Chile: the balanced view : a recopilation of articles about the Allende years and after

Allende's emphasís on a more equitable distribution 01 income was so excessive that it became sell-deleating. The astronomical inflation and almost chaotic economic conditions 01 the second hall 01 1972 and the lirst hall 01 1973, which lollowed the redistribution– induced massive consumption increases 01 1971, were jeopardizing labor's real income gains 011971. The moving force behind !he policies 011970-73 was the desire!o destroy a distribution pattern where in 9 percent 01 the population controlled 43 percent of national income; an even grea!er concentration 01 economic power existed in the financial, agricul– tural, mining, industrial and communications media sectors; and unequal distribution was identified, in orthodox Marxist terms, as exploitation 01 one social group by another. Gradual elimination 01 enormous discriminatory inequalities in intra-Iabor distribution 01 income was also attempted by Presiden! Allende's government during 1970-73. The goal of equal labor remuneration was empha!ically and direetly pursued during 1970-71: An obligatory minimum wage for workers of all ages ineluding apprentiees, was introduce'd; the law permitting payment of less than one basie salarytothose under 18 and more.than 65 years of age was revoked; all wages and salaries were readjusted by 100 pereent of the cost-ol-living increase, !he lowest ones by substantially more; a gradual equalization 01 lamily allowances was begun, aiming to culminate in a single uniform allowance; low– ineome groups were liberated lrom taxes. The indirect instruments used by Allende to redistribute income in lavor 01 low-ineome wage earners also exerted a powerful catalytie influence upon the social order. Low– ineome workers, the retired, the poor and the indigent were given a larger and improved share of health, housing, edueation and welfare services; scaree lood and other supplies were made prelerentially available in low-income neighborhoods; so-called illegal take– overs 01 land, houses, apartments and industrial plants were tolerated, il not eneouraged; employment was praetieally guaranteed for all; housing loans to poor beeame open giveaways as escalator elauses were eliminated. In no other area has there b€.en so strong a consensus about the desperate need of basic reform as in that coneerning inequality of compensation among workers. In no other area, however, did Allende's pOlicies meet with so mueh resistance. The eeonomywas moved to eeonomíc and polítieal disaster: Death fell upon Latín Ameriea's most celebrated demoeracy as the unbridled pOlitical warfare eulmi– nated in the military eoup ayear ago. Praetieally all the information available forthe years before 1970 shows that intra-Iabor income inequalities were high, that interindustry wage relationships were highly volatile, and that there was an apparent laek of association between compensation of labor and the funetional role that wages are normally expected lO fulfíl!. To President Allende and his Popular Unity, these were bolh a symptom and an effect of a backward exploitive social order that had to be destroyed. In order to create a new social order, it was necessary to transform the polyglot, leudíng, unequal bul coexisting labor groups into a homogeneous, equal proletariat imbued wíth binding elass spirit and eonseíousness. Allende's actions on labor ineome differentials were far more realistic and pragmatic than were some 01 the Popular Uníty's extreme rhetories. Labor ineome differences had been greatly reduced by 1972 -85 percent of all workers earned between one and live basic salaries- but some people were permitted to receive salaries hígher than the baslc five, and Ihese people continued to control a disproportionately high share of labor income. The sensible tax reform of 1972 (which became effective in January, 1973) r~9uced, bul by no means eliminated, labor ineome inequalítíes. A MAJOR DREAMWAS THE RETURN TO CHILE OF ITS MINERAL RESOUR– CES A major unfullilled dream 01 Chíle's polilicalleft belore 1970 was a complete- return lo Chile of its mineral resources, which had been denationalized since 1882. Allende encoun– tered no polítical difficulties in fulfilling one of his perennial eampaign promises during his 40