While the United States launched their plan to overthrow Salvador Allende, the Chilean president delivered his memorable speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), in New York, «the most representative forum in the world, and the most important and of greater importance in everything that concerns humanity”, according to his own words.
On that historic day, September 4, 1972, Allende shared the content of his intervention with all the representatives of the countries of the world. The big US monopolies were secretly concocting a destabilizing plan in Chile that included the coup d’état, carried out one year and a week later, on September 11, 1973.
In his speech, delivered 50 years ago, President Allende raised issues of universal importance that are still valid both for Chile and for each of the current 193 member countries of the multilateral organization, such as the struggle for social liberation, the effort for welfare and intellectual progress, the defense of the nation’s character and its dignity.
“I come from Chile, a small country, but where today any citizen is free to express himself as he prefers, with unrestricted cultural, religious and ideological tolerance, where racial discrimination has no place. A country with a working class united in a single trade union organization, where universal and secret suffrage is the defining vehicle of a multi-party regime and with a Parliament that has been continuously active since its creation 160 years ago. (A country) where the courts of justice are independent of the Executive, where its Constitution has only been changed once since 1833, without it practically never having ceased to be applied. A country where public life is organized in civil institutions, and which has Armed Forces with proven professional training and a deep democratic spirit. A country of close to ten million inhabitants that in a generation has produced two Nobel Prize winners for Literature, Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, both born in modest worker’s families. In my country, history, land, men and women, merge into a great national feeling», he affirmed.
A brave Allende dared to denounce in that world forum the efforts of the defenders of capitalism to try to stop at all costs the advance of the socialist model in Chile, and at the same time, he made public the asymmetry of powers that exists between the transnational companies and some States in the world.
“The workers are displacing the privileged sectors of political and economic power, both in the workplace, in the communes and in the State. This is the revolutionary content of the process that my country is experiencing, (the process) of overcoming the capitalist system and opening towards socialism”, explained the socialist leader.
Salvador Allende’s denunciation continued clearly before the world: “…it is not an open aggression that has been clearly declared before the face of the world. On the contrary, it is an always oblique, subterranean attack, but no less harmful for Chile (…) We find ourselves facing forces that operate in the shadows, without a flag, with powerful weapons, stationed in the most varied places of influence ( …) We are victims of almost imperceptible actions, generally disguised with phrases and statements that exalt respect for the sovereignty and dignity of our country. But we know, firsthand, the enormous distance that exists between these declarations and the specific actions that we must face”, he asserted.
In his speech, Allende revealed the «political intrigue and economic siege», «the imperialist banking system», «the blackmail made in the USA«, «the old aggression of imperialism», and «the conspiracy of the multinational companies» against his government.
Specifically, the plan drawn up by the International Telegraph and Telephone Company (ITT) and the Kennecott Copper Corporation to overthrow him.
‘‘We are not only suffering from the financial blockade, we are also victims of a clear aggression. Two companies that make up the core of the large transnational companies that have dug their claws into my country, the International Telegraph and Telephone Company and the Kennecott Copper Corporation, have set out to manage our political life», he said.
«ITT, a gigantic corporation whose capital is greater than the national budget of several Latin American countries together, and even greater than that of some industrialized countries, began, from the moment that the popular triumph in the September 1970 election was known, a sinister action to prevent me from occupying the first magistracy», said Allende.
“Dear delegates: I accuse, before the conscience of the world, ITT of trying to provoke a civil war in my country. This is what we qualify as imperialist action”, he affirmed. To continue pointing out the phenomenon of transnational corporations, whose danger consists -he warned- that they become States within the State.
After offering a detailed analysis and criticism of the problems that afflicted the world (and that persist today), President Salvador Allende concluded by saying, before the representatives of the member nations of the UN, the following: «Hundreds of thousands and thousands of Chileans said goodbye to me with fervor upon leaving my homeland so as to deliver the message that I have brought to this World Assembly. I am sure that you, representatives of the nations of the earth, will know how to understand my words. It is our confidence in ourselves that increases our faith in the great values of Humanity, in the certainty that those values will have to prevail, they cannot be destroyed».
Spanish version:
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