Citizen Left

Last updated
Citizen Left
Izquierda Ciudadana
Leader Víctor Osorio Reyes
Founded1971
11 June 2012 (renamed)
Dissolved2018
Split from Christian Democratic Party
Coalition New Majority
Membership (2009)2,078 (14th) [1]
Ideology Socialism of the 21st century
Christian socialism
Liberation theology
Christian humanism
Christian left
Political position Left-wing
International affiliation São Paulo Forum
ColoursPurple, green and yellow
Chamber of Deputies
1 / 120
Senate
0 / 38
Website
www.izquierdaciudadana.cl
Emblem of the Christian Left Party (1971-2013) Izquierda cristiana chile.svg
Emblem of the Christian Left Party (1971–2013)

The Citizen Left Party of Chile (Spanish : Partido Izquierda Ciudadana de Chile, IC), known until 2013 as Christian Left Party of Chile (Spanish : Partido Izquierda Cristiana de Chile, same acronym) [2] was a Chilean left-wing political party. Founded in 1971, in its early days it was suppressed by the Pinochet dictatorship. It was part of the Nueva Mayoría coalition, supporting the presidential candidacy president Michelle Bachelet in 2013.

Contents

History

The Christian Left Party was founded when a number of Christian Democrats left their party in protest against the party's cooperation with the right-wing forces and confrontation with the Allende government. Thus, on 31 July 1971, Bosco Parra declared that he saw no future for Christian left positions within the Christian Democrat party. He was joined by six other MPs, Fernando Buzeta, Jaime Concha, Alberto Jaramillo, Luís Maira, Pedro Urra and Pedro Videla, as well as by Silvia Alvarez, the only woman and Luís Badilla, the leader of the Christian Democratic youth organization. At this stage, the new organization was joined by a number of MAPU militants (incl. 3 senators: Julio Silva Solar, Alberto Jerez Horta and Jacques Chonchol) who were dissatisfied with their party's affiliation with Marxism-Leninism.

Christian Left was part of the Unidad Popular coalition, and declared itself to be a revolutionary party of Christian and Humanist tradition, and in favour of constructing socialism. It tended to agree with the radical wing of the Unidad Popular (the leftist majority of the Socialist Party and parts of the MAPU). After the 1973 coup, the party members were subject to arrest and torture, like people from other leftist groups. The party's militants continued operating together with and within left-wing groups. After democracy was restored in Chile in 1990, most of the militants joined the Socialist Party while others continued as the Christian Left party.

According to one study

‘The Christian Left assigned itself as its main task: to contribute to the construction of socialism in Chile. At the same level of importance was the defense of the compatibility between Christianity and socialism. Its position towards the capitalist regime was radical. Its purpose was to replace it as a whole and at its roots. To achieve this objective, "understood as popular liberation, two processes had to be combined. 1) The definitive overcoming of the capitalist structure and 2) the progressive transfer of the authorities to the bases responsible for productive activity and the generation of goods and services. The above, the CI maintained, also implied a cultural change, in the values, behaviors and habits of the people".’ [3]

In 2003, IC became a member of the political alliance "Together We Can Do More" (Spanish: Juntos Podemos Más ), together with the Communist Party of Chile and the Humanist Party. Their joint presidential candidate in 2005 was Tomás Hirsch of the Humanist Party. The second national congress of the Christian Left took place in 2006. The activists chose Manuel Jacques as the president of the Party.

On 3 October 2007, it started a process to re-enter the Political Party Registry (Spanish: Registro de Partidos Políticos), from which it was removed in 1989, for not having obtained enough votes to continue as a legal party. The process ended successfully on 25 May 2008, when the Electoral Service (Servicio Electoral) of Chile re-registered it as a legal political party. [4]

In 2012 formed a party with other political leftist movements called Citizen Left. On the eve of the 2013 presidential election, the Citizen Left joined the opposition pact Nueva Mayoría and supported the presidential candidacy of Michelle Bachelet, formalizing its existence to change the legal name of the Christian Left in the Electoral Service. [5] In 2018, Citizen Left merged with MAS Region to become MAS Citizen Left. [6]

Presidential candidates

The following is a list of the presidential candidates supported by the Citizen Left. (Information gathered from the Archive of Chilean Elections).

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Democratic Party (Chile)</span> Political party in Chile

The Christian Democratic Party is a Christian democratic political party in Chile. There have been three Christian Democrat presidents in the past, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Patricio Aylwin, and Eduardo Frei Montalva.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socialist Party of Chile</span> Political party in Chile

The Socialist Party of Chile is a centre-left political party founded in 1933. Its historic leader was President of Chile Salvador Allende, who was deposed in a coup d'état by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973. The military junta immediately banned socialist, Marxist and other leftist political parties. Members of the Socialist party and other leftists were subject to violent suppression, including torture and murder, under the Pinochet dictatorship, and many went into exile. Twenty-seven years after the 1973 coup, Ricardo Lagos Escobar won the Presidency as the Socialist Party candidate in the 1999–2000 Chilean presidential election. Socialist Michelle Bachelet won the 2005–06 Chilean presidential election. She was the first female president of Chile and was succeeded by Sebastián Piñera in 2010. In the 2013 Chilean general election, she was again elected president, leaving office in 2018.

Juntos Podemos Más por Chile was a political coalition created in 2003, consisting of the Communist Party of Chile, the Humanist Party, the Christian Left Party of Chile, and several other smaller left-wing organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2005–06 Chilean general election</span>

General elections were held in Chile on Sunday, 11 December 2005 to elect the president and members of the National Congress. None of the four presidential candidates received an absolute majority, leading to a runoff election between the top two candidates — Michelle Bachelet from the Coalition of Parties for Democracy and Sebastián Piñera from National Renewal — on Sunday, 15 January 2006. Bachelet was victorious with 53.49% of the vote. She succeeded President Ricardo Lagos on 11 March 2006, for a period of four years, after Congress reformed the Constitution in September 2005 and reduced the term from six years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist Party of Chile</span> Political party in Chile

The Communist Party of Chile is a communist party in Chile. It was founded in 1912 as the Socialist Workers' Party and adopted its current name in 1922. The party established a youth wing, the Communist Youth of Chile, in 1932.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action)</span> Political party in Chile

Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action) (Spanish: Partido Comunista Chileno (Acción Proletaria), PC(AP)) is an anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist communist party in Chile, founded in 1979 and originating from the pro-Albanian tradition of the Revolutionary Communist Party. It has presented independent candidates on legislative elections. The General Secretary of PC(AP) is Eduardo Artés.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humanist Party (Chile)</span> Left-wing political party in Chile

The Humanist Party is a universal humanist, progressive, and left-wing political party in Chile, founded in 1984. The party is a member of the Humanist International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009–10 Chilean general election</span>

General elections were held in Chile on Sunday 13 December 2009 to elect the president, all 120 members of the Chamber of Deputies and 18 of the 38 members of the Senate were up for election. As no presidential candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held between the top two candidates—Sebastián Piñera and Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle—on Sunday 17 January 2010. Piñera won the runoff with 52% of the vote and succeeded Michelle Bachelet on 11 March 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popular Unitary Action Movement</span> Political party in Chile

The Popular Unitary Action Movement or MAPU was a small leftist political party in Chile. It was part of the Popular Unity coalition during the government of Salvador Allende. MAPU was repressed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. In this period, some of its most radical members formed the Movimiento Juvenil Lautaro, whose leaders were political prisoners during the dictatorship and with the return to democracy. Another faction of the former members of the party joined the social democratic Party for Democracy in 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jorge Arrate</span> Chilean lawyer, economist, writer and politician

Jorge Félix Arrate Mac Niven is a Chilean lawyer, economist, writer and politician. He has been Minister of State in the governments of Chilean presidents Salvador Allende (1970–1973), Patricio Aylwin (1990–1994), and Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1994–2000). A long-time member of the Socialist Party of Chile arrate was during much of the 1990s the leader of the eponymous Arratismo faction in the party. During the indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet (1998–2000) Arrate was positive to the prospect of Pinochet being judged abroad. Given that his was contrary to the government stance he was removed from his post as minister in June 1999. In 2009, he was appointed as candidate for president of Chile in representation of the political alliance Juntos Podemos Más and other leftist political movements, obtaining 6.21 percent of the total votes in the elections of that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nueva Mayoría</span> Chilean political coalition

The Nueva Mayoría, also translated in English as New Majority, was a Chilean centre-left electoral coalition from 2013 to 2018, composed mainly of centre-left political parties supporting the presidential candidacy of Michelle Bachelet in the 2013 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MAS Region</span> Political party in Chile

The MAS Region, known until 2014 as Broad Social Movement was a Chilean left-wing political party founded by Alejandro Navarro in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 Chilean general election</span>

General elections were held in Chile on 19 November 2017, including presidential, parliamentary and regional elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broad Party of Socialist Left</span> Defunct political party in Chile

The Broad Party of Socialist Left was a left-wing political party of Chile that operated from December 1988 to March 1990. Its existed to sign up candidates of the Communist Party Christian Left, MAPU and PS-Almeyda, all former members of the United Left.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broad Front (Chilean political coalition)</span> Political coalition in Chile

The Broad Front was a Chilean political coalition founded in early 2017, composed of left-wing parties and movements. Its first electoral contest was the 2017 Chilean general election, where their presidential candidate Beatriz Sánchez came third with 20% of the vote in the first round of election. The Broad Front also expanded their electoral representation to 20 deputies, 1 senator and 21 out of 278 Regional Councillors, thus consolidating the movement as the 'third force' in Chilean politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 Nueva Mayoría presidential primary</span> Chilean political primary

The presidential primaries of the Nueva Mayoría in 2013 were the method of election of the Chilean presidential candidate of the political parties Christian Democrat, Radical Social-Democrat, For Democracy, Socialist, Movimiento Amplio Social, Communist and Citizen Left and, in addition to the left-wing and center-left independents, grouped in the "Nueva Mayoría" pact, for the 2013 election. On that same date, the conglomerate also planned to hold its parliamentary primaries in districts and/or districts where appropriate; However, on 1 May it was decided that such primaries would not be carried out at the official level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Together for Peru</span> Political party in Peru

Together for Peru is a Peruvian centre-left to left-wing political coalition founded with the incumbent registration of the Peruvian Humanist Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democrats (Chile)</span> Political party in Chile

Democrats is a Chilean political party founded in 2022 by former militants of the Christian Democratic Party, Party for Democracy and Radical Party, all former members from the defunct Concertación coalition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allendism</span>

Allendism is an ideological current that bases its positions and lines on what was the government of Salvador Allende, former president of Chile who, together with the Popular Unity, ruled the country until the coup d'état of 1973, headed by Augusto Pinochet. Within the political spectrum it is located between the left-wing and the center left, basing its principles on democratic socialism, institutionalism and reformism. The followers of this current are called allendistas.

References

  1. "Estadistica de cantidad de afiliados a partidos politicos, al 14/08/2009" (PDF). Ciperchile.cl.
  2. [ dead link ]
  3. Partidos, movimientos y coaliciones Izquierda Cristiana
  4. (in Spanish): Servicio Electoral. Acoge solicitud de inscripción del partido Izquierda Cristiana de Chile, en formación, en el Registro de Partidos Políticos. Resolución Número 0-994. Santiago, 25 de junio de 2008. Diario Oficial Nº 39.098, June 27th, 2008 Archived July 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  5. [ permanent dead link ]
  6. "Servel resuelve disolver seis partidos por no lograr requisitos mínimos en últimas elecciones – Servicio Electoral de Chile". Servel.cl. 11 May 2018.