new internationalist
issue 174 - August 1987

ACTION DIRECTORY

AOTEAROA (NZ)
Latin American Projects Committee, CORSO
P0 Box 1905 Christchurch,
Funds development and human rights projects in Chile.

United Chile Committee
P0 Box 53029, Auckland Airport
Tel: (09)641-350.
Wide range of solidarity activities and resources. Current campaign for support and release of political prisoners.

Free Chile Campaign
P0 Box 925 Wellington.
Tel: (04) 842-608.
Aims to discourage companies investing in Chile. Particularly keen to contact present or potential Fletcher Challenger shareholders.

 

AUSTRALIA
Chilean Solidarlty Committee
P0 Box 56, Rydalmere, 2116.
Tel: (02) 638 5994.
Co-ordinates the activities of a range of Chilean organizations, provides solidarity between local and overseas pressure groups.

La Pena Latin American Cultural Centre,
585 King Street, Newtown. (02)5194874.
Runs regular forums and seminars, also acts as a co-ordinating group for other agencies. La Pefla maintains a diverse range of cultural and musical programmes. (Also Resource and Action Committee for Central and Southern America at the same address).

Latin American information Centre
183 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065.
Tel: (03) 419 5588.
Information support and liaison for interest and activist groups.

Resource and Action Committee for Latin America
P0 Box 265, Broadway, NSW 2007, (02) 560 4532.
Runs seminars and forums, organizes tours, liaises with other local and overseas support and action groups.

 

CANADA
Amnesty International
294 Albert Street; No. 204,
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6E6.
Attn. Sue Hill.
Works on human rights in Chile.

Canadians for Democracy in Chile
P0 Box 65664, Vancouver BC.
A solidarity group that has worked with the labour movement in raising the issue of Chilean workers' rights.

Inter-church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America
40 St Clair E, Toronto, Ontario M4T 1 M9.
Attn. Bill Fairburn.
A joint task force of Canadian agencies working for human rights in Chile.

Oxfam-Canada
251 Laurier Street; Ottawa, Ontario.
Supports social justice projects in Chile.

 

UNITED KINGDOM
Amnesty international (British Section)
5 Roberts Place, Off Bowling Green Lane,
London ECi1R OEJ. Tel 01 251 8371.
Campaigns for the release of prisoners of conscience in Chile and elsewhere.

Chile Committee for Human Rights
13-16 Borough Road, London SE1 OAL
Tel: 01 928 2099.
Campaigns for the restoration of democratic and political rights in Chile.

Chile Solidarity
129 Seven Sister Road,
London N7 70G.
Tel: 01 272 4298.
Campaigns to change British policy on arms sales to Chile, sends material support to opposition groups and carries out information and education programmes.

World University Service
20 Compton Terrace,
London N1 2UN.
Tel: 01 226 6747.
Works for educational rights internationally and has extensive programmes with exiles from Chile.

 

UNITED STATES
Americas Watch,
36 West 44th St., New York, NY 10036,
Monitors the human rights position in Chile and periodically publishes Chile News and Brief.

Casa Chile
P0 Box 3620, Berkeley, CA 94763.
Sponsors cultural events and produces a Chile newsletter.

Committee for Chilean Enquiry
c/o New York Chapter, National Association of Social Workers,
545 8th Ave., 6th Floor, New York, NY 10018.
Runs political prisoner campaigns.

Washington Office on Latin America
110 Maryland Ave., NE, Washington DC 20002.
Engaged in human rights lobbying and fact-finding about abuses by the Chilean Government.

Worth reading on... CHILE

There are as yet no books which reflect the current balance of forces in Chile so for the most up-to-date information you should ask the groups listed in the Action Directory.

But there are books which give a good background to the years of Popular Unity and then the coup and its aftermath. One of the most readable is Storm over Chile by Samuel Chavkin, published in the US by Lawrence Hill. Including a wealth of personal testimony it gives a vivid and often gruelling pictureof the fall of the Allende Government. On the economic front there have been few more withering accounts of the monetarist experiment in Chile than CHILE: The Pinochet Decade published by the Latin American Bureau in London. Pinochet’s adoption of the ‘Chicago Boys’ and his subsequent disillusionment with them are followed in considerable detail.

A more complete history of Chile from the Conquistadors onwards is offered by Chile, the legacy of hispanic capitalism by US historian Brian Loveman and published by Oxford University Press in 1979. This may tell you more about Chile’s past than you might really need but it is a good work of reference

A good example of a publication from one of the action groups is Somos Mas a report by a group of British women who visited Chile in 1986 and whose detailed and informative account covers not just womens groups but a broad range of popular organizations. Available from Chile Solidarity in the UK.

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