RE: [xmca] Fwd: Chile, September 11, 1973. Please take a moment to remember.

From: Alexander Surmava <monada who-is-at netvox.ru>
Date: Sat Sep 15 2007 - 18:43:47 PDT

Excuse me for the gap with the thread, but I do want to share my
reminiscence about September 11, 1973 too.

We were students of different departments of Moscow StatÕ University this
time. And we felt sincere solidarity with people of Chili because we knew by
our own experience what means dictatorship. We prepared in MSU something
like political exhibition with photos, placards and slogans to express our
solidarity with Chilean democrats and university's ideological authorities
reluctantly permit to display it in the main building of MSU. But
immediately after this exhibition KGB and the heads of university braked up
our group of political activists.

The only one good consequence of all this events was that ex members of our
group (called TMEFP - tvorcheskaya masterskaya eksperimentalnikh form
propagandy - creative shop of experimental form of propaganda
http://tmefp.org/Index_1.htm ) converted it into philosophical seminar led
by Evald Il'enkov. From political practice we shifted to theoretic
reflection.

The most difficult in the situation for all of us was that we were utterly
alone with our feelings of solidarity with Chilean antifascists. The
majority of Soviet intelligentsia preferred more simple way of thinking and
feeling according to well known maxima: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Their reason was evident - it's difficult to think dialectically, to keep
strenuous exertion of contradiction and to see with open eyes on the both
sides of contradiction. Much easier is to close eyes to one side and feel
comfortable with the majority of their social strata.

Such an ambivalence of feelings was the tribal curse of Soviet Marxists.

I can repeat after my namesake his final paragraph replacing only Chily-1973
to Germany-1953, Guatemala to Hungary-1956, Congo to Checoslovakia-1968. Now
we can enrich this list by brutal military policy of our "democratic"
leaders in Chechnia, by killing democratic journalists like Anna
Politkovskaya, persecution of democratic opposition and freedom of speech.

Recently the academic theme on XMCA was connected with understanding of role
of Marxism and dialectic in the history and development of so called CHAT.
I'll try to propose the answer to this question: the core idea of Vygotsky
as a Marxist was an attempt to see with open eyes, fighting on two fronts
against trite mechanical materialism and in the same time against as trite
spiritualism. Not always he succeed in keeping this track, but he did his
best to keep it. In other words to be dialectic means to see the reality in
all its complexity and contradictions not closing one eye or one ear to make
our social and researchers life easier.

 

Sasha Surmava

 

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Mike Cole
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 1:18 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity; communication@ucsd.edu
Subject: [xmca] Fwd: Chile, September 11, 1973. Please take a moment to
remember.

 

A non-poetical rememberance of Sept 11 34 years ago, from a relative of

mine.

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Sasha Cole <sashacole510@gmail.com>

Date: Sep 11, 2007 12:21 PM

Subject: Chile, September 11, 1973. Please take a moment to remember.

 

 

Please excuse me for the mass mailing as well as the lack of elegance in my

writing. I hope that the message is important enough for you to overlook

that.

 

Today is the anniversary of the U.S-sponsored military Coup d'Etat in Chile

that overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende.

The coup marked the overthrow of democracy in Latin America's longest

standing democratic country and would eventually sink Chile into 17 years of

brutal dictatorship. During the first days of the coup, the national

football stadium was turned into a concentration camp where more than 40,000

Chileans (and a few foreign nationals) were held, tortured, and sometimes

executed. During the first months of the coup up to 3,000 (of a population

around 10 million) were killed, countless more imprisoned and tortured, and

many, many more 'disappeared'. Many others were driven from their homeland

and forced to take refuge in foreign countries.

 

I would like express my sorrow and shame for the cynical and unconscionable

actions of my government in planning and helping to execute the coup in

Chile, as well as others -- in Guatemala, in Iran, in the Congo, so many

other countries. It seems important to remember that 28 years before the

attacks on the twin towers, the United States had already made September

11th an infamous day.

When we talk of terror, we should remember the terror unleashed by Pinochet,

Kissinger, and their associates on this day.

 

Sasha Cole.

 

If you would like to add something to this note, or change it or pass on,

please do

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Received on Sat Sep 15 18:45 PDT 2007

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