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 1979- Roberto, Victor, flaco Antonio
 Chileans in Drumchapel, Glasgow
 - Copy.jpg) 1976- our Folk Grup with Michael Foot in Renfrew
 The Scottish press always interested in our stories.
 1984 Stirlingshire Chilean Action Committee
.jpg) 1974-Chilean in Glasgow
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Chileans refugees
in Scotland
Please CLICK ON any images to enlarge
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Background
We know that immediately after the coup on the 11th of September of 1973, Chilean Solidarity Committees began to form in different cities of the UK and of course, in Scotland: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Dundee and Falkirk. These committees came about in order to denounce in Scotland the atrocities taken place in our country at the hand of the Pinochet’s regime.
These committees were also formed to mobilise solidarity with our country in the context of Scotland and the UK. Very importantly, they were formed to help Chileans refugees coming to Scotland and to help them to integrate into British society: organising for them classes of English, helping them to find accommodations, helping them to find jobs, taken them to social security and counselling session and helping them with translations as very few Chileans spoke English etc.
However, in a report written by Grace Livingstone of the Guardian ( 11th of Sep, 2013)" Intelligence officers were sent to infiltrate the Chile Solidarity Campaign, a movement backed by Labour MPs, trade unions, students and church groups. The secret service reports, declassified earlier this year, can now be seen at the National Archives in Kew. Journalists were another Foreign Office target. Complaining of "black propaganda against the Chilean armed services", British officials tried to manipulate the news. When a team from the BBC Panorama programme visited Chile in November 1973, staff at the British embassy secured them "maximum co-operation from the junta"". Why all of This?
The British Government at the time were worried that the Chilean Solidarity Campaign was going to ruin the lucrative business of selling arms to Chile.
Were these Solidarity committees successful? Yes!- despite I was able to witness it! I saw the good work in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling( Falkirk), Dundee and everywhere. Thirty seven years later, I was able to see that a good number of British activist involved in the Solidarity movement with Chile in the 1970s and 1980s are now fully involved in the politics of this country. This is a very positive thing coming out of the Chilean experience in Britain. It is said that the former Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, was involved, during his student years in the Solidarity Campaign for Chile at Edinburgh University. I know of one activity about Chile where Gordon was involved. The Scottish singer Arthur Johnstone and I provided the music for the below programme.
I could also witnessed our own communities of Chileans in Scotland working very hard, despite all the odds and the drama, to maintain our political commitment with our country. These pages about Chilean refugees try to show exactly that. We worked hand by hand with the Chilean Solidarity Committees in Scotland.
Many Chileans came to Scotland via Peru but others came from Chile and Argentina. There was one Chilean man, Manuel Lopez, who came to Scotland via Russia.
After the Pinochet bloody coup on the
11th of September of 1973 thousand of Chileans, left Chile for Peru,
and many arrived in Lima. I was one of them. Most of us Chileans were
well received by the Limeños. There was a lot of sympathy towards
our case. The ferocity of the coup in Chile caused a great impact in the
international community. We were, however, stranded in Lima. Many Chileans
did not even have proper documentation or a visa to stay and work in Peru.
The Peruvian Government, on the other hand, was not pleased to have so
many of us there. (we were supposed to be "lefties and revolutionaries!" in other wors "trouble makers!") It was at this point that the United Nation High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) decided to intervene by providing assistance not only
to those Chileans living in Chile but those who for different political and economic reasons had left the country for other places of Latin America. It was in Peru were many of us, who came to Scotland
on a bus, become refugees. Others, who arrived at a later stage, become
refugees in Argentina. In an act of great generosity and understanding,
the UK government of the day accepted us here. (see Chileans and the UK Gov.)
It was, however, the
generosity of the hundred of people working on the Chile Solidarity Campaign
in the UK who took care of all of us once we arrived in Britain. The most important organization helping us all was the London based Join Working Group (JWG) and the World University Service (WUS) set up to help those refugees with academic backgroud.
Music to help the solidarity movement was always very important. Below: Edinburgh/Dundee Folk Grup
The
following is a very important link and relates to the Archives HUB, the
keeper of the papers of the Chile Solidarity Campaign held at Labour History
Archive and study centre. The collection comprises the working papers
of Chile Solidarity Campaign from its foundation in 1973 to it close in
1991. It includes records of local, student and trade union bodies that
joined the campaign for Chilean democracy
http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/02111404.html
The Papers of the Chile Solidarity Campaign were donated to the People's History Museum (formerly National Museum of Labour History) in 1991. |
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1975- We joined with our children the celebrations to mark the 800 years anniversaryof the the City of Glasgow
Glasgow. Nov 4th 1975.Our folk
group playing at the McLaren Galleries
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 Stirling- one of the first Chilean Solidarity Committee in Scotland
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1976 - Chilean cultural activity in Edinburgh.
I was invited to play in this event.
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