Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Resist Newsletters Resist Collection 10-31-1986 Resist Newsletter, Oct. 1986 Resist Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter Recommended Citation Resist, "Resist Newsletter, Oct. 1986" (1986). Resist Newsletters. 195. https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter/195 Newsletter #189 A call to resist illegitimate authority October 1986 The Chilean Left ERIC CHESTER hile does not fit the north­ C american stereotype of a Latin American society. Its population is overwhelmingly European in descent and it is urbanized, so the peasantry does not constitute the social base of society. Santiago is the center of vir­ tually every activity in the country with a population of over 3.5 million, out of 11.5 million total in Chile. The country is poor by U.S. standards, but it does have a basic infrastructure of roads and telecommunications, and it has an elaborate educational system with a highly literate populace. There is con­ siderable industry, as well as copper mining, and the industrial working class plays a key role in the economy and in politics. Chile is therefore not a typical Third World country, but, nevertheless, the economy is in terrible shape. Chile Santiago, May 1986 depends heavily on the extraction and export of copper, and copper, like the crisis has been compounded by the the only means of waste disposal. most other raw materials, is selling at free market policies of the government. The poverty is so extreme that in very low prices due to the prolonged The junta's economic advisors were downtown Chile the main streets are slump in the world economy. One result trained at the University of Chicago, lined with people selling chiclets and of the slump has been the inability of and their commitment to private enter­ candy, usually without a permit and Chile to pay its huge foreign debt, most prise is religious. Thus, despite the col­ therefore subject to police sweeps. A of it borrowed when copper prices were lapse in copper prices, the state has bag of garbage dumped by a restaurant considerably higher and the multina­ made no effort to stimulate the will immediately attract several people tional banks were recycling economy. As a result, at least 400/o of who carefully sift through the debris petrodollars. The burden of the the Chilean workforce is without for scraps of food. Mothers with Chilean debt is comparable, on a per meaningful employment. Poverty has young children squat on the sidewalks person basis, to that of Mexico, and of become the norm, as hundreds of begging for a few pesos, the children so course the situation only gets worse. thousands live in barrios of plywood undernourished that they barely move. The slump in copper prices and the shacks, without running water, heat, All this in a country with a long foreign debt would be bad enough, but or electricity and with open ditches as Continued on page Two Chile Continu«I from pa1~ On~ tradition of working class militancy The Left and political activism. Even before the . Even though the Christian SPANISH LANGUAGE Allende government, Chile had a Democrats are the largest single TAPES FOR WOMEN considerable set of welfare programs, political party, the Left, taken as a and under Allende virtually the entire whole, is at least as large, although far : SHOUTING ANOTHER workforce found employment. For the more divided. Since 1983, when the 1 TRUTH mass of the people, the dictatorship government started to ease the severity I has not only led to the brutal suppres­ of the repression, organized opposition We are pleased to announce a sion of every oppositional activity, but has burgeoned. What follows is a first women's introductory language course also it has created abysmal poverty. effort to understand a complex and on cassette tape, "Gritando Otra Ver­ fluid situation. It is primarily based on dad: Shouting Another Truth." This The Christian Democrats my discussions with IC and MAPU course is especially designed for US Big business and its political allies militants and leaders (see below), but it women who share their Central Ameri­ have acknowledged the total bankrupt­ is also derived from my own observa­ can sisters' yearning for peace and will­ cy of the current regime, and corporate tions and reading of the Chilean press. ingness to struggle for freedom. executives are busy distancing them­ Most Chilean militants are young, Available in January 1986, the eight selves from the junta. Central to the between fifteen and twenty-five in age. lessons also include song and poetry by liberal opposition is the Catholic hier­ Radical politics in Chile is dangerous, Latin American women. Lessons are archy, an important force in Chile. For and it frequently requires surviving the read by native speakers. The two Span­ the last several years the bishops have rigors of underground life. Many of ish cassette tapes and the 75-page publicly condemned the repression, the activists are women, and women Study Booklet contain relevant dia­ and recently they have consistently ad­ are frequently in the forefront on street logues, vocabulary, oral exercises of vocated an immediate transition to demonstrations. Machismo continues increasing difficulty and informative democracy. to distort interpersonal relationships, sketches about women's groups in the The largest party in Chile, the Chris­ but alternative life styles are beginning region. tian Democrats, is closely tied to the to replace machismo as the cultural The cost of this unique resource is church hierarchy, and it also has links norm among young people. $20. It can be ordered from the Center to the United States. As part of its Most organizations on the Left have for Educational Design and Communi­ covert campaign to overthrow Allende, tried to open up their internal life so cation, 821 Varnum Street N.E., the CIA under the Nixon administra­ as to ·encourage the more active partici­ Washington, DC 20017. Payment tion heavily funded the Christian pation of women. The Left has also (check or money order) must accom­ Democrats, and there is considerable become more responsive to feminist pany order. Please make check payable reason to believe that substantial sums concerns, although the Communist to: Center for Educational Design. are again being distributed through the party has lagged in this regard. Despite same channels. Nevertheless, the the progress, few women have been Christian Democrats have a significant permitted to become national leaders, working class base, and indeed the and support for controversial issues on largest trade union federation, the the feminist agenda is sometimes sacri­ CNT, is led by Christian Democratic ficed to the goal of building a broad activists. coalition which can encompass Christian Democrats have also been segments of the Christian Democratic the dominant force in the Democratic party and which will not encur the en­ Alliance (AD), a broad coalition of mity of the Catholic church. moderate and social democratic parties Political differences within the Left and movements. The AD demands im­ are pervasive and deeply felt. In San­ mediate elections and an end to the tiago, socialism is the hegemonic repression, but its program also calls ideological force. I was told by one for the protection of private property. activist that there are 25,000 militants, It has also decided to pursue a purely either socialist or Communist, just in non-violent strategy in toppling the Santiago, a truly staggering number, ILLEGIIIMATI AUIIIORITJ dictatorship. The Democratic Alliance and, from what I saw, a plausible one. ,_.,..,, foe,"./ u..., ~ ~ has been the organizational framework through which the Chilean opposition Armed Struggle The Resist Newsletter is published ten has engaged in a series of discussions The most important alternative op­ times a year by Resist, Inc., One with the U.S. government. State positional coalition to the AD is the Summer Street, Somerville, MA 02144. (617) 623-5110. Department officials have met with Movement for a Popular Democracy Resist staff: Nancy Wechsler AD leaders in an effort to structure a (MDP). Within the MDP, the Commu­ Nancy Moniz transitional process which would allow nist party is by far the strongest ten­ Ken Tangvik the U.S. to dump Pinochet while main­ dency. The immediate point of contro­ Typesetting: Vicki Gabriner taining "stability" and ultimately pre­ versy between the two coalitions is Gay Community News serving Chile as a "friendly" ally. their attitude toward guerrilla warfare. Printing: Red Sun Press . ... Continued on page Six Page Two Resist Newsletter October 1986 The National Guard in Honduras Several grassroots organizations across the country are working against )_/ the use of the National Guard units in Honduras. The following interview V with Peggy Moore, coordinator of the Clearing House for lnformation on the National Guard, is reprinted with per­ mission from the Honduras Update, Vol. 4 No. 12, Sept. 1986. Q. Why is the Guard being used in Centnl America 't A. The Administration is using what they are calling a "low intensity" stra­ tegy in Central America. This term is being used to reassure the U.S. public that our military presence in the region is non-menacing and not dangerous for U.S. troops. In reality this is just a new word for counter-insurgency, the ''winning the hearts and minds'' ap­ proach that failed in Vietnam. It is the integration of diverse elements of policy-security assistance, economic assistance, "humanitarian" and devel­ opment aid-into a comprehensive states in the last year have been flying involve 4,000 Missouri Guardspeople program to advance U.S. interests, regular flights to P~nama, the home of and Guardspeople from five other playing down "military solutions," the U.S. Southern Command, and states.