The MIR and the people during Popular Unity: some comments

Abstract

The bibliographical notes presented below are part of a research project on the relationship established between some sectors of the Chilean popular camp and the politics of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), especially during the period of the Popular Unity government (1970-1973). Most of the studies that have dealt with the historical experience of the MIR have focused on the issue of the armed struggle, neglecting other important areas such as its concrete relationship with specific sectors of the Chilean popular classes. Thus, we have been able to identify the absence of a social history of the MIR, or - if you like - a history of the MIR reconstructed from its specific relations with the movement and mass struggles; More specifically, a history that has given an account, for example, of its concrete articulation with men and women of the working class, the movement of settlers, the peasantry, student collectives, women's organisations, intellectual groups or the Christian world, just to name a few collective actors who, during the period of greatest popular political participation in the history of Chile in the 20th century - such as the Chilean road to socialism - showed an active social and political protagonism.