States of Insecurity

Under Communism, Albania and North Korea rejected de-Stalinisation, clung to leader cults, and, after the acrimonious break between Moscow and Beijing, championed ‘self-reliance’. Often mentioned in passing, the Albanian–North Korean parallel has seldom been analysed. This article highlights three aspects that shaped the Communist regimes' insecurity: the social dynamics of war and early threats; the challenge presented by de-Stalinisation in 1956; and the momentous Sino–Soviet split in the early 1960s. Like the boisterous language of Marxism-Leninism and the drive to engineer a non-capitalist society, insecurity was also built into the Communist international system. Clinging to Stalinist methods, then, was also a reflection of the self-destructive potential of calls for reforming the Communist system, which threatened to tear the Eastern bloc apart. Tirana and Pyongyang pursued different paths to ‘self-reliance’, yet they could not help speaking a similar language and facing similar problems. North Korea ultimately joined the Non-Aligned Movement but achieved little success in the Third World. The irony is that tiny, isolated Albania, which shunned the Movement, ultimately ended up non-aligned: violently critical of Moscow, Beijing, and Washington, and distrustful of practically everyone else.     

‘The labour market under the iron fist of the state’: the Franco dictatorship in the mirror of Hitler,Mussolini and Stalin

This article focuses on the idea that intervention in the labour market through the suspension of labour rights and freedoms, fear and a fall in purchasing power all played a key role in achieving political and economic objectives in the regimes of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. However, in each of these cases, the success of this policy was not as had been expected. These European experiences were essential for the configuration of the labour framework in the Franco dictatorship. The iron-fisted control of the labour market came to Spain through legal texts and institutions that were in many cases a blatant copy of those applied in Italy and Germany. In spite of the ideological distance between them, we can also find some common traits with Stalin's labour policies. The results obtained were even worse for Spain, and the negative effects on the economy were more serious, due to the greater longevity of the Spanish dictatorship.     

Blame it on Kissinger? The international factor and the failure of the “Markezinis Experiment”

The aborted 1967 attempt of the dictatorship to transform itself into some form of democracy has generally been under-researched, and even more so with regard to its international implications. And yet, the issue of foreign influences on the “Markezinis Experiment” has been given excessive weight – first and foremost by the protagonist himself, who blamed his failure and downfall on negative American interference – namely on the then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s adversarial stance. Based on the examination of the international context in three main frameworks – namely its relations with the United States, Europe and the Cyprus issue – this article seeks to give an answer to the question of the foreign factor’s impact on the failure of the “experiment”.     

毛泽东理论问题指示平议

1974年毛泽东关于无产阶级专政理论问题的指示,是其“反修防变”理论与实践的继续和发展。毛泽东指出,中国还存在着变修正主义、复辟资本主义的危险性,这种忧虑是有历史和现实根据的,是富有远见的。他力图从社会主义经济基础和社会制度本身寻找产生这种危险性的原因,其方法科学,思考深刻。但由于对马克思、列宁的论述有误解,其分析和结论存在着片面性和差错。在理论指示中,毛泽东还强调要防止在工人阶级中、机关干部中和党员中发生资产阶级生活作风问题,产生资产阶级分子,其正确性已经被国内和国际的实践证明。在1975年宣传贯彻理论指示的过程中,邓小平同“四人帮”进行了针锋相对的斗争。他指出限制资产阶级法权要有个物质基础,对毛泽东关于限制资产阶级法权思想存在的根本不足作了弥补;他致力于运用理论指示解决反对资产阶级派性、反对无政府主义、反对资产阶级生活作风和思想作风等问题,以实现安定团结和把国民经济搞上去。邓小平的积极引导,可说是对毛泽东的理论指示的一次实践检验。党的第三代领导集体提出“拒腐防变”的历史性课题,是在新的历史条件下对毛泽东“反修防变”理论的批判继承和积极发展。     

Garibaldi and parliamentary democracy

Abstract

The extraordinary nature of Garibaldi's life is reflected in his involvement in parliamentary activities across a number of countries (Uruguay, Kingdom of Sardinia, Roman Republic, Kingdom of Italy, French Republic). After the national unification, Parliament became a kind of great sounding board in Garibaldi's strategy thanks in part to the fact that in the Chamber he could count on a group of followers who were always ready to support any issue vaguely to do with memories of the Risorgimento or irredentist aspirations. His failure to steer the new state in the desired direction through the legislative process certainly influenced Garibaldi's negative opinion of parliamentary work. Garibaldi could not however recognize as an expression of popular sovereignty a parliament in whose election only 2 per cent of the population were allowed to participate. His main political battle was the fight for universal suffrage which was intended to enfranchise all Italians, thus turning subjects into citizens and finally making parliamentary institutions nationally representative and democratically legitimate.     

“多党民主”与“国民党自由分化”——胡适的“大胆假设”与“小心求证”

在美国留学期间,胡适形成了"多党政治"的思想.回国后,鉴于国民党一党专政的事实,胡适分别于1932年、1948年和1950-1952年提出让国民党自由分化的政治主张.但是,由于种种复杂的原因,胡适的这一主张并没有得到实行.     

The Unbearable Lightness of Bones: Memory,Emotion, and Pedagogy in Patricio Guzmán’s Chile,La Memoria Obstinada and Nostalgia De La Luz

Focusing on two documentary films by Patricio Guzmán, Chile, Obstinate Memory (1997) and, especially, Nostalgia of the Light (2010), this paper examines some of the relations between neoliberal violence (during and after the Pinochet dictatorship), memory, knowledge and emotionality, both historical and personal. It does so by reading and reviewing the actions, narratives and experiences of a group of astronomers, archaeologists and geologists who work in the Atacama desert of northern Chile and a group of women who search for the remains of their loved ones, victims of political violence, in the same desert within the shifting contexts of cinematic spectatorship. Attentive to the possibilities and pitfalls of empathic identifications and connections, it also considers the ethical and political implications of the interplay of cinema (Guzmán), photography (Paula Allen) and poetry, sky writing and "land art" (Raúl Zurita).     

Competing Narratives about Sacrifice: Three Readings of the 11 September 1973 Coup in Chile and their Conflicting Constitutional Projections

This article argues that different narratives involving sacrifice compete to ascribe meaning to the 11 September 1973 coup against Socialist President Salvador Allende, and as a result, structure contemporary Chilean constitutional politics. From that event, it is contended, three competing narratives emerged, each seeking to make sense of political sacrifice, and each providing a basis for the constitutional projects of the Left, the Right, and the Center.     

Notes on contributors

Abstract

There are at least two options or approaches available to those who seek to evaluate Garibaldi's life in its entirety. The first option envisages Garibaldi as a revolutionary figure firmly devoted to the cause of the people and the advancement of human rights. The second sees him as putting his popularity in the service of a sovereign monarch, but managing nevertheless to salvage something of the ideals of his youth. There are indeed double aspects to Garibaldi, who was both republican and monarchist, simultaneously a rebel and a man of order. As a rebel he fought against kings, popes and emperors; as a man of order he relied on the effectiveness of temporary dictatorship (his own in Rome in 1849 and the king's dictatorship in 1860). He broke with Mazzini when he chose to pursue national unification in collaboration with the monarchy. That choice limited his freedom of action, and he felt betrayed when he became aware of the consequences in the last years of his life. Paradoxically, it is Mazzini's death in 1872 that released Garibaldi from his subjection to King Victor Emmanuel II, and allowed him to live out the last years of his life more or less at peace with himself as a socialist who put the well being of the people ahead of everything else.     

Memories of Music in Political Detention in Chile Under Pinochet

Music was commonly present in political detention centres during General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973–1990), and has had important roles in post-dictatorship commemorations. However, music has received limited attention in cultural studies discussions of the Pinochet regime. This article examines a selection of memories of musical experiences of three former political prisoners, elicited through personal interviews. After contextualising the topic and discussing methodology, I present and discuss recollections of experiences in direct relation to torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. By looking closely at the relationships between the musical experiences, genres and pieces remembered by the interviewees, a number of commonalities have emerged. However, I argue that these testimonies should be viewed in their uniqueness and specificity, and that the findings of this article are not necessarily representative of the experiences lived by the tens of thousands who went through political detention under Pinochet. This article also considers some of the ethical issues around work on human rights violations, and calls for recognition of the importance of archival and documentary work in relation to social and communal memory.