¹ The terms ‘worker’, ‘labor’, and ‘labor union’ as used in this article refer only to blue collar workers (obreros) and their organizations. A number of university theses and books have been written which describe the rise of the organized labor movement in early twentieth-century Chile, but few have given the subject more than superficial or ideologically-inspired attention. Two memorias de prueba, by Rojas, Floreal Recabarren, Historia del Proletariado de Tarapacá y Antojagasta, 1884–1913 (Santiago, 1954)Google Scholar and Serón, Jorge Barría, Los Movimientos Sociales del Principio del Siglo, 1900–1910 (Santiago, 1953) provided the groundwork forGoogle ScholarJobet's, Julio C. book, Luís Emilio Recabarren (Santiago, 1955).Google ScholarBarría later wrote an extension to his thesis, entitled Los Movimientos Sociales de Chile desde 1910 hasta 1926 (Santiago, 1960). These studies, despite their many shortcomings, have been cited and recited by other scholars wishing to draw conclusions about the pre 1927 period before moving on to related topics.Google Scholar

² The major studies of the Chilean labor movement in the nineteenth century are: Segall, Marcelo, Las Luchas de Clase en las Primeras Décadas de la República de Chile (Santiago, 1962);Google ScholarLjubetic, Pedro and Ortiz, Marcia, Estudio sobre el Origen y Desarrollo del Proletariado en Chile, Siglo XIX (Santiago, 1954); Recabarren Rojas, op. cit.;Google Scholar and Necochea, Hernán Ramírez, Historia del Movimiento Obrero en Chile, Siglo XIX (Santiago, 1956).Google Scholar

³ Argentine and Chilean anarchist newspapers provide the best information regarding the early development of libertarian movements in Chile. The most useful of these are: El Perseguido (Buenos Aires), 1890–; El Oprimido (Santiago), 1893; La Protesta Humana(BA), 1897–; El Proletario (S), 1897; El Rebelde (S), 1898–1899; La Tromba (S), 1899; La Campana (S), 1900–1902; and La Ajitación (S), 1901–1903. See also: De Shazo, Peter, ‘Urban Workers and Labor Unions in Chile, 1902–1927’, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1977, Chap. Four.Google Scholar

⁴ Unless otherwise indicated, the following account of the events leading up to the 12 May riot comes from El Mercurio (Valparaíso), 17 Apr.–12 May 1903; La Unión (V), 18 Apr. –12 May 1903; El Heraldo (V), 18 Apr. –12 May 1903; The Chilean Times (V), 18 Apr. –13 May 1903.

⁵ El Mercurio (V), 24 Apr. 1903, p. 5.

⁶ Ibid., 24 Apr. 1903, p. 5.

⁷ El Heraldo (V), 5 May 1903, p. 3. El Mercurio (V), 5 May 1903, p. 5.

⁸ El Heraldo (V), 28 Apr. 1903, p. 2, 30 Apr., p. 2.

⁹ El Trabajo (Iquique), 9 May 1903, p. 2.

¹⁰ El Mercurio (V), 9 May 1903, p. 5.

¹¹ Archivo Nacional de Chile (ANCh) Ministerio del Interior (MI) Intendencias, Decretos, Y Notas, 1903, Vol. 2704, Report of Intendant, Valparaíso to Minister of the Interior, 24 May 1903. Document enclosed.

¹² The following description of the riot of 12-13 May is derived from the pages of La Unión (V), El Heraldo (V), El Mercurio (V), El Chileno (S), El Diario Ilustrado (S) and the various reports (of the Intendant, Chief of Police, Commander of Lancers) in ANCh, MI, Intendencias, Decretos, Y Notas, 1903, Vol. 2704. Also: Lo Nuevo (V), No. 17, 15 May 1903, pp. 184–98, and The Record (V), May, June 1903.

¹³ At 11 p.m. on the 12th, the Intendant of Valparaíso claimed that 30 or more had been killed and 140 wounded. El Diario Ilustrado (S), 53 May 1903, p. 1. El Chileno was in contact with the Chilean Red Cross, which claimed to have found 60 dead bodies in the streets of Valparaíso by 1 a.m. on the 13th and more afterwards. (El Chileno, 13 May 1903, p.2.) Since many of the wounded crawled home to die and the dead were buried secretly, the extent of the carnage will, as in the cases of the Santiago riot of 1905 and the Santa María de Iquique massacre, probably never be known.

¹⁴ Tilly, Charles, ‘Collective Violence in European Perspective’ in Graham, Hugh and Gurr, Ted (eds.), The History of Violence in America (New York, 1969), p. 42.Google Scholar

¹⁵ ANCh, MI, Intendencias, Decretos y Notas, 1903, Vol. 2704, Document No. 8, Police Report of 13 May 1903. See also: Archivo Judicial de Valparaíso, Corte de Apelaciones, Libro Copiador de Setencias Criminales de Oficio (1903), cases Nos. 286, 287, 351–3, 365, 369–71, 390, 404, 410, 417.

¹⁶ El Chileno (S), 15 May 1903, p. 1. La Lei (S), 15 May 1903, p. 2.

¹⁷ ANCh, MI, Intendencias, Decretos, y Notas, 1903, Vol. 2704, Documents Nos. 16, 19 ‘Acta, Valparaíso, 13 de mayo de 1903’ and ‘Acuerdo del 19 de mayo de 1903’.

¹⁸ El Mercurio (V), 4 May 1903, p. 4.

¹⁹ La Unión (V), 14 May 1903, p. 4. El Diario Ilustrado (S), 14, 15 May 1903, p. 1.

²⁰ La Lei (S), 15 May 1903, p. 2. El Heraldo (V), 15 May 1903, p. 2.

²¹ Municipalidad de Valparaíso, Boletín Municipal, No. 145, 18 June 1903. Three thousand pesos in 1903 amounted to approximately four years' pay for a stevedore. The Municipal Council did not indicate how many payments would be made.

²² El Mercurio (V), 16 May 1903, p. 4; El Heraldo (V), 18 May 1903, p. 2.

²³ Sociedad de Fomento Fabril (SOFOFA), Boletín, Apr. 1904, p. 153.

²⁴ Irarrázaval, Felipe Inóguez, Notas Sobre el Desarrollo del Pensamiento Obrero en Chile, 1901–1906 (Santiago, 1968), p. 89.Google Scholar

²⁵ Archivo de la Dirección General del Trabajo (ADGT), Estudios y Trabajos, 1917, pp. 273, 345. SOFOFA, Boletín, Feb. 1909, p. 75. Many workers, however, forced employers to grant them Sunday rest through union pressure.

²⁶ El Diario Ilustrado (S), 15 May 1903, p. 1.

²⁷ Great Britain, Public Record Office, Foreign Office (PROFO), Chilean Archive, 16/345, Letters of the PSNC, Balfour Williamson & Co., and Duncan, Fox, and Co. to the Foreign Office, 4 June 1903. The PSNC to Foreign Office, 8 June 1903. Ibid., 16/344, Consul General Report, 4 June 1903 and petition.

²⁸ El Mercurio (V), 19 June 1903, P. 4. Congreso de Chile, Cámara de Diputados, Sesiones Ordinarias, 7 Dec. 1903, p. 696.

²⁹ La Luz (S), 28 May 1903, p. 1. La Ajitación (S), 21 July 1903, p. 1. El Defensor de la Clase Proletaria (lquique), 14 May 1903, p. 1.

³⁰ El Faro (S), No. 9, July 1903, p. 1.

³¹ La Lei (S), 28 May 1903, p. 3; 1 June 1903, p. 3.

³² Izquierdo, Gonzalo, ‘Octubre de 1905. Un episodio en la historia social Chilena’, Historia, 53 (1976), PP. 55–96.Google Scholar This brief account comes from El Chileno (S), El Diario Ilustrado (S), El Mercurio (S), 20–28 Oct. 1905. Also, see ANCh, MI, Policías, Notas, y Decretos, Vol. 2970, 1905.

³³ The Chief of Police of Santiago received prior warning that the protest demonstration on 22 Oct. would erupt in violence, but he ignored it. (ANCh, MI, Policías, Notas y Decretos, 1905, Vol. 2970, Report of Chief of Police, Santiago, 23 Oct. 1905.) The Democratic Party purged its Santiago section after order was restored, claiming that party leaders had actively fomented violence. (La Democracia (S), 29 Oct. 1905, p. 2.) See also: Alejandro Escobar Carvallo, ‘La Ajitación Social en Santiago, Antofagasta, y Iquique’, in Occidente, No. 525 (Nov.–Dec. 1959), pp. 5–7.

³⁴ El Industrial (Antofagasta), 15 Feb. 1906, p. 1. PROFO, 371/17, Cablegram, General Manager in Antofagasta to Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway Co., London, 7 Feb. 1906; Telegram from Kerr to Foreign Office, 9 Feb. 1906; Santiago Legation to Foreign Office, 20 Feb. 1906; Telegram of Vorwerk and Company to British Legation, Santiago, 8 Feb. 1906.

³⁵ For a day-by-day account of the strike, see La Patria (Iquique), Dec. 1907.

³⁶ ANCh, MI, Varias Autoridades, Decretos, y Notas, Vol. 3274, Dec. 1907, Report of Intendant Eastman, 26 Dec. 1907.

³⁷ Ibid.

³⁸ Ibid., Telegram from the Minister of the Interior to Eastman, 14 Dec. 1907.

³⁹ Authorities in Iquique claimed that only 126 were killed in the massacre, while the British Minister in Santiago estimated thée number of dead to be 400–600. ANCh, MI, Vol. 3274, Eastman Report, 11 Jan. 1908. PROFO, 371/407, Monthly Report of the Santiago Legation, 3 Jan. 1908. Taking into consideration the newspaper estimates of the number of people encamped in the Escuela Santa María and the number of survivors, it appears possible that up to several thousand were killed. Government press and telegraph censorship made accurate reporting of the massacre virtually impossible.

⁴⁰ De Shazo, op. cit., Table 4.2. From a day-by-day investigation of daily and labor newspapers in Santiago and Valparaíso, I was able to determine that at least 65 strikes took place in those cities between 1905 and 1907. Using secondary sources (mainly Barría, Recabarren, and Ramírez) for his information, Manuel Barrera in ‘Perspectiva Histórica de la Huelga Obrera en Chile’ in Cuadernos de la Realidad Nacional, No. 9 (Sept. 1917), p. 175, claimed that only 83 strikes occurred in the entire country between 1890 and 1904. While this figure is certainly much lower than the actual number which took place, the years 1905–7 did constitute a true ‘strike wave’, the like of which Chile had never before experienced.

⁴¹ A conclusion drawn from a careful reading of the reports, inspections, and correspondence of the Labor Office (1907–27) at the Archive of the Dirección General del Trabajo in Santiago. For a history of the Labor Office, see Oscar, Venegas C., La Dirección General del Trabajo (Santiago, 1942).Google Scholar

⁴² I was able to identify 229 strikes as having taken place in Santiago and Valparaíso between 1957 and 1921, 92 of which occurred in 1919. De Shazo, op. cit., Table 6.1. Given the available information, it is almost impossible to determine the number of organized workers in Chile during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Oft-cited works, such as La Organización Sindical en Chile by Moisés Poblete (Santiago, 1926), Anexo 5, greatly overestimated union membership. The Labor Office kept no official figures regarding the size of the organized labor movement during the 1920S and the labor unions grossly overstated their strength. The size of several unions can be estimated from dues payments, attendance at union meetings, the number of votes cast in union elections, etc., but such information is of little use in reaching a figure for national labor union affiliation. By even the most liberal estimates of union strength, however, only a small percentage of Chilean workers were affiliated with labor unions during the 1920s.

⁴³ La Opinióon (S), 17 Dec. 1917, p. 1.

⁴⁴ Calculations made from the strike surveys of 1902–4, 1917–21 in De Shazo, op. cit., Tables 4.12, 6.4. In most cases, the role of the Intendant was limited to invoking the Yánez Decree and encouraging conciliation between workers and employers.

⁴⁵ For a detailed description of the lockouts of 1921–3, their effect on labor unions, and the changing position of the Alessandri regime vis-à-vis employers, see De Shazo, op. cit., Chap. Seven.

⁴⁶ Sanfuentes directed most of his wrath against the anarcho-syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World, which by July 1920 had gained control over stevedores, teamsters, and lightermen in the port of Valparaíso. Police infiltrators planted a small quantity of dynamite in the IWW hall shortly before a raid took place. The Government then claimed that anarchists in Chile formed part of a Peruvian-led conspiracy to overthrow the State and used this as an excuse for the dragnet arrests of union leaders which followed. See Archivo de la Intendencia de Valparaiso, Llegadas, Policía, Mayo–Septiembre, 1920, Investigations Section to Chief of Police, 8, 12 July 1920; Chief of Police to Intendant, 14 July 1920; Ibid., Salidas, Ministerio del Interior, Intendant to Minister of the Interior, 19 July 1920. See also: La Unión (V), 22 July 1920, p. 7; La Nación (S), 22–28 July 1920.

⁴⁷ A careful reading of the labor press shows that union leaders were frequently arrested, but most were quickly released without formal charges being brought against them. Some languished in jail for several months at a time before being freed, but, unlike Luis Emilio Recabarren, few were actually convicted of a crime. Daniel Schweitzer, a young lawyer and a member of the anarchist-inspired Federación de Estudiantes de Chile (FECh) claimed in an interview with the author in Feb. 1975 that it was relatively easy to procure the release of labor leaders because their arrest normally constituted an act of harassment.

⁴⁸ Some 55,000 foreigners immigrated to Chile between 1889 and 1914, a time when millions entered Brazil and Argentina. Solberg, Carl, Immigration and Nationalism, Argentina and Chile, 1890–1914 (Austin, 1970), p. 35. Only a handful of foreigners rose to positions of leadership within the Chilean organized labor movement, and few unions except those in Tarapacá, Antofagasta, and Magallanes contained many non-Chileans among the rank and file.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ For discussions of the role of immigrants in the early organized labor movements of Brazil and Argentina, see Maram, Sheldon, ‘Anareho-Syndicalism in Brazil’ in Proceedings of the Pacific Coast Council in Latin American Studies, Vol. 4 (1975), pp. 101–16;Google ScholarYoast, Richard, ‘The Development of Argentine Anarchism: a socio-ideological analysis’, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1975.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Morris, James O., in Elites, Intellectuals, and Consensus (Ithaca, 1966), discusses the role of Conservative and Liberal Party intellectuals in drafting these labor laws, but finds no relationship between the timing of their introduction in Congress and the social upheaval of 1918–21.Google Scholar

⁵¹ The figure of 21,388 is found in Chile, Oficina Central de Estadíisticas, Censo Elecoral, 1921 (Santiago, 1931), pp. 88, 89. The Censo de Población de la República de Chile for 1920 (Santiago, 1925), pp. 248, 319, claims that 135,000 adult males resided in the Department of Santiago and found a literacy rate of 77.2 per cent among them. Thus, approximately 95,000 people were at least theoretically eligible to vote in the election of 1920.

⁵² Chilean newspapers contain many accounts of vote-buying and fraudulent tactics immediately before and after each major election during the Parliamentary Regime. In some instances, the press even published the ‘going rate’ paid by each party per vote. For an analysis of clectoral fraud during the early twentieth century, see Ortiz, Samuel, Vicios Electorales (Santiago, 1909).Google Scholar

⁵³ Working class participation in the Alessandri campaign is discussed in La Nación (S), 8 June 1920, p. 11; 10 July, p. 1; 26 June 1920, pp. 12, 15. See also Vicuna, Manuel Rivas, Historia Política y Parlamentaria de Chile, 3 vols. (Santiago, 1964), ii, 196, 211.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Shipping companies and Contractors broke a previous agreement by locking out all IWW marine workers in Valparaíso in Aug. 1921. The lockout later became a general maritime strike all along the Chilean coast. Alessandri promised concessions to several key unions and quickly withdrew them once workers returned to their jobs. See ADGT, Inspección Regional, Valparaíso, 1921, Vol. I, Report of 23 Sept. 1921; La Unión (V), 18 Aug.–13 Sept. 1921; 25 Oct. 1921, p. 6. El Mercurio (V), 18 Aug.–13 Sept. 1921; 21 Sept. 1921, p.3; 22 Sept. 1925, P. 7.

⁵⁵ Nearly 50,000 people in the Department of Santiago voted in the presidential election of 1925, while only 33,685 persons were inscribed to vote in the Province of Santiago in the congressional elections of Mar. 1924. La Nación (S), 25 Oct. 1925, pp. 10, 11, 13; 2 03 1924, p. 10.

⁵⁶ Luís Heredia, Secretary General of the anarcho-syndicalist Shoeworkers' Federation (Unión Industrial del Cuero) in Santiago in 1925 and Félix López Cáceres, an IWW leader at that time, claimed in interviews with the author (in 1975) that many anarcho-syndicalists in Santiago voted for Salas in 1925.

⁵⁷ La Nación (S), 25 Oct. 1925, pp. 10, 53.

⁵⁸ Morris, op. Cit., pp. 197–204, 263, discusses the unwillingness of employers to comply with the laws. Inspections by the Labor Office confirm this conclusion. The opposition of employers to the social legislation of 1924 was not surprising, since they refused to obey previous legislation regulating working conditions. Anarcho-syndicalists opposed the enforcement of all seven laws and the mutual aid societies joined their campaign to defeat the Obligatory Social Security Law (Number 4054). The communist-led FOCh at first toyed with the idea of using the laws to its own revolutionary ends, but later condemned them as an attempt to destroy the labor movement.

⁵⁹ De Shazo, op. cit., Conclusion. From a careful reading of the working class press of 1902–27, I found that many important socialists of the 1930s had been participants in anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist-oriented movements during the 1920s and before. Some, such as Oscar Schnake, Alberto Baloffet, Amaro Castro, Julio E. Valiente, Augusto Pinto, David Uribe, Zacarías Soto, and Benjamín Pina, had been leaders of the IWW or other anarchosyndicalist labor unions during the 1920s. Carlos Caro, Schnake, Eugenio González Rojas, Julio Ortiz de Zárate, Arturo Bianchi Gundián, and Alfredo Lagarrigue were intellectuals, often members of the Student Federation (FECh), who wrote for the anarchist press or publicly sympathized with libertarian groups. Others, including César Godoy Urrutia, Eliodoro Domínguez, and Ramón Alzamora, were teachers or empleados who previously espoused anarchist ideas. The Acción Revolucionaria Socialista, which sent more delegates to the founding convention of the Socialist Party in 1933 than any other group, was completely dominated by exanarchists. (According to the list of leaders given by Jobet, Julio C. in El Partido Socialista de Chile, Volume 1 (Santiago, 1971), 65, 77.) Of the 70 delegates to the founding convention, at least 10 were ex-anarchists or had clearly espoused anarchist ideology during the 1920s. Six of the 13 members of the Party's Central Directory in Oct. 1933 were former anarchists and Oscar Schnake was the first Secretary General. The six were: Alzamora, Bianchi, Pina, Pinto, Schnake, and Soto. SeeGoogle ScholarJobet, , El Partido Socialista, Vol. 1, p. 86.Google Scholar