Chilean business associations organized economic sabotage to overthrow Allende

Evidence

After Allende’s election victory in 1970 and in the face of the nationalization and collectivization of enterprises, SOFOFA, headed by representatives of the conglomerates, stepped up its counteractivities. Moving well beyond mere propaganda work, the supply of daily consumer goods was interrupted in an attempt to provoke backlash. Along these lines, SOFOFA organized entrepreneurial boycotts and a collapse of private transportation. In 1971, the association explicitly dedicated itself to an overthrow of the government; the Chicago-trained economist Sergio Undurruga was charged with coordinating the SOFOFA task groups security, propaganda, and economic policy (Delano and Traslaviña 1989, 23f.; Corvalán Marquéz 2001, 225). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1560

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader story of how Chicago Boy-trained economists and corporate elites coordinated to subvert the Allende government, central to the ‘neoliberal coup’ historiography. — connects to: The Allende government displaced market allocation to remedy material inequalities — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 317; Chile’s inflation under Allende stemmed from political commitment to the poor, not economic ignorance — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 340; Neoliberal intellectuals helped overthrow Allende before codifying any new-liberalism doctrine. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1545