24 SOCIAL SCIENTIST utilizing the government for further intensifying the struggle and carrying it towards a climax. Before concluding this brief assessment of the Chilean experiment, mention should be made of two secondary but important aspects of the development. First, it is also necessary to examine if the Chilean Marxists had not committed the Left-sectarian mistake of blurring over the distinction between the democratic-national liberation phase and the socialist phase. The political resolution of the 13th Congress of the Chilean Communist Party, held in 1965, had clearly demarcated the two distinct phases.84 But one has not come across any such demarcation in the resolution of the 14th Congress or the few later documents available. Secondly, the nationalization measures carried out by the Popular Unity government were, it appears, marked by a distinct trend of bureau-cratization. The government failed to evolve a new pattern of management by and for associating the workers and so failed to activize the potential mass bases, created by the measures themselves.8 s The Chilean experience has once more highlighted how difficult it has become to lead a revolution to success under the present circumstances. On the world plane, the revolutionary forces today are incomparably stronger than ever before. Imperialism today is undoubtedly in the throes of a deep economic, political and moral crisis. But crisis, as Lenin has repeatedly warned, does not automatically lead to the downfall of the bourgeoisie. Subjective factors like leadership, organization and revolutionary wisdom are no less important. The two recent bids for a revolutionary transformation in Latin American countries, one led by Ghe in Bolivia and the other by Allende in Chile, experimented with two radically different paths and both came to grief. Then there is also the Indonesian experience. These developments should lead all sincere Marxists to devote their deepest thoughts to the question of mechanics (or more correctly, dialectics) of revolution in the present era. While paying our most respectful homage to the highest revolutionary integrity of the leaders of the revolutionary masses in these countries, who staked their lives and paid the highest penalty for the failure of their heroic bids, we deeply ponder over the invaluable lessons of their failure. (This paper was read at the Indian School of Social Sciences (Calcutta) seminar'y Chile and the Parliamentary Road to Socialism, on November 28, 1973.) 1 F Engels, "Introduction* to Karl Marx, Civil War in France. 2 Tri-continental, No 83, 1973, Havana; emphasis added. s New Age, November 4, 1973, New Delhi; emphasis added. A New Tims, No 42, October 1973, Moscow; emphasis added. en V Teitolboim, Ibid.