TNI in 1974

22-24 February

TNI's FIRST CONFERENCE "The Lessons from Chile". Around 50 people participate. The conference received a lot of media coverage. Through the conference the institute played a significant part in formulating the political response to the fascist coup d'etat, and established itself as a serious presence among radicals in Europe. Participants include Jacques Chonchol, former Minister of Agriculture under Allende; David Baytelman, former head of the land reform programme; Claude Bourdet of Combat and Le Nouvel Observateur; Ralph Miliband of the University of Leeds; André Gunder Frank from the Free University of Berlin; Herbert Marcuse; Johan Galtung of the Institute of Conflict and Peace Research Oslo; as well as former US senator Eugene McCarthy.

Links:

• Pictures and list of participants
• The Lessons of Chile, edited by John Gittings, is the first official TNI publication. It contains several papers of the Chile conference, held 22-24 February, in Amsterdam, e.g.
• Richard Barnet's The Kissinger Doctrine and Chile.
• The conference itself attracted a lot of attention in the international as well as the national media, e.g. NRC Handelsblad.

May-June

TNI conference on 'Imperialism and the Energy Crisis'.

The report 'The Role of the Trade Unions in the Fight Against Apartheid', written by Pim Juffermans, a Fellow of TNI and Associate of the Anti-Apartheids Beweging Nederland (AABN), is submitted to the Special Committee on Apartheid for consideration at its special session in Europe in May-June.

SOMO (Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen; a research foundation investigating multinational corporations) moves in at the ground floor of the TNI building.

Fall

Publication of "Courtaulds Inside Out", a joint report by SOMO, TNI and CIS (Counter Information Services, London). In the series of 'Anti-reports', this one has a great impact and receives wide and favourable media coverage. CIS, an affiliate of TNI, is a collective of journalists who publish information not covered by the established media.

September

TNI/IPS start the publication of "The Elements", a monthly magazine. Jim Ridgeway at IPS is the editor. The magazine inquires into mineral fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas, other hard and soft commodities, and some aspects of agriculture. The hope is to break the information monopoly on natural resources and to disseminate news and information, up to now primarily available only in expensive publications sold to members of a specific industry.

5-16 November

TNI attends the FAO's World Food Conference in Rome. A team of TNI has in preparation for the event produced a remarkably successful 'Anti-report': WORLD HUNGER: CAUSES AND REMEDIES. This team includes Susan George, Joseph Collins, David Beytelman, Jacques Chonchol, Silvio Almeida, Liszt Aragon Vieira and Jean Marc von der Weid. TNI has official status and a chamber in the Conference Building to meet with the delegates. 500 copies are distributed. This report, the first independent publication of TNI, was presented at a press conference. The report receives a good press coverage all around the world and is subject of a major television documentary in the USA.

21-24 November

Pan European Conference on 'Migrant Workers', A. Sivanandan, IRR's director and TNI fellow co-organises the event in Wageningen, the Netherlands. It is the first conference of migrant workers ever held in Europe.

29-30 November

Rhodesia Sanctions seminar, co-organised with AABN (Dutch Anti-Apartheid Movement). The seminar is held at the University of Amsterdam.

In addition to SOMO and CIS, TNI also forms an association with the London-based Institute for Race Relations. The IRR's director, A. Sivanandan, becomes a fellow of TNI and TNI becomes a co-sponsor for the IRR's publication, the quarterly Race & Class.