Chile 50 London: Russell Caplan's Solidarity Through Video
Chile 50 London: Russell Caplan's Solidarity Through Video
South African videographer Russell Caplan has made two videos about events in London last year commemorating the 50th anniversary of the military coup in Chile.
On 11 September 1973, a military coup was launched against Chile’s socialist president, Salvador Allende. That morning, British-made Hawker Hunter jets bombed La Moneda, Chile’s presidential palace, while tanks patrolled the surrounding streets of Santiago. My parents were forced to leave Chile after the coup and arrived in the UK as political refugees.
I’m currently working on ‘Mother, Country’ a documentary about my parents’ story. As part of the final filming in the UK for that documentary I attended the vigil held in London on 11 September 2023 to mark the 50th anniversary of coup. There, I met Russell Caplan who was filming too. He has recently released a short video of that 11 September event and another he filmed at a solidarity event held by the Chilean exile community and their allies in London on 9 September 2023.
I was curious to know why Caplan was interested in the coup in Chile, so I asked him for more information. He told me that he came to the UK from apartheid South Africa at the end of 1979 and was granted political asylum as a political refugee. As an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa he had deserted his infantry unit that was being mobilised for active duty in Namibia to fight SWAPO, the armed resistance to apartheid South Africa’s illegal occupation and oppression of the population in what was then called South West Africa.
I asked Caplan how he first became aware of the coup against Allende in Chile. He writes:
“My political awakening to the broader international context coincided with the coup in Chile. Beginning my university studies in Political Science in 1973, I did a course on US foreign policy. The emotional account conveyed by the Marxist lecturer, of the coup in Chile and the human and political tragedy that ensued melded in me with the anti-apartheid resistance in which I began to engage. The barely contained emotion of my university lecturer to what had happened in Chile was etched in my consciousness and led me to immerse myself in learning as much as I could about Allende and the Popular Unity coalition through reading, and watching the moving films of Patricio Guzman.
My exile in the UK throughout the 1980s overlapped with much solidarity activity going on around the Chilean resistance. I would attend demonstrations whenever I could. But I did not get to know any Chilean refugees during this period.
On assuming an academic career at a London university and as leader of the local UCU branch I got to know Carlos Gonzalez who was also a political refugee and remains active in Chilean politics among the Chilean diaspora in the UK. On learning of my interest in Chilean politics, Carlos kept me informed and invited me to various activities and events taking place on Chile.
I had always wanted to visit Chile and pay homage to the memory of Allende and all the victims of the coup, as well as the memory of my now deceased lecturer whose impassioned and angry account of the coup had impacted me so deeply and shaped my politics. In 2022 Carlos won a sabbatical to do research in Chile. It was the perfect opportunity to visit Chile. I spent a lot of time in the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. Carlos took me to Allende’s grave and the memorial wall that has preserved the names of the victims of the coup for posterity. The experience of finally setting foot on Chilean soil, to bear witness as a foreigner to the memory of all the victims of the coup was an important part of my political journey binding me closer in solidarity with my Chilean comrades.
Carlos, to whom I am grateful for showing me the places and sites the ordinary tourist would probably not get to visit, extended the honour of inviting me to give a brief message of solidarity as a trade unionist to the picket outside the Chilean embassy in London commemorating the 50th anniversary of the coup. He also invited me to the event that took place at London South Bank University on 9 September and the ‘Chile Commemorative Poster Exhibition’ video was filmed there.”
I salute Caplan for struggling against apartheid in South Africa and for chronicling the Chilean community and their allies in London preserving memory by paying homage to their comrades killed by the dictatorship.
You can watch Caplan’s two videos, filmed on the 9 and 11 September 2023, below. They have been embedded here with Caplan’s permission from his YouTube channel.
Chile Commemorative Poster Exhibition
Picket Outside Chilean Embassy in London (9 - 11 - 23)