Salvador AllendePrint Page

12-September-2021

Photographs supplied by Kathy Curran

The monument commemorates Dr Salvador Allende Gossens (1908 - 1973) who was the President of Chile from 1970 to 1973.

Allende, born into an upper-middle-class family, received his medical degree in 1932 from the University of Chile, where he was a Marxist activist. He participated in the founding in 1933 of Chile’s Socialist Party. After election to the Chamber of Deputies in 1937, he served from 1939 to 1942 as Minister of Health in the liberal leftist coalition of President Pedro Aguirre Cerda. Allende won the first of his four elections to the Senate in 1945.

Allende ran for the presidency for the first time in 1952 but was temporarily expelled from the Socialist Party for accepting the support of the outlawed Communists; he placed last in a four-man race. He ran again in 1958—with Socialist backing, as well as the support of the then-legal Communists—and was a close second to the Conservative-Liberal candidate, Jorge Alessandri. Again with the same support he was decisively defeated (1964) by the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei. For his successful 1970 campaign Allende ran as the candidate of Popular Unity, a bloc of Socialists, Communists, Radicals, and some dissident Christian Democrats, leading in a three-sided race with 36.3 percent of the vote. Because he lacked a popular majority, however, his election had to be confirmed by Congress, in which there was strong opposition from the right. Nevertheless, it was confirmed on October 24, 1970, after he had guaranteed support to 10 libertarian constitutional amendments demanded by the Christian Democrats.

Inaugurated on November 3, 1970, Allende began to restructure Chilean society along socialist lines while retaining the democratic form of government and respecting civil liberties and the due process of law. He expropriated the U.S.-owned copper companies in Chile without compensation, an act which set him seriously at odds with the U.S. government and weakened foreign investors’ confidence in his government. His government also took steps to purchase several important privately owned mining and manufacturing sectors and to take over large agricultural estates for use by peasant cooperatives. In an attempt to redistribute incomes, he authorized large wage increases and froze prices. Allende also printed large amounts of unsupported currency to erase the fiscal deficit created by the government’s purchase of basic industries. By 1972 Chile was suffering from stagnant production, decreased exports and private-sector investment, exhausted financial reserves, widespread strikes, rising inflation, food shortages, and domestic unrest. International lines of credit from the United States and western Europe had completely dried up. Allende’s inability to control his own radical left-wing supporters further incurred the hostility of the middle class. In foreign affairs, he established relations with China and Cuba.

Allende retained the support of many workers and peasants; his electoral coalition won 44 percent of the vote in the March 1973 congressional elections. His government, however, was overthrown on September 11, 1973, by a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet. During a concerted attack on the presidential palace, Allende died, and the manner of his death became a subject of controversy. Military officials claimed that he had committed suicide, while others believed that he had been killed and that an apparent suicide had been staged. In 1990 his body was exhumed from an unmarked grave and given a formal public burial in Santiago. As part of a criminal investigation into alleged murders committed by Pinochet’s regime, Allende’s body was again exhumed in May 2011, and a scientific autopsy was performed. The results confirmed that he had committed suicide.

Location

Address:	Honour Avenue, Fairfield Park, Fairfield, 2165
State:	NSW
Area:	Foreign
GPS Coordinates:	Lat: -33.875631 Long: 150.959242 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.

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Details

Monument Type:	Monument
Monument Theme:	People
Sub-Theme:	Foreigners
Approx. Event Start Date:	1970
Approx. Event End Date:	1973

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:	Sunday 28th September, 2003

Front Inscription

Dr Salvador Allende Gossens

26th June 1908 - 11th September 1973

President of Chile 1970 - 1973

Last broadcasting words :

Workers of my homeland ! I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this gray and bitter moment where treason tries to impose itself. May you continue to know that much sooner tha later the great avenues through which free men walk to build a better society will open.

Long live Chile !

Long live the people !

Long live the workers !

Back Inscription

This monument was unveiled on the 28th of Septiembre 2003

We thanks all those that assisted with this project including the

Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union
Salvador Allende Committee of Adelaide
Salvador Allende Solidarity Group of Canberra
Committee Pro Monument Salvador Allende of Sydney

In Chile September 11 1973 President Salvador Allende was overthrown in a bloody military coup led by General Pinochet

During the dictatorship thousands of supporters of the elected President were killed, disappeared, tortured and imprisoned.

29th May 2005

Source: MA

Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au

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