Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
First we marched for Chile. Now it’s Palestine
LINDA PENTZ GUNTER recalls the anger and heartbreak over the 1973 coup in Chile, with its torture and massacres, which we now relive with the horrors carried out by Israel in Gaza – and also through our solidarity
Rosa Soto, sister of Enrique Soto who went missing after being detained during the Pinochet dictatorship, attends a ceremony in Villa Baviera, September 7 2024

THE first time I marched through London to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza last January, along with half a million people, I found myself walking beneath the banner of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

It felt like a strange, if rather unwelcome, homecoming. Fifty-one years ago I joined the Chile Solidarity Campaign during my first weeks at university.

On September 11 of that year, 1973, a US-orchestrated military coup ousted Chile’s democratically elected socialist government and its popular president, Salvador Allende, who died during the attack on the presidential palace.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
The main buildings of Shifa Hospital lie in ruins after Israeli air and ground offensives, with the hospital administration estimating that 70% of the facility has been destroyed, in Gaza City, July 4, 2025
Features / 16 July 2025
16 July 2025

Funds are being raised to bring the bombed al-Shifa hospital back from the ashes, reports Linda Pentz Gunter

Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a rally at the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council headquarters in New York, Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Politics / 14 July 2025
14 July 2025

From Labour’s panic over the Corbyn-Sultana formation to Democratic Party grandees distancing themselves from Zohran Mamdani, centrist cliques on both sides of the Atlantic are quick to throw the same old insult, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Blue Room of the White House, July 7, 2025, in Washington
Features / 9 July 2025
9 July 2025

Trump’s cruel Bill will deprive millions of essential medical support while escalating deportations and rewarding the super-rich, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

Previously unissued photo dated 28/6/2025 of Bob Vylan crowd surfs during his performance on the West Holts Stage, during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset. The performer led crowds on the festival's West Holts Stage in chants of
Media / 2 July 2025
2 July 2025

Despite declining to show Kneecap’s set, the BBC broadcast Bob Vylan leading a ‘death to the IDF’ chant — and the resulting outrage has only amplified the very message the Establishment wanted silenced, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

Similar stories
chile
Books / 16 May 2025
16 May 2025

RON JACOBS welcomes an investigation of the murders of US leftist activists that tells the story of a solidarity movement in Chile

One of the many protesters against former Chilean dictator,
Features / 15 September 2024
15 September 2024
Chilean resistance activist SERGIO VASQUEZ addressed a gathering unveiling a plaque in the city of Sheffield marking the 51st anniversary of the 1973 fascist coup in Chile on Saturday — we reprint his powerful speech here
Gaby Rivera, president of the Relatives of Detainees and Mis
World / 12 September 2024
12 September 2024
Club Palestino soccer team fans celebrate their second goal
Men's Football / 9 September 2024
9 September 2024
NAYARA BATSCHKE writes on the history of the famous Chilean club and its fans’ solidarity with the Palestinians