The Popular Sector Response to an Authoritarian Regime

The emergence of base-level organizational activity in Chilean poblaciones (shantytowns) beginning in the late 1970s under a repressive military regime is one of the most puzzling social and political phenomena in Latin America today. On one hand, such organizational activity represented an attempt to restructure the social fabric of society virtually destroyed by the progressive dismantling of the state's social welfare apparatus in a highly restrictive environment. On the other hand, its emergence reflected both the cessation of traditional political party activity under authoritarian rule and an attempt by the urban poor to re-create a public space for the expression of the interests of the lower classes, or popular sectors. The violence unleashed by the 1973 military coup had gradually led to a shift in the locus of political activity to the base level. The sudden reappearance of political parties as important political actors in 1983 in the wake of the dramatic and unprecedented wave of national protests only complicated the prospects for a transition to democracy in Chile. New and old political actors had to reconcile divergent claims in order to mount an effective opposition to an entrenched, personalistic military regime intent on transforming not only Chile's political system but Chilean society as well. This article will argue that the emergence of organizations in the poblaciones of Santiago was conditioned by factors relating both to the authoritarian regime itself and Chile's preauthoritarian heritage. After examining