Thursday 25 July 2013

Interview by Ystads Allehanda on my 70th birthday

As for today, 25 of July: Between December 2010 and July 2013 I have authored/published 200 analyses and articles devoted to the cause of justice for WikiLeaks, whistleblowing for democracy and Human Rights for Julian Assange

Journalist Nina Lind:

"The punishment was expatriation. Marcello Ferrada de Noli would never again return to his homeland, and he to never talk about what he had experienced during Pinochet. However, the first thing he did when he came to freedom in Italy was to tell everything (at the Russel Tribunal in Rome, 1974). Maybe that is why he feels so strongly about other whistleblowers."

“Becoming seventy years old it does not mean he stops - instead he nominates Julian Assange and Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Some days ago I was interviewed by Nina Lind from the Swedish Newspaper Ystad Allehanda. The interview was published today, on my 70th birthday. The original texts in Swedish in the image down bellow, under the English text. The translations to English were proofread by @Treisiroon. A separate interview made by Ystad Allehanda (journalist Urban Nilmander) on the rationale for the nominations of Julian Assange et. al. , was published by the newspaper on the 19 July 2013. Here below I post some pictures related to the struggles we conducted in early years.
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1957

miguel-enriquez-marcello-ferrada-noli
Left-liberal best friends at 13 years old, the late medical dr. Miguel Enríquez (who with the years, developed to Marxist philosophy and pol. Leninism) and Marcello Ferrada-Noli (developed in left-libertarian  philosophy & Marxist-Humanism, and pol. social-liberalism), participated in the street demonstrations & barricades in Concepción during the April-1957 General Strike against the government of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo
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1961

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friends-bautista-van-schouwen-marcello-ferrada-noli-and-miguel-enricc81quez-three-young-founders-of-the-revolutionary-left-movement-chile-here-in-santiago-feb-1962
The late medical dr. Bautista Van Schouwen (assassinated by Pinochet's Security Forces DINA), M. Ferrada-Noli (survivor of Pinochet's Prisoners Camp), and Miguel Enríquez  (died in combat against Pinochet's military): Founders of MIR in 1965; here four years earlier in Santiago de Chile.
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1962

young socialists - 1962
Member of the leadership (Cultural Secretary) in the Socialist Party Youth organization in Concepción. Diario El Sur, 4 Oct 1962. Thereafter, as head of the 'Nucleo Espartaco', I invited friends Miguel Enríquez and Bautista Van Schouwen to enter the Socialist Youth, organization that we left in February 1964. In October 1965 we founded MIR together with cadres from Santiago, but mainly with students from the University of Concepción.
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1965

Bautista Van Schowen & Marcello Ferrada-Noli 1965
Bautista Van Schouwen (up left) and Ferrada-Noli, at the times we founded MIR together with other cadres, in August 1965
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1966

arrested in 1966
In the clip above, under sub-heading "Carabineers turn him over to the (Political) Investigation Bureu": "Apparently he is not carrying firearms. A Carabineers corporal searches Ferrada thoroughly" "Marcelo has experiences of situations like this one. On the 20 December 1966 he was arrested due to offensive incidents he enacted against the Police forces, during the general strike of the (Chilean) Health Workers Union". Diario Noticias de la Tarde, August 1969, reporting my arresting by the Carabineers, in the moments they turned me over to the Political Police (La Policía Política, Servicio de Investigaciones) for a one night and a half day torture. It was a Friday evening and they gave up on Saturday afternoon, but kept me arrested in the headquarters of the Political Investigations Bureau in Carrera Street. On Monday morning, Judge Broghammer ordered my solitary confinement in a cell of the Public Prison, at 70 Chacabuco Street in Concepción.  See below, "1969 - Frei's christian democratic government bans MIR and publish a national arresting-warrant against  13 MIR leaders"
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1967

With dear friend Miguel Enríquez E. (perished in combat 1975), relaxing at the Bío-Bío river delta, near Concepción

 

1968-1969

4 agosto 1969 El Mercurio close-up
MIR goes underground after government's ban declaring our organization "subversive against the interests of the state". Thirteen MIR leaders are warranted. I am finally captured in La Florida, August 1969. The clip is from a "History" of MIR done by pro-Pinochet newspaper El Mercurio (leading Chile's paper), Santiago, published 25/8 1973, just some weeks before the coup
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Arrested 1969 in ''strict solitary confinment''
 Christian Democratic govt of President Eduardo Frei. Judge orders "strict isolation confinement" ("en calidad de estrictamente incomunicado") of Ferrada, for "suspected participation in subversive activities of MIR"
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1970-71

In exile in Norway and England. Returning to Chile after the democratic elected socialist President Allende granted amnesty to MIR
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1972

Teoria y Metodo
Invited Professor at the Undersidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, I publish in Mexico Teoría y Método de la Concientización  ["Theory and Method in Developing Social-Awareness"]. It was meant as an intellectual tool for The Revolution. . .
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1973

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m-ferrada-noli-among-extremists-attacking-the-military-with-firearms

Pro-Pinochet Newspaper La Tercera 6/10 1973: "Extremists" arrested in Quiriquina Island "for attacking the military forces with firearms" (Red arrow indicating M Ferrada-Noli)
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Ferrada de Noli prisoner in Quriquina Island-1At Pinochet's Prisoner Camp in Quiriquina Island 1973
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1977

Marcello-1977

Head of MIR's  Counter-Intelligence Unit (Scandinavian countries) fighting against Operation Condor in Northern Europe. Last operative assignment in MIR, before leaving the organization when MIR went into an opposition alliance together with the Communist Party (pro URSS) and the Christian Democratic Party

1977 - afterwards

Amnesty poster
I started to paint again, for the Resistance in Chile. This above is a ban (poster) done by Amnesty International in base of one piece ("The Waiting - for the desaparecido") showed at my personal art-exhibition at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, 1977 (organized by Amnesty). Amnesty also printed thousands of post cards with the image above, which were send (mailed) by Swedes to Pinochet, with this only question printed in the postcard, "Where are the desaparecidos"?
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1979

Ex Minister Educ Edgardo Enríquez Frödden & Marcello Ferrada-Noli in Oxford 1979
Also during my second exile, here visiting Prof. Dr. Edgardo Enríquez, in Oxford U.K.  He has been Rector of the University of Concepción and Minister of Education in the Allende government. He survived imprisonment at Pinochet's Rawson Island Prisoners Camp, but left with precarious health. He was my academic mentor but also for me as a second father, since childhood. He is the father of Miguel Enríquez, my best friend in youth. Don Edgardo Enríquez Frödden lost two of his children, one killed in combat (Miguel) and the other died in  captivity under Operation Condor (Edgardo). Later in Sweden, I dedicated my doctoral thesis to both my dear father and Don Edgardo Enríquez Frödden. See below Year 1996.

1998

ferrada-noli-vs-pinochet
In exile: Trying to bring Pinochet to justice, Norway and Sweden, 2008
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2008

marcello ferrada de noli FRA-lagen demonstration
Professors blogg active in the campaign against "FRA_lagen", the Surveillance-legislation requested by the U.S: to the Swedish Government (C Bildt, etc.). Above, in the massive anti FRA-lagen demonstration in Stockholm
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2010

1st profeblg on justice 4 JA
My first article on the cause of justice for Mr Julian Assange
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2012

Prof. Ferrada de Noli interviewed by RTTwo exclusive interviews with RT gave three videos, one of them also aired in Spanish.
Prof. Ferrada de Noli- Whistleblowing a 'lifeboat' for democracyMy thesis: Whistleblowing a "safe-boat for democracy"
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Ferrada de Noli - protest at the SC
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2013

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Today, at my 70th birthday:

Between December 2010 and July 2013 I have authored/published 200 analyses and articles devoted to the cause of justice for WikiLeaks, whistleblowing for democracy and Human Rights for Julian Assange

HR 4 JA


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Goodbye!

Marcello Ferrada de Noli_YA-Interview_cover-page
Ystads Allehanda, 25 July 2013: "Professor burns for democracy and for painting"

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The Ystads Allehanda interview of 25/7 2013

Marcello Ferrada de Noli has lived in prisoner barracks in Chile, in stone houses in Italy and in a villa from the 1970s in Stora Herrestad (literally, “Lordship’s  grand estate ”). Wherever he moves follow with him the political struggle. Becoming seventy years old it does not mean he stops - instead he nominates Julian Assange and Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Interviewing Marcello Ferrada de Noli for his seventieth birthday is not easy. He rarely sits still for longer than ten minutes. He does not stick to a single language during the conversation. He's also not particularly interested in talking about himself.

- Everything about my life is in an article on a Wikipedia page, he says.

But Wikipedia has not just one, but three pages about Marcello. There 
one can read, among other things, that he was born in Chile to an Italian family, that he has had a career in American and Swedish universities, and that he has been imprisoned during the Pinochet regime.

Only by asking him personally, does one learn that he has a house in Stora Herrestad, in the outskirts of Ystad, one in the Swedish High Coast and one in Italy. And after he has counted on his fingers, he is able to reveal he has six children.

In a neat suit and bow tie, round glasses, and sporting a hat, he asks of the ladies present if they would allow him to retain his hat while seated at the table (we seat out in the garden). He looks precisely like the multifaceted professor he is.

It is from the upper floor of the villa in Stora Herrestad where he carries out his activities. There he has his desk with two computers, from which he publishes his tweets and blogs. On the desk I spy an extra pair of the characteristic round glasses. There in the upper floor are also his atelier-easels. He preferably paints portraits of beautiful women.

On his website Marcello Ferrada de Noli has uploaded the pictures he has painted. One of the first is a portrait of a man with whom he shared barracks at the Chilean Navy's prison camp in the 1970s [portrait recently published here]. He was imprisoned there for taking part in the creation of MIR (movement of the Revolutionary Left) and the struggle against Pinochet when he took power in Chile in 1973.

The MIR was prepared for the coup that was coming. They had a plan and Marcello Ferrada de Noli knew the exact position waiting for him. He had received military training in Cuba, and met Che Guevara.

-“The only question was whether one would dare to stand up. And so I did”, he says.

Marcello Ferrada de Noli then went into the armed resistance, but was arrested one night on his way to his hiding place.  He views captivity, as just a part of the solidarity struggle.

That was something we had to put up with. Other (non-militant) prisoners suffered, but we struggled for our MIR and therefore it was easier, he says.

Marcello Ferrada de Noli had his political awakening early. He was twelve years old, and wanted to rebel against the Catholic conservatism that characterized his upbringing. He became liberal, and soon, left-liberal. But his conservative past continued to follow him. It was that background that would permit him to be released from Pinochet’s prisoner camps. His family belonged to the power elite in Chile, and could see that he made it alive out from there.

-“This is hard to talk about. But they saved me. My mother's sister was married to a general and my brother was a judge during Pinochet. My aunt’s residence was even one of Pinochet’s secret safe houses.”

The punishment was expatriation. Marcello Ferrada de Noli would never again return to his homeland, and he to never talk about what he had experienced during Pinochet. However, the first thing he did when he came to freedom in Italy was to tell everything (at the Russel Tribunal in Rome, 1974). Maybe that is why he feels so strongly about other whistleblowers.

On the ground floor of the villa, on a bookshelf, there is a photograph of Marcello and Julian Assange. Last week Ystad Allehanda reported that Marcello Ferrada de Noli, in his role as professor, nominated Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize. According to him, they struggle for democracy, and they should be honoured rather than persecuted.

In the middle of a sentence in Swedish, Marcello Ferrada the Noli begins to speak English. Two minutes later, he quotes long passages (of a German philosopher) in Italian.

But, a question about what it is that drives his political struggle, what it is that makes him to cope and endure these struggles over many decades, renders him silent for the first time in over an hour. He simply never thought about it. The closest he gets to an answer, is that he has a political conviction that people must fight politically.

- “Maybe that is because I'm a liberal. We cannot expect that others shall lead us; we must create our environment ourselves. If one loves a country, as I love Sweden, it means that one has fight for it.”

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Marcello Ferrada de Noli 70th birthday

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