TNI in 1976

January

TNI project directors in Washington (Richard Barnet, Marcus Raskin, James Ridgeway, Roberta Salper, Len Rodberg, Orlando Letelier) meet at Saul Landau's house.

Caroline Heikens organises a weekend colloquiem on 'Women in China'.

John Berger opens an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in the Paulus Potterstraat of Ernst Neizvestny and Berger's film on the artist is shown at Dutch television.

16-17 March

Socialism seminar. Topics presented and discussed include the political economy of Vietnam, a comparison between China and the Soviet systems of collectivisation. The Socialism Project is coordinated by John Gittings.

January-March

Eqbal Ahmad lectures at a seminar series in The Hague for government officials and teachers from Third World countries.

12 February

Socialism Seminar with a presentation by Santiago Roca of the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) on 'Self Management in Transitional Societies'.

23-27 February

Fellows' Meeting at TNI, Amsterdam.
The first days of the meeting, fellows meet on the Third World Project.

7-8 March

Planning Board meeting in Washington.
Orlando Letelier, Defence/Foreign Minister in Chile during President Allende's government and ambassador to the US, is appointed director of TNI and begins a major program to promote the New International Economic Order.

Letelier at the TNI Amsterdam office
Photo by David van Dijk

19 March

Socialism Seminar with a presentation by Hugo Radice (University of Sussex) on 'The Political Economy of Hungary'.

9-10 April

Seminar on China. Delia Davin from the University of Leeds gave a lecture. She stayed for more than two years in China.

13-14 April

Teodor Shanin stayed at TNI and gave a lecture on 'Peasant Revolts in Russia in the 1920s' at the Anthropological Sociological Centre.

18 April

Meeting International Women's Archives (IIAV) at TNI.

28 June-2 July

Conference on the 'Political Economy of Health' is held at TNI, organised by Len Rodberg and attended by 40-50 participants.

1 July

Susan Berner is appointed assistant to TNI's Director in Washington.

13 July

Orlando Letelier calls BASKER VASHEE to ask him to take on the position as TNI's resident director in Amsterdam. Basker Vashee, a London School of Economics trained Zimbabwean, accepts to be the resident manager in Amsterdam from August 1. Orlando Letelier continues being the TNI director in Washington.

29 August-3 September

Fellows' Meeting in Amsterdam. Samuel Rubin and Orlando Letelier attend the meeting. Discussion on 'Alternative Soclialist Models' project (to commence July 1977).

10 September

Paresh and Savithri Chattopadhyay leave Amsterdam and move to Canada.

21 September

Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt are assassinated in Washington DC by a car bomb.

The wreckage of the car

25 September

A March is held in The Hague, from the Embassy of the US to the Chilean Embassy. André van der Louw, Mayor of Rotterdam, addresses the audience and delivers a speech.

Meanwhile, a successful IPS/TNI investigation reveals the involvement of the Chilean secret service, DINA, in the assassination. Saul Landau and Ralph Stavins undertake the investigation, which leads to the indictment of Michael Townley and other suspects in 1979.

23 September 1976

The Planning Board awards a fellowship to Philip Agee, from December 1976-June 1977. Agee, former CIA agent, is persona non grata in the UK, where he lived for years and worked on his book "Inside the Company: A CIA Diary". He commits activities which are a threat to the safety and stability of the United Kingdom. Backgrounds and his stay at TNI is described in his later book "On the run". Agee will not arrive in Amsterdam until June 1977.

11-19 September

Exhibition of Miguel Lawner, a Chilean architect and painter, who lives in exile in Denmark. Lawner had been imprisoned together with Letelier in a Chilean prison camp. The exhibition is opened by the vice president of the ruling Dutch Labour Party. The exhibition is visited by 350-400 people. A Dutch broadcasting company (VPRO) makes a documentary film on Orlando Letelier and the Chilean Junta.

26 September

Funeral mass for Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, held at St. Mark's Cathedral, Washington DC. Address by Michael Moffitt

December

TNI Reprints is published: Two Deaths in the Morning by TNI Fellow Saul Landau, originally published in Mother Jones; and In Memoriam: Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt by Michael Moffit, associate IPS fellow, originally published in Monthly Review.

TNI fellow Susan George publishes How the Other Half Dies.

Baraket Selassie from the Eritrean Liberation Front and Fawzi Asmaar from TNI's Third World project meet with interested Dutch public at TNI.

The Dutch newspapers are increasingly contacting and mentioning the Institute in articles. TNI becomes quite well known in the Netherlands. As a result three students offer their voluntary assistance to the institute.