Comments on: Allende’s socialist internet

By: Matt Estrada den Hague

Matt Estrada den Hague — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 02:38:15 +0000

It might have been useful for me if this had been covered in elementary economics classes. It makes one think about alternatives to Keynes and Friedman doesn’t it, that can’t be a bad thing.

By: Mike Gatehouse

Mike Gatehouse — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 15:42:54 +0000

Compare and contrast! I was working in Chile in 1972-3 as a data analyst and computer programmer. At one point I was contacted by people in the Ministry of Agriculture and the Treasury (Ministerio de Hacienda) who wanted me to create a database to collect information on harvest projections and actual yields of key crops. I was sceptical, and asked what was wrong with their existing, paper-based systems. “The data is often wrong,” they said. Why? Because their local offices around the country had poor numerical skills. ‘Why not buy them simple calculators?’, I asked. These would tend to go missing (if not be actually pinched), they said, and sometimes figures were being deliberately mis-reported (for instance by areas wanting to qualify for additional funding or supplies, or by officials not wanting to appear incompetent). ‘Ah,’ I said, ‘but a database will not cure any of those problems’.

I found out later about Stafford Beer’s work. Although inspiring, I wonder to what extent it was implemented and whether it really played a significant role in the lorry owners’ lockout of October 1972 and in the run-up to the coup in 1973.

By: Colin Penter

Colin Penter — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 11:12:56 +0000

Great piece Leigh on an often forgotten but intriguing aspect of Allende’s Government. And great to see Stafford Beer get a mention. I stumbled across Stafford Beer’s work in the 1980′s and was very affected by the way he wrote about his involvement in Allende’s vision and the effect of Salvador Allende’s overthrow and death on him, and what appeared to be regret about the way this project’s possibility was cut short by the US inspired military coup. As an Australian I knew little about Stafford Beer’s work but was intrigued by his involvement with the Allende Government and what he wrote about the possibilities of planning and working outside of the capitalist hegemony. Beer provided us with an example of the way that politically engaged social science theory and practice could and should be deployed to serve radical political ends. I followed his work and his writings which had a great impact on my work as a social justice and social policy consultant and campaigner and activist. So I was excited to read this piece and to be reminded of the profound significance of Allende as well as Stafford Beer. And to mourn once again what might have been.