Mapuche Political Prisoners Prosecuted in relation to Luchsinger Mackay Case on Indefinite Hunger Strike: “We risk our lives to guarantee our freedom.”

Mapuche Political Prisoners, in so-called southern Chile, prosecuted in relation to Luchsinger Mackay case in the prison of Temuco communicate the following:

On Monday, May 29^th, 2017, we have begun a hunger strike as a last recourse of resistance within political prison to demand and pressure authorities for due process in our cases.

As is publicly known, there has been a lack of evidence throughout this overwhelming process, which has been falling apart slowly in the courts.

Yet the Office of the Prosecution (FIAC) and their representative, Attorney Alberto Chifelle, have made enormous efforts to stretch all legal recourses necessary to push our cases to the Constitutional Tribunal, with the objective to continue our pre-trial detention. We state our innocence of the charges that have been laid on us. They wish to keep us behind bars, since we maintain our conviction of struggle for our Mapuche nation, which has led us to initiate a hunger strike as a radical measure of resistance and protest to enforce our demands as Mapuche Political Prisoners

We risk our lives in order to guarantee our freedom, demanding due process as a reasonable claim after a year of incarceration without the withdrawal of any charges.

The pre-trial detention of our Machi [Medicine Healer] Francisca Linconao, as well as those previously and currently charged in [the Luchsinger Mackay] case, follow the same political tactics of delegitimization of our struggle against the powerful capitalist interests in our Wallmapu. In addition, we are demanding an end to the application of the Anti-Terrorist Law, and our immediate freedom under Article 140 [of the Constitution].

We call on our Mapuche Nation, communities in resistance and in defense of Wallmapu, Chileans in social movements, fishermen, students, and other conscious of our dignified and just struggle oppressed by capitalist interests to support our mobilizations and break the mainstream bourgeois media silence. We also call on people to mobilize this June 12 on the streets of Temuco.

Our Demands are as follows:

1. A free and fair trial

2. Freedom under Article 140 [of the Constitution

3. Stop the application of the Anti-Terrorist Law

Temuco Mapuche Political Prisoners processed under the Luchsinger-Mackay case

MARRICHIWEU!!

Distributed by: The Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallampu [Toronto]

https://wccctoronto.wordpress.com/

For immediate release

Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu

Media Contact: Lydia Colihue, Email: wccc_98@hotmail.com

What: Interrupting the Toronto Luncheon of Michelle Bachelet, President of the Republic of Chile

When: Tuesday, June 6th, 2017@ 12:30PM EST

Where: OMNI King Edward Hotel, Toronto

Who: The Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu [Toronto] and allies. Photo credit to q_e_d

Why: We are a  group of indigenous Mapuche women and allies who have interrupted the Toronto visit of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in protest of the continuous incarceration, plunder and displacement of indigenous Mapuche land defenders originating from so-called southern Chile. In particular, we stand in solidarity with Mapuche Medicine Healers Machi Celestino Cordova and Francisca Linconao who have recently been charged under Anti-terrorist legislation, the former convicted to 18 years in prison and the latter whose process is currently ongoing, with the International Federation of Human Rights calling for their release. These are only two of the many dozens, if not hundreds, of Mapuche organizers exclusively processed by the Anti-Terrorist law since 2001 – a law which was legislated during the Pinochet military dictatorship in 1984, and which has been internationally condemned by the Inter American Court in 2014. The ongoing criminalization, and militarized repression of indigenous Mapuche movements in Chile have resulted in the police shooting deaths of several Mapuche youth, including 22 year old Matias Catrileo in 2008 during Bachelet’s first Presidency, whose families have yet to find justice.

We also protest the actions of the Canadian government in continuing their relationship of trade and commerce with Chile, strengthening the extractive industries that have caused the plunder and displacement of our indigenous peoples respectively. These actions are shameful but unsurprising, given both country’s colonial history. We stand in solidarity with our Mapuche political prisoners and their communities in resistance, as well as local indigenous communities who are also facing displacement as a result of neo-liberal, neo-colonial policies reinforced by each of these states. Free our Mapuche Political Prisoners! WEUWAIN! MARRICHIWEU! #NoCanada150

 VIDEO:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8MZQXUX524bd25od0FmOVV4R1k/view?usp=drivesdk

(credit: q_e_d)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8MZQXUX524bS0M5U01HdHVPdXM/view?usp=drivesdk

In memory of our Mapuche WEICHAFE [WARRIORS] MATIAS CATRILEO & ALEX LEMUN, & the many others (indigenous and non-indigenous) who have been murdered by the repressive forces of the Chilean State.

SATURDAY, APRIL 1st & SUNDAY APRIL 2nd

VICTORIA COLLEGE at the University of Toronto, Room 101

73 Queen’s Park Crescent

*ALL NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILMS WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES*

Donations Appreciated

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/673956192776744/

Organized by: The Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu [Toronto] An OPIRG Toronto Action Group

https://wccctoronto.wordpress.com

Sponsored by: The Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Toronto

OPIRG Toronto

Endorsed by: Harvest Noon

Toronto Anarchist Reading Group

***

OPENING NIGHT –  SATURDAY, APRIL 1ST

5PM – OPENING RECEPTION feat. the SubMedia Collective

GUEST SPEAKERS:

Frank @ SubMedia (Director of Killing the Black Snake: Behind the Scenes of the #NoDAPL Struggle)

This year we are proud to present the director of Killing the Black Snake: Behind the Scenes of the #NoDAPL Struggle, made by our friends at the SubMedia Collective on the ongoing struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

SubMedia.tv is a video production ensemble, which aims to promote anarchist and anti-capitalist ideas, and aid social struggles through the dissemination of radical films and videos. Founded in 1994, subMedia.tv has produced hundreds of videos on everything from anti-globalization protests to films about shoplifting. Their films have been screened around the world in social centers and movie theaters and have been watched by millions on the internet.

Sigrid Knieve and Carrie Lester –  indigenous land defenders, water protectors and social justice advocates to speak on the recent developments at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and the ongoing struggle against pipelines locally and throughout Turtle Island.

6PM – Trouble – Killing the Black Snake: Behind the Scenes of the #NoDAPL Struggle, Turtle Island, 2017 (30 minutes)

See Trailer Here: https://www.facebook.com/180896458609033/videos/1469430156422317/

Since December of 2016, the Submedia Collective have been developing “Trouble,” a new monthly show offering in-depth anarchist analysis on various topics, struggles and movement dynamics.  Killing the Black Snake: Behind the Scenes of the #NoDAPL Struggle, is the first to be published in the documentary series depicting the recent struggle to protect sacred indigenous lands and waters at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The motivation in producing this film was to shed light on the important contributions made by indigenous warriors on the frontline to the broader struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

6:30PM – Eyes of a Woman: Glance of the Earth, Puelmapu, 2012 (51 minutes)

A film by Mapuche Feminist and Warrior, Moira Millan.

See Trailer here: https://www.facebook.com/180896458609033/videos/1467565923275407/

Mapuche activist, feminist, and warrior from Puelmapu (so-called Argentina), Moira Millan, depicts the plight of her people for the reclamation of land and culture through her own eyes as an indigenous woman. Having had to migrate from the Patagonia region to the City of Buenos Aires as a child, she decides to return to the land of her roots where her mother’s remains are buried. The film raises many issues on the preservation of Mapuche indigenous identity in today’s Argentina, where Moira travels to visit women of other indigenous communities, sharing the experience of preserving ancestral culture through education, health, music and taking back the land.

8PM – Embrace of the Serpent, Colombia/Abya Yala, 2016 (125 minutes)

*** Academy Awards Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, 2016. Winner of the Ariel Award for Best Ibero-American Film, 2016. Winner of the Fénix Film Award for Best Direction, 2015.***

See Trailer here: https://www.facebook.com/180896458609033/videos/1458272330871433/

Embrace of the Serpent details the story of Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, dealing with two visiting European scientists in search for a sacred healing rainforest plant over the course of 40 years. The impact of the extractivist caucho (rubber) wars, the sect-like influence of the Church, and Eurocentric ignorance to the land and its peoples become increasingly apparent throughout their journeys, with Karamakate presented as the voice of wisdom and disdain towards European encroachment. The film was inspired by the real-life journals of two explorers (Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes) who traveled through the Colombian Amazon during the last century in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant.

SUNDAY, APRIL 2nd

1PM – Strawberry and Chocolate, Cuba, 1993 (110 min)

***Winner of the Goya Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 1995; the ACRI-NOVA Award at the Havana International Film Festival, 1993; the Silver Berlin Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival and Honorable Mention at the Sundance Film Festival, 1995. Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, 1995.

See Trailer here: https://youtu.be/bWioIOaw7eU

Havana 1993 –  Queerness, prejudice and the questioning of gender and political binaries are highlighted in Tomas Gutierrez Alea’s Strawberry and Chocolate. The renowned Cuban Director (“Memories of Underdevelopment,” 1968),  Gutierrez Alea delivers a refreshing critical lens into contemporary Cuban society. David is a student of Social Sciences in the University of Havana. Diego is a homosexual that lives for and to exalt cuban culture. One opens up to the complex world of personal realities, the other fights to be recognized and not be discriminated because of his sexual preferences. David and Diego, two human beings apparently opposite, separated by prejudices, distanced by their political, cultural and sexual preferences, find the difficult road towards friendship. A universal conflict form part of the lights and shadows of Havana and the spectacular unaffordable cost of cuban culture. Strawberry and Chocolate is not a movie about the seduction of a body, but about the seduction of a mind; a true reflection of understanding and solidarity.

3PM – The Colony [“Colonia Dignidad”], Chile/England, 2015 (120 minutes)

See Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/180896458609033/videos/1458310377534295/

Based on true events.  Chile 1973: a young woman’s desperate search for her abducted boyfriend draws her into the infamous Colonia Dignidad, ex-Nazi cult founded by Wehrmacht officer and Hitler Youth veteran Paul Schäfer from which no one has ever escaped. Colonia Dignidad was one of the central torture centres of Pinochet’s military regime, where hundreds of people were tortured, murdered and disappeared.

5PM – The Baader-Meinhof Complex, Germany, 2008 (184 minutes)

***Nominated for Best for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, 2009; Golden Globe Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, 2009. Best Film Production at the Bavarian Film Awards***

See Trailer here: https://www.facebook.com/180896458609033/videos/1458290574202942/

Germany 1967. The children of the Nazi generation have grown up in the devastation their parents created. They vowed fascism would never rule again. Director Uli Edel teams with screenwriter Bernd Eichinger to explore this drama detailing the rise and fall of the Red Army Faction. Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Ulrike Meinhof – the central founders of the RAF – are inflamed by worldwide and local events, such as Vietnam, and German industrialism, which lead them to conclude that violence is the only effective form of opposition.

8PM – In the Name of the Father, Ireland, 1993 (133 minutes)

See Trailer here: https://www.facebook.com/180896458609033/videos/1457297594302240/

The film tells the true story of Irish youth, Gerry Conlon, one of the “Guildford Four” who were handed life sentences for wrongful conviction of an IRA bombing in 1974, where he and his father are taken to prison. Working with a fiercely dedicated lawyer, Gerry determines to prove his innocence, clear his father’s name and expose the truth behind one of the most shameful legal events in recent history.

SANTIAGO – Chilean Anarchists, Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar, arrived this morning at Santiago’s International Airport, after having been expulsed from Spanish custody and deported back to their home country.

Monica and Francisco had been charged under Spanish Anti-terrorism legislation for the alleged bombing of the Basilica del Pilar Church in Zaragoza, on Oct 2nd, 2013, and were arrested a month after the incident. Spanish prosecution initially sought a 44 year sentence for the accused, but instead received a 12 year sentence in 2014. The Defense took Monica and Francisco’s case to the Spanish Supreme Court, where the sentence was further reduced to 4 and a half years this past December, having dropped one of the initial charges. At the time, the Spanish Supreme Court recognized that the intent of the bombing was to cause structural damage to a religious symbol  and thus were charged for loses and damages.

As a final recourse, the Defense submitted a claim under Spanish Penal Law No. 89, which states that foreigners can be deported to their country of origin after having spent a year in prison. The claim was accepted by the court, resulting in the expulsion of Monica and Francisco back to Chile where they will be completely released from custody, pending any possible infractions with the Chilean justice system. Since they have none, they are able to walk free upon arrival passing through Chilean customs. Neither Monica or Francisco ever recognized their involvement in the bombing, and in fact alleged the charges were part of broader state political persecution as Anarchists.

Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar first came to Spain after their charges in the Chilean Anarchist Bombs Case were withdrawn by the Santiago court in 2012. The case was heavily publicized by the mass media throughout Chile when it first came to light in 2010, publically broadcasting the arrest of the 12 accused who were depicted as terrorists. But the case quickly fell apart after insufficient and flimsy evidence was presented by State Prosecution in courts, resulting in the absolution of the Anarchists, as well as a governmental crisis of legitimacy. The Santiago Court ordered the State Prosecution to award $460 million Chilean pesos (approximately $700,000 USD) to the former Anarchist accused for losses and damages of having gone through the legal system, which was later upheld by the Chilean Supreme Court. Francisco Solar was awarded $100 million pesos, while Monica Caballero was awarded $80 million pesos, which they then used to start a new life together as a couple in Spain.

Today, Monica and Francisco will be able to walk free on the streets of Santiago and begin a new life together with their friends, family and comrades. We salute them in the brave dignified efforts throughout all these years of repression and persecution in resisting the confines of State prisons around the world.

In love and rage,

Viva la Anarquia!

The Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu [Toronto]

Black Bird Liberation Cinema 

CHILE: SEPTEMBER 11TH,1973

Black Bird Liberation Cinema presents this year’s film series commemorating the 43rd Anniversary of the Bloody Coup D’état in Chile, bringing about the 17-year fascist dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The films document the process(es) of Popular Power, and State repression before and after the Coup.

IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN IN THIS PERMANENT UPRISING

“Many of the disappeared during the Pinochet dictatorship were thrown into the ocean. [More than half were of indigenous dissent.] One of them was Marta Ugarte.

Some say that water has memory. I believe it also has a voice.”

– Patricio Guzman, From The Pearl Button

***

Anti-Colonial GUEST PANEL on State Sanctioned Genocide:

*Directly from Chile & For the First Time in Toronto*

NORA DE NEGRI 

Family of RODRIGO ROJAS, burnt to death by the Pinochet Military Dictatorship in 1986

30 years after the murder of Rodrigo Rojas De Negri, burnt to death by the Pinochet Military Dictatorship, WCCC will be honored to host NORA DE NEGRI speak on her nephew’s case, which remains unpunished to this day.

LEE MARACLE  

Award Winning Author, University of Toronto Indigenous Studies instructor and Sto:Loh elder, Lee Maracle will be to speaking on the ongoing plunder and genocide of indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.  Her works include: the novels, Ravensong, Bobbi Lee, Sundogs, short story collection, Sojourner’s Truth, poetry collection, Bentbox, and non-fiction work I Am Woman. She is Co-editor of My Home As I Remember and Telling It: Women and Language Across Cultures, editor of a number of poetry works, Gatherings journals and has published in dozens of anthologies across Turtle Island.

VANESSA GREY 

From Aamjiwnaang First Nation, Land Defender and Water Protector to speak on the ongoing struggle against the Line 9 pipeline reversal carrying Tar Sand Oil from Alberta to the East Coast.

CARRIE LESTER

Mohawk Woman, Mother of two grown children, Land Defender, Water Protector, and Social Justice Advocate to speak on the recent INAC Toronto Occupation in solidarity with Attawapiskat First Nation and ongoing indigenous resistance at Standing Rock.

***

SUNDAY, SEPT 11th , 2016

Woodsworth College Residence:

321 Bloor St West, Room 30

*Wheelchair accessible entrance off St. George Street*

Organized by: The Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu [Toronto] (An OPIRG Toronto Action Group)

Sponsored by: The Latin American Studies Department at the University of Toronto

Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Toronto

OPIRG Toronto 

Endorsed by: The Organization of Latin American Students (U of T)

Rising Tide Toronto

***

Facebook event: Chile: September 11TH – Black Bird Liberation Cinema Film Screenings

https://wccctoronto.wordpress.com

*Donations Appreciated*

**Doors Open at 1:30 pm | Films begin sharp at specified time**

***All Films in Spanish with English Subtitles***

****WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE****
——————————————————————-

2PM: Machuca

(Chile, 121 minutes, 2004)

**Winner of the Most Popular Film Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival 2004, Best Film at the Havana International Film Festival 2004, the George Delerue Prize at the Ghent International Film Festival 2004, among others**

Directed by Andres Wood

See Trailer Here: https://www.facebook.com/180896458609033/videos/1242178052480863

Santiago, Chile, 1973: A must see timeless classic on the friendship between two boys at a Santiago private school from different class backgrounds, which become a microcosm for the developing class war beyond the institution’s walls. All around them, Chile drifts towards civil war. The enormous rift between them ultimately becomes impossible to bridge, once the bloody military coup of September 11, 1973, as they face a reality far beyond their young capacities

4:30PM: The Pearl Button (El Boton de Nacar) 

(Chile, 82 minutes, 2015)

**Winner of the Silver Bear at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival 2015; Official Selection of the Toronto International Film Festival 2015**

See Trailer Here: https://www.facebook.com/180896458609033/videos/1237627869602548

Directed by Patricio Guzman

From the director of The Battle of Chile, The Obstinate Memory and Salvador Allende, Patricio Guzman delivers yet another masterful piece connecting the issues of colonialism and state repression since Chile’s inception. The ocean contains the history of all humanity. The sea holds the voices of the Earth and those that come from outer space. Water receives impetus from the stars and transmits it to living creatures. Water, the longest border in Chile, also holds the secret of a mysterious button that was discovered in its seabed. Chile, with its 2,670 miles of coastline, the largest archipelago in the world,presents a supernatural landscape. In it are volcanoes, mountains and glaciers. In it are the voices of the Patagonian indigenous people, of the first English sailors and also those of its political prisoners. More than half of all of Chile’s missing and murdered political prisoners during Pinochet’s military dictatorship were of indigenous decent. Many still dumped in the ocean. Some say that water has memory. This film shows that it also has a voice.

For more information, check out https://wccctoronto.wordpress.com