In this paper, I will argue that the rise of unionized industrial labor was a vital factor in the drive towards populism in Chile. The structure that stemmed from increased union membership and the growing political participation from union members, primarily in the Socialist and Communist Party, created a political machine that had the ability to throw backing towards progressive candidates, influencing elections and bolstering labor-friendly politicians. This would lead to many of the issues concerning those in the industrial workforce; land reform, worker’s rights, and social equality becoming the mainstays of Chilean political platforms. Following the devastation of the Great Depression and the collapse of its mining-based export economy,
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This alliance would likely be due to the influx of workers from the mining industry and rural agricultural areas now migrating into urban areas in hopes of securing industrial labor. Among these were workers such as Reinaldo Jara, a future leader of the 1947 Yarur worker movement who had been “converted to communism during the Great Depression by some employed miners whom he met in the mountains before migrating to Santiago”. While it was effective in creating unity, the Radical Party was hindered due to its internal division based on the differing agendas of the social classes and growing class identity, captured by Laura Coruña, a Yarur worker, “one must be loyal to one’s own class” in reflection of the poverty created by low wages for blue collar employees. This shared hardship and acute poverty served to bind workers together in efforts to demand a wage relative to their cost of living and the national rate of inflation, better working and living conditions, public utilities, and optimism in their future as well as the future of their …show more content…
Due to this, the middle-class shifted its political alliance to become more aligned with the upper-class, reforming the party which would become largely anti-Communist and labor. Despite this break, the Chilean Left produced the Popular Front party, a left-wing coalition with substantial support from Socialist and Communist factions in Chile, that succeeded in electing President Aguirre Cerda in 1938. The Chilean Popular Front quickly became dominated by the more centrist Radicals, “who, once in power, lost their zeal for reform”. It was in this void that a young senator and Socialist party chief named Salvador Allende rose to prominence arguing that “a divided Left could not win power”. For Socialist and Communist Party members, many of whom were factory workers, the dominance of the Radical Party heralded a return to worker oppression, cumulating with the Communist Party becoming outlawed in 1948. Despite these setbacks, the Left had learned that it was only through an “alliance between the workers and the middle class” that “it was possible to construct socialism within the existing political
This alliance would likely be due to the influx of workers from the mining industry and rural agricultural areas now migrating into urban areas in hopes of securing industrial labor. Among these were workers such as Reinaldo Jara, a future leader of the 1947 Yarur worker movement who had been “converted to communism during the Great Depression by some employed miners whom he met in the mountains before migrating to Santiago”. While it was effective in creating unity, the Radical Party was hindered due to its internal division based on the differing agendas of the social classes and growing class identity, captured by Laura Coruña, a Yarur worker, “one must be loyal to one’s own class” in reflection of the poverty created by low wages for blue collar employees. This shared hardship and acute poverty served to bind workers together in efforts to demand a wage relative to their cost of living and the national rate of inflation, better working and living conditions, public utilities, and optimism in their future as well as the future of their …show more content…
Due to this, the middle-class shifted its political alliance to become more aligned with the upper-class, reforming the party which would become largely anti-Communist and labor. Despite this break, the Chilean Left produced the Popular Front party, a left-wing coalition with substantial support from Socialist and Communist factions in Chile, that succeeded in electing President Aguirre Cerda in 1938. The Chilean Popular Front quickly became dominated by the more centrist Radicals, “who, once in power, lost their zeal for reform”. It was in this void that a young senator and Socialist party chief named Salvador Allende rose to prominence arguing that “a divided Left could not win power”. For Socialist and Communist Party members, many of whom were factory workers, the dominance of the Radical Party heralded a return to worker oppression, cumulating with the Communist Party becoming outlawed in 1948. Despite these setbacks, the Left had learned that it was only through an “alliance between the workers and the middle class” that “it was possible to construct socialism within the existing political