Chile 1907

Synopsis

The labor stoppage among the longshoremen and miners in Iquique, Chile, in the early twentieth century played a major role in the development of a working-class consciousness. Workers in the region viewed this labor mobilization as a source of their political and economic strength. This first sign of labor militancy involved nearly 10,000 workers. The major grievance by the workers was over wages and working conditions. The strike, however, became part of a larger series of worker mobilizations in which the government violently suppressed the workers, imprisoned the movement's leaders, and shut down the union halls. The repressive actions of the government, both during the strike and in the months after the mobilizations, caused deaths and injuries and proved instrumental for the workers on a national level by unifying the working class in challenging the long-ruling oligarchic Chilean government.

Timeline

• 1886: Bombing...