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By Stephanie Allan

W SAN FRANCISCO

3,009 are a somber audience of more than
Din People, sitting in the hiring hall of
le 8shoremen — waiting for Aparcoa, Chi-
hiy Singers. The occasion is the third an-
te ®rsary of the fascist coup in Chile, Sep-
ber 11, :
mate in this hall of the Intl. Longshore-
whe & Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU),
Chile, the membership has supported the
oe resistance since that horrific day in
Vag, ten the junta murdered President Sal-
Yador Allende and dreams of the Chilean
Pane We wait quietly for the group that
lo Neruda said “found their music in the
, the Sea and in the people.”
om, Quickly coming onto the stage, six young
foeeat dressed in black, with only bright col-
The Sashes to break their funereal costume.
iby Y Smile, and, through a translator, wel-
_ Me us in solidarity.

ite power of their voices breaks over the
ta Ous quiet of the audience and we are
io Ught up in their music of struggle, a little
Y and great hope. Later, in a conversation,
Chik Say, “‘We know when we play, it is the
Sen people who are being acclaimed and
“ax -ved. We want to show the best of Chilean

‘Which today is being censored.” :
: ie artists, they have taken a full part in
to ‘ternational, unified effort by Chileans
‘ain UPPort the resistance inside of Chile
| ie at restoring democracy and ending
__~ ‘aScist terror there. Having left the coun-

Aparcoa —
Exiles in Struggle

try on Sept. 11, 1973, they are in exile now,

living in the German Democratic Republic "

and traveling throughout the world for the

idarity movement.
Put San Francisco, they talked about
the international work of exiled Chileans in
support of the resistance inside their belea-
gured homeland. Our talk was brief as they
were headed for Portugal to take part in the
First Festival of the Political Song. The first
and most important thing to understand,
they said, was that the “UP (Popular Unity
—the movement led by Allende) continues in
existence,”’ despite the efforts of the junta to
divide the left and progressive forces in
cone fact that the UP continues as a polit-
ical block with the participation of the same
political forces (as before Sept. il) hasbeen
a strong blow to the fascists. Now “‘new
forces (inside Chile) are being added to the
movement.” The international solidarity
movement of Chileans, Aparcoa said, is
being directed by the resistance within Chile.
The junta has been unable to crush or divide
that opposition; unable to prevent it from
growing, despite a stepped up campaign of
terror and torture.

The fascists ‘‘do not ae any ee

ition,” suppression of any form 0

Beier is ope All people, including
the Christian Democrats and Social Democ-
rats “are suffering from the politics of terror

~ of fascism” and this has “clarified many

things to different people there; everyone
now knows it is a fascist, not a military, gov-

ernment which grips Chile.” _
What is the task of those in exile and their

OA

supporters — the answer is one shared by
almost every Chilean who has been forced to
flee the death, imprisonment and torture of
the junta:

“Our-ask is to unite with greater strength
the anti-fascist forces; unite all anti-fascist
forces even though we may not necessarily
share the same ideological point of view.
Only one thing must remain clear — fascism

‘is the negation of our land of culture, of hu-
mahity, of democracy, of freedom.” As ar-
tists, they explained, ‘‘our work is directly
related to this. There is a lot to do. We must
explain what is happening in Chile,” the re-
sistance there, as ‘‘we know the great inter-
national solidarity with the Chilean people is
based on the fact that people are struggling
there. We have been strongly hit, but we
know that we cannot be defeated by fascism.
There have been many heroes who have
given their lives. The fascists have been sur-
prised at this valor in the face of repression
and torture.”

Of particular concern now is the criminal

“Red September’ plan of the junta to crush
the resistance movement. Nearly 3,000
people have disappeared in Chile as part of
this plot. The junta has maintained that the
3,000 were ordered to go underground by left
and Communist forces. Arguing that there is
a factional, deadly battle going on among left
forces, the junta explains murders of left and
Communist militants as victims of this al-
leged in-fighting. Not coincidentally, many
of those who’ve disappeared are among
those the junta claims were killed by other
left forces. 2

In Argentina, 119 Chileans were found

murdered and the junta blamed other anti-

- fascist forces for their deaths. ‘‘In this way,”
Aparcoa charged, “‘the junta triesto washits _

hands of massive assassinations.’’ At a con-
centration camp, Puchuncavi, the popula-
tion has suddenly increased several-fold.
The resistance movement in Chile has sent
out warnings to all its international suppor-
ters that they fear many will be murdered
there as part of ‘‘Red September.’’’

Under a so-called ‘‘fugitive” law, many
prisoners are shot, ‘‘trying to escape.’’ The
Chileans fear that the many who have sud-
denly been crammed into Puchuncavi are
being set up to be murdered as “‘fugitives.”’

There are some differences among left
forces and those inside Chile say that the
junta is strengthened by ‘‘segmentation’”’ of
democratic and left sectors. ‘‘This lengthens
the return to democracy and is a direct aid to
the regime of terror.’”’ But the differences
are being resolved and the left is strengthen-
ing. It is the junta which is weakening.
Pinochet now depends entirely on open, fas-
cist terror and the support of the U.S. gov-
ernment.

“That is why our slogan is ‘nothing for
Pinochet — not one more cent, not one more
dollar.’ ’’ Particularly here in the United
States you must ‘“‘demand an economic and
military boycott of the junta.” It is important
to understand, they explained, that more
than 80% of the Chilean people are directly
suffering under the hands of the junta, not
just the left. Unemployment is reaching
“catastrophic levels’? — more than 25% un-
employment and nearly 400% inflation. Re-

cent visitors to Santiago saw small children,
“like ants,” rummaging through garbage
cans looking for things to eat or sell. ‘‘The
junta is condemning thousands of children to
death” through starvation. -

But more, many, many women are im-
prisoned with their children who range from
infants to young teens. ‘‘The women in prison
have made a great contribution to democ-
racy; have. demonstrated great revolutio-
nary consciousness, denouncing the fascists,
facing torture and humiliations — no one has
been able to break them.”

Aparcoa appealed to the women’s move-

‘ment and activists in this country to take up

the demand of freedom for all women and
children in prison.

On Sept. 14, Luis Corvalan, head of the
Chilean Communist Party and imprisoned
by the junta, was 60 years old. ‘‘it is an im-
portant struggle to save his life,” they urged.
Corvalan’s 60th birthday ‘‘is a symbol of 60
years of struggle by a revolutionary; a sym-
bol of all those Latin Americans who have
struggled.” Jose Weibel, Carlos Lorca and
Miguel Ponce are also among the many
thousands of political prisoners who have
only been kept alive by the pressure of the

international solidarity movement which .

has joined the Chileans in demanding their
freedom. ©

“People must demand that the junta prove
that all those who have disappeared have not
been murdered” — this demand is being
raised internationally as the general session
of the United Nations opened in September.

The role of artists is a ‘very small grain
of sand” in this struggle, they maintained,
but an important one as the junta has tried to
turn the great culture of Chile into one of
nationalistic, chauvinistic values which will
reflect the fascist government and not the
aspirations of the people for democracy and
freedom. “‘They present themselves as the
cultural defenders of the land, but after. the
coup, the best of the Chilean artists and intel-
lectuals were murdered, imprisoned or
exiled.”

Aparcoa is 10 years old, formed in 1966.
Their musical backgrounds are varied;
some were members of symphonic orches-
tras or the national opera while others com-
posed for the movies and theater. The most
significant force influencing their music was

Pablo Neruda, the great poet and revolu--
tionary of Chile. They and Neruda wrote a

major work, the Canto General — “Neruda
was one of the artists who helped shape the
conception of our work, not only musically,

but to develop a cultural framework. His ad-

vice was based on his own long experience
and genius. He did two poems for our group.”

But, ‘‘all our work changed after the coup.
We take part in every single movement” of
solidarity and resistance now; ‘‘we agitate
for international solidarity. Our fundamen-
tal task is to go to different countries and
thank them for their solidarity and receive”
in turn, “‘their great solidarity with us.”’

We, the audience rise in song with them in
San Francisco and exchange our solidarity
as we celebrate not the third anniversary of a
fascist coup, but the third anniversary of the
resistance to it. Hasta la victoria, Vence-
remos.

=a

_World Magazine, 205 W. 19 Street, New York, N

-Y. 10011

. Editor: Seymour Joseph

a;
’

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 20, 1976—Page 9