London N7 7QG
Senate House Library Latin American Political Pamphlets Collection
by jiaying qian
This is a poster from the Chile Solidarity Campaign (CSC).
The first sight of it may remind you of the flag of Chile. Blue, white, red, and a five-pointed star guiding the way to progress and honour. However, unlike the national flag, the colours on this tightly clenched right fist are not evenly split between blue with white and red. Visually, the red palm and wrist are significantly larger than the five curled fingers in blue and white, so when your eyes fall on this poster, you are drawn immediately to the large red area in the centre of the page. This distribution of colour reveals what the CSC wants the audience to focus on: this vast expanse of red alludes to the blood shed by Chileans for democracy and human rights, spilling into the message that Chileans urgently need more support for their struggle.
The CSC was established in 1973 and closed in 1991. In September 1973, the Popular Unity Government led by President Salvador Allende was overthrown by a military coup backed by the CIA and foreign corporations, and Chile was then plunged into 17 years of dictatorship, led by General Augusto Pinochet. During Pinochet’s regime, human rights and democracy in Chile regressed dramatically, with thousands of Chileans killed by state terrorism and hundreds of thousands more forced into exile as they fled or were deported. In the course of Pinochet’s neoliberal economic reforms, the rapid economic growth achieved in Chile was accompanied by a sharp rise in unemployment and a great impoverishment of the working classes, as well as the marginalisation of groups such as peasants and indigenous peoples.
In 1974, in a pamphlet produced by the CSC, Ron Hayward, the general secretary of the British Labour Party at that time, stated that ‘people in Britain must realise that what happened in Chile in September 1973 not only affected Chileans - it struck a blow at democracy throughout the world’. The CSC was therefore set up in Britain with the aim of influencing British Government policy towards the junta in Chile and calling for more support from the British public. The CSC’s solidarity campaigns were conducted in two main ways. One was to isolate the junta by persuading the British Government to halt all arms supplies, break off diplomatic relations, and end trade with Chile. The second was to raise funds for the resistance movements in Chile, mainly targeting the assistance to trade unionists, peasants, students, and the civil society.
Through the CSC’s campaigns in Britain, the struggles of Chileans under the junta dictatorship received more attention and their solidarity movements for democracy gained more support. It was not until President Patricio Aylwin came to power in the 1990 free elections and ended Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship that democracy was finally restored in Chile, and the CSC ceased its activities. Even 50 years on, these visual symbols hold a powerful and timely message. Although the CSC closed in 1991, such a visually striking poster gives us hope; it reminds us of the power of solidarity and honours those who struggled in this particular campaign.
