En Passant

Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Go forward knowing that, sooner rather than later, the great avenues will open again where free men will walk to build a better society.

Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!

These are my last words, and I am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain, I am certain that, at the very least, it will be a moral lesson that will punish felony, cowardice, and treason.

Santiago de Chile, 11 September 1973

My childhood memories of Allende’s Chile, sharpened by the words, tears and suffering of the adults around me, reflect now more vividly and perhaps more bitterly than ever the tragedy of a revolution half-made, writes Jorge Jorquera in Socialist Alternative.

As the US elite cynically manipulates the deaths of those killed eleven years ago on September 11 in America, where are their tears for the many dead in Chile, killed by the agents of their predecessors on the same day 39 years ago?

The strikes across Europe, the swing to the radical Left in countries like Greece and the uprisings across the Arab world for freedom and food, justice and jobs offer real hope to humanity – that people come before profit and that only with the triumph of a cooperative and democratic society worldwide can we end all the September 11s.

For almost a year, students in Chile have been staging mass protests and organising sit-ins and occupations in a struggle to transform the country’s education system. Schooling in Chile is highly privatised, with less than half of all students in public schools and one of the lowest levels of public spending for higher education in the world.

Lest we forget the lessons of September 11 in Chile, the US and Australia.

The US backed coup in Chile 36 years ago shows that Nixon and Kissinger are the moral equivalent of Osama bin Laden.