Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism [Paperback]

Peter Winn (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195045580 | ISBN-13: 978-0195045581 | Publication Date: January 19, 1989

Peter Winn, a highly regarded and internationally recognized Latin-American scholar and journalist, has written an innovative case study of Chile's revolution from below. Winn's analysis of the dramatic seizure of the Yarur cotton mill in Santiago and its widely felt repercussions for Allende's revolution is based on extensive, unique interviews. He juxtaposes the workers' views and activities during the revolution with a portrait of the government.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Excellent book."--Gregory Crider, Drake University

"The most useful of all my assigned supplementary texts. Students enjoyed reading it and felt they gained real insights into the causes of revolution...Provided a sustained and enthusiastic discussion."--Bill Donovan, Loyola College in Maryland

"Well-written and accessible for a general audience."--Latin American Research Review

"Provides valuable insights into one of the central dynamics of the short-lived Popular Unity government of Chile....No other work concretely takes us to the factory floor to examine the internal tensions of this revolutionary process."--Science and Society

"[A] terrific book. Students loved it and learned a lot from it."--Jeffrey Rubin, Amherst College

"A landmark in Latin American history and a leading example of the new social history in practice....Winn has combined the finest elements of historical work, a dramatic, human, and moving story recounted in the language of the main actors of the drama and woven into the larger context of its time and place....Written in a lively and often eloquent style...reads more like a novel than a scholarly work."--Hobart Spalding, The Americas

"A richly textured...magnificent and much needed account of the most human and democratic phase of the Chilean road to socialism."--James Petras, The Nation

"A marvelously good book; one of the best published on Latin America in the past few years."--Arnold Bauer, University of California at Davis

"Rich, vivid and fine in the telling...one of the outstanding historical studies to appear in the great wave of new scholarship on Latin America in the last twenty years."--John Womack, Harvard University

"A long-needed and well-written corrective to the simplistic views that have shaped too much of our understanding of the pivotal years in the U.S.-Latin America relationship."--Walter LaFeber, Cornell University

About the Author

Peter Winn is at Tufts University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 354 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 19, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195045580
• ISBN-13: 978-0195045581
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > History > Americas > South America > Chile

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Conflict between a revolution from above and that from below, October 9, 2000

By 

Carlos Almendarez - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism (Paperback)

The seizure of Yarur factory on April 25, 1971 marked the beginning of a tumultuous struggle for socialism in Chile. Salvador Allende, of the popular unity party, ran on a platform that sought to unify the working population. Allende's vow to guide Chile down the democratic road to socialism is one of his greatest legacies. The democratic road to socialism was paved, at least symbolically, with the efforts of the working class. The failures and successes of Allende's travel through la "via Chilena" hinge on whether "the Chilean revolutionary process was of and by the workers or merely for the workers." Allende would die the death of a martyr: machine gun in hand in an enflamed national palace that had been besieged by a hostile coup. If Allende died the death of martyr, to whom was he a hero? Inconsistent with traditional revolutionary ideology Allende feared a rampant revolution. As a self-proclaimed Marxist his views irked both capitalists and the middle class. El presidente compañero, regardless, was a president for the people. His core constituency demanded a revolution from below and thus complicated the revolution from above that Allende attempted to impose. With these conflicts in mind Peter Winn analyzes the extent to which Allende (a socialist) both failed and succeeded as a revolutionary.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tapestry of voices from the trenches of revolution, August 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism (Paperback)

Winn's book gives a detailed (and Trotskyist) account of a "revolution from below" that transpired during Allende's "revolution from above." It depicts the struggles of textile workers as they grew conscious of their class standing, became unionized and, ultimately, siezed control of the nation's most prominant mill. In the end, however, Winn demonstrates how the Yarur workers and the Popular Unity government imagined different Chilean roads to socialism, and how this divergence brought the social revolution and the Ex-Yarur mill to a tragic conclusion. It is a well-crafted and readible book...a "must" for any student of Latin American history, social revolution or Marxist theory.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The micro politics of revolution, September 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism (Paperback)

I agree with the last reviewer, except for her\his curious reference to this being a "Trotskyist" view. What I like about this book is the way one can see the dilemnas and perspectives of different actors within the coalition that backed Allende. Less an endorsement of any one tendency's political line, this book brings out the tragedy of various democratic revolutionary factions all trying to do the right thing and unable to unite the face of repression. Best of all, it links the perspectives of ordinary workers with the difficult choices face by leaders.