Peace Researcher 28 – December 2003
These are the relevant extracts from Murray Horton’s annual Organiser’s Report, presented at the September 2003 Annual General Meeting of the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa – CAFCA.
I am co-employed by the Anti-Bases Campaign, which takes
up less of my time than CAFCA. The busiest part of my ABC work occurred in
January 2003 when ABC held its first Waihopai spybase protest in two years.
We’d taken a break the previous year to organise the national speaking tour by
the former Canadian spy, Mike Frost (see my 2002 Report for details). ABC has been protesting at Waihopai since 1988
and I’d have to rate the 2003 effort as one of the most successful ever. By a
coincidence of timing it happened during the huge global upsurge of protest
against the impending American invasion of Iraq. So, for the first time ever,
we held a specifically anti-war protest, in central Blenheim and at the base
itself, stressing our key point that Waihopai is New Zealand’s biggest and most
important contribution to all of America’s wars. It was phenomenally
successful, drawing out 200+ locals on a march through what is a very
conservative provincial city. We got the front page lead and the billboard in
the local paper, the Marlborough Express,
which went on to describe the march as the biggest in Blenheim since the 1981
Springbok Tour protests.
For the first time ever we had local speakers, both in
town and at the base – I particularly want to single out John Craighead, the
Marlborough District Councillor, who agreed to speak at our Blenheim rally, at
very short notice (we invited him, a total stranger to us, after reading his
earlier comments in the Express) and
he made a major effort to get as many locals as possible out on the street with
us. At even shorter notice, we were joined by Denis Doherty and Hannah
Middleton, the two leading figures of the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign
Coalition, who flew to New Zealand for just a few days, especially to join us
at Waihopai. They both spoke and added a whole international dimension to the
protest (they were amazed that we could get right up to the gate of “our” spybase
– the huge US spybase at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, is surrounded by
kilometres of no-go areas and is guarded by a variety of police and security
forces, who use violence against any protesters. Denis and Hannah were
speechless – so were we actually – when the cops came to our camp as we were
packing up and voluntarily undertook to dispose of our rubbish for us. Maybe
they wanted to search it for vital information). People came from all around
New Zealand to take part. Due to an unfortunate clash, Green MPs weren’t able
to join us. But plenty of flaxroots Greens were there, and the Alliance (which
is now an extra-Parliamentary party) contributed a speaker from Auckland and
plenty of participants. The Blenheim march really was unique – in the subsequent
ferment of the Iraq War, peace groups sprang up in all sorts of provincial
cities and small towns. But not in Blenheim.
My Waihopai work is primarily organisational, handling all aspects
(right down to booking the Portaloos) and ensuring that it happens. In 2003, I
had a much smaller media role than previously. My colleague, Bob Leonard,
was the real hero at Waihopai. He performed so many roles that he could win an
Olympic gold medal in the decathlon. There was his usual starring role as Uncle
Sam, which he throws himself into with ferocious relish; he was a featured
speaker and MC; he did a lot of media interviews (being driven mad in the
process by one of those newfangled cellphones); he was our photographer; and he
was the sole driver of our rental van, up and back, from Christchurch. All
this, the day after he had a tooth pulled in emergency dental surgery and was
told by his dentist to go nowhere and do nothing strenuous over the weekend! I
shared a tent with Bob that weekend and witnessed how he suffered.
My regular ABC work is as editor of Peace Researcher. It used to be a co-editorship but Bob resigned in
2002, after nearly 20 years as editor. So now I’m flying solo. I’ve made some
changes (such as the printer) but otherwise I strive to maintain the high
standard that Bob set. I can only commit to get out two issues a year (a far
cry from PR’s original frequency) and
even that is proving a struggle. It’s a job that involves me doing much more
actual writing than for Foreign Control
Watchdog (the other publication that
I edit). PR is a much smaller
undertaking than Watchdog, with a
smaller mailing list. The two publications used to have different emphases but
there is much more overlap now, what with the Iraq War and the “war on terror”.
As with Watchdog, PR is online and Yani Johanson does an
excellent job as ABC’s Webmaster. Check out www.converge.org.nz/abc. Unlike the CAFCA/Watchdog sites, it has lots of photos.
The first few months of 2003 were the busiest for ABC in
years. Bob presented our submissions to Select Committees on a couple of Bills
(he did it by videolink and phone). These were two more in the package of
repressive security laws being rushed through by the Government in the
hysterical “war on terror” atmosphere that has prevailed since the September
11, 2001, atrocities in the US. I travelled to Wellington and spoke at a
seminar organised by the Pacific Institute of Resource Management (PIRM), which
was a first for ABC. PIRM also invited Bob to write an article for its Pacific Ecologist magazine. In my 2002 Report I said that Bob and I had both
made complaints to the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security about our
well-founded belief that the Government Communications Security Bureau (the NZ
spy agency which runs Waihopai) is spying on us. Bob’s was rejected, in 2002;
mine took nearly a year longer for the Inspector-General to remember where he
put his rubber stamp. I am responsible for our international links, such as
with anti-bases groups, and have been doing plenty of that (as the Bush
Administration forges on, invading countries and building new US bases all over
the place, there is a corresponding global anti-bases movement developing to
oppose it). And I do the ABC’s regular media work, such as it is.
ABC was involved in all the anti-war protests earlier
this year, joining thousands of others on the streets of central Christchurch
and at the US Air Force base at the airport, which had been neglected by the
protest movement for years. Bob was our speaker on several occasions, both in
town and at the base; we made special banners and I wrote a leaflet especially
to distribute to those taking part. It was wonderful to see the rebirth of a
major anti-war movement, both globally and in New Zealand (thanks George,
you’re our best recruiting sergeant), with a whole new generation of young
people organising and energising it. That’s the best thing to have happened in
years.
Balance on 27/03/02 (cheque account) = $2818.89
Balance on 31/03/03
3581.29
Difference 762.40
Murray’s pay $17,743.40
Cash to Murray 200.00
Other cheques 219.50
Total: 18162.90
One-off donations $8,141.00
(44%)
Cash to MH 200.00
Pledges** 10,584.30
(56%)
Interest Nil
________
Total: 18,925.30
Difference between Expenses and Income = $762.40
(change in statement balance above)
** 27 pledgers as of March 2003 with slight increase
to 29 by August
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