- Murray Horton
(These are the relevant extracts from
Murray’s report to the September 2001 Annual General Meeting of the Campaign
Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa – CAFCA).
I am co-employed by the Anti-Bases Campaign, which usually
takes up less of my time than CAFCA. But not in the past year. ABC work has
kept me very busy. My main contribution is as co-editor of Peace Researcher, which was not part of my job description when I
started as the CAFCA/ABC Organiser, back in 1991. Indeed I did little or no
writing for PR back then. I only
ended up as co-editor when Warren Thomson headed off to Bangkok, in 1997, and
now that he plans to stay there indefinitely, it looks like I’ll be doing it
for a while longer. It’s a job that involves me doing much more actual writing
than for Watchdog, but I enjoy
keeping my hand in on subjects that CAFCA used to, but no longer, specialise
in. But something has to give, and Bob Leonard and I can only commit to get out
two issues a year (a far cry from PR’s
original frequency). PR is a much
smaller undertaking than Watchdog,
with a smaller mailing list, and a different emphasis (although in some areas
we overlap).
ABC has followed CAFCA online, and now has its own Website
(complete with PR online). Melanie
Thomson did all the hard work setting it up, then had to head off to London, on
her Big OE, before getting it uploaded. It sat in suspended animation for
months until Joe Davies kindly (foolishly?) agreed to be ABC’s Webmaster. There
followed an intensive period of feverish work getting it updated and
operational. It has come with more daunting technical challenges than the
CAFCA/Watchdog sites, because it
includes high quality photos, which caused their own problems. But it’s all up
and running now, and is leading to ABC making all sorts of cyberspace contacts
– for example, an article of mine (on the US military in the Philippines) has
been reproduced on a US Website (of self-proclaimed “libertarian Republicans”)
and they, in turn, flicked on to the online English edition of Pravda. That’s a first – in all my years
as a tool of the Kremlin, I’ve never been published in Pravda.
In January 2001 we held another protest at the Waihopai
spybase (which involved me in a lot of work over the summer “holiday” period,
when CAFCA wasn’t meeting). It was planned to be peaceful, non-arrestable, and
something that families could come to. It worked brilliantly on all counts.
People came from around the country and it was attended by two MPs - the
Greens’ Rod Donald and Keith Locke. We ran a Spies’ Picnic (featuring a
vegetarian sausage sizzle) in central Blenheim, and got a respectable number of
Blenheim locals along. In a stroke of genius, local activists made us a
“Waihopai cake” (featuring a pair of truly mammarian domes, which we took great
delight in eating). We issued everybody with our specially printed
“Undemocratic Republic of UKUSA” passports, which were inspected by Uncle Sam
(Bob Leonard, in his annual Oscar-worthy performance – he went to the trouble
of getting a costume especially made this year) before they were allowed to
enter the foreign territory of the base. We were legally allowed up to the
spybase’s inner gate to speak and present our demand that the base be closed
(and that Uncle Sam go back to Texas – our presence at Waihopai coincided with
Bush’s Inauguration). It got excellent national media coverage – TV crews flew
in, it featured prominently on that night’s TVNZ One News; plus there was extensive coverage on radio and in the
print media (the Marlborough Express
really covers this issue). After
years of camping out by the Wairau River (which emphasised our status as
outsiders), a Waihopai Valley farmer has happily let us camp on his land – a
very short walk from the base – for the past two years.
Organising The Mike Frost Tour
But my real ABC work has been elsewhere. I reported to last
year’s AGM that we were hoping to bring out a former spy on a national speaking
tour, subject to finance. Well that’s on, it’s been one of my major projects
for the past year (18 months since it was first proposed), and is due to take
place in October. Mike Frost, who spent 34 years as a Canadian spy, and is now
a writer and speaker, will be ABC’s guest for two weeks, speaking at nine
venues from Christchurch to Whangarei. We set ourselves a $5,000 budget, raised
it easily, then got another $2,000 from one of the Government–appointed
committees which distribute the Rainbow
Warrior blood money. We’ve strung together a network of local organisers
and activists, publicised it widely, and attracted great interest from the
media (both Radio New Zealand’s Kim Hill
and TVNZ’s 60 Minutes had booked
interviews before I’d even aproached the media. Neither ABC nor CAFCA have
attracted their attention before). This is the first time ABC has done this - a
previous overseas expert was coming here already on a private holiday, in the
late 1990s and we piggybacked on that - but I’ve organised national speaking
tours before (and accompanied the speakers, which I’m not doing with Frost), so
I knew what I was letting myself in for. It is an extremely labour intensive
job, dealing with anything from trying to arrange meetings with the Deputy
Prime Minister to advising Frost on whether he can get an adaptor here for his
wife’s North American hairdryer. It hasn’t all been plain sailing – we have
encountered perfectly understandable opposition from some of our closest
colleagues on the political morality of paying for former spies to come here.
And we’ve had differences with Frost himself, primarily caused by him not being
“one of us”.
Organising a speaking tour by a North American ex-spy brings
back many mixed memories for me. Back in the mid 1980s, before ABC existed,
when CAFCA was still CAFCINZ and it specialised in Intelligence matters, I
spent three years negotiating with Philip Agee, the famous former US Central
Intelligence Agency spy turned author and political activist, to tour NZ and
Australia. I’ve got a pile of letters as a souvenir (the way things were
organised before e-mail, faxes and cheap international calls; it amazes me when
I look back on it now). Agee finally
rang me (on my birthday!) to cancel and that left a bitter taste all
round. So far we’re doing a lot better
with Mike Frost.
See Bob Leonard’s report on the Mike Frost tour elsewhere in
this issue. Neither the 60 Minutes
interview nor the meeting with Deputy PM Jim Anderton happened in the end. MH.
The Waihopai protest and the Frost tour organisation have accounted
for nearly all of my ABC work in the past year. But we’ve also made submissions
on a couple of spy agency Bills; we’ve held a public meeting on one, and
picketed the local office of the Security Intelligence Service (which got good
media coverage). Plus there’s been ongoing ABC media work, and international
networking, from Australia to Britain and Japan.
But ABC is struggling to maintain a committee – we lost
Warren Thomson (permanently, it now seems), in 1997; in the past year, we have
lost his daughter, Melanie, who is teaching in London for two years, and Greg
Jones, who felt a strong and immediate need to get a life. On the other hand we
have picked up Robyn Dann (and her five year old whirling Dervish, Aleks) as a
direct result of our active campaigning. Robyn has done the unthinkable and
volunteered to be treasurer. After the Frost tour, we will hold our first
strategy meeting for 18 months and consider our future. I am confident that
both ABC and Peace Researcher will
continue. At least there’s no Waihopai demo planned for this summer, which
means that I can actually have a break over Christmas…..
The CAFCA/ABC Organiser Account, which provides my income,
is independent of both CAFCA and the Anti-Bases Campaign. It too has fallen
somewhat but not so much as to be a major problem. Ironically, one factor has
been this Government’s reinstating the annual increase in the minimum wage. The
number of pledgers is holding relatively steady – some leave, others join – but
it is the donations that are vital. For
a decade now I have relied on the generosity of members and supporters – it has
not failed me yet. Individuals and organisations continue to send donations of
hundreds of dollars at a time – it is very humbling to receive such constant
and concrete manifestations of support…
This has been a year of personal milestones. I turned 50,
and had a bloody good party to celebrate it. Becky and I have just celebrated
our tenth wedding anniversary. On the other hand, I’ve just been prescribed
(reading) glasses for the first time in my life, so old age and infirmity is
catching up with me. I’m acutely aware of the fact that we haven’t had any sort
of break away for 18 months, and that 1998 was the last time we had a holiday
of more than a week. Being self-employed and working from home is an attractive
lifestyle but getting away from work and the workplace (your own home) is a
problem.
I have been the Organiser for nearly ten years now, which is
an extremely long time for a job funded entirely by the regular pledges and
donations of CAFCA and ABC members and supporters. It is remarkable and I
didn’t envisage it holding out this long when I embarked on it as a 40 year old
redundant Railways labourer, back in 1991. Once again, I take the opportunity
to thank you for your generosity. The Organiser Account has dropped to a
regular $3,500 - $5,000 but is still healthy and viable. My pay is $308 per
week gross, which is the minimum wage. Some pledgers have left; others have
joined, we can always do with more. This continuing financial support is a most
gratifying vote of confidence in the work that we, and I, do. I particularly
thank all the donors (some who have given thousands of dollars over the years),
because it is the donations which make a vital difference. And I must give
hearty thanks to my wife Becky, because if it wasn’t for the fact that she’s
had a real job for eight years none of this would be possible.
CAFCA/ABC ORGANISER ACCOUNT 2000/01
|
Balance on 31/3/00 |
$5,978.01 |
|
Balance on 31/3/01 |
$4,440.21 |
|
|
-$1,537.80 |
EXPENSES INCOME
|
Murray’s
pay |
$15,714.90 |
One off
donations |
$ 5,156 (36%) |
|
Other
cheques |
$ 172.90 |
Pledges* |
$ 9,147 (64%) |
|
|
$15,887.80 |
Interest |
$ 47 |
|
|
|
|
$14,350 |
Deficit: Expenses over income =
$1,537.80
There were
26 pledgers, as of March 2001.
---------------------------------