Women prisoners in Chile
Interview with MIR activist
Ana L.Pinailillo is a member of the Chilean MIR (Movement of tence she would have had the right to stay in the country.
the Revolutionary Left). She was forced to leave Chile in 1974, Ana played an important role in organising the prisoners duafter the overthrow of the Salvador Allende Popular Unity gov- ring her time in Santiago women's prison, and in the high-secu-
After four years in exile she returned to Santiago in
1978 and became involved in the clandestine struggle against the dictatorship. In 1979 she was imprisoned for three years. A few Luise Briceno of Cahiers du Feminisme, a feminist magazine months ago she was released in order to be expelled from the published by the LCR, French section of the Fourth Internacountry. Had she been left to finish the last six days of her sen- tional, asked her about her experiences.
population so as not to remain complete- lar Unity government Chilean women had
We know that you were involved in the formation of a women's group in prison. Can you tell us about this experience in detail?
We were forced to organise ourselves so as to be able to fight together to defend our rights, to get recognition of our status as political prisoners. Women in Chilean prisons suffer even greater torture and repression. This is because we are isolated from the other political prisoners, from the mass movement, and there are fewer of us.
Q. Do you think that there is greater repression against women because they are coming out of their traditional role? That they are doubly repressed, because they are militant activists and because they are women militants?
A. Yes, the revolt is double. Against the system and against the role to which society assigns women. Given this situation, we decided to organise ourselves as much as possible in the 'Women's Marta Ugarta Contingent'. Our main aims were to organise against the torture and repression in prison, and to win our minimum rights as political prisoners.
Q. Which are?
A. The right to social and political expression - to communicate among ourselves and with the outside; to organise ourselves independently as women in the prison. The right to cultural activity - to receive books and journals. The right to recreation — to organise a minimum of leisure activities such as gymnasties. All prisoners except us can do this. The right to work - to have access to the training and craft workshops. We, the political prisoners, are the only ones denied this. The right to health -gynaecological assistance for example. The right to see our children - visiting rights are very restricted and are accorded in a totally arbitrary way.
We also set other objectives:
— to make links with human-rights organisations.
- to make links with sections of the ly isolated from their struggles.
- to strengthen the work of the National Co-ordinating Committee of Political Prisoners, of which we were a part.
ourselves politically ideologically as militants.
What results did you get from forming this contingent?
A. In the first place we made known the existence of women political prisoners. Until then only the struggles of our male comrades were known.
To a certain extent we broke through the repressive circle, the isolation which the dictatorship imposes. The fact that we got the right to communication between political prisoners made it possible for the centingent to enter into contact with the Defence Committee for Political Prisoners, and with CODEM (Committee for Women's Rights). This, in turn, made it possible to make contact with the outside.
Also we began to make links with the struggles of women which were growing in a semi-legal way - with CODEM and poor women, who were organised to tino accomodation and work.
As regards our specific demands we were able to regain rights, which had not been respected. At the end of 1981 we got the right to receive books and jounals, to go to the workshops, to receive medical visits, and to certain leisure activities. (1).
Q. At the time of the fall of the Popuwon certain partial rights, even if they were not codified in the law. What is the present situation on the right to abortion, and to divorce? (2)
A. It seems to me that Chilean women today are more motivated. Among all the difficulties they have begun to participate actively in the resistance to the dictatorship, in taking part in CODEM to struggle for rights as women, while being part of the general fight against the dictatorship. Women are taking part in the organisations of relatives of the missing persons, most of whose members are women; of political prisoners and of exiles; or in organisations for a democratic fight for human rights. They are taking part in the underground struggle, linking up with activities of the Resistance. And of course, if they end up in prison, the comrades join the women's contingent. It goes without saying that the struggle in the prison does not stop at the fight for 1. The formation of the contingent goes back to the beginning of 1981 in Santiago women's prison. In September of the same year it became known by organising a hunger strike to protest against the inhuman conditions in the prison. It won partial satistaction of its demands. In July 1981 it publicly presented its platform and, in coordination almost all the political prisoners in Chile, , launched a new hunger strike which won qualitative improvements for political detainees 2. Chilean law considers divorce only as a physical separation. Divorced people cannot remarry, they remain linked by marriage.
From the 1960s the number of marriages has declined. Young workers and intellectuals live their love relationships more and more freely.
Also, from the 1970s abortion was relatively liberalised. The Barros Sud hospital in southern Santiago, for example, organised free consultations in its clinics in the poor neighbourhoods (gynaecology, information and distribution of contraceptives, and free abortions among others).
Attempts to introduce women into work outside the home were also made during the period of the Popular Unity government. During this period, on the initiative of some local leaders, "Mothers Centres' contributed a lot to developing technical training and education for women.
At the same time the JAR (Junta de aprovicionamiento publico-committees for distribution of basic necessities) which were per cent women, encouraged women to participate in social activity.
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democratic rights, but has to become an time - adequate places and a fight agains active front of the resistance.
Caid yen all yourse trea
"Women's Contingent' because we organise women held for resistance activities. That obviously implies the aims and experiences of the clandestine against the dictatorship. We have to organise with a minimum of rules and discipline of activity so as to avoid repres-
That requires a certain commit-
We chose the name of Marta Ugarte as an example of a fighting woman. She was a member of the Central Committee of the Chilean Communist Party, and was raped, tortured, and finally murdered by the dietatorhip in 1976.
Q. You were an activist in the resistance and a member of the MIR. Can you tell us what proposals your organisation makes for the recovery and extension of women's rights in Chile?
A. Before, we did not consider the problems of organising the women's movement. At the moment we regard this an important question, but we do not approach it in terms of winning back the gains made under the Popular Unity. We are building CODEM and trying to consolidate it. (3) Obviously regaining former rights and winning new ones are part of revolutionary struggle in general.
Q. Can you summarise the demands of CODEM?
A. First of all CODEM considers women's struggle in the framework of national politics. It proposes demands linked directly to those of the mass movement. For example, on health it demands laws which protect maternity. Today in Chile doctors remove the intrauterine contraceptive devices during gynaecological consultations without the consent of the women and without warning her. It demands nurseries for children, and sexual education.
And on housing: decent houses, drinking water, sewers, electricity. For leisure 16 education - free education, development of educational establishments; against the alienation and militarisation of education. And against exploitation at work and for the right to work.
As you can see the situation of women in Chile is definitely not the same as women in Europe, who have the minimum conditions that allow them to regard themselves as social beings. orientation does not exclude the themes that concern women more directly, such as sexuality. We are fighting against the notion of 'women as baby factories.
How does the woman question arise for the MIR?
A new type of mass movement is growing up today in Chile, breaking from the traditional forms of organisation and along with the present conditions in the class struggle, is opening up the way for the development of a women's movement directly linked to this 'advance' of the people.
MIR, as a revolutionary party, cannot fail to include the woman question in its programme. This holds true both internally, as regards the party's ideology and organisation and externally, where this calls for laying out a specific orientation for the united-front organiCODEM is the organisation leading the women's struggle.
Tell us a little about the women's It's difficult for me to know in detail what has been happening in the country, as I have just come out of prison. My only real experiences is with CODEM; it's in France that I have really come to know about other experiences. I can tell you that there are several groups which concern themselves with study and analysis of this question, as well as a women's section of the national trade-union co-ordination. Like CODEM it has organised meetings - debates on broad subjects like the active participation of women in the mass struggle for popular demands, and also on more specific themes.
Q. Why did the MIR not have an orientation on the question of women at the time when the women's movement emerged in Latin America, as it did in the rest of the world?
A. You have to remember the framework in which the MIR was fighting in Chile. The woman question is only one more question that we have to deal with in underground conditions. After the coup d'etat, we concentrated our forces on rebuilding the mass movement, for the fight againat repression, hunger, poverty, persecution, assassinations, torture, exploitation in its cruellest forms.
Political struggle in Chile involves direct confrontation in mass terms, military terms... You see in this situation the priority is building up the people's revolutionary forces. It is in this framework that it became more necessary to define an orientation on question of women, as on
Q. Do you think there is a place for a feminist struggle in Chile today? And that this struggle can strengthen the fight against the dictatorship?
A. Evidently, the organised struggle of women plays a fundamental role in the struggle against the dictatorship. autonomous organisation must be linked to the general political struggle. Specific demands must flow from the general objectives of the fight for overthrow the dictatorship, for a democratic revolution. ary people's government. through the liberation of the people as a whole that the liberation of women can
Committee for the Defence of Women's Rights. This is a broad and independent organisation which is part of the which itself is part of the Committee for the Defence of People's Rights formed three years ago.
The organisations which are properly called feminist have had a growing response in the last two to three years. After years of silence severe repression they entered into a stage of slight growth. An example of this is the Circulo des Studios de la for Women's Studies). Under this title a women's group is trying to draw in other women to discuss together how to take charge of their own futures.
Mitterrand
ment that has always humiliated them and shown contempt for them, denying
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