Daily Times

For Hegel, real is rational; socialism, according to this logic, could not translate itself into a reality, hence it is condemned to be an ideology. The fallacy is not uncommon and is advanced by the quarters that have little or no inkling about the basic tenets of Marxist theory.

Did Marx and Engels ever promise the irrevocable success of socialism? “Realisation”, says Marcuse, “is neither the content nor the criterion of Marxian truth but the historical impossibility of its realisationis irreconcilable with it”.

This brings another theoretical question to the fore: does success remain the only criterion of sustainability of truth or is it the strength of the opposing forces which keep postponing the realisation of the truth that needs to be weighed? The reality of the pure existence of a fact has to coincide with some rationality, e.g. the rationality of human prosperity, his freedom from a senseless progress and denial of an imposed necessity of earning a living?

The capitalist system has existed far too long and has come to be recognised as human fate yet its sub-rational living cannot be maintained without violence. One can take a leaf from history: on February 1899, the US forces unleashed its wrath on Philippines, the home of Catholicism, to save Christianity from Christians. The list of Filipino casualties swings between a few hundred thousand to a few million. Since then the wave of violence has continued without any respite to inundate the world.

In Indo-China, the ‘commies’ who took up arms to defend their countries were relegated to a subhuman status of guerrillas, the cynical nihilists who hated democracy and western hegemony. The apparent contention was that, once democracy was given a chance, people would rightly reject the ‘oppressive system’ that catered to human being’s material needs rather than his spiritual necessities. To save democracy and its ‘ardent lovers’, the intrusion of the biggest democratic force of the world was inevitable. Even today the argument is the same, albeit the Marxists have been replaced with Islamists, onetime favourite poodles of the ‘free world’.

However, history is familiar with all kind of changes. It was September 4, 1970, when Allende, a leading Marxist, defeated the mighty reactionary forces and won the presidential election contesting on the western turf of democracy. For the Chilean masses it was a utopia fulfilled a great refusal to hegemonic designs, to domination. It was the dawn of real democracy that threatened the Orwellian one championed by the imperialist power. The ‘redeemers’ were finding themselves in fetters.

“America”, as Oscar Wilde said, “has gone straight to barbarism from savagery without having any civilisation in between”, and if it has not regressed to that level, no one ever guaranteed the second phase of civilisation to be less barbaric; after all enlightenment is the other name of domination

Threatened by the real democracy, Henry Kissinger, the pawn of ‘democratic fascism’, a curse Marcuse thought the US afflicts from, stepped into action. “Why should Chile be allowed to go Marxist merely because its people are irresponsible”, he shrieked and decided to let loose the CIA on Chilean masses. “Irresponsible”, a dark humour or a grim reality? The panacea panderers had the taste of their own medicine. The much hyped freedom to choose became its own negation.

Allende, an Orpheus, was to be stopped before he could swear in as the President. The favourite universal ally was provoked but the chief of army staff General Schneider refused to take the bait, an ominous sign for the ITT, Pepsi Cola, and Chase Manhattan Bank, the real rulers of the “free world”. History was reminiscent of the times when Jacobo Arbenz, the elected President of Guatemala of 1950s, challenged the writ of the United Fruit Company. It provoked the CIA’s wrath which in turn coerced the democratically elected president into submission. He resigned.

The effect of Allende carried far lethal repercussions. In Pinochet’s files, Peter Kornbluh narrates “for Kissinger, the example of a successful elected Marxist government in Chile would surely have an impact on — and even precedent value for — other parts of world, especially in Italy; the imitative phenomena elsewhere would in turn significantly affect the world balance and our own [American] position in it”.

As the first step, Nixon and Kissinger hired the services of a small fascist party and of a general Roberto Viaux who, as per CIA’s assessment, was a “mad dog”. Roosevelt reportedly said of the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, “he may be a son of a bitch. But he’s our son of a bitch” – perhaps the same modus operandi was at play here. The abduction of Rene Schneider failed twice but ultimately they got the cadaver.

In the meanwhile the sabotage of the Chilean economy remained persistent till “it shrieked”.  The unholy alliance of the Church and capitalists, cobbled by Nixon-Kissinger nexus, doomed the economy. Despite the malevolence and Faustian conspiracies, Allende’s popularity did not falter. The lesson in conformism required a blood bath; another Suharto was called in to drench the people in their blood.

History repeated itself as tragedy. Pinochet replaced the freedom of expression with the freedom of execution, a gift from the free world which enslaved the entire nation for the next decade. September 11, 1973 was the 9/11 of Chile. The air force employed jets to subjugate an unarmed president, who committed suicide or was assassinated in cold blood, targeting the palace with precision. The statue of liberty looked dwarf but statues too are made up of imperialist material, they do not weep.

“America”, as Oscar Wilde said, “has gone straight to barbarism from savagery without having any civilisation in between”, and if it has not regressed to that level no one ever guaranteed the second phase of civilisation to be less barbaric; after all enlightenment is the other name of domination. Walter Benjamin has rightly stated that “there is no document of civilisation that is not simultaneously also of barbarism”.

The repression of the communists and workers continued under the aegis of ‘Operation Condor’ that engulfed the entire South Cone. Thousands of people lost their lives, several disappeared later to be found dead in the dustbins, on the main roads and/or floating in the sea. In Chile the Marxists were hauled and were carried at gun point to the Santiago soccer stadium for persecution. In a show of sadism the fingers of Victor Jara — a famous musician, a member of communist party and a supporter of Allende — were smashed with the rifle butts and was mockingly asked to play guitar. Finally in an impulsive fit of psychosis forty bullets were fired at his body. The Freudian anal-expulsive guards met their catharsis.

The month of September kept haunting the Chilean left; three years later on September 21, 1976 in Washington DC, Allende’s close aides Orlando Latelier and Ronni Motiff were blown by an explosive tied under their car. The gory crime was allegedly committed with CIA’s connivance. From Guevara to Lumumba and from Rosa to Tania there is long list of the revolutionaries losing their lives to free their people from the horrors of the ‘free world’. Milton’s “wicked races of deceivers hewed the lovely body of virgin truth and scattered it to the four winds”, yet for the apologists of capitalism socialism remains an ideology, an unrealisable utopia. But the dreamers do not stop dreaming; on the grave of Victor Jara, the inscribed message of ‘Vencermos’ (we shall win) continues to remind humanity that all is not lost.

The writer has authored books on socialism and history. He blogs at saulatnagi.wordpress.com and can be reached atsaulatnagi@hotmail.com

Published in Daily Times, September 28^th 2018.