Published on Portside (https://portside.org/)
Allende’s Last
Speech
Salvador
Allende
September
11, 2018
Jacobin
My friends,
Surely this will
be the last opportunity for me to address you. The Air Force has bombed the
towers of Radio Portales and Radio Corporación.
My words do not
have bitterness but disappointment. May they be a moral punishment for those
who have betrayed their oath: soldiers of Chile, titular commanders in
chief, Admiral Merino, who has designated himself commander of the Navy,
and Mr Mendoza, the despicable general who only yesterday pledged his
fidelity and loyalty to the government, and who also has appointed himself
chief of the Carabineros [national police].
Given these facts,
the only thing left for me is to say to workers: I am not going to resign!
Placed in a
historic transition, I will pay for loyalty to the people with my life. And I
say to them that I am certain that the seed which we have planted in the good
conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled
forever. They have strength and will be able to dominate us, but social
processes can be arrested neither by crime nor force. History is ours, and
people make history.
Workers of my
country: I want to thank you for the loyalty that you always had, the
confidence that you deposited in a man who was only an interpreter of great
yearnings for justice, who gave his word that he would respect the constitution
and the law and did just that. At this definitive moment, the last moment when
I can address you, I wish you to take advantage of the lesson: foreign
capital, imperialism, together with the reaction, created the climate in which
the armed forces broke their tradition, the tradition taught by General
Schneider and reaffirmed by Commander Araya, victims of the same social sector
which will today be in their homes hoping, with foreign assistance, to retake
power to continue defending their profits and their privileges.
I address, above
all, the modest woman of our land, the campesina who believed
in us, the worker who labored more, the mother who knew our concern for
children. I address professionals of Chile, patriotic professionals, those who
days ago continued working against the sedition sponsored by professional
associations, class-based associations that also defended the advantages which
a capitalist society grants to a few.
I address the
youth, those who sang and gave us their joy and their spirit of struggle. I
address the man of Chile, the worker, the farmer, the intellectual, those who
will be persecuted, because in our country fascism has been already
present for many hours — in terrorist attacks, blowing up the bridges,
cutting the railroad tracks, destroying the oil and gas pipelines, in the face
of the silence of those who had the obligation to protect them. They were
committed. History will judge them.
Surely Radio
Magallanes will be silenced, and the calm metal instrument of my voice will no
longer reach you. It does not matter. You will continue hearing it. I will
always be next to you. At least my memory will be that of a man of dignity who
was loyal to the workers.
The people must
defend themselves, but they must not sacrifice themselves. The people must not
let themselves be destroyed or riddled with bullets, but they cannot be
humiliated either.
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.
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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