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This document is a translated transcript of Salvador Allende’s victory speech after the 1970 Chilean Presidential election. The election was a plurality, with him receiving 36.61% of the vote, less than two percent more than the runner up, Jorge Alessandri (35.27%). He and his supporters were treating this as a victory due to the tradition of Congress electing the winner of the popular vote when runoffs votes had occurred previously.
Like many victory speeches, this document consists of Allende expressing his deep gratitude for his supporters. It highlights that many of his supporters are young, and that the Popular Unity coalition consisted of a wide variety of political groups The significance of this speech is not that it depicts US involvement, but rather that it marks the failure of US policy in Chile. Despite the large amount of time and money the US had, Allende won, even if by the narrowest of narrow margins. Regardless of the potential of preventing his election in the run off vote, he still won the popular vote, dealing a monumental blow to the Cold War ideology of the United States Government, and the West as a whole.
“I am deeply moved as I speak to you from this platform, through these subpar speakers. How significant – more so than words – is the presence of the people of Santiago, who, representing the vast majority of Chileans, congregate here to reaffirm the victory that we won fair and square today, a victory that opens a new road for our country, and whose principal actor is the working class of Chile who are gathered here today. How extraordinarily significant it is that today, I can address the people of Chile and the people of Santiago from the Federation of Students. This is of very high value and significance. No candidate who has won thanks to the will and sacrifice of the people has ever used a platform of greater importance. Because we all know: the youth of this country were the vanguard in this great battle, which was not the battle of a single man, but rather the battle of an entire people; this is Chile’s victory, reached fairly this afternoon.
I ask you to understand that I am only a man, with every shortcoming and weakness that any man has; and if I was able to endure yesterday’s defeat, today, without arrogance and without any spirit of revenge, I accept this victory, which is not personal and which I owe to the united popular parties, to the social forces that have been with us all along. I owe it to the radicals, the socialists, the communists, the social democrats, the members of the MAPU and the API, and to thousands of independents. I owe it to the anonymous and selfless countryman; I owe it to the humble woman of our land. I owe this victory to the working class of Chile, which will come with me into La Moneda on the 4th of November.
The victory you reached today has a deep national meaning. I want to make clear right now that I will respect the rights of all Chileans. But I also want to make clear, and I want you all to know for sure, that as soon as we get to La Moneda, with the working class in power, we will fulfill the historic promise that we’ve made: to make reality the political program put forth by Unidad Popular.
I’ve said it before: our purpose is not, nor could it ever be, petty revenge. Nor could we ever, for any reason, give up on or trade the program put forth by Unidad Popular, which was the banner carried the first authentically democratic, popular, national, and revolutionary government in the history of Chile.
I’ve it said before, and I will say it again: victory wasn’t easy, and it will be just as difficult to consolidate our victory and build a new society, a new social contract, a new morality, and a new nation.
But I know that you, you who put the working class in power, will have the historic task of making reality what Chile longs for: to turn our nation into a country peerless in its progress, in its social justice, in the rights of each man, each woman, each young person of our land.”
Allende Gossens, Salvador. “Victory Speech.” Translated by Marianela D’Aprile. Transcript of speech delivered at the Federation of Chilean Students Building, Santiago, Chile, September 5, 1970. https://www.marxists.org/archive/allende/1970/september/victory-speech.htm
