“The communist Indians have only brought damage and unjust claims”. Anti-communism, racism and labor conflicts at the thermoelectric power plant at the Chuquicamata mine (Tocopilla, Chile, 1948-1958)

Abstract

This article draws on documentary and newspaper sources to examine the historical process of labor conflict at the Tocopilla thermoelectric plant, which has powered the Chuquicamata mine since 1915. These conflicts deepened after the 1947 enactment of the Law of Permanent Defense of Democracy under Chilean President Gabriel González Videla. The US company used the anti-communist law to stop workers from protesting against job insecurity, low wages and dangerous working conditions. Thus, in conjunction with State agents, the mining company’s political ideology led to persecutions, proscriptions and imprisonments based on the adjectives ‘communists’ and ‘Indians’ – the latter in the context of the mining colonialism experienced in the Atacama Desert.