London Branch 19th February, 7.30pm

Apple Tree Pub
45 Mount Pleasant WC1
(Chancery Lane or Farringdon)

Viewing of the documentary: 'Memory of the Silenced: The Red Dance'

Plus: Discussion on the recovery of political "memory" in the conflict in
Colombia.

One of the most effective political tools used in conflict is the control ofwhat people remember (as a way to legitimate actions of war). In Colombia,the disinformation of the mass media has accompanied the manipulation of memory and the production of "forgetting", promoted by officialdom.

But, at the same time there are people who take responsibility for recovering the memories of their families, leaders and organizations, that the History books and news bulletins don't usually recount.

From this perspective, the origins of the armed conflict, its development and the possibilities of a political settlement are understood differently from the versions given by mass media and the government.

A look at the works of collective memory reconstruction in the conflict Memory of the Silenced: The Red Dance is a Colombian documentary that records the murder of more than 3,000 members and sympathizers of the Patriotic Union (UP). The UP was a legal political organisation formed in 1984 after the signing of a peace treaty between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Government of Belisario Betancourt.

As a result, in 1987, the guerrillas of the FARC reneged on the demobilization, and many of them returned to armed struggle.