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Chilean Death Ship / An activist's experience and views
By Bernadette McCartney
SOURCE: Peace Magazine
Also: http://www.uq.net.au/~zzdkeena/NvT/23/23.5.txt
DATE: October-November, 1991
"We cannot forgive and forget, nothing has been resolved. I have seen no
justice."
Such was the emotion that was present the week that the Chilean naval
training ship docked at Station Pier in Melbourne. Activists in Melbourne
were aware that this ship, the Esmeralda was coming to town, but because of
busy schedules the idea of doing an action seemed a remote possibility.
The ship docked at 8:00am Monday 22nd of July, there was a large group from
the Chilean community, who were there in support of the ship. There was also
a group of about twenty Chileans, from various Chilean solidarity groups, who
were opposing the ship's arrival.
That night myself and another activist were having dinner and discussing the
arrival of this ship. We both decided that we would like to act in
solidarity with the Chilean community, but were unsure of what our role would
be.
At 6:30pm on Tuesday 23rd of July, various members of Melbourne's business
community, had been invited to have dinner on the ship to discuss Australian and
Chilean trade links. When they stepped out of their cars, they were greeted with
placards that stated hard facts. "Esmeralda: Ship of death"
Slowly the truth was beginning to emerge, the real history about this ship
was being discovered. For some of the Chileans the ship had a long and
illustrious history. It had been instrumental in victorious battles against
invading Peruvian forces at the turn of the century. But during the military
dictatorship, that began in 1973, the ship had been used as a floating
prison. When the jails had become too large and overcrowded, political
prisoners were placed on the ship. Regular torture and beatings occurred,
death became all too frequent.
After some solid networking with a small group of Chileans on Tuesday night,
a planning meeting was arranged, to organise an action on the coming Saturday
which was the day that the ship was leaving Melbourne.
The next day four activists met with three members of the Chilean community.
For two hours we listened to the facts about Chile and asked many questions.
Perhaps more importantly it forged some very strong links between the two
groups and I know that I began to understand the significance of the ship and
the sadness that it had evoked for the Chileans. We talked briefly about
proposed actions, the Chileans were interested in doing a water based action,
and had approached RAG for some support.
On the Thursday night, twelve Chileans and three members of RAG met to plan
an action for Saturday. Although I really wanted to be involved I was
feeling very uncomfortable or perhaps more unsure of what my role would be.
I had been thinking a lot about travelling to Central America to do
solidarity work, but felt that it would be very arrogant of me to take any
preconceived ideas to that planning meeting. At the meeting it became quite
clear that the group wanted to have a water based action, so I felt a lot
more comfortable in sharing our collected experience with the group. Various
tasks were quickly set, however there was quite a deal of dissatisfaction
when we mentioned our open and honest relationship with the police. We
assumed that everyone would be happy with this. Later on I realised that
these people had come from a completely different background to me. They had
every right to be afraid of the police. This debate continued within the
Chilean community and some decided not to take part in the action. However
on the day I strongly believe that a lot of mystification that surrounded the
police was broken down. Their relaxed attitude and for some their strong
interest in the issue, dispelled that age old debate that the police are
merely vanguards of the state.
However, some solid and concrete plans were set for the action. We decided
that we would stick photocopies of a list of contraventions to International
Law that had been broken through the gross human rights abuses, on the bow of
the ship. It would be people's choice to do this action from the pier or
from the water. We also organised some chants and some music to further
demonstrate our opposition to the visit of this ship.
As we arrived down at Station Pier there were quite a few people there
already. It was hard to distinguish who was there to support the ship and
who was there to oppose the ship. The pier authorities felt the same way.
They closed the pier to all members of the public. This had the potential to
create a conflict of its own. Some of the Chileans felt annoyed that we had
told the police about the action, because now we didn't have access to the
pier. They felt that the action wouldn't be able to happen and that it had
been a waste of time. This had a strong potential to undermine the trust
that had been built up between the two groups. So three activists entered
into a dialogue with the police. After a lot of talking an idea came up, for
us to send a small delegation in to give the Captain the indictment, but
under no circumstances could we enter the pier en masse. We took this choice
back to the group to decide our position.
The choice of tactic by the police is one that we had encountered many times
before. They feel by sending in only two people, it lessens the impact and I
feel their responsibility in the situation. It also decreases the likelihood
of arrest. Nevertheless the group decided to send in only two people, to
serve the indictment. But interestingly enough the Chilean community
insisted that there be a representative of each the Australian and the
Chilean community, to serve the indictment. This was important because it
forged the already strong links between the two groups. It was a definite
mark of solidarity, which always makes these types of nonviolent actions more
powerful.
The group which was now perhaps one hundred strong, gathered in a focussing
circle, where the logistics of the action were clearly outlined. A member of
the Chilean community spoke about why we were there and other Chileans talked
about their sense of anger and outrage of the ship being in Melbourne.
As a group we had decided to send in two people with the indictment, which
was perhaps the best tactic on the day. Many people had come on the day not
willing to be arrested and we hadn't provided information on the legal
implications of arrest.
We also agreed that the people who were going to serve the indictment on the
ship from the water, would do so after the indictment had been served on the
Captain. This would ensure that everyone would be able to see the action in
the water, and that the media wouldn't have to choose which action to film.
The two people representing the group made their way towards the ship. An
interesting dynamic had emerged, the person who had been liaising with the
ship's Captain had been assured that the Captain would receive the
indictment. Once at the ship, the Captain refused to come out. This
frustrated activists, the police and Port Security authorities. However
frustrating this was, many people had been drawn into the conflict, and I'm
sure each were thinking about the issue and feeling the overwhelming amount
of emotion that was present on the day. As we were leaving, a member of Port
Security, told us that he "would have liked to have seen us have a real go at
the Captain." This demonstrated a big shift in this person's emotional
involvement in the issue, over the course of the day.
The focus then turned to the six crazy and very cold activists who were
planning to serve the indictment on the ship from the water. We entered the
water after being told that we would be arrested, if we swam anywhere near
the ship. We had talked briefly about our strategy, i.e. how to avoid the
police, but it was difficult because there were three people who had never
been involved in a water based action before. So basically we swam for the
ship, which was made quite difficult, because people on the pier were
throwing eggs, rocks and lemons at us. Everyone one of us was able to stick
a copy of the indictment on the bow of the ship without being arrested. This
indicated that the police had made a conscious decision not to arrest us, so
it was obvious that they had a choice after all.
The action continued when the authorities made the decision to make access to
the pier open to the public. We released black balloons, which trailed over
the ship and the water. The balloons were there to symbolize death. Then as
a positive image we sang chants and songs in Spanish and English, which
celebrated our freedom in a democratic country.
We left the action with a very unique feeling. A sense of solidarity with
the Chilean community, a trust between the two communities, with the promise
of more networking and future actions.
Important lessons did emerge for me as a comfortable, first-world, nonviolent
activist. Western activists have much to learn from our third-world sisters
and brothers. Our motivations for change are very different, for the
Chileans it is a personal survival mechanism, for me it is a feeling of
sadness and despair and anger that these human rights abuses had occurred. I
felt that an important link was merged between two very different
communities, and that each of the communities had learnt so much from each
other.
An interesting dynamic that I observed on the day, was the absence of any
real open conflict between the Chilean community. There was a real conflict
of feelings, emotions and ideologies and yet no open hostility. A member of
the Chilean community stated that the reason for this was because everyone
knew each other and they did in fact socialise together. It made me realise
how disconnected our community was, and how it is often very difficult to
overcome frustrations, that we feel for others who have differing
philosophies and ideas.
Finally I realised that there is little or no practice of other languages in
the nonviolent community in Melbourne. This is a real hindrance in effective
communication between grassroots groups, and makes truly effective grassroots
networking almost impossible.
The week that the Esmeralda was in town was both exhausting and very
worthwhile. We learnt about another culture, we shared our experience and
our knowledge, we appreciated our freedom and we celebrated life and our
sense of community.
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