[español por abajo]

[Translator's note: this is an unofficial translation and I was not able to do it as literally as I would have liked to. Corrections or improvements are welcome; the original Spanish follows the English translation. The explanatory footnotes are my own. Clase contra Clase, the author of this statement, is the Chilean section of the Trotskyist Faction for the Fourth International, their website is at www.clasecontraclase.cl/ . --Fred Bergen f_red_bergen-AT-yahoo.com ]

Chile
Pinochet, chief of the mass murderers, dies unpunished

By Class against Class (Clase contra Clase)
Sunday, December 10, 2006

They ask for a state funeral: he won't get it. He was the boss of the state repression, which even today has gone unpunished, despite the nationwide clamor for a judgment on the crimes of his dictatorship: the assassination, the disappearances, the torture and exile. He was also the servant of the capitalist class, safeguarding another kind of impunity, the bosses' license to exploit, impunity for their neoliberal ideology with which they converted education, health care, and housing into market commodities. He liquidated the unions, and deepened the exploitation in the workplaces.

He died with impunity. He was not called to account for his crimes, for he was protected by an open secret, the pact between those false friends of the people, the Concertación [1], and the Pinochetists ensconced in the army, the business owners, sections of the state institutions, and certain mass media outlets. Despite a few brave lawyers and judges, Pinochetists share the judicial system with the Concertación, and all kinds of Pinochetist groups and circles are beginning to emerge into the light of day. The right wing, who lined up to pay their respects to Pinochet in his final illness, also shielded him, with the legislators of the UDI and the RN [2] showering with praises the man whose dictatorship was such a fertile breeding ground for reaction.

He died with impunity. But the moral condemnation of millions who rejected and still reject his dictatorship was expressed by the outpouring in the streets to commemorate the struggle which persists in the living memory of an entire people, even more than thirty years after that bloody day in 1973. [3] The political judgment for his crimes was lacking. We of Class against Class have always insisted on the necessity of a mass political action that would serve as the working people's political judgment on that tyrant. The Communist Party's policy of limiting itself solely to legal actions in this Concertaciónist-Pinochetist judicial system, has not allowed this to happen.

His death does not mark the end of Pinochetism, a social formation that unites the beneficiaries of the privatizations who have enriched themselves in all kinds of ways, including fraud, with sectors of the poor people who have been victimized by the politics of the capitalist class, both before and after the coup. Rising to the top of this social formation are circles and cliques of the cadres of the conspiracy against the workers and the people, which today appears to be seeking to revive a reactionary political movement under different names. This will go on producing a metamorphosis, the progressive transformation of the Pinochetist - anti-Pinochetist conflict into a conflict between the exploitative interests of the bosses that Pinochetism defends by means of open confrontation, and the rights and justified interests of the working class and all the poor people.

His death does not mark the end of Pinochetism. People are declaring themselves admirers of his work. Some more shamefully than others, they declare themselves his admirers, his followers, his heirs. They must pay for his entire legacy. The indictment for the crimes of Pinochet's dictatorship, which the human rights organizations have upheld valiantly and tirelessly for years, against his civilian and military collaborators, does not expire with the death of their leader.

For this reason his death constitutes a sort of milestone in this process which is still continuing. It was a spontaneous explosion of liberation from years of horror and death for a great majority, from every unbearable day that the leading figure of the years of terror survived, alive and free. His death gives greater momentum for the struggle against the dictatorship's impunity, which still continues, to break out into a struggle against the unlimited impunity for the bosses which the dictatorship secured for them.

Everyone to Plaza Italia: December 10, 2006 at 7 PM

[1] The Chilean popular front, including the Socialist Party whose Michelle Bachelet is the president of Chile.

[2] The Independent Democratic Union (UDI) and the National Renewal Party (RN), two far-right parties, form the "Alliance for Chile" coalition.

[3] September 11, 1973: General Augusto Pinochet led a military coup with the full support of the United States government, unleashing a reign of counterrevolutionary terror.

Chile
El jefe de los genocidas: Pinochet murió impune

Por: Clase contra Clase (Chile)
Domingo 10 de diciembre de 2006

Piden funerales de Estado: no los tendrá. Fue un dictador. Fue jefe de la represión de Estado, que se conserva impune hasta el día de hoy, aún a pesar del clamor nacional de castigo a los crímenes de su dictadura: los asesinatos, las desapariciones, la tortura, el exilio. Fue también el sirviente de la clase patronal para asegurar la otra impunidad, la impunidad de la explotación de la clase patronal que con su ideología neoliberal convirtió en mercancía la educación, la salud y la vivienda. Liquidó el sindicalismo, profundizó la explotación en los lugares de trabajo.

Murió impune. No hubo castigo a sus crímenes, sostenido por un pacto que es un secreto a voces entre la Concertación, falsos amigos del pueblo, y el pinochetismo enquistado en el Ejército, las empresas, parcelas de las instituciones estatales, algunos medios de comunicación de masas, en la misma justicia concertacionista- pinochetista (aun con abogados y algún juez valiente), y en toda clase de círculos y grupos que comienzan a salir a la luz. Incluyendo a la derecha, que en su última enfermedad desfiló a visitarlo, con los legisladores de la UDI y RN rindiéndole pleitesía, agradeciéndole porque nacieron de ese espeso caldo de cultivo que fue la dictadura.

Murió impune. Pero con la condena moral de millones que repudiaron y repudian su dictadura, y que se expresa en la salida espontánea a las calles recordando esa lucha que pervive en la memoria viva de un pueblo entero, aún a más de 30 años de aquel día sangriento de 1973. Faltó la condena política. Desde Clase contra Clase planteamos siempre la necesidad de un acto político de masas que actuara de juicio político del pueblo trabajador contra aquel verdugo. La política del PC de limitarse sólo a la acusación judicial de esta justicia concertacionista- pinochetista, no lo permitió.

Su muerte no acaba con el pinochetismo, una capa social que une a los beneficiados con las privatizaciones enriquecidos de variadas maneras incluyendo malas artes, con sectores del pueblo pobre víctima de la acción política de la clase patronal antes del golpe y después. Sobre esta capa social se montan círculos y cenáculos de cuadros de la conspiración antiobrera y antipopular, que parece que hoy buscan reactivar un movimiento político bajo diferentes denominaciones. Se va produciendo una metamorfosis, el progresivo paso de la oposición pinochetismo - antipinochetismo, democracia vs. dictadura, a la oposición entre los intereses explotadores de la clase patronal que el pinochetismo defiende con métodos de enfrentamiento abierto, y los derechos e intereses justos de la clase trabajadora y todo el pueblo pobre.

Su muerte no acaba con el pinochetismo. Se declaran admiradores de su obra. Con mayor o menor pudor, sus admiradores, seguidores, herederos. Deberán cargar con toda su herencia. El castigo a los crímenes de la dictadura, que los organismos de DDHH sostuvieron en alto valiente e incansablemente durante años, de colaboradores civiles y militares, no acaba con la muerte de su jefe.

Por eso, su muerte constituye apenas un hito, en este proceso que ya venía siendo. Una explosión espontánea de liberación de años de horror y muerte para una gran mayoría, y que su figura mantenía tan viva y presente, tan cotidiana que persistía insoportable. Se impulsa más la liberación del paso de la lucha contra la impunidad de la dictadura, que continúa, a la lucha contra la impunidad patronal que la dictadura aseguró sin límites.

Todos a Plaza Italia: 10 de diciembre 2006, 19 hs.
Clase contra Clase
10 diciembre 2006