| I lived in Chile throughout 1973 and saw first hand the power of this strike. At the time, seeing the shortages of basic commodities, especially toilet paper and toothpaste, I began to develop " the toilet paper strategy for a military coup”. It was a cunning strategy—nothing seemed to bother the middle class more than the loss of toilet paper. Chilean ladies would hoard vast quantities of it for their families, even building temporary storage units on their homes. And of course the hoarding itself would create shortages and the government appeared incompetent. You would go to dinner party, and your house gift or guest farewell gift would be a roll of toilet paper. It was crazy. The day after the coup, I remember trucks pulling up to street corners filled with toilet paper, handing it out to everyone. It seemed like a festival—good times were back. And then the crack down began.
janet breslin
In 1973, the British Author Anthony Sampson (1926-2004) published a book titled The Sovereign State, the Secret History of ITT. In the book he described in detail the role of the CIA, International Telephone and Telegraph company: ITT and how they manipulated the truckers in blocking supplies in Chile. It led to seal the fate of Salvador Allende and start of Pinochet Regime. Highly recommended read. It is out of print but may be obtained second hand. Zia E. Ahari “Seymour Hersh in NYT, on truckers role in Chile: “At its peak, the 1973 strikes involved more than 250,000 truck drivers, shopkeepers and professionals who banded together in a middle-class movement … that made a violent overthrow inevitable.” Typos courtesy of autocorrect. All will eventually be autocorrected, correct or not.
|