The Chilean labor movement --like all labor movements in the world-- has had to confront a fierce wealthy class. Establishing unions has not been an easy task. Different political ideological tendencies have contributed to bending the will of the mighty rich in Chile, among them anarchists, socialists, communists, social democrats, and Christian social reformers. Clotario Blest-Riffo emerges from the tendency I call the Christian left.
His contribution to organized labor extends throughout his life. Yet, the most telling fact is that he was the first president of the largest federation of labor in Chile: the "Central Unica de Trabajadores de Chile (CUT)" - the Central Union of Workers of Chile. He remained as head of the CUT for eight years, from 1953 to 1961. [ + ]
Biography of Clotario Blest (1899-1990)
Blest, Clotario (1899-1990), Catholic labour leader in Chile, was born on 17 November 1899 at 48 Brasil Street in Santiago de Chile. He was the second of three children of Ricardo Blest Ugarte, an army officer, and Leopoldina Riffo Bustos (d. 1958), a school teacher. Ricardo Blest Ugarte was a first cousin of the writer Alberto Blest Gana, and grandson of the Sligo-born physician William Cunningham Blest (1800-1884), who arrived in Chile in 1823 and founded the first school of medicine in the country.
From "Today is not Like Yersterday. A chilean Journey", by Ted Polumbaum and Nina Brael Polumbaum, pages 84-87. 1992. Editorial Light & Shadow, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Chilean labor movement began in the nitrate pits of the arid north, where the world's only supply of the gray crystals that yield both fertilizer and explosives covers some 450 miles of the Atacama Desert. Although Chile had won the territory from its northern neighbors in a bloody four-year war at the end of the l9th century, the nitrates for which Europe hungered belonged mainly to the British. Instead of re-investing their royalties, the Chilean gentry built mansions in frontier towns and imported vast quantities of perfume and champagne. Foreigners became so powerful that they could finance the overthrow of presidents. [ + ]
The Chilean labor movement --like all labor movements in the world-- has had to confront a fierce wealthy class. Establishing unions has not been an easy task. Different political ideological tendencies have contributed to bending the will of the mighty rich in Chile, among them anarchists, socialists, communists, social democrats, and Christian social reformers. Clotario Blest-Riffo emerges from the tendency I call the Christian left.
Blest, Clotario (1899-1990), Catholic labour leader in Chile, was born on 17 November 1899 at 48 Brasil Street in Santiago de Chile. He was the second of three children of Ricardo Blest Ugarte, an army officer, and Leopoldina Riffo Bustos (d. 1958), a school teacher. Ricardo Blest Ugarte was a first cousin of the writer Alberto Blest Gana, and grandson of the Sligo-born physician William Cunningham Blest (1800-1884), who arrived in Chile in 1823 and founded the first school of medicine in the country.
From "Today is not Like Yersterday. A chilean Journey", by Ted Polumbaum and Nina Brael Polumbaum, pages 84-87. 1992. Editorial Light & Shadow, Cambridge, Massachusetts.