Tidbits - September 5, 2013

Portside
Reader Comments: NBC Nightly News Report - Grassroots Opposition to Military Action Against Syria; AFL-CIO and ILWU; March on Washington; 40th anniversary of Chile coup; Announcements: No one should die for fashion - Sept 6-New York; Veterans For Peace Speak Out-New York-Sept 9; #femfuture Retreat-Oct. 20 - 22 - Rhinebeck, NY - Scholarships Available; Sept 21st: Draw the Line against Keystone XL; Chilean posters-1970-73 Exhibit-New York-Sept. 23; STOP WARS - Yard sign

Bay Area Chilean diaspora commemorates the 40 anniversary of 9/11

By Fernando Andrés Torres Portside
The Chilean 9/11 created a community in California and around the world of Chileans that fled to escape the brutal military regimen. The Bay Area Chilean community commemorates September 11, every year with a cornucopia of cultural and art events. “This is part of our history as a community here in the Bay Area,” said Marci Valdivieso, one of the organizers.

Martin Luther King’s Words in a Surveillance World

By Ariel Dorfman TomDispatch
What would Martin Luther King say if he could return to contemplate what his country has become since his death? What if he could see how the terror and slaughter brought to bear upon New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, had turned his people into a fearful, vengeful nation, ready to stop dreaming, ready to abridge their own freedoms in order to be secure?

Why the Music of Protest Is Still Worth Defending - Dar Williams interview; new movie about Victor Jara; songs are illegal in Wisconsin

Madeline Ostrander, John Summa
We can't change the world if we can't even sing together - Dar Williams on what happens if political music dies. "When people come together and sing, mountains can be moved." New film about Victor Jara, Chilean troubadour, murdered by the junta 40 years ago - brings Victor's story up to date. "If you are watching people singing in Wisconsin, you could be subject to arrest." (video)

Absolutamente Quilapayun

Note from Holly Near: Put out recently by Quilapayun, a Chilean ensemble that lived in exile after the military coup, this youtube shows footage from the 70s as well as honors the young people who are building a strong student movement today to protest the right wing government recently elected in Chile following the progressive leadership of President Michelle Bachelet. I had an opportunity to work with Quilapayun in the seventies and eighties and again when I went to Chile a few years ago. We sang at a men's prison in the northern part of the country.

Hundreds of Thousands March for 'Free Education' in Chile

Jon Queally Common Dreams
The Chilean student movement roared back to life on Thursday, with organizers and media outlets reporting that hundreds of thousands of people joined students in the nation's streets calling for a free and quality education for all.

Disturbing Pablo Neruda’s Rest

By Ilan Stavans The New York Times
On its surface, a poem seems incapable of stopping a bullet. Yet Chile’s transition to democracy was facilitated by the poet’s survival in people’s minds, his lines repeated time and again, as a form of subversion. Life cannot be repressed, he whispered in everyone’s ears. It was a message for which he may have died, but that lives on in his verse.

Oscars: Real History Behind the Film 'No'

Peter Kornbluh National Security Archive
Formerly top secret records that provide new details about the "Campaign of the NO" in Chile–the dynamic political movement that eventually led to Pinochet's loss of the presidency. Like "Zero Dark Thirty," "Argo" and "Lincoln," which also examine historical events, "NO" has been criticized for misrepresenting, and omitting, key elements of the history it depicts. Genaro Arriagada, who directed the actual Campaign of the NO in Chile, called the movie a "caricature."
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