Cordón Industrial (or in

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

Cordones industriales; en, Industrial Belts) is an organ of popular power or of

workplace democracy Workplace democracy is the application of democracy in various forms (examples include voting systems, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, systems of appeal) to the workplace. It can be implemented in a variety of ...

. Cordones were established in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

by the working class during the

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

Popular Unity government (1970–1973).

Historical context

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

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

people and were initially established to pressure the government to

socialize In sociology, socialization or socialisation (see spelling differences) is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those hel ...

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 mutual ...

s and the

Bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

that aimed to destabilize the

democratically elected

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

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 a 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. T ...

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 as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Cordones and the State

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

bureaucracies The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...

of the official

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

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

National Congress of Chile The National Congress of Chile ( es, Congreso Nacional de Chile) is the legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Chile. The National Congress of Chile was founded on July 4, 1811. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Cham ...

) 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 A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

, 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 ( es, Movimiento de Acción Popular Unitario) was a small leftist political party in Chile. It was part of the Popular Unity coalition during the government of Salvador Allende. MAPU was repressed du ...

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