Conference listing Crossing Over: 19691999 Ethnic Studies and Radical Politics Beyond the Schooling Industrial Complex Berkeley, California, USA, April 9-10, 1999 For More information contact: Dept. of Comparative Ethnic Studies, 506 Barrows Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Fax. (+1 510) 642-6456 Email: crossover@uclink4.berkeley.edu Website: www.ethnicstudies.com EuroMediterranean homosexualities Marseilles, France, 24-31 July
The 20th century is rich in lessons for lesbians and gay men in Europe and throughout the world. We have lived through brutal repression (fascism, Stalinism and other dictatorships), the rise of the women's movement, the spread of birth control and abortion rights, a (temporary?) decline in the power of religion, the AIDS epidemic, an explosion of global communication networks, lesbian and gay images on MTV and the Internet and much more.
Does this mean that there is no going back from the freedoms we have won? In fact no victory is necessarily forever: the
Electronic
Viewpoint
Some of the articles for the next issue of International Viewpoint are already viewable at our web site. We are slowly adding a downloadable archive of articles published in previous issues www.internationalen.se/sp/iup.html International Viewpoint is also distributed free by email. We also have lists in French, German and Spanish. Subscription is free. To add your name, send a message to: <International_Viewpoint@compuserve.com> forces fostering homophobia are still at work. We are there in the social landscape but have not really found our place in it. Many lesbians and gay men are ignorant of our history. In Europe and still more in the rest of the world our lives are not seen and treated on an equal footing. We are still favourite scapegoats: when things get worse in Europe and the Mediterranean, tensions increase, and racist crimes and violence multiply, then hypocrites and bigots are quick to attack us as well, and the police and courts are
The Euromediterranean Summer University will gather together the European experiences of recent decades, and express our solidarity with the other peoples of the Mediterranean. As well as enjoying the Mediterranean summer, our presence will be a challenge to the homophobic National Front municipal governments in Vitrolles, Magnane, Orange and Workshops
Several parallel workshops will develop the Summer University's cycle of themes chosen by the programme committee, both on its own initiative and by outside proposal. Some workshops will continue every day throughout the Summer University, others may be more limited in time. The Euromediterranean dimension will be particularly visible. Workshops will be led by particular groups, media outlets, researchers and writers, and accompanied by a film • gays/knowledge — lesbian, gay, bi, transgender and transexual forms of expression — popular culture from the '20s to today - history — memories — transmission — archives - lesbian and gay studies • identities - genders — sexualities portrayals of sexuality - practices pornography • oppressions — repressions — discriminations - racism — sexism lesbophobia — homophobia • subversions - integration - political stakes — grassroots organising — media - strategies - political and social demands - militant actions -individual and collective commitment -impact of recent struggles (AIDS & domestic partnership) • daily life — economic issues — economic insecurity — citizenship social life - lifestyles - consumption - health — urban and rural life Last minute speaker proposals shold be sent to: Comité scientifique UEEH Intech chemin des Fontaines F84110 Vaison la Romaine, France Fax: 33-4-75 27 14 04 Email: intech. @wanadoo.fr The forums
The forums will gathering all the participants to hear particular speakers. They will take the form of round tables on the above themes. All participants will be encouraged to speak (there will be travelconferences * ling microphones and translation to and from several languages). Outside guests prominent in political and intellectual life will also play a role. The forums will all be recorded for publication. The organisers
We are a coalition of women and men, lesbians and gays from various perspectives inspired by this project. Some of us took part in the past in the creation and five sessions of the Marseilles Gay and Lesbian Summer University (1979-1987), which brought together between 400 and 600 people for a week every two years.
We want to create "an open forum for discussion and gatherings where the various sensibilities of the gay and lesbian community can come together on a basis of mutual respect, pluralism of thought and behaviour, friendship among peoples, and a common commitment to anti-sexist and anti-racist demands... As a rule men and women will both be welcome... This will not be a place for decision-making." (Excerpt from article 4 of
Co-ordination is ensured by a members council, with 50% women. Registration
The fee for taking part in the Summer University is 850 FF. It is also possible to reserve a room and meals in the university restaurant for 900 FF. Reduced rates are available for students, unemployed and people with long-term illnesses. Register early — fees will go up after April 1999! Registrations and requests for information can be sent, to: Université d'Eté des Homosexualités Intech Chemin des Fontaines 84110 Vaison la Romaine, France Tel: 33-4-90 28 70 10 Fax: 33-4-90 36 19 63 Organizational contacts (tel/fax): 33-4-75 27 14 04 (Jacques Fortin) Artistic programming: 33-4-91 47 29 52 (Verte Fontaine) Other events 'Global capitalism & effective opposition 3-4 April, Glasgow, Britain Sessions on capitalism and UK break up. Contact: <radfest@yahoo.com> Tel. 0131 557 6242. G8 demonstration 18 June. World-wide activities For information on British events contact Reclaim the Streets on 0171 281 4621. London Anarchist Bookfair 16 Octobe, London, Britain Contact: <m.peacock@unl.ac.uk> Tel. 0171 247 9249.
International Viewpoint #310 April 1999 31
* Chile Britain's detention of retired general, ex-head of state, and senator-for-life Augusto Pinochet has reopened the half-forgotten story of the mass radicalisation, coup d'etat and fascist repression in Chile during the 1970s. The following two articles are our own modest contribution to the extensive literature on these events. Alberte Pagán explains why Chile is still unable to come to terms with its past. We also reprint Tariq Ali's classic article on the contradictions of the "Chilean road" that was crushed by Pinochet's coup.
party outside the coalition government. It has for some time now focused its strategy on the removal of the dictator, at
Chile's bad memory Any real trial of those responsible for the coup would have to include the US government, the CIA, and the leaders of Chile's conservative Christian Democratic party. That isn't going to happen. And so, whatever happens to Pinochet, the blanket of silence and impunity surrounding the coup and repression will continue.
The Chilean state has begun its own "investigation" into the accusations against Pinochet, in order to justify its request that Britain return the ex-dictator, supposedly to stand trial in his own country. It will never happen.
The problem is that this really is his own country. As head of the armed forces, Pinochet rewrote the constitution and legislative code to ensure that he and his supporters would never, could never be brought to trial. He himself was appointed senator-for-life, with full immunity from prosecution. He imposed several amnesty laws. And he stuffed the senate with elected and life senators from the armed forces and his loyal civilian supporters. Chile's "opinion-makers" have all flown to defend their dictator, as if the future of the country was in peril. As if Pinochet was Chile, Chile was Pinochet. Though it is certainly true that you cannot understand Chile since 1973, unless you understand senator-for-life Pinochet. Even today, nothing happens in the country without his knowledge, and interference.
32 International Viewpoint #310 April 1999
The amnesty "agreementl"
The general's former enemies, particularly the Socialist Party (which led the Allende government which was overthrown in 1973) have formed an alliance with those who supported the coup, in defence of the general.
They say that it is more important to maintain Chile's fragile transition to democracy than to end the immunity of those responsible for the coup and repression.
Looking beneath the veneer of anti-colonial rhetoric about British and Spanish interference in Chilean affairs, this unnatural alliance reveals who really calls the shots in Chile's "transitional" period. The most openly pro-Pinochet section of the right is dictating terms to the centre-left government, which is obliged to accept. The right still has enormous power in Chile. They are still the victors of the 1973 "settlement"
But why has the detention of one man, even a former leader, provoked the country's most serious political crisis since the coup itself? Simply because Pinochet is Chile. Despite its massive power, the Chilean right continues to follow blindly wherever the general secret deal to abolish the public holiday on 11 November, the day of the coup The right-wing parties were astonished, but they voted in favour of the general's decision. Left trapped by its fear
The Communist Party is the only left the expense of other objectives in the transformation of society. Nevertheless, the Communists are now the only parliamentary party which approves Britain's detention of the ex-dictator.
The three social-democratic parties, including Salvador Allende's Socialists, continue their coalition government with the Christian Democrats, one of the groups behind the 1973 coup. It is not possible to confront the armed forces directly, they argue. We have to "come to an agreement" with them in private.
Despite the occasional protest from Socialist MPs, the party leadership is completely wedded to this strategy of conciliation with those who repressed and tortured them in the bad old days. They supported the decision to give Pinochet a diplomatic passport, precisely so that he could escape prosecution abroad as well as in Chile.
This is the real political interference in the Pinochet case. Not some Law Lord's links to Amnesty International, but the determination of Chile's entire political class to protect the old bastard from ever having to answer for his crimes, and the crimes of those who still run the country. Myopia
The general's shadow still produces a paralysing fear in the left and in society as a whole. Many people have come to accept the government's claim that protecting Pinochet is essential to the survival of the "transition": look to the future, don't wake the monsters of the past.
Some left personalities have adopted a false "intermediate" position, criticising what they call "the extreme right and the revanchist left" for provoking public
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disturbances in Santiago, since Pinochet's arrest in London. This illusionary intermediate position pretends that recuperating the nation's lost memory, and demanding justice is nothing more than "revanchism".
In a similar vein, others have argued that "the old man's supporters and his enemies agreed to turn the page, and start a new chapter in Chilean public life". This is a great lie. There are many parties, collectives and individuals who never accepted, and never will accept to "turn the page." Their opinion, of course, was never solicited by those who imposed the "clean slate".