This is a useful descriptive study of the urban mobilizations against the Pinochet dictatorship, particularly the period between 1982 and 1987. The first two chapters provide an overview of the evolution of Chilean politics and the imposition and consolidation of the dictatorship. The following two chapters, on the roots of resistance and the protests of the squatter settlements, are the core of the book. The concluding chapter deals briefly with what the author refers to as the “transition to democracy.”
This is a very uneven book. Its strong points are largely the detailed interviews and firsthand descriptions of the informal and formal organizations that emerge to organize the urban movements. The author’s discussion of the importance of the prior socialization of the activist communities through the Communist Party, while not a novel finding, is an important issue that is worth reiterating. The political and social differentiation of different neighborhoods, their levels of political involvement according to past radical traditions and practices, are carefully documented through interviews and discussions with participants. Finally, the interviews cited show how much the poor were able to organize, struggle, and engage in effective political contestation, precisely because the conventional electoral politicians were absent. In the sense of illustrating the capacity for democracy from below, the book provides a rich source of data for reflecting on the issues involved in a “transition to democracy.”
The weak side of this book is its analytical and theoretical framework. It does not confront the ambiguous and contradictory role of the Catholic church in the coup and in the resistance. The role of U.S. imperialism in the overthrow, the role of the democratic government and its “brokers” in bringing Pinochet and the electoral politicians together, is completely omitted. While the author credits the Communists with politicizing the social movements, she provides an unbalanced critique of the urban guerrilla movement as one that alienated the poor from the Communists and provoked repression. The guerrillas did draw substantial support from the slum dwellers in La Victoria, La Pintana, and Villa Francia; Pinochet’s repression was a constant factor in any physical confrontation. The basic theoretical problem, however, is how to link the “macro” political processes with the “micro” neighborhood activities. The manipulation of the electoral politicians; the co-option of the nongovernmental organizations; the political and economic intervention of the European, Social, and Christian Democrats at the grassroots; the shift in church politics; all had a decisive impact in decimating the promising movements and undermining a democratic transition.
The author’s conceptual framework is tied to an abstract cycle derived from European experiences; it has little room for imperial powers interacting with domestic elites linked to “grassroots” professionals. This flawed analytical approach leads the author to the questionable conclusion that the power sharing between the Pinochet-led military and the civilian politicians, operating within the dictatorship’s 1980 constitution, constituted a transition to democracy. The demobilization of the autonomous democratic social movements was the condition for a transition, but one that lessened citizen interest and involvement.
Paradoxically, greater democracy was manifest in the shantytowns during the later years of the Pinochet dictatorship than subsequently under the electoral regime. The author would have done well to consult some of the critical writings on the social movement literature that informs her otherwise rich descriptive narrative.
