“The building of the new social regime is based on the people, who are
protagonist and its judge. It is up to the state to guide, organize and
direct but never to replace the will of the workers. In the economic as
well as in the political field, the workers must retain the right to decide.
To attain this means the triumph of the revolution. The people are
fighting for this goal. They are fighting with the legitimacy that comes
from respecting democratic values; with the assurance given by our program;
with the strength of being the majority with the passion of the revolutionary.
We shall overcome.”
May 21, 1971
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Salvador Allende Gossens, “First Annual Message to the
National Congress,” in Salvador Allende Reader: Chile’s Voice of Democracy
(New York: Ocean Press, 2000), 113.