The CIA in Chile (forwarded from Chris Brady)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have only one quibble with David Mericle?s fine report ?The Fruits of
Fascism: CIA-Socialism in Chile.?  The figure of 30,000 killed is more
often applied to Argentina?s Dirty War while Chile?s killed and
disappeared are put at around 3,000.  There were a quarter to a half a
million refugees who fled the Pinochet regime, most of whom were
rejected asylum by the USA, a.k.a., the Land of the Frees. (More were
offed in Argentina both in real numbers and proportionally, but the
military there rotated commands so that instead of confusing agency, the
entire upper level of officers must be seen as associated with
slaughtering their own people. But this harmonizes with David Mericle?s
observations, and as it in fact joins an orchestrated front against
socialism, as noted below).

I have to keep in mind that it was not just the CIA who were
?engineering? Chilean society.  As well as the US State Department and
the White House, along with US military suppliers, other players
included the right-wing military in Chile (as opposed to the rather
ineffective Constitutionalists among the officer corps, who despite
their honorable devotion to Law forgot that winners in war obey no laws
but those of the jungle),  the militant bourgeoisie (most infamous the
fascist Patria y Libertad, recently renascent), and threatened capital
interests both nominally Chilean and foreign owned, who would invest in
their own salvation from socialism as they would in any other lucrative
scheme).  So I would, when I read such items as the CIA?s capers in
defense of capital, remind myself that the CIA is lovingly referred to
by its members and alumni as The Company?for a very good reason: that
is?what it is, i.e., not an agency for The Nation nor The Democratic
Republic, let alone The People.  As it is the agency of The Company it
must also be realized that The Company is multinational.  It is
well-organized and can co-ordinate globally.  It is, in short, a
capitalist multinational conspiracy opposed to any other attempt at
international coordination ­especially socialism and communism, and
we?ll include anarchism here? of any sort, because they all amount to
the same thing: they are not only dedicated to ripping off capital
(horrors!), but horror of horrors, to the absolute obliteration of
capitalism.  Why should anyone be surprised that the agents of capital
­a system that cares nothing for its workers and the world but that they
provide profit?would stoop to murder?  Under capitalism murder is a very
lucrative enterprise generating profits and body counts on enormous
scales (not on the Scales of Justice, but what counts?).

Re. Lagos:
Chile cannot fight alone. The Chilean military includes the Army, the
Air Force, the Navy, and the Carabineros (a military police/occupation
army and internal security force). The military is not responsible to
the President as stipulated in the 1980 Constitution written by General
Pinochet.  The top commanders of the officer elite elect half a dozen
representatives from whom the President can choose a
Commander-in-Chief.  Aside from other monies, the Pinochet Constitution
privileges the Armed Forces with ten percent of the net profits on
annual Chilean copper sales. The military is an autonomous agent of
multinational capital.  Its history indicates how it will act if it is
challenged in that role.  Ricardo Lagos knows the history of his country
very well. His Socialist Party, embedded in a coalition and having
formally renounced Marxism-Leninism, is clearly not the answer. The only
thing he can do is to compromise as little as possible with ascendent
capital, negotiate as much as possible for the workers, and stall for
room to move and allow the regeneration of a viable revolutionary left
(although he cannot express that eventuality).  For it is only by
socialist revolution that any real change is possible.  That has not
changed.

For Americans, the common folk, ordinary patriotic people, they must
confront the ugly fact that their government does not give a flying fuck
about them, and in truth, as witnessed by the ?disappearance? of Charles
Horman and the neck-slashing and gunshot execution of Frank Teruggia, it
will allow the butchery of their own fellow citizens if they get in the
way of capitalist restoration. This is not new.  It is history.  A
hideous history that continues.
As must our struggle for a new history
and a brighter tomorrow.
We can only get it together.
You must tell it.

In love and solidarity,
Chris Brady,
Las Cruces, CHILE

Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/