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Question: A fascist admirer of Pinochet will assume presidency in Chile. Could you review the political background to the rise of Pinochet?

Answer:

Theoretical foundation: capitalism, state and betrayal

The rise of General Augusto Pinochet must be understood not as an aberration but as the political expression of capitalist class interests in a moment of systemic crisis. From a Marxist, dialectical-materialist viewpoint, political crises and coups are rooted in class antagonisms and the inability of capitalist states to reconcile the contradictions between socialized production and private appropriation.

The Chilean coup of 1973 was the culmination of a process in which sections of the ruling class, aided by imperialism, the military and treacherous political forces on the nominal left, moved to crush an independent working class movement and impose a regime capable of reestablishing capitalist rule by authoritarian means.

Historical-materialist background (1969–1973)

The election of Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity in 1970 occurred against a deepening global economic crisis and mass struggles across Latin America and internationally. Chilean capitalism was hit by falling copper prices, mounting foreign debt and capital flight; the state apparatus was marked by dependency on imperialist finance and a professional officer corps hostile to deep social change. The material conditions created a confrontation: between radicalized workers and peasants pushing to expropriate the oligarchy, and a ruling class intent on defending property and international creditors.

The decisive political factors that opened the door to the coup included:

• The willingness of sections of the Chilean bourgeoisie and the US state to prepare and back anti-Allende measures economically and clandestinely. Washington’s destabilization and financing of reactionary forces helped create the conditions for counterrevolution. This is part of the larger dynamic of imperialism defending its interests in the periphery.
• The parliamentary and institutional weakness of the Popular Unity government, which sought to govern by legalistic and constitutional means while the capitalist state and armed forces remained intact and hostile. As the ICFI analysis stressed in 1973, the capitalist state is not neutral; it is a machine for class rule that must be smashed or transformed in a revolutionary way (lessons of 1973).
• The role of Stalinism and reformism in disarming the working class. The Chilean Communist Party and allied trade-union bureaucracies advocated the “peaceful, parliamentary road” and subordinated worker self-activity to the institutions of the bourgeois state. This political course weakened working class organization, discouraged independent armed defense, and left the proletariat vulnerable to the military blow (archival lessons of 1973).

Concrete signs of this composition were the suppression by the government of factory committees, the refusal to arm and organize workers independently, the incorporation of generals into ministries, and the brutal attack on militant copper miners and other strikes—measures which signaled compromise with the capitalist state rather than revolutionary rupture (lessons recalled 30 years on).

Political dynamics of betrayal

Through the lens of the Fourth International’s continuity, the decisive political betrayal came from those forces that claimed to be on the “left” yet defended bourgeois legality and the state machine. Stalinist capitulation and Pabloite revisionism alike contributed to disorientation.

The Popular Unity’s and Stalinists’ policies—respect for the armed forces, legalism, and concessions to creditors—objectively prepared the ground for Pinochet’s seizure of power. The ICFI’s 1973 statement argued that if the working class fails to overthrow the capitalist state and build its own instruments of power, the transition to Bonapartism, military rule or fascism becomes tragically likely (Defend the Chilean Working Class, 1973).

Contemporary relevance

The present-day revival of figures who openly admire Pinochet is not merely nostalgia. It reflects the ongoing crisis of capitalism, the sharpening of class conflicts, and the continuing use of authoritarian solutions by bourgeois forces when parliamentary avenues seem to threaten their interests.

The 2019 mass upheaval in Chile demonstrated the latent revolutionary potential of the working class and youth; but the subsequent integration of that movement into parliamentary channels—mediated by pseudo-left parties and union bureaucracies—again shows how reformism can redirect mass radicalization into safe institutional forms (analysis of the 2019 aftermath and 2025 politics; Jara and the CP’s trajectory).

SEP/ICFI position

The Socialist Equality Party and the International Committee of the Fourth International insist that only a Marxist program of political independence of the working class, the building of a revolutionary party rooted in rank-and-file and workers’ committees, and the overthrow of the capitalist state can prevent repeats of 1973. Reformism, Stalinist collaboration with the bourgeois state, or parliamentary illusions provide no defense—only a revolutionary strategy grounded in class struggle and internationalism can.

To understand Pinochet’s rise is, therefore, to draw the lesson that the working class must build its own revolutionary leadership and independent organs of power to defeat both open fascism and the pseudo-left that prepares it.

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