May 12-13, 1903: The Port Workers’ Strike Massacre in Valparaíso That Left Over 100 Dead

Original article: 12 y 13 de mayo de 1903: La masacre de la huelga portuaria en Valparaíso que dejó más de 100 trabajadores muertos

Better wages, reasonable working hours, restrictions on the weight of packages and sacks, longer lunchtime, and the establishment of a «registry» to ensure only registered stevedores could be hired were the initial demands of the dock workers at the Pacific Steam Navigation Company (PSNC) in Valparaíso. These requests were made a month before a horrific massacre perpetrated by the Chilean Army against its own citizens took place.

The tragedy remains a poignant reminder of «the social insensitivity and political repression with which the national oligarchy responded to the deep worker unrest stemming from the decline of their already precarious living conditions,» notes historian Felipe Portales, who published a well-researched account of this story in 2018, emphasizing its importance not to be forgotten.

The text, initially published in the defunct magazine Punto Final, was later reproduced by the portal El Porteño, revealing terrifying details about the military repression that resulted in over 100 deaths and several hundred injuries in the port city.

«Few police officers or individuals from high socio-economic backgrounds were injured, and none were killed, but the lifeless bodies of workers, sometimes decapitated, were left lying in the streets and hills of Valparaíso,» the historian recounts concerning this dark episode in Chilean history, which also involved the newspaper El Mercurio de Valparaíso, whose employees fired upon the strikers, killing seven.

In this context, Felipe Portales notes in his text that the oligarchy’s social insensitivity and its willingness to use the cruelest and bloodiest means to «maintain order» were paradoxically strengthened by the Valparaíso massacre.

«This would lead to further horrific massacres against popular sectors in subsequent years: Santiago in 1905; Antofagasta in 1906; and the most horrific of all in 1907: the Santa María School massacre in Iquique,» emphasizes the national historian. Read the full text of Felipe Portales HERE.

El Ciudadano
Cover Photo: Archivo Memoria Chilena