TNI in 1983

Hanneke van Eldik Thieme responsable for PR work and assists J.J. Teunissen and Ann Koch on the Nicaraguan Loan project. Martha McDevitt returns to TNI for two months to assist Basker Vashee and Fred Halliday with the organisation of the March 'Eastern Europe' Conference.

14 January

Second Samuel Rubin Seminar on Democracy and Revolution: 'Democracy: The Soviet Model' with Fred Halliday and Jonathan Steele (the Guardian). Held at the Populier.

15 January

Meeting at the Populier with Hossein Bagherzadeh of the Iranian National Council of Resistance (representative from Paris), Fred Halliday and Gianni Noordijk of Amnesty International. Meeting is organised by Kenneth Barr.

21 January

Conference on women and sexual ideology at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam. Paper presented by Wendy Chapkis on 'Images of Third World Women in the Media'.

22 January

Thabo Mbeki visits TNI to discuss TNI's work on South Africa.

23 January

Lecture by Basker Vashee on Southern Africa for Dutch development workers departing for Zimbabwe.

29 January

Meeting on opposition movements in Iran is held at TNI.

9-11 February

Visit to TNI by Lord Chitnis (British House of Lords). He spoke to the Dutch international relations committee of the 'tweede kamer' Parliament on the necessity of Western European support for Nicaragua. His talk was well received by Labour, Christian Democrats and Conservative Party (report and interview in 'De Volkskrant'). Visit organised by Anne Koch.

16 February

Lecture by Basker Vashee on Zimbabwe to UN personnel.

17 February

Third Samuel Rubin seminar on Democracy and Revolution: 'The social-democratic model' with Tilman Evers, a German political scientist and Maarten van Traa, international Secretary of the Dutch Labour Party.

2 March

Follow up visit to the TNI by Thabo Mbeki to discuss the new TNI project on South Africa.

3 March

Seminar on 'Women in the Military' led by Wendy Chapkis at IPS in Washington.

4 March

Samuel Rubin Seminar on 'Democracy in the Family' with Maxine Molineux (Feminist Review) and Elizabeth Wilson (Women and the Welfare State).

5 March

Closed seminar on the Economic Crises and the Women's Movement with Maxine Molineux, Elizabeth Wilson, Juliet Blair and Rhoda Reddock.

11-13 March

TIE meeting on the production and use of pesticides and fertilizers. Participants include farmers, researchers, activists and workers from BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, Massey-Ferguson, Montedison, UKF and Rhone-Poulenc. Speakers include Pierre Spitz (UNRISD), Chris Kaufman (Agricultural Workers Union, UK) and Susan George.

14 April

Final Samuel Rubin Seminar on 'Democracy in the Workplace' with Mike Cooley (Lucas conversion project) and Mike Davis (New Left Review).

2-5 June

TNI Fellows' Meeting on "Multinationals and International Finance" (with John Cavanagh, Jeroen Peijnenburg, Mike Press, Martha McDevitt, Mike Rossiter, Susan George, Jan Joost Teunissen, Eqbal Ahmad and Pedro Vilanova), "Third World Projects" (with Isabel Letelier, Jill Gay, Anne Koch, Basker Vashee, Hanneke van Eldik Thieme, Hazel Waters, Anthony Barnett, Fred Halliday, Wendy Chapkis, Mary Wings and Ken Barr) and "Militarism and Disarmament" (with Mary Kaldor, Carmen Claudin, Pedro Vilanova, Bob Borosage, John Berger, Diana de Vegh, Basker Vashee). On Friday the 3rd, there is a "Friends of the Institute Fundraiser" (informal reception at the TNI office), and on the 4th Saul Landau's video "Target Nicaragua. Inside a Covert War" is screened.

20 September

7th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Memorial, Washington DC. (Award goes to Father J. Bryan Hehir and the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) of Argentina). Proceedings were published with contributions from Gar Aplerovitz (poem), Peter Weiss, Coretta Scott King, Isabel Letelier, Emilio Mignone, Marcus Raskin and Father J. Bryan.

23 September

Invited by TNI on the occasion of the Letelier-Moffitt Memorial, Joan Jara speaks at the Balie on cultural repression in Chile. Simultaneously her book "Victor" is launched and promoted.

30 October

Discussion evening (held at 'de Populier') on 'Pakistan - The struggle for democracy' with contributions by Tariq Ali, Shalid Mehmud Nadeen (Amnesty International UK and former trade union activist in Pakistan) and Y. Tanvir Gondal (editorial board of 'Struggle').

18 - 20 November

Conference on 'De-alignement for Western Europe'

26 November

The South African Educational Project is launched at TNI at a reception. The public is addressed by T. Nkobi, Treasurer General and Executive Member of the African National Congress of South Africa (ANC).

1983 -84

Annual Report TNI 1983 - 84