Against Loans to Chile

To the Editors:

We think your readers will be interested in the following statement calling upon the Reagan Administration to oppose all loans to Chile. Circulated by the Campaign for Peace and Democracy/East and West, it has been signed by leading peace, labor, human rights, religious and cultural figures from the United States, Western Europe and Latin America. They are joined by a large number of activists and writers from the USSR and Eastern Europe, many of whom have been persecuted in their own countries for work in independent peace and human rights movements.

Joanne Landy, Thomas Harrison, Gail Daneker

Directors, Campaign for Peace

and Democracy/East and West

PO Box 1640, Cathedral Station

New York, New York 10025

As supporters of movements for freedom and social justice everywhere in the world, whether in South Africa, Poland, Turkey or the Soviet Union, we are deeply dismayed at the Chilean government’s systematic assault on the rights of its citizens. The United States can assist those who seek democracy and respect for human rights in Chile by withdrawing any form of economic support to the regime as long as the current pattern of repression continues. We call upon the Reagan Administration to support Chilean democratic leaders’ requests for an end to international financial aid to Pinochet by voting against all loans to Chile until the following conditions are fulfilled:

The reinstitution of basic political rights, including freedom of assembly, freedom of information, and the right to participate in democratic elections.

The restoration of the independence of the judicial system.

The restoration of workers’ rights to organize and to bargain collectively.

An end to the cruel practice of forced exile.

The abolition of torture and other forms of cruel and degrading treatment.

UNITED STATES

Edward Asner, Virginia Baron, Angela Berryman & Philip Berryman, George Black, Virginia M. Bouvier, James Cannon, Cesar Chavez, Noam Chomsky, David Cortright, Gail Daneker, Richard Deats, Rep. Ronald V. Dellums, E.L. Doctorow, Adrian DeWind, Bob Edgar, Daniel Ellsberg, W. H. and Carol Bernstein Ferry, Catherine Fitzpatrick, Rev. John Geitner, M.M., Allen Ginsberg, Todd Gitlin, Minard Hamilton, Michael Harrington, Thomas Harrison, Judith Hempfling, Stanley W. Hill, Adam Hochschild, A. Winton Jackson, Julius & Phyllis Jacobson, Jeri Laber, Joanne Landy, William M. LeoGrande, Penny Lernoux, David McReynolds, Seymour Melman, Samuel Meyers, Brian Morton, Aryeh Neier, Stefan Niewiarowski, David Oakford, Grace Paley, Rosemary Radford Reuther, Adrienne Rich, Randall Robinson, William L. Smith, Rose Styron, Amos Vogel, Frank von Hippel, Alice Walker, Paul F. Walker, Jim Wallis, Arthur Waskow, James Weinstein, Roger W. Wilkins, Rev. William L. Wipfler, Max & Sylvia Wohl

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

(All are Charter 77 signatories and thirteen are present or former Charter spokespersons. All are signing as individuals.)

Rudolf Battek, former member of parliament, sociologist, essayist, former political prisoner, member Committee to Protect the Unjustly Persecuted (VONS); Jiri Dienstbier, former foreign editor and TV correspondent, former political prisoner, now stoker, VONS; Jiri Hajek, former historian, diplomat and foreign minister; Vaclav Havel, playwright, VONS, former prisoner; Marie Hromadkova, historian; Eva Kanturkova, writer, former prisoner; Marie Rut Krizkova, former literary historian, now postal clerk; Ladislav Lis, former lawyer and party official, former prisoner, VONS; Jan Lopatka, literary critic; Vaclav Maly, Catholic priest barred by state from exercising pastoral duties, former political prisoner, VONS; Bedrich Placak, former surgeon and professor of medicine, worked as nightwatchman until fired when became Charter spokesperson; Jiri Ruml, former journalist and prisoner, VONS; Anna Sabatova, former political prisoner, VONS; Jan Stern, journalist, literary critic, poet and novelist, became laborer and clerk; Petr Uhl, former teacher and political prisoner, now stoker, VONS; Josef Vohryzek, journalist and translator

EAST GERMANY

Barbel Bohley, Women for Peace; Werner Fischer, independent peace activist; Peter Grimm, Initiative “Peace and Human Rights”; Ralf Hirsch, Initiative “Peace and Human Rights”; Geord Poppe, independent peace activist; Ulrike Poppe, Women for Peace, Wolfgang Templin, philosopher, former professor

HUNGARY

Gabor Demszky, sociologist, editor AB independent publishers; Olga Dioszegi, student, activist in democratic opposition; Istvan Eorsi, writer; Gyorgy Gado, translator, activist in democratic opposition; Miklos Haraszti, writer, co-editor Beszelo; Janos Kenedi, philosopher; Janos Kis, philosopher, co-editor Beszelo; Gyorgy Konrad, writer; Ferenc Koszeg, teacher, co-editor Beszelo; Laszlo Rajk, architect, activist in democratic opposition; Sandor Szilagyi, literary critic, co-editor Beszelo; Gaspar Miklos Tamas, philosopher

POLAND

Marek Adamkiewicz, Jacek Czaputowicz, Piotr Niemczyk, active in independent peace movement, Freedom and Peace; Janusz Grzelak, Barbara Malak, social psychologists; Zofia Kuratowska, hematologist; Wojciech Lamentowicz, professor of law, Warsaw University; Jan Josef Lipski, KOR (Workers Defense Committee, disbanded 1981), former prisoner; Jan Minkiewicz, representative, Freedom and Peace in the West; Janusz Onyszkiewicz; Aniela Steinsbergowa, lawyer, KOR; Jacek Szymanderski, Freedom and Peace, former Solidarnosc leader; Klemens Szaniawski, professor of logic, elected rector of Warsaw University, vetoed by Minister of Education; Henryk Wujec, Solidarity leader, KOR, former prisoner

USSR

Ludmilla Alexeyeva, founding member, Moscow Helsinki Watch, now in US, author of Soviet Dissent; Alexander Feldman, Moscow Trust Group (independent Soviet peace movement); Vladimir Glezer, Moscow Trust Group, now in the West; Grigorij Jakobson, Moscow Trust Group; Andrei Krivov, Moscow Trust Group; Yuri & Olga Medvedkov, Moscow Trust Group, now in US; Yury Orlov; Vladimir Tokarev, Moscow Trust Group

YUGOSLAVIA

Ingrid Bakse, peace activist; Pavel Gantar, sociologist; Marko Hren, mathematician; Bogdan Lesnik, psychologist; Mihailo Markovic, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts; Tomaz Mastnak, sociologist; Rastko Mocnik, professor; Milan Nikolic, sociologist, tried for paper written at Brandeis University; Braco Rotar, professor

OTHER COUNTRIES

Isabel Allende, Chilean author; Ariel Dorfman, Chilean author; Isabel Morel Letelier, Institute for Policy Studies; Arthur Lipow, CPD/EW, Birkbeck College, University of London; Dan Gallin, General Secretary, International Union of Food-workers, Geneva; Mary Kaldor, European Nuclear Disarmament (END); Daniel Singer, author and journalist, Paris; Metta Spencer, editor, Peace magazine, Canada; E. P. and Dorothy Thompson, END

Organizations listed for identification purposes only