Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (Chile)

The Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria MIR ( Movement of the Revolutionary Left ) is a "revolutionary Marxist-Leninist " political party in Chile , which in fact is more oriented towards Guevarist , Maoist and Trotskyist concepts and analyzes . Parties and groups with the same name exist or existed in Bolivia , Ecuador , Peru and Venezuela . In Chile, the MIR played an important role between 1965 and the mid-1980s.

Flag of the MIR

History and program

The MIR was founded on August 15, 1965 in the University of Concepción by the left wing of the Partido Socialista de Chile and intellectuals from Trotskyist groups under the leadership of the student Luciano Cruz Aguayo , son of an army officer, and Miguel Enríquez , the son of the university rector. Enríquez was Secretary General from 1967 until his death in 1974. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Chile experienced extreme political polarization under Presidents Eduardo Frei Montalva and Salvador Allende . In addition to the establishment of the Partido Nacional and the left swing of the Partido Socialista, the establishment of the MIR was an expression of this polarization.

The MIR saw itself as the avant-garde of the working class and tried to achieve a communist revolution through the armed struggle since the 2nd Party Congress in 1967 . The organization initially had a base at the universities, later also in the slums and among the farm workers; In these areas, the MIR had relatively important front organizations with the Movimiento Universitario de Izquierda , the Juntas de Pobladores Revolucionarios and the Movimiento de Campesinos Revolucionarios ; The MIR (or its Frente de Trabajadores Revolucionarios ) was relatively weak in the industrial plants and mines .

Even after the election of the socialist president Allende in 1970, the MIR remained critical to hostile towards the state and assumed that even with a government led by socialists, society would continue to represent a class society that could be overcome in a revolutionary way. MIR did not join the left-wing political alliance Unidad Popular (UP), although the second man in the hierarchy, Pascal Allende , was a nephew of Salvador Allende. Due to the good personal relationships between the MIR leadership and Allende, the MIR temporarily provided Allende's bodyguard. When Allende appointed a number of generals ministers for the second time in August 1973, there was an open rift between MIR and the UP government. The MIR itself worked closely with the left wing of the UP, which was pushing for an intensification of the revolutionary process - parts of the socialists, the MAPU and the Izquierda Cristiana de Chile - while the relationship to the MIR as "revisionist" and "reformist" designated KP Chiles was very tense.

The MIR was the only left-wing organization that, after the coup in Chile in 1973 , raised violent resistance against the military to a large extent , even if it was hopeless. Miguel Enríquez was shot dead by agents of the DINA in Santiago de Chile on October 5, 1974 . Then Pascal Allende headed the MIR. However, with the arrest and murder of most of the activists, the MIR never posed a threat to the regime, even though they carried out attacks and murdered government officials until the 1980s. In the 1980s, the MIR, which according to its own account had to mourn between 1500 and 2000 victims during the military dictatorship, split into several factions under the pressure of repression and the ideological renewal of the Partido Socialista. At the same time, other left resistance groups emerged, including the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez , which carried out an attack on Pinochet in 1986. After the transition , the MIR was re-established and is now a member of the party alliance Juntos Podemos Más .

The official journal of MIR is El Rebelde , and MIR is related to the youth organization Juventud Rebelde Miguel Enríquez (JRME).

The independent Centro de Estudios “Miguel Enríquez” (CEME) is dedicated to researching the history of MIR .

Land occupations by the MIR

Shortly after the election of the socialist president Allende, members of the MIR occupied land in the south of Chile. In anticipation of the announced land reform of the socialists, the activists of the MIR wanted to promote the distribution of land to the poor rural population themselves. During the violent occupations ("toma") members of the MIR, MCR and socialist members of the Mapuche drove landowners and landowners from their farms. The case of the Rucalán estate in the province of Cautín near the small town of Carahue caused a stir. The family of the landowner Landerretche, expelled at night on December 20, 1970, returned on December 24, 1970 to recapture their property by force of arms. In contrast to the activists of the MIR, however, the landowners were arrested by the police after the reconquest ("retoma"). The case caused unrest across the country as many large landowners feared for their property. The Rucalán estate remained in the possession of the Mapuche community Nicolás Ailío until Augusto Pinochet's military coup . The land occupations were never covered by the Chilean constitution, but were subsequently legalized as part of expropriation proceedings by Allende's socialist government.

The MIR and the Federal Republic of Germany

In the 1970s, the MIR was supported by various left organizations in the Federal Republic, such as the Communist League (KB) as well as other organizations of the New Left , which agreed with the MIR that there was no parliamentary path to socialism could give.

A domestic political dispute in the Federal Republic of Germany over the question of granting political asylum to 14 MIR members who had been sentenced to death by the Chilean regime after they had extorted confessions through torture sparked off in 1987 when several SPD- governed federal states, Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and CDU politicians like Norbert Blüm and Heiner Geissler campaigned for the lifting of the death sentences and the departure of the 14, which was rejected by other Union politicians.

See also

• Torture in Chile

literature

• Willi Baer, ​​Karl-Heinz Dellwo (eds.): MIR - Die Revolutionäre Linke Chiles (Library of Resistance, Volume 11). LAIKA-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-942281-80-5
• Arno Münster: Chile - a peaceful path? Historical conditions . 2nd Edition. Berlin 1974, pp. 172-184, “Revolution in Legality”, defeat.
• Volker Petzoldt: Resistance in Chile. Calls, interviews and documents from MIR Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-8031-1054-8
• Gaby Weber: The guerrillas take stock. Talks with guerrilla leaders in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay . Giessen 1989, ISBN 3-88349-375-9 , pp. 186-262
• Florencia E. Mallon: Courage tastes of blood - the Mapuche Community of Nicolás Ailío and the Chilean State, 1906-2001 . Duke University Press, Durham / London 2005, ISBN 0-8223-3574-3

Web links

• Norman Gall: Article from on land reform
  • Florencia E. Mallon: Article on the book

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gaby Weber: The guerrilla takes stock. Talks with guerrilla leaders in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay . Giessen 1989, p. 198 f.
2. ↑ Gaby Weber: The guerrilla takes stock. Talks with guerrilla leaders in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay . Giessen 1989, p. 213.