Popular Unity (Chile)
인민연합 (칠레)
The left-wing electoral coalition formed in October 1969 around the Socialist and Communist parties of Chile, together with the Radical Party, the Popular Unitary Action Movement (MAPU), Independent Popular Action (API) and the Social Democratic Party. It elected Salvador Allende president in 1970 and, as the governing coalition until the coup of 11 September 1973, carried out the programme of the "Chilean road to socialism": copper nationalisation, faster agrarian reform and a social property area. The Christian Left joined in 1971.
In depth
Popular Unity widened the Popular Action Front (FRAP) that had joined the Socialists and Communists since 1956. On 9 October 1969 the two parties issued a joint document inviting like-minded forces into a new bloc, and the coalition was formed in December. Choosing a candidate was not easy: the Socialist leadership did not fully back Allende, a three-time loser; the Communists put forward the poet Pablo Neruda and the Radicals Alberto Baltra. Allende was confirmed only on 22 January 1970.
The programme promised a transition to socialism within the existing constitutional order, by elections and law. The economy was to be divided into a social property area of nationalised big firms and monopolies, a mixed area of state and private partnership and a private area of small and medium firms; basic resources held by foreign capital were to be nationalised, and the state reshaped through a unicameral "People's Assembly". By not adopting the dictatorship of the proletariat as the state form of the transition it set itself apart from the Soviet model of revolution.
From the start the coalition held two lines. Allende, the Communists, the Radicals and part of MAPU wanted to consolidate gains through compromise with the Christian Democrats, while the Socialist left led by Carlos Altamirano and the radicals of MAPU and the Christian Left demanded to "advance without compromise". The Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), outside the coalition, was close to this radical wing. From 1972, amid economic crisis and the right's offensive, this conflict often paralysed the government's decisions.
Popular Unity won about 50% in the April 1971 municipal elections and about 43% in the March 1973 parliamentary elections but never reached a majority in Congress. After the coup the junta outlawed all its parties. The coalition lived on in exile in name only; after 1979 its parties acted separately and it formally disappeared in 1981.