Recabarren, Luis Emilio

Recabarren, Luis Emilio 

Born July 6, 1876; died Dec. 19, 1924. Figure in the labor movement in Chile and other countries of Latin America.

While working as a typographer, Recabarren headed many printers’ strikes and founded Marxist working-class daily newspapers in Chile, including El Grito Popular (1911), El Socialista (1912), El Despertar (1912), La Vanguardia (1915), and La Defensa Obrera (1917). He organized many working-class and professional circles and propagandized Marxism-Leninism. He was one of the founders (1912) and leaders of the Socialist Workers’ Party of Chile. In 1922 the party aligned itself with the Communist International and became known as the Communist Party.

Outside Chile, Recabarren participated in the organization of the Communist Party of Argentina and became its first general secretary. He was in the USSR from November 1922 to February 1923. Upon his return to Chile, he wrote the book Workers’ Russia (Rusia de los Obreros). Recabarren was also the author of many pamphlets on the history of the labor and socialist movement in Chile.

WORKS

Obras selectas [2nd ed.]. [Santiago, Chile, 1972.]

REFERENCE

Ermolaev, V. I., and Iu. N. Korolev. Rekabarren—velikii grazhdanin Chili. Moscow, 1970.