Chile: Political Pamphlets

Leaflets, pamphlets, reports, enquiry reports, congress reports, documents, programs, appeals, speeches, journals, newsletters, biographies, posters, booklets, address lists, official decress and statements, bulletins, resolutions, declarations, dossiers and miscellaneous other materials issued by Academia de Humanismo Cristiano, Academics for Chile, Action for Women in Chile, ADHU-&ILE, AgrupaciCH#xF3;n de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (Chile), Agrupacin de Familiares de Exiliados (Concepcin), Agrupacin de Familiares de Presos Polticos, Agrupacin Sindical Solidaridad Sector Vicua Mackenna, Amnesty International, Arzobispado de Concepcin, Arzobispado de Santiago, Asamblea Nacional de la Civilidad, Asociacin Central de Pescadores de Coquimbo, Asociacin de Derechos Humanos para Chile, Banco Central de Chile, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Brazil and Repression in Latin America, Bloque Popular Unitario, Canadian Enquiry into Human Rights in Chile, Casa de Chile en Mxico, Catholic Church, Catholic Institute for International Relations, CEDETIM, Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, Centro de Estudios Sociales (Santiago, Chile), Centro de Investigacin y Desarrollo de la Educacin, Centro de Investigaciones Socioeconmicas (Chile), Chile Committee for Human Rights, Common Front for Latin America, Chile Campesino - CF, Chile Comunitario, Chile Information Bureau, Chile Lucha, Chile Sindical - CF, Chile Solidarity Campaign, Chilean Anti-Fascist Committee, Chilean Commission for Human Rights, Chilean Government, Chile-Komitee Aachen, Comisin Chilena de Derechos Humanos, Comisin International de Investigacin de los Crmenes de la Junta Militar en Chile, Comisin Nacional contra la Tortura, Comisin para la defensa de los derechos humanos en Centroamrica, Comitato Vietnam, Comit Chileno de Solidaridad con la Resistencia Antifascista, Comit Chileno para el Congreso Mundial del Ao Internacional de la Mujer, Comit de Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo (Chile), Comit de Dfense des Droits du Peuple (Chile), Comit de Derechos Humanos Oscar Romero, Comit de Soutien&xE0; la Lutte Rvolutionnaire du Peuple Chilien, Comit Hondureo de Solidaridad con el Pueblo Chileno, Comit Juan Alsinam, Comit Nacional de Solidaridad y Apoyo a Chile, Communist Party of Great Britain, Conferencia Mundial de Solidaridad con Chile (1978 : Madrid), Consejera Nacional de Promocin Popular, Consejo Ejecutivo Presos Polticos, Coordinador Nacional de Juventudes, Coordinadora Nacional de Presos Polticos Chilenas (CNPP), Coordinadora Nacional Sindical (Chile), Corporacin de Fomento de la Produccin (Chile), Corporacin para la Reforma Agraria (CORA), Council of Revolutionary Co-operation, Coventry Chilean Committee, Ecumenical Program for Inter-American Communication and Action, Escuela de Negocios de Valparaso (Chile), FASIC (Agency), Federacin de Sindicatos de Trabajadores de Maipu, La Fdration Mondiale de la Jeunesse Dmocratique, Frente de Trabajadores Revolucionarios (Chile), Frente Unitario de Trabajadores (Chile), Fundacin de Ayuda Social de las Iglesias Cristianas, Group of Solidarity with the Chilean Political Prisoners, Gruppe Internationale Marxisten, IDOC-North America Inc., Instituto Apostolico, Instituto Chileno de Educacin Cooperativa, Instituto de Capacitacin e Investigacin en Reforma Agraria (Chile), Inter-church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America, International Commission of Enquiry into the crimes of the Military Junta in Chile, International Marxist Group, Joint Working Group for Refugees from Chile in Britain, Junta de Gobierno (Chile), Juventud Radical Revolucionaria, Juventad Socialista de Chile, Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Fund for Human Rights, Liga Comunista de Chile, Lutte ouvrire, Il Manifesto di Milano, MAPU (Chile), Militantes Trotskistas Chilenos, Movimiento de Accin Popular Unitaria (MAPU), Movimiento de Accin Popular Unitaria Obrero-Campesino (Partido MAPU-OC), Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (Chile), National Trade Union Co-Ordinating Committee (Chile), National Union of Mineworkers, Northampton Chile Solidarity Committee, Northern California Chile Coalition, Oficina de Planificacin Nacional (Chile), Organizacin de Izquierda Cristiana de Chile, Organizacin de Presos Polticos Local de San Miguel (Mujeres), Organizacin Poder Obrero de Chile, Panorama DDR, Partido Comunista de Chile, Partido Comunista Revolucionario de Chile, Partido Comunista Revolucionario (Marxista-Leninista) de Chile, Partido de Unit Proletaria, Partido Democrata Cristiano, Partido Socialista (Chile), Patriotic Front for National Liberation (Chile), Political Prisoners of Chile, Presos Politicos de Chile, Programa de Accin Solidaria (P.A.S.), Revolutionary Communist Group, Servicio Paz y Justicia en Chile, Sociedad de Profesionales Consultores (SUR), Society for Latin American Studies (Great Britain), Solidarity Committee of the GDR, Taller de Anlisis Poltico Institucional, Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility (TCCR), Teatro Popular Chileno, Tendance Marxiste Rvolutionnaire Internationale, Unidad Popular, Unin Comunista, Unin de Jvenes Democrticos, United Nations, Universidad de Chile, Women's Campaign for Chile, World Confederation of Labour, World Council of Churches, World University Service.

The coup in Chile in 1973 must rank as amongst the most important and controversial events in the history of Latin America since the Second World War. The holdings here certainly attest to that, more numerous than for any other nation and predominantly concerned with the Allende government and the junta that replaced it. There had been coups in other countries in the region (amongst others Guatemala in 1954, Brazil and Bolivia in 1964, Argentina in 1966), but none that resonated with the outside world in the same way. It was Chile's misfortune to be seen as a paradigm example, a test case for the democratic road to socialism. Following the moderate reformism of Eduardo Frei's Christian Democratic administration (1964-1970) the 1970 election was won by a narrow margin by the Popular Unity coalition led by Socialist Party leader Salvador Allende. Allende sought to move increase state ownership and control in the economy (an early move being the nationalisation of the copper industry), but to do so within the constitutional bounds of Chilean democracy. The result was an increased polarisation of society between the upper and middle classes with most to lose from the expropriation of privately-owned assets and the redistribution of income and the supporters of Allende (primarily the peasants, the working class and the marginal poor). This conflict excerbated Chile's growing economic difficulties (blamed either on the new government's reforms or on the obstruction of those reforms by the opposition and its tacit supporters in the United States), and led to the emergence of more radical left-wing groups such as the MIR (Revolutionary Movement of the Left) and eventually to the September 11th military coup led by General Pinochet. That this succeeded was due in no small part to the divisions on the left, with the Communist Party (and through it the Soviet Union, whose limited funding of the Popular Unity government was provided increasingly reluctantly) continually urging caution in the face of the maximalist demands being put forward by the MIR and the radical wing of Allende's Partido Socialista.

The coup was significant not just for its resounding verdict on the democratic socialist approach but also for the opportunity it provided for the trial of the monetarist policies advocated by economists such as Milton Friedman. Thus the Chile of Pinochet continued to attract and divide international attention and opinion, organisations such as Amnesty and the Betrand Russell Tribunal publicising the regime's human rights abuses whilst conservative leaders in the UK and US in the 1980s supported its sound anti-communist and neo-liberal economic stances. The materials held here are predominantly from groups more concerned with torture and disappearances than with interest rates, and include items produced by expatriate branches of the Popular Unity parties, reports from external Church, UN and labour investigators and a host of materials from organisations representing those who suffered under Pinochet. There is also a sizable collection of contemporary material dating from the time of the Allende government.

Randomly within boxes (at present)

Open to all for research purposes; access is free for anyone in higher education.

Description compiled by Daniel Millum, Political Archives Project Officer at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Institute for the Study of the Americas

Records at item level on library catalogue (SASCAT)

Copies can usually be obtained - apply to library staff.

The majority of the materials held in the political archives of the Library of the Institute for the Study of the Americas (ISA) originate from the Contemporary Archive on Latin America (CALA), a documentation and research centre on Latin America which donated its holdings to the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) upon its closure in 1981. In 2004 ILAS merged with the Institute of United States Studies (IUSS) to form ISA, which inherited the political archives. The core collection has continued since 1981 to be supplemented by further donations and by materials acquired through the visits of Institute staff and their contacts to the relevant countries.

Further accruals are expected

See also Political Pamphlet material for the rest of Latin America, as well as related material in the library's main classified sequence, all held in the ILAS library.