Cordón Industrial (or in

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

Cordones industriales; ) is an organ of popular power or of

workplace democracy Workplace democracy is the application of democracy in various forms to the workplace, such as voting systems, consensus, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, and systems of appeal. It can be implemented in a ...

. Cordones were established in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

by the working class during the

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until Death of Salvador Allende, his death in 1973 Chilean coup d'état, 1973. As a ...

Popular Unity government (1970–1973).

Historical context

The ''cordones'' were established by the independent activity of

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

people and were initially established to pressure the government to socialize a number of companies that refused to accept workers rights. Their formation were extended and their creation-pace accelerated in response to sabotage and strikes organized by

employers' organization An employers' organization or employers' association is a collective organization of manufacturers, retailers, or other employers of wage labor. Employers' organizations seek to coordinate the behavior of their member companies in matters of mutu ...

s and the

Bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

that aimed to destabilize the

democratically elected

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

government and derail the implementation of a socialist programme. Initially created as organs to exert social pressure on the ruling government, they ultimately became a base for working-class political power itself. The first ''cordón'' was established on June 19, 1972, when workers from 30 different factories join to formulate the ''Cordon Cerrillos''. Los cordones industriales y el socialismo desde abajo - Miguel Silva (Biblioteca Obrera)
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Structure

Each ''Cordón'' was a group of

factories A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

and companies, which coordinated the tasks of workers in the same zone. By the time the

government was overthrown on September 11, 1973 military coup 31 ''cordones'' had been established and were operational. Of the 31 ''cordones'' 8 of them were within the Chilean capital of

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

Cordones and the State

The independent nature of these organs of '' poder popular'' from the bureaucracies of the official

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

body ( C.U.T.), the state (the

National Congress of Chile The National Congress of Chile () is the legislative branch of the Republic of Chile. According to the current Constitution ( Chilean Constitution of 1980), it is a bicameral organ made up of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. Established by l ...

) and the leadership of the parties forming the governing Popular Unity coalition (viz.

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

, Communist Party, etc.) created a complex situations for those attempting to implement socialism within the framework of existing democratic institutions. Some political organisations such as the Revolutionary Left Movement (which was not part of the popular unity coalition) and the

Popular Unitary Action Movement The Popular Unitary Action Movement or MAPU () was a small Left-wing politics, leftist political party in Chile. It was part of the Popular Unity (Chile), Popular Unity coalition during the government of Salvador Allende. MAPU was political rep ...

saw these organs of popular power as embryonic social organs for a new more democratic form of workers' state.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cordon Industrial Politics of Chile Economic history of Chile Presidency of Salvador Allende

Historical context

Structure

Cordones and the State

See also

References