".
Finally, once again it is evident the enormous willingness to combat imbibing huge swathes of the working class and the Chilean youth, who flock to every call for fight, and their spirit of combat is only dented by the actions of reformism, which never tires of talking about the "immaturity of the working class", the "absence of conditions to launch a revolutionary struggle" and who always work to divide each combat. However, today, despite and against them, a worker-student unity was forged in the streets to confront fascism and, thereby, the Pinochetist regime, deeply hated by the masses.

Partido Obrero Internacionalista – Cuarta Internacional (Internationalist Worker Party-Fourth Internacional),
Member of the FLTI (Internacionalist Leninist Trotskyist Fraction)