Noon aS only by a margin
ik,,, Votes (39%) and that
ater municipal elections
Sed its share to 49%,
gain.
Storic events and dra-
€s in both the eco-
@ political structures
» have had their effect
People,
nl Ihcredibte Crowd
ime for a moment to
€tsary, we had observ-
Ving et! days from the
Boi the construction of
Roar? for the rally. On
Wy. “Vening we were both
Se thrilled to find that
ny Of the two was reserv-
i, «international delegates
; Ito terence. There we
ae all quarters of the
fans from a variety of left
i henPerialist organiza-
‘Ale t up alongside Presi-
lal Nde, the leaders of..the
Y ppitties, the cabinet,
7 ape and other digni-
tis there out in front
Rion Ncredible crowd of

‘Slatin under these cir-
Vinig ie 2S difficult, _ but
Solidaridad con Viet-
Ni’ © Cambodia” were
F me €, as were the
thitor and women in mili-
‘ing ™m and national dress
My, Cchina on the podium
i ‘ id unmistakable, too,
Pre friion roars of assent
wa € president’s words.
Wo address was over,
% 2derful people who
4 Well as they fight pre-
ly. COncert, which was
Nthusiastically receiv-

h,, Atgela’s Sister
tof Sut our stay this evi-
teeg internationalism was
Roar Angela Davis’ sister
Ue a was a member of
ty “legation. Her recep-
“© Chilean people had
N to be believed. We
iy, “0 with her to the an-
ih. celebrations. People
i), 48h barrier after bar-
Tace her, pump her
Wish well for her
ty and release from

merle presented her
all pennant to sign,
tearfully that they
iMy. Brazil, that they had
Mis) ‘2 prison there for
Offences” and that it

Mika ‘heir spirits if they
at pennant in to
typtalso we were invited
5 thad been the coun-
Yon T banking executives
i tor 1S the recreational
NI “ANS trade union of
uh prkers. A magnificent
N the Spanish Colo-

nial style, its almost symbolized
the old being transformed into
the new, as did the throng of
bank clerks in neat suits joining
with the international delegates
in singing the “Internationale.”
Cultural Advance

The cultural transformation
of Chile is most conspicuous
with 80% of the significant ar-
tists in all fields being members
of the Communist Party.

One still finds canned U.S.
television programs with Julia
and Lucy in Spanish (the con-
tracts are soon to _ expire).
Alongside this is the more evi-
dent new proletarian culture,
gaining strength day by day.

Most political meetings we at-
tended were prefaced with a
short concert of song and
dance. Most popular song
groups are revolutionary and so
are the composers. One of the
big hits right now is the Popu-
lar Unity Program put to music.
It makes excellent listening
even ‘if you don’t understand
Spanish.

DICAP is one of the larger
recording companies and is
owned by the Communist Party.

The new poster and mural
painting is every bit as colour-
ful and revolutionary as that in
Cuba.

Youth Brigades

Voluntary work brigades are
popular among the youth and
a very useful form for develop-
ing consciousness. We. partici-
pated in a work brigade one
Saturday planting trees in one
of the appalling slum areas,
called Pobladores. The tree
planting was part of: the pro-
gram of rebuilding. Initially the
worst housed are placed in tem-
porary emergency wooden
houses until permanent housing
in the same area is available.
Unlike our so-called slum clear-
ance, every effort is made to
retain communities where
strong ties of community, friend-
ship and family exist. ©

We visited one of the plants
producing ~ these ’ emergency
homes. The tour was followed
by a cultural program put on by
the workers which included pea-
sant dances and revolutionary
songs, poetry of Pablo Neruda
and an address by a member of
the Cuban delegation. :

A year or two ago Washing-
ton had seen to it that Cuba was
a dirty word in Chile. Any trace
of this has vanished in the light
of reality. He was cheered and
applauded until he had to ap-
peal for quiet to continue.

Later an appeal was made
to the workers for a contribu-
tion for the Nguyen Van Troi
Children’s hospital in Hanoi.
They're still very poor by Cana-
dian standards but: the hundred-
odd workers reached deep into

f working people in Chile, as in other Latin American countries, were lucky if they had a
ards such as the slum shown above (left), while the wealth of their land and the products
their hands went to build palaces for Yankee parasites who owned their national resources
ed their labor. A new day has dawned for the people of Chile, as of Cuba, and before many
Passed modern dwellings, such as shown in the picture to the right, will house Chileans,
their own house at last.

their pockets and collected well
over a hundred dollars.
Enemies at Work
- As can be expected, there are
also problems. The right wing,
having regrouped after its elec-
toral defeat, is up to its usual
counter - revolutionary __ tricks.
Their most overt act to date
was the vicious assassination of
the Army Chief of the General
Staff, General Rene Schneider
by right-wing terrorists.
Their press is ‘playing a des-

picable role; for example, one
major Santiago daily carried
banner headlines announcing the
devaluation of the escudo, which
naturally caused-a money scare.
This sort of thing, together with
unprincipled “attacks on the
Popular Unity, mainly in the
form of virulent anti-commun-
ism, are difficult to deal with as
the Constitution guarantees
those enemies free speech and
assembly, and it is difficult to
amend the Constitution without
an absolute Congressional ma-
jority.

Another of the weapons the
right is using is sabotage, both
by creating artificial shortages
of commodities and by direct
industrial sabotage, sometimes
involving machine wrecking.

.. Workers Stand Guard

Fortunately the worst of this
is controlled by workers’ vigi-
lance committees.

A question often asked in
Chile has to do with the role of
the armed forces. The army has
agreed to respect the Constitu-
tion and the electoral decision
of the people in electing the
Popular Unity. In spite. of at-
tempts by the right wing to pro-
voke conflict in the land, the
army has remained loyal and
increasingly so. Part of the an-

swer lies in the class composi-
tion of the forces. The enlisted
men and non-commissioned of-
ficers are drawn in the main
from the poorer strata of the
country, and the bulk of the
officers from the middle classes.
Long ago the wealthy families
constituting the oligarchy ceas-
ed sending their sons into the
Army, preferring business car-
eers instead.

Chile has taken a brave step
into the future and as it em-
barks on the road to socialism it
deserves from its friends around
the world every bit of support
we can muster.

Chile’s course is adding great
experience on the road to so-
cialism charted by the Commun-
ist parties around the world.
However as Luis. Corvalan,
leader of the Communist Party
of Chile said in an interview,
“Chile, as with every other land
that has chosen to depart from
the capitalist system, abounds
with clear lessons that can be
applied to other situations, but
just as Chile avoided the pitfall
of . mechanically transferring
other revolutionary experiences
to our land,’ so should we be
cautioned to avoid a mechanical
interpretation of the Chilean
experience.”

“Long Live Chile! Now our copper belongs to us! declares this poster.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1971—PAGE 7.

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