Article

Perspectives: Alternatives and Alliances
The Junta's ideologues have long maintained that the failure of all civilian forces prior to 1973 was so fundamental, that any resolution of the crisis would entail a profound reorganization of society. 1 They discuss the incompatibility of a "free market system" and "mass democracy, " and see authoritarian rule not as a temporary measure but as a permanent means to maintain bourgeois order.
The Capitalist Crisis and the Chilean Coup
The contrast between the Popular Unity (UP) government headed by President Salvador Allende and the current military regime of General Augusto Pinochet could hardly be more striking. Allende's government was pledged to expand democratic rights, redistribute income in a more equitable fashion, increase the State's role in the economy and control both strategic foreign investment and domestic monopolies.
The Political Economy of the Junta
Since it came to power in 1973, the military government has implemented an economic policy which must be understood as a group of institutional measures aimed at establishing renovated bases for the functioning of the capitalist system. From an economic viewpoint, the recreation of the basic conditions favorable to capitalist development must be understood in the following terms: L the restructuring of the system of domination over the working class and of control over the labor market.