Chilean anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninism largely emerged in one organisation in the mid-1960s – the Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR) and its reach and influence has never been replicated by subsequent groups. Domestically it competed with the larger revisionist party and Castroite influenced groups for political influence.
The Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile was founded on February 16, 1966 in Santiago. It was the fusion of the revolutionary organizations, “Spartacus” and the “Communist Rebel Union”, and individual anti-revisionist ex-militants of the orthodox Communist Party of Chile (PCCh).
The fundamental reason for the founding of the PCR was that the leadership of the PCCh had abandoned communism and renounced the fight against the big bourgeoisie, the landowners and imperialism, choosing instead to follow the line of soviet social imperialism that there must be a “peaceful coexistence” with the enemies of the people and that the class struggle must be subordinated to electoral struggles.
Before 1966, the PCCh revisionists began to suppress the anti-revisionists Marxist-Leninists within the Party, taking action against Marxist education initiatives and banning documents from the Communist Party of China, which was advocating a fundamental discussion for the world communist movement.
The militant PCR raised the need for revolution and the construction of an authentic Communist Party in Chile during the 60-70s. PCR propaganda work included the monthly El Pueblo newspaper and magazine Causa Marxista-Leninista, which was published monthly, containing articles on national political analysis, communiqués from popular organizations, interviews, international news and updates on the national liberation war in Vietnam and the people’s war that the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party was carrying out in Colombia at that time.
The PCR was active in the building of a presence in the trade union movement and promoted a revolutionary stance in the student struggle. In the Mapuche countryside, the PCR launched the Netuaiñ Mapu, a political organization with which it carried out struggles and conquest of land with Mapuche communities.
The disintegration of the Revolutionary Communist Party began in 1972/73 with a split in the Central Committee and a breakaway by militants linked to the mass organisations in the short-lived Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR-ML) led by Luis Bernal and Robinsón Rojas.
The 1973 military coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende was a severe blow to the PCR and all leftist forces. More than 3,000 people were killed in the first months following the coup. More than 200,000 were arrested, or driven into exile, others subject to human rights abuses, their children stolen and 30,000 people disappeared before the dictatorship was finally ended in 1990.
Organisations big and small throughout the world commented on the 1973 coup. Pamphlet after pamphlet and article after article of in-depth analyses devoted to Chile came from all varieties of the political left, where the minutiae of Allende’s brief tenure were forensically examined. Such analyses conclude with different emphasis that revisionism, reformism and nationalism can only lead the working class into a fascist blind alley.
The PCR of Chile initially resisted the overthrow of the Allende government in 1973. However, as a result of the military repression and the fact that the leadership was in exile, the PCR effectively ceased to exist as a party domestically. The PCR dissolved in 1982.
The PCR at the international level, fought in the defense of Mao Zedong both against Albania and the revisionism of Deng Xiaoping, participating in the drafting of the declaration of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement/RIM.
When the PCR opposed the anti-Maoist controversy launched by Albania, there was a split in the organisation that resulted in the birth of Accion Protariat [PC-AP] led by Eduardo Artes. Another grouping of militants would later break from PC-AP and refound itself as the Recabarren Communist Organization (OCR) in 1985.
Chile: An Attempt at “Historic Compromise”. The Real Story of the Allende Years by Jorge Palacios
Note on... Jorge Palacios Chile: An Attempt at “Historic Compromise”.
The Tragic Events in Chile – A Lesson for Revolutionaries the World Over by Enver Hoxha
Chile and the Road to Socialism – Lessons of the Pinochet Coup of 1973 by Willi Dickhut
Chile: The Peaceful Road to Slaughter by M. Hickey [from the UK journal The Marxist, No. 24, n.d.)
Chile the Peaceful Road to Counter-revolution by Red Front/the Marxist-Leninist Organization of Britain
Chile, China and diplomatic silence
Chile: The Real Story of the Allende Years Revolutionary Worker, [newspaper of the US Revolutionary Community Party], Vol. 1, No. 20 (September 21, 1979)
Chilean Communist Analyzes Allende Years from Revolution, journal of the US Revolutionary Communist Party, Vol. 4, No. 9 (September 1979)
Did Soviets Cooperate with Chile Coup? by the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade (Michigan Daily, October 27, 1979)
Chile: The lesson of the overthrow of Salvador Allende by the US League of Revolutionary Struggle
Reformism – the gateway to fascism by the Chilean Communist Party/Proletarian Action (PC-AP)
The murder of Allende and the End of the Chilean Way to Socialism by Róbinson Rojas Sandford
Take the question of Chile [[Extract] Talk by a member of the Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China to a visiting delegation of the South African journal, IKWEZI July 1979]
Notes on the Partido Comunista Revolucionario (PCR)
Statement of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile on the Death of Comrade David Benquis
Message of Condolences from the Party of Labor of Albania to the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile [on the Death of Comrade David Benquis]
In Memoriam: Jorge Palacios (November 3, 1926-May 5, 2014)
David Benquis: “Camarada Velásquez”, Brief outline and evaluation of his revolutionary life by the Union of Communist Revolutionaries (Marxists-Leninists-Maoists)
Comunismo rupturista en Chile (1960-1970)
Pro-Chinese Wing Advances in Chile (World Outlook, December 13, 1963)
Chilean Revolutionary Communist Party Founded
Political Resolution of First Congress
All Revolutionaries Should Study and Disseminate Mao Tse-tung’s Thought
Article from Espartaco in defense of Cultural Revolution
Interview with Chilean Revolutionaries [from World Revolution, published by the US Progressive Labor Party, Vol. 2, No. 2 May-July 1969]
Apply Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought, To Chile’s Revolutionary practice
Greetings to 9th Congress of the Communist Party of China
Statement on Soviet Intrusion into Chinese territory
Some Experiences in the Struggle against Revisionism
Facing the reactionary offensive, uniting all the people for the struggle
Message of Greetings to 10th Congress of the Communist Party of China
Manifesto to the Chilean People
A policy to fight imperialism and overthrow the dictatorship
Interview with a delegation of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile (excerpt)
Interview with a leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile
Letter from Central Committee of Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile [on the death of Mao]
Speech by the PCR delegate to an International rally in Rome, 1977
Joint Declaration of the Delegations of the Marxist-Leninist Parties of Latin America
We Oppose Defeatism! [A.N.C.H.A., 21, June 1977]
The Second National Conference of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile – Press Communique
Open Letter of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile to the Communist Party of China
Against New Aggression by the Jurquet’s Group
Towards a new betrayal of L. Corvalan against the Chilean people
Speech at the Internationalist Meeting in Athens, March 14, 1977
Political Statement on the “Theory of the Three Worlds”
Powerful Outburst of the Chilean People’s Resistance
Message from the Front Ranks of the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Chile
We Must fight Against the Fascist Clique of Pinochet
Representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile Addresses Internationalist Rally, 1978
Statement of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile [on the relationship between the Chilean Military Junta and China]
The Chilean People Oppose Fascist Oppression
Chilean Revolutionary in the Belly of the Beast. Jorge Palcios Arrives to Speak in the US
Evaluation of the Work of Mao Tsetung [published in Revolution, Journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 1980]
Letter from the Chilean PCR and the RCP, USA to ICM Parties and Organizations
Pinochet is Invited to Peking [A.N.C.H.A., #54, May 1980]
Common Declaration of the RCP Chile and MAPU [A.N.C.H.A., #54, May 1980]
Communique from the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile and the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA [published in Revolution, journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, Vol. 5, No. 4, July 1980]
May Day Greetings to the Communist Party, USA [published in Revolution, journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, Vol. 5, No. 4, July 1980]
Chilean Generals Hold Gunpoint Referendum: RCP Chile Urges Active Boycott
Unity to Defeat the Dictatorship [A.N.C.H.A., #56, September 1980]
Basic Principles for the Unity of Marxist-Leninists and for the Line of the International Communist Movement A Draft Position Paper for Discussion Prepared by the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile and the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
Some Particularities of Contemporary Pro-Soviet Revisionism [published in A World To Win, issue #1, May 1981]
Condemnation of the Coup in Poland [published in A World To Win, issue #2, May 1982]
Causa Marxista-Leninista, #27 (Sept.-Nov. 1979)
Causa Marxista-Leninista, #28 (Jan.-March 1980)
Causa Marxista-Leninista, #29 (Sept.-Nov. 1980)
Causa Marxista-Leninista, #30 (March-May 1981)
Causa Marxista-Leninista, #31 (June-July-August 1982)
Notes on... Communist Party/Proletarian Action (PC-AP)
Eduardo Artés, Communist Pre-Candidate for the Presidency of the Republic
Salvador Allende: One Hundred Years Since His Birth
The 35 Years Since the Fascist Military Coup of 1973
Notes on... Recabarren Communist Organization (OCR)
The Chilean Revolution – a problem to be solved
Celebration of the Second Anniversary of the OCR
On the Policy to Follow in Today’s Period of Class Struggle in Chile
The Neo-Revisionism of the PC-AP
40 Years after the fall of the Popular Unity government
Juche – The New Catercism of the Lord Artes
The Revolutionary Communist Party
Notes on... Union of Revolutionary Communists (Marxists-Leninists-Maoists)
In Nepal a great revisionist betrayal has been consumed
Revisionism, main danger for the victory of the Chilean Democratic Revolution
Allende and Popular Unity: the class character of “people's government”
David Benquis/“Camarada Velásquez”, Brief outline and evaluation of his revolutionary life
To return to Recabarren is to defend Marxism
On the Class Struggle, the State, and the Role of Violence in History by Juan Segundo Leiva
Notes on... the Communist Party of Chile
Allende does not represent the interests of the people
Joint Declaration of the Latin American Conference in Chile