South Lanarkshire Councillor Mary Donnelly (SNP) reflects on one example of how Scottish people offered practical solidarity to the victims of Pinochet’s murderous neoliberal regime
In Chile, in September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected and popular government led by the socialist president Salvador Allende, in a coup backed by the CIA. Pinochet then unleashed repression on his political opponents – socialists, communists, trade unionists and others.
One of those ordinary working-class victims was Leonidas Calderon. He was arrested while at work simply because of his political beliefs. Alongside tens of thousands of others, he was herded into Santiago’s Estadio Nacional football ground. Thousands of those who were held were either executed or disappeared.
Leonidas was tortured, and sent to a concentration camp in the desert. There he watched others die due to extreme heat and exhaustion, but managed to survive himself. He was then transferred back to the football stadium where he was told he would be freed but, in 1975, he was ordered to leave the country.
He arrived in Britain in June that year and was taken in temporarily by my parents, Neil and Mary McIntosh, who then lived in Hamilton. My dad was the secretary of Hamilton Trades Council, and everything was done through the Chilean Solidarity Campaign.
Not long afterwards, Leonidas’s wife Olga arrived in Scotland, with six of the couple’s children: daughter Olga, Maria, Jose, Philomena, Norma and Aladino (another daughter, Senilda, remained in Chile). I played a part in helping the family find their permanent home in Craigneuk in Wishaw. I went to the council’s housing office and asked for them to be put on the housing list. I was an activist and trade unionist fighting to help them.
In Michael Pringle’s recent positive Daily Record story, which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the coup in Chile, Leonidas and Olga’s daughter Olga Calderon (now 62 and a mum-of-five) talked about her experience of making her life in Scotland.
‘My dad and my brother Jose found work in the slaughterhouse in Wishaw. Most of the family still live in the area now.
‘My father always wanted to go back to Chile one day, but he never did. He loved Scotland and loved the people, he was very friendly with everybody.
‘I’ve been back to Chile once, a few years ago. There’s been a lot of changes. My dad was a lorry driver and we lived on a fruit farm which exported fruit. That has been knocked down and there have been houses built.
‘The community of Craigneuk opened their arms and welcomed us and made us feel part of their community, even though we could not speak a word of English at first. All the neighbours in Gateside Road were waiting for us on our arrival and they helped us adjust without even thinking about it. My father used to tell us to go and play, and would say “That’s the way you will learn the language”. When we arrived, the weather was great, and we’d be playing rounders and kerby in the street. After two weeks I remember enjoying myself and I ran up the stairs and asked my mum when we were going back? She said, “We’re not!”. And I just ran back out to play. My father never forgot where he came from and always remembered the kindness he was shown by the Scottish people’.
I was proud to know Leonidas, and was honoured to give the oration on the sad occasion of his funeral in 1996. He was persecuted for his political beliefs and he wouldn’t accept the Pinochet regime.
I am also really proud of the people of Craigneuk. It was an amazing community, they opened their doors and their hearts to this family. This is a great example of how open Scotland is to refugees.
I am pleased, too that I’ve been able to keep up contact with Olga and her wider family: she has Scotland in her blood now.
This story is just one of the ways in which ordinary people in Scotland provided practical help to those who were cast into exile by Pinochet. Their support complemented the political campaigning and solidarity action which many Scots took part in.
For example, as Colin Turbett recently wrote in The National, shop stewards at the Rolls-Royce plant in East Kilbride passed a resolution pledging support for the Chilean people - and this wasn’t ‘just’ a resolution.
It had practical effect, as some of the plant’s work involved refurbishing Hawker Hunter engines. In early 1974, a shop steward who was a Second World War veteran and a Christian, Bob Fulton, noticed an engine with Chilean markings, and identified it as having possibly been used in the coup. This and seven other engines were soon the subject of boycott action that lasted until 1978, with four of the engines rusting in the yard outside the plant for much of that period.
Colin has written a book called Aye Venceremos! Scotland and solidarity with Chile in the 1970s – and why it still matters today. It's available for £10 from its publisher, Glasgow’s Calton Books.
Illustration: Olga Calderon (left) and Mary Donnelly. Published September 2023.