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Today's
Stories
October
11 / 13, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Kay's
Misleading Report; CIA/MI-6 Syrian Plot; Dershowitz Flaps Broken
Wings
October 10, 2003
John Chuckman
Schwarzenegger
and the Lottery Society
Toni Solo
Trashing
Free Software
Chris
Floyd
Body
Blow: Bush Joins the Worldwide War on Women
October
9, 2003
Jennifer
Loewenstein
Bombing
Syria
Ramzi
Kysia
Seeing
the Iraqi People
Fran Shor
Groping the Body Politic
Mark Hand
President Schwarzenegger?
Alexander
Cockburn
Welcome
to Arnold, King for a Day
Website of the Day
The Awful Truth about Wesley Clark
October
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Schwarzenegger
and the Failure of the Centrist Dems
Ramzy
Baroud
Israel's
WMDs and the West's Double Standard
John Ross
Mexico
Tilts South
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Repub Guru Compares Taxes to the Holocaust
James
Bovard
The
Reagan Roadmap for Antiterrorism Disaster
Michael
Neumann
One
State or Two?
A False Dilemma
October
7, 2003
Uri Avnery
Slow-Motion
Ethnic Cleansing
Stan Goff
Lost in the Translation at Camp Delta
Ron Jacobs
Yom Kippurs, Past and Present
David
Lindorff
Coronado in Iraq
Rep. John Conyers, Jr.
Outing a CIA Operative? Why A Special Prosecutor is Required
Cynthia
McKinney
Who Are "We"?
Elaine Cassel
Shock and Awe in the Moussaoui Case
Walter
Lippman
Thoughts on the Cali Recall
Gary Leupp
Israel's
Attack on Syria: Who's on the Wrong Side of History, Now?
Website
of the Day
Cable News Gets in Touch With It's Inner Bigot
October
6, 2003
Robert
Fisk
US
Gave Israel Green Light for Raid on Syria
Forrest
Hylton
Upheaval
in Bolivia: Crisis and Opportunity
Benjamin Dangl
Divisions Deepen in Third Week of Bolivia's Gas War
Bridget
Gibson
Oh, Pioneers!: Bush's New Deal
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey
Wasserman
The Bush-Rove-Schwarzenegger Nazi Nexus
Nicole
Gamble
Rios Montt's Campaign Threatens Genocide Trials
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The
New Unity Partnership:
A Manifest Destiny for Labor
Website
of the Day
Guerrilla Funk
October
3 / 5, 2003
Tim Wise
The
Other Race Card: Rush and the Politics of White Resentment
Peter
Linebaugh
Rhymsters
and Revolutionaries: Joe Hill and the IWW
Gary Leupp
Occupation
as Rape-Marriage
Bruce
Jackson
Addio
Alle Armi
David Krieger
A Nuclear 9/11?
Ray McGovern
L'Affaire Wilsons: Wives are Now "Fair Game" in Bush's
War on Whistleblowers
Col. Dan Smith
Why Saddam Didn't Come Clean
Mickey
Z.
In Our Own Image: Teaching Iraq How to Deal with Protest
Roger Burbach
Bush Ideologues v. Big Oil in Iraq
John Chuckman
Wesley Clark is Not Cincinnatus
William S. Lind
Versailles on the Potomac
Glen T.
Martin
The Corruptions of Patriotism
Anat Yisraeli
Bereavement as Israeli Ethos
Wayne
Madsen
Can the Republicans Get Much Worse? Sure, They Can
M. Junaid Alam
The Racism Barrier
William
Benzon
Scorsese's Blues
Adam Engel
The Great American Writing Contest
Poets'
Basement
McNeill, Albert, Guthrie
October
2, 2003
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
What's
So Great About Gandhi, Anyway?
Amy Goodman
/ Jeremy Scahill
The
Ashcroft-Rove Connection
Doug Giebel
Kiss and Smear: Novak and the Valerie Plame Affair
Hamid
Dabashi
The Moment of Myth: Edward Said (1935-2003)
Elaine Cassel
Chicago Condemns Patriot Act
Saul Landau
Who
Got Us Into This Mess?
Website of the Day
Last Day to Save Beit Arabiya!
October 1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Married
with Children: the Supremes and Gay Families
Robert
Fisk
Oil,
War and Panic
Ron Jacobs
Xenophobia
as State Policy
Elaine
Cassel
The
Lamo Case: Secret Subpoenas and the Patriot Act
Shyam
Oberoi
Shooting
a Tiger
Toni Solo
Plan Condor, the Sequel?
Sean Donahue
Wesley
Clark and the "No Fly" List
Website of the Day
Downloader Legal Defense Fund
September
30, 2003
After
Dark
Arnold's
1977 Photo Shoot
Dave Lindorff
The
Poll of the Shirt: Bush Isn't Wearing Well
Tom Crumpacker
The
Cuba Fixation: Shaking Down American Travelers
Robert
Fisk
A
Lesson in Obfuscation
Charles
Sullivan
A
Message to Conservatives
Suren Pillay
Edward Said: a South African Perspective
Naeem
Mohaiemen
Said at Oberlin: Hysteria in the Face of Truth
Amy Goodman
/ Jeremy Scahill
Does
a Felon Rove the White House?
Website
of the Day
The Edward Said Page
September 29, 2003
Robert
Fisk
The
Myths of Western Intelligence Agencies
Iain A. Boal
Turn It Up: Pardon Mzwakhe Mbuli!
Lee Sustar
Paul
Krugman: the Last Liberal?
Wayne Madsen
General Envy? Think Shinseki, Not Clark
Benjamin
Dangl
Bolivia's Gas War
Uri Avnery
The
Magnificent 27
Pledge
Drive of the Day
Antiwar.com
September
26 / 28, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Alan
Dershowitz, Plagiarist
David Price
Teaching Suspicions
Saul Landau
Before the Era of Insecurity
Ron Jacobs
The Chicago Conspiracy Trial and
the Patriot Act
Brian
Cloughley
The Strangeloves Win Again
Norman Solomon
Wesley and Me: a Real-Life Docudrama
Robert
Fisk
Bomb Shatters Media Illusions
M. Shahid Alam
A Muslim Sage Visits the USA
John Chuckman
American Psycho: Bush at the UN
Mark Schneider
International Direct Action
The Spanish Revolution to the Palestiniana Intifada
William
S. Lind
How $87 Billion Could Buy Some Real Security
Douglas Valentine
Gold Warriors: the Plundering of Asia
Chris
Floyd
Vanishing Act
Elaine Cassel
Play Cat and Moussaoui
Richard
Manning
A Conservatism that Once Conserved
George Naggiar
The Beautiful Mind of Edward Said
Omar Barghouti
Edward Said: a Corporeal Dream Not Yet Realized
Lenni Brenner
Palestine's Loss is America's Loss
Mickey
Z.
Edward Said: a Well-Reasoned Voice
Tanweer Akram
The Legacy of Edward Said
Adam Engel
War in the Smoking Room
Poets' Basement
Katz, Ford, Albert & Guthrie
Website
of the Weekend
Who the Hell is Stew Albert?
September
25, 2003
Edward
Said
Dignity,
Solidarity and the Penal Colony
Robert
Fisk
Fanning
the Flames of Hatred
Sarah
Ferguson
Wolfowitz at the New School
David
Krieger
The
Second Nuclear Age
Bill Glahn
RIAA Doublespeak
Al Krebs
ADM and the New York Times: Covering Up Corporate Crime
Michael
S. Ladah
The Obvious Solution: Give Iraq Back to the Arabs
Fran Shor
Arnold and Wesley
Mustafa
Barghouthi
Edward Said: a Monument to Justice and Human Rights
Alexander Cockburn
Edward Said: a Mighty and Passionate
Heart
Website
of the Day
Edward Said: a Lecture on the Tragedy of Palestine
The Great Alejandro Escavedo Needs Your Help!
September 24, 2003
Stan Goff
Generational
Casualties: the Toxic Legacy of the Iraq War
William
Blum
Grand Illusions About Wesley Clark
David
Vest
Politics
for Bookies
Jon Brown
Stealing Home: The Real Looting is About to Begin
Robert Fisk
Occupation and Censorship
Latino
Military Families
Bring Our Children Home Now!
Neve Gordon
Sharon's
Preemptive Zeal
Website
of the Day
Bands Against Bush
September
23, 2003
Bernardo
Issel
Dancing
with the Diva: Arianna and Streisand
Gary Leupp
To
Kill a Cat: the Unfortunate Incident at the Baghdad Zoo
Gregory
Wilpert
An
Interview with Hugo Chavez on the CIA in Venezuela
Steven
Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause--Part 2: Charity Ryerson, Young and
Radical
Stan Cox
The Cheney Tapes: Can You Handle the Truth?
Robert
Fisk
Another Bloody Day in the Death of Iraq
William S. Lind
Learning from Uncle Abe: Sacking the Incompetent
Elaine
Cassel
First They Come for the Lawyers, Then the Ministers
Yigal
Bronner
The
Truth About the Wall
Website
of the Day
The
Baghdad Death Count
September
20 / 22, 2003
Uri Avnery
The
Silliest Show in Town
Alexander
Cockburn
Lighten
Up, America!
Peter Linebaugh
On the Bicentennial of the Execution of Robert Emmet
Anne Brodsky
Return
to Afghanistan
Saul Landau
Guillermo and Me
Phan Nguyen
Mother Jones Smears Rachel Corrie
Gila Svirsky
Sharon, With Eyes Wide Open
Gary Leupp
On Apache Terrorism
Kurt Nimmo
Colin
Powell: Exploiting the Dead of Halabja
Brian
Cloughley
Colin Powell's Shame
Carol Norris
The Moral Development of George W. Bush
Bill Glahn
The Real Story Behind RIAA Propaganda
Adam Engel
An Interview with Danny Scechter, the News Dissector
Dave Lindorff
Good Morning, Vietnam!
Mark Scaramella
Contracts and Politics in Iraq
John Ross
WTO
Collapses in Cancun: Autopsy of a Fiasco Foretold
Justin Podur
Uribe's Desperate Squeals
Toni Solo
The Colombia Three: an Interview with Caitriona Ruane
Steven Sherman
Workers and Globalization
David
Vest
Masked and Anonymous: Dylan's Elegy for a Lost America
Ron Jacobs
Politics of the Hip-Hop Pimps
Poets
Basement
Krieger, Guthrie and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Ted Honderich:
Terrorism for Humanity?
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Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
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Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
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Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
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Click Here
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|
Weekend
Edition
October 11 / 13, 2003
Allende
Still Lives
30 Years Since Chile's
Military Coup
By MARIA TRIGONA and
FABIAN PIERUCCI
"Long live Chile! Long live the
people! Long live the workers! These are my last words and I
am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain. I am certain
that at least it will be a moral example that will punish the
felony, cowardice, and treason."
-- Salvador Allende, Sept. 11, 1973
For Latin Americans, Sept. 11 marked a cataclysmic
event well before that same date in 2001 was etched in the conscience
of the U.S. populace by terror attacks on the Pentagon and World
Trade Organization headquarters. On that date in 1973, Chile
awoke to a U.S.-supported military coup against its democratically
elected socialist president, Salvador Allende. By 12:15 p.m.,
Allende lay dead in La Moneda, Chile's presidential palace.
To commemorate the thirtieth anniversary
of the attack, activists from across the continent gathered in
what was more a celebration of the man and his government than
a requiem. The International Seminar "At 30 years, Allende
lives!" took a close look at the surge of grassroots organizing
that grounded Chile's agrarian reforms, as well as struggles
for housing and dignified employment during Allende's three years
as president. Participants stressed the need for similar popular
participation to increase democracy in today's Chile.
U.S. Involvement,
End of People's Government
"The armed forces have acted with
patriotic inspiration to take a nation out of chaos, a grave
chaos that Allende's Marxist government caused," declared
a triumphant Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte the night of Sept.
11. Chile's military junta (1973-1990) replaced Allende's democratic
socialism with a tyranny of terror that continues to haunt the
nation.
Allende's government was targeted as
a threat to U.S. strategic policy in Latin America early on.
White House tapes reveal that on Sept. 14, 1970, then-President
Richard Nixon ordered measures to force the Chilean economy into
bankruptcy. "The U.S. will not accept a Marxist government
just because of the irresponsibility of the Chilean people,"
declared Henry Kissinger, Nixon's secretary of State. "The
CIA had a large role in the strike against Salvador Allende and
the Chilean people," states U.S. author James Cockroft.
"Big corporations like [the] ITT American telecommunications
giant also played a large role in preparing the conditions for
the coup in Chile. Economic blockades, destabilization of the
economy, direct military participation were all part of the imperialist
intervention of the CIA and U.S. military," continues Cockroft.
Four U.S. battle ships approached Chile's
coast Sept.11, supposedly to participate in regional military
practices. They maintained permanent contact with the coup leaders.
Leading up to the coup, in July and August right-wing terrorists
trained by U.S intelligence agencies carried out over 250 sabotage
actions, exploding electric lines, targeting industry belts,
and assassinating key civilians. In October 1972 the Chilean
Transport Confederation called a general strike, financed by
the CIA, which paralyzed the nation. Months before the military
coup, the Chilean army began immobilizing worker-controlled factories
by organizing operatives and testing the possible reactions of
the working class to a coup. "Three years of economic war
permitted the White House and internal opposition to win an important
sector of the middle class. It's here the official rebels found
the base of support to develop their plans," expresses Patricio
Guzman in his moving film The Battle of Chile.
"Economic methods to destabilize
progressive governments were perfected in 1973," comments
Cockroft. Even while confronting attempts at destabilization,
Allende's approval among public opinion rose. On Sept. 4, 1970
Allende, as candidate of the Popular Unity Front, was elected
with 36.4% of votes. In March of 1973, Allende's party won legislative
elections with 43. 4%. In response to employer lock-outs in industry,
factories were nationalized and workers organized themselves
to control production. Activists from MIR, the Leftist Revolutionary
Movement, tell of expropriating buses with pistols in hand and
working armed inside factories to guarantee that production and
transportation continued.
Workers, peasants, students, and state
workers rallied behind Allende in huge street demonstrations,
by organizing community deposit centers where food was sold at
cost, and by opening supermarkets closed during the business
shut-down. On Sept. 4, 1973, in response to the perceived immanence
of the coup attempt and a plebiscite planned for Sept. 11, the
largest political act in Chile's history was held in Santiago's
center, mobilizing tens of thousands of people.
Cockcroft notes that as a result of the
coup, the Chilean oligarchy and the U.S. imperialists were able
to install a repressive dictatorship and a neoliberal economic
regime that left the majority of the people poorer than during
Allende's government, when over half the population improved
its economic condition. Pinochet immediately applied <U.S.-prescribed>
measures of privatization and elimination of restrictions on
the circulation of capital. Conditions favorable to foreign investors,
including tax exemptions, and the lowering of environmental and
labor standards sought to lure foreign investors.
But the neoliberal model imposed after
Allende's fall was only possible through the brutal control of
all political dissent, achieved by militarizing society and implementing
a state of terror. "After Sept. 11 all military resources
were used to repress the Popular Unity Front, with North American
compliance and presence," Guzman narrates. In the ensuing
days, sport stadiums were transformed into concentration camps
where thousands passed through the hands of the dictatorship's
terror and torture; executions and disappearances became commonplace.
Over the next 17 years, Pinochet's dictatorship
insured a submissive and dependent economy and a stranglehold
on dissent. It is estimated that about 550 enterprises under
public-sector control, including most of Chile's largest corporations,
were privatized between 1974 and 1990. During the same period,
some 3,000 people were officially declared dead or disappeared.
The Past that Lingers
"After 30 years, our history is
still an open, bleeding wound," states Cesar Quiros, Chilean
human rights activist from the Manuel Rodriguez Movement. He
notes that Chile's transition to democracy has been full of contradictions.
Until the late 80s Pinochet's regime maintained strong control.
On Sept.11, 1980 Pinochet adopted a new Constitution to stay
in power and announced a plebiscite for 1988. With civil society
pressuring for elections, Pinochet's regime was rejected in the
plebiscite. He remained in power until his executive term ended
in 1990.
Pinochet and his supporters formed a
political party, the Alliance for Chile. The first candidate
of the right-wing alliance was Pinochet's former Minister of
Finance Hernan Buchi Buc, who ran as an independent supported
by the pro-government Independent Democratic Union (UDI, by its
Spanish initials). Center-left forces formed a coalition made
up of 17 parties to defeat the new right and it succeeded with
the election of Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin, with 55.2%
of votes in December 1989. Today, the coalition includes the
Christian Democrats and center-left politicians, among them many
who supported the coup and participated in the Pinochet dictatorship.
Thirteen years have passed since the
end of the dictatorship and the much-heralded "return to
democracy," but many of the old systems of repression remain.
Even now, people continue to denounce new cases of disappearances.
Chile has not been able to solve past crimes and current contradictions
that have permanent effects on today's society: Some 1,200 disappeared
remain unaccounted for; impunity for war criminals continues
to be the legal norm; the same military and police forces control
the streets; and ex-military leaders of the dictatorship are
serving as senators for life. Nelson Mery, chief of Chile's Investigative
Police since 1990, resigned his post on Sept. 26 of this year,
more than a month after being formally accused of torturing prisoners
during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Pinochet.
Quiros maintains that due to pressures
from the right-wing and U.S. political interests, Chile's return
to democracy has brought little fundamental change. "Chile's
democracy is still a dictatorship, nearly intact. Constitutional
powers are the same, it's the same Constitution of 1980. When
you talk about Chile's armed forces, they are the same as under
Pinochet. The armed forces continue to claim that they will not
allow another popular government like Popular Unity. They've
made sure that popular sectors are not able to embark on a new
attempt to change this unjust society that excludes the majority
and is anti-democratic."
The Chilean Constitution that Pinochet
adopted provides the military with autonomy from civil government,
allowing armed forces to act unchecked. Referring to the Constitution,
current President Ricardo Lagos has stated: "The authoritarian
seeds are there intact. Our transition has not been concluded,
we don't have a Magna Carta that has democratic norms."
Nonetheless, many feel that Lagos' efforts at political reform
have been symbolic, while at the same time guaranteeing impunity
and amnesty for those responsible for crimes during the dictatorship
and dutifully applying neoliberal policies.
"For 30 years, Chile has been a
model of imperialism. Now we have both forms, economic and military
control. Economic measures today are the same neoliberalism that
Pinochet implemented in the 1970s, but it's more ferocious, sophisticated
and complete," Cockcroft asserts. He adds that today these
policies are being imposed by free trade accords, exemplified
by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the north
and the <U.S.-Chile> Free Trade Agreement in the south.
Although from the same party as Allende,
Lagos has been a staunch promoter of the free trade agreement
with the United States. In July, the U.S. Congress ratified the
free trade Agreement with Chile and the Chilean Congress expects
to pass and sign the agreement no later than Oct. 31. The first
ratified free trade agreement of this type in South America will
then take effect Jan. 1, 2004. The United States is already Chile's
primary client for exports, with total sales to the United States
at over $2.87 billion. The agreement with Washington will immediately
lift 85% of Chile's import taxes and will totally abolish tariffs
by 2014. Lagos had already signed a free trade agreement with
the European Union in 2002.
Conflicts Unresolved
Chile has adopted a model for development
that only benefits a small sector of society, led by transnational
businesses, and leaving out most workers and peasants. Nearly
22% of the population is living below the poverty line and the
unemployment rate stands at 9.2%. The economy has been globalized
through privatizations and is dependent on imported capital and
foreign investment. Conditions for macroeconomic policies are
set by foreign bodies, especially the U.S. government and the
multilateral financial institutions. Like its neighbors Argentina,
Brazil, and Uruguay, Chile continues to borrow from financial
institutions to stabilize capital flows, while private debt accumulated
under the dictatorship has been absorbed by public sectors. In
1980, Chile's debt was $11.2 billion; by 2002 it had swelled
to $40.4 billion.
Agrarian reform carried out under the
Allende administration has become a thing of the past. On the
contrary, tendencies toward concentration of land have grown
stronger in recent years, a cause for concern in a nation where
nearly 14% of the labor force works in agriculture. Francisca
Ramirez, indigenous activist from Via Campesina, sees the impact
of the transnationalization of agriculture on the small farmers
she works with every day. "We are demanding that what we
produce and eat not be determined by corporations and capital
forces. This government's vision is that agriculture has its
basis in the free market, that it's necessary to produce for
those with money." She reaffirms the need for Chile to be
able to sustain its basic needs through developing agricultural
diversity and blocking agri-corporations from further extending
systems of monoculture.
The past two decades have also seen increasing
conflict between Chile's indigenous peoples--particularly the
country's largest indigenous group, the Mapuche--and a series
of Chilean governments over questions of land rights and development.
These conflicts have resulted in a number of deaths. Most recently
a 17-year-old Mapuche activist, Edmundo Alex Lemun, died on Nov.
12, 2002, five days after being shot in the head during a clash
with carabineros (police) who were trying to forcibly remove
a group of Mapuches occupying ancestral indigenous lands claimed
by the Mininco lumber company in Angol Province. There are dozens
of Mapuche activists today being held as political prisoners
in Chile's jails as part of struggles for land rights.
Washington's policy proclaims that the
proposed free trade agreements will help usher in "a hemisphere
of liberty." Linking free markets to democracy, U.S. President
George W. Bush has declared that "people who operate in
open economies eventually demand more open societies." The
U.S. continues to support governments that adopt favorable conditions
to foreign capital and investments, but today it chooses its
tactics more carefully. Making back-door trade agreements, setting
financial conditions, and controlling the poor through structural
adjustment policies of international lending institutions have
replaced financing and supporting military dictatorships.
All-Too-Living Legacy
On Sept. 11, while Lagos attended ceremonies
in front of La Moneda to commemorate those who lost their lives
30 years ago, Pinochet attended a different ceremony. Twisting
history to celebrate himself as a legitimate statesman, Pinochet
commemorated 30 years since the military coup and donated his
presidential sash to the Pinochet Foundation. This foundation's
objective is to honor the dictatorship. Some 4,000 people attended
this ceremony. In a symbolic act, current head of the Chilean
military Gen. Juan Emilio Cheyre, made a surprise visit to Pinochet's
home to chat with the ex-dictator--who was Cheyre's commander-in-chief
in 1973. Neither made any public declaration of what they talked
about in the meeting. Cheyre also attended ceremonies at the
Military School to commemorate the deaths of anti-Allende forces
during and after the military coup. In national newspaper headlines
he was quoted as saying, "I feel secure about our power
to manifest that the Chilean Army has carried out its tradition
of military honor."
Jorge Martinez Busch, former military
commander-in-chief and current senator, also publicly defended
the military coup. In one of the ceremonies he stated that the
military should "wake up and take action," referring
to the military's power to guarantee immunity for crimes against
humanity.
On Sept. 9, family members of the disappeared
and ex-detainees peacefully occupied the Mexican, Portuguese,
and Swiss embassies to demand an end to impunity for military
criminals. "We have organized this action, because at 30
years since the military coup that ended Salvador Allende's constitutional
government, the state has not sought justice for crimes against
humanity, or executions perpetrated by the Armed Forces and agencies
created to repress a defenseless population," stated a woman
participating in the action. "In 13 years the government
of conciliation has not reached truth and justice with respect
to the atrocities committed by the dictatorship. There are more
than 200 ex-military personnel exempt from judicial process,
including Pinochet. Also exempt from justice are many civilians
who investigated, collaborated, covered-up, or participated directly
in repressive acts."
Days after the military coup, songwriter
Victor Jara was detained, tortured, mutilated, and executed inside
Chile's National Stadium. His body--badly beaten, with 44 bullet
wounds and wrists broken by rifle butts--was found days later
in an abandoned field. Thirteen years after Chile's transition
to democracy, Lagos agreed to officially rename the stadium after
Jara on Sept. 12. This symbolic gesture marks years of struggle
by organizations and activists, but it also marks the contradictions
between today's democracy and a system of terror still intact.
The night of Sept. 11, hundreds participated in a march to the
stadium to realize an act of homage to Victor Jara. As in like
cases of so-called "unauthorized" marches, Chile's
police force was ordered to repress. Demonstrators were tear-gassed,
water-cannoned, and beaten. Four hundred arrived at the stadium,
where thousands of candles were lit to give homage to those revolutionaries
who died. Outside, hundreds more gathered after marching down
the Alameda where they confronted the police.
During what the newspapers called "the
night of terror," some 200,000 people in the working class
neighborhoods outside of Santiago suffered a blackout when electricity
lines were cut. Neighborhoods themselves cut the electricity
to make it harder for the police to repress demonstrators. The
worst battles between police and demonstrators were fought in
these working class neighborhoods. After it was all over, police
chief Alberto Cienfuegos sent a radio message congratulating
the police for their work "with so much passion and energy."
Twelve police officers were wounded in the actions, one shot
in the face. There were some 300 demonstrators detained.
History, memory, and personal experiences
have not let the events of Chile's past 30 years be erased. Activities
and actions commemorating Allende demonstrate that thousands
of Chile's workers, peasants, and students have not abandoned
what is known as the "Battle of Chile." Chilean organizations
and social movements continue to demand justice for the disappeared,
an end to impunity, and a real democracy.
"I was here during Allende's government.
I learned a lot from the Chilean people. It's important for the
world to understand who this hero was. The other lesson to learn
is that this president didn't prepare the people for such an
attack, an attack so voracious. Many in the government knew that
the coup was very probable. It's hard to say this publicly, but
we recognize that we need to prepare ourselves to defend ourselves.
Prepare ourselves against a military intervention," James
Cockroft warned at the 30-year anniversary.
Marie Trigona
(mtrigona@msn.com) and
Fabian Pierucci (alaviodoc@yahoo.com.ar)
are members of Grupo Alavio.
Weekend
Edition Features for Sept. 26 / 28, 2003
Tim Wise
The
Other Race Card: Rush and the Politics of White Resentment
Peter
Linebaugh
Rhymsters
and Revolutionaries: Joe Hill and the IWW
Gary Leupp
Occupation
as Rape-Marriage
Bruce
Jackson
Addio
Alle Armi
David Krieger
A Nuclear 9/11?
Ray McGovern
L'Affaire Wilsons: Wives are Now "Fair Game" in Bush's
War on Whistleblowers
Col. Dan Smith
Why Saddam Didn't Come Clean
Mickey
Z.
In Our Own Image: Teaching Iraq How to Deal with Protest
Roger Burbach
Bush Ideologues v. Big Oil in Iraq
John Chuckman
Wesley Clark is Not Cincinnatus
William S. Lind
Versailles on the Potomac
Glen T.
Martin
The Corruptions of Patriotism
Anat Yisraeli
Bereavement as Israeli Ethos
Wayne
Madsen
Can the Republicans Get Much Worse? Sure, They Can
M. Junaid Alam
The Racism Barrier
William
Benzon
Scorsese's Blues
Adam Engel
The Great American Writing Contest
Poets'
Basement
McNeill, Albert, Guthrie
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