Word: frei
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...billed as a "general strike"-a major protest against the moderate government of Chilean President Eduardo Frei. But when it came off last week, it proved a dud. Only 35,000 workers stayed away from their jobs, and the climactic "rally" in Santiago's Plaza Artesanos drew a skimpy crowd. Miners in helmets and packs marched listlessly to a drum and bugle corps; a few busloads of young girls chanted: "If the government continues like this, we will cut off its nose." Not even chunky Communist Councilwoman Mireya Baltra, berating the "imperialists" between swigs from a bottle of Pepsi...
...carabineros had fired into a crowd of rioting "wildcat" strikers at El Salvador's copper mine, killing eight and wounding 35. The protesting general strike was one of a series called by the Frente de Acclon Popular (FRAP), Chile's Socialist-Communist opposition to Christian Democrat President Frei...
FRAP was obviously working along the guidelines of the recent Tri-Continental Conference in Havana, which recommended stepped-up labor trouble as a means to Red takeover. Since January, strikes in the Chilean copper mines have cost Frei's government $60 million, and the mild-mannered President got tough. Going before the nation on radio and television, he angrily declared that FRAP was out to "economically paralyze the nation. We are witnessing a premeditated act of subversion...
...Stranglehold. Frei also got unexpected-and unwitting-help from Fidel Castro. After the shooting at El Salvador, Fidel took to Havana radio to attack Chile's President as "a coward and reactionary" who had "promised revolution without blood but has given only blood without revolution." Castro's castigations struck many Chileans as an outsider's interference in domestic problems, and coupled with Frei's television address helped to undercut support for the FRAP-led general strike...
...returning for another three hours of work in the late afternoon. In modern times, however, workers in downtown Santiago, Valparaiso and Concepción, many of whom live six or seven miles from their jobs, have spent most of their lunchtime stalled on buses in traffic jams. So when Frei's government, seeking to boost efficiency and save electricity, last year asked the University of Chile to make a survey, results showed 94.6% favoring an uninterrupted working day, with only 4.5% opposed to the idea...