Alan Angell’s Activism and Scholarship in the Context of the UK’s Response to the Pinochet Dictatorship

This chapter places Alan Angell’s scholarship and activism in the context of the UK response to the Pinochet regime in the 1970–80s. Leveraging Nash’s cultural politics of human rights framework, it characterises British Conservative governments’ foreign policy as an example of ‘(inter)nationalism’ and argues that the periods’ Labour governments engaged in ‘cosmopolitan nationalism’. Whereas the latter did express concern for human rights abuses in Chile, their overall response was reactive and minimalistic in a bid to preserve the UK’s commercial standing. However, the little UK governments did do to support Chilean coup victims was thanks to pressure from a powerful grassroots campaign mounted by solidarity and human rights activists. The Chile Solidarity Campaign, which led the former, grew considerably thanks to union affiliates who identified with their Chilean counterparts. Academics for Chile, co-founded by Alan Angell in October 1973, is a shining example of an organisation led by the latter. Together with the World University Service, Academics for Chile saved lives, promoted human rights, subverted the Junta’s use of forced exile and contributed to the development of robust alternatives to the Pinochet regime.