Peace Researcher 34 – July 2007
As I reported in detail, in Peace Researcher 32, the Anti-Bases Campaign’s January 2006 protest at the Waihopai spybase was a one off, because it came just a couple of months after the totally unexpected 2005 death of Rod Donald, Green Co-Leader, ABC stalwart and veteran Waihopai activist, at the tragically young age of 48. That weekend’s activities became a major celebration of Rod’s life, with the Green Party heavily involved and a much bigger attendance than usual (March 2006; “Waihopai 2006: Longrunning Campaign Gets Second Wind”, by Murray Horton, which can be read online at http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr32-129.html . My obituary of Rod is in that same issue of PR and can be read online at http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr32-121a.html ). One of the subheadings said it all: “The Rod Factor Brought Them Out In Droves This Year”.
We knew that the next Waihopai protest would be, not an anti-climax, but much more back to normal. That proved to be the case, when we went back to Blenheim and Waihopai in January 2007. But don’t get the wrong impression – Waihopai 07 had some quite unique features and was a very successful exercise, once again (for a tiny little Christchurch-based group ABC punches far above its weight on Waihopai and has an impressive strike record for innovation and for keeping the top secret spybase, and the much bigger and just as secret context in which it operates, very much in the public eye).
Ever since the start of the “War On Terror” and then the war
on Iraq ABC’s theme for our Waihopai protests has been an anti-war one,
stressing the fact that this spybase constitutes NZ’s single most important
contribution to each and every American war. But we decided to highlight the
fact that 2007 marks 20 years since Waihopai was first announced, by the Lange
Labour government (which initially peddled the myth that it gave NZ its own
independent electronic intelligence-gathering capacity, whereas, in fact, it is
an American spybase in all but name). For years we have stressed the human cost
of that to which Waihopai makes us an accomplice – namely the seemingly endless
wars being waged by the
Half A Billion
Dollars
For this 20th anniversary (the first ABC protest at Waihopai was not actually until 1988) we decided to investigate and highlight what Waihopai costs in good old monetary terms. Rod is no longer with us, more’s the pity, but “is Waihopai value for money?” was always one of his favourite themes, in his speeches both about and at the base. So he would have been delighted that we decided to pick up his call. Appropriately enough, we asked the Green Party’s research team if they could find out for us. Green MP Keith Locke has been coming to Waihopai protests ever since he entered Parliament (at the 1999 election) and he has regularly asked the Government for the cost of Waihopai. He has always been met with a blank refusal from Helen Clark, Minister in Charge of the Government Communications Security Bureau, which runs Waihopai (the Prime Minister is always the Minister in Charge of the GCSB and the Security Intelligence Service). So, we can’t tell you what Waihopai costs. But the Greens’ researchers were able to get some, very incomplete, figures from the Parliamentary Library listing the GCSB’s total expenditure for some of those 20 years (there are no figures for 1987-91 inclusive and likewise for 1999-2001 inclusive). The first available year was 1992, when the GCSB spent $19+ million of taxpayers’ money; and the most recent figure was for 2005, when it spent just under $39 million. That jumped up to a budgeted $42 million for 2006 but the 2007 Budget reduced it back to $39 million for the current financial year.
When you factor in the years for which we can’t find any figures (but for which we can make an educated guess), and look at the cumulative total over those 20 years, you’re talking serious money. It is our educated guess that the GCSB (not just Waihopai, note) has cost the NZ public a cool half a billion dollars in those two decades. We decided to dramatise this as a central prop of the protest and, thanks entirely to Christchurch graphic designer, Ian Dalziel who sweated blood over it, we headed our Blenheim and Waihopai marches and rallies with a giant cheque, issued by “The People’s Bank of Aotearoa”, made payable to George W. Bush for $500 million dollars for “Support for the American War Machine”, and signed “The New Zealand Taxpayer”. It was a brilliant, eyecatching piece of political art, which the media latched onto at every opportunity (it’s very easy to understand, even the braying chorus of Rightwingers demanding tax cuts can get it). Originally we wanted to present it to “George Bush” but we were completely unable to source a Bush mask in NZ, and our resident American, Bob Leonard, was equally unsuccessful in his homeland. They’re apparently in hot demand over there for anti-war marches. So we had to settle on presenting it to Uncle Sam (who bears a striking resemblance to Bob and who always turns up at every Waihopai protest to tell us how misguided we are and, furthermore, to “bugger off” – advice we’ve never yet taken). The cheque was intended as a oncer but we could always update the date and the amount (and the recipient) to keep hammering the point. And we backed it up with a banner (done by Robyn Dann, the ABC committee’s chief banner maker) reading “Waihopai Spybase. A Criminal Waste Of $500 Million”.
Thanks Phantom And
Dazzler!
Mention of the estimable Ian Dalziel brings me to another unique feature of Waihopai 07. As detailed in my 2006 Organiser’s Report in Peace Researcher 33 (November 2006, which can be read online at http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr33-133a.html ), ABC’s excellent Waihopai display spent a fortnight in a Takaka café in October, hosted by the Golden Bay Greens (one of many venues that hosted it during 2005/06, see elsewhere in this issue for its adventures thus far in 07). That led to us being very enthusiastically approached by Takaka resident Jim Wilson who introduced himself as the founder and still owner of Christchurch-based national billboard company Phantom Billstickers. He made us an offer we couldn’t refuse – in return for including the Phantom logo on our poster, and acknowledging Phantom’s help in our newsletter (which we’re happy to do, right here), we could have 200 of our Waihopai posters displayed free of charge on Phantom’s central city bollards, distributed equally between Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch (in the end, Phantom extended that free offer to 400 posters).
Only problem was that we didn’t actually have a Waihopai poster, and one of the reasons why we had only ever sporadically used posters (as opposed to flyers) in our 20 year campaign was precisely because of no guaranteed places to display them, resulting in the hassles involved in sticking them up ourselves. But prior to Jim Wilson’s totally unexpected and very generous offer, we had received an unsolicited offer from Ian Dalziel to design us a Waihopai poster free of charge. We had filed that under “great idea but where would we put them up?”. Voila, suddenly we had a poster and prime spot outlets, all free of charge, and with virtually no effort required from us. We provided Ian with the brief text and the arresting visual content (a great big X sploshed across a photo of Waihopai’s domes), he whipped it up, printed off 400 colour copies free of charge and even personally delivered them to Phantom for us. Phenomenal! It was this that led to us asking Ian if he could design us the above mentioned cheque (he said yes, but he might not have had he realised how much work was going to be involved) and ABC now has an ongoing relationship with him – we’re currently investigating a Close Waihopai bumper sticker. I’ve known Ian since the 1970s when he was a teenager – it was a pleasure to renew an acquaintance again with an old mate from the old days, one who has put his talents to good use and who has proved himself a true friend to ABC. Good one, Dazzler!
Nicky Hager Public Meeting A Roaring Success
The most high profile unique feature of Waihopai 07 was
Nicky Hager’s Friday night public meeting. There was nothing new about Nicky
being involved in ABC’s Waihopai activities. As a veteran
We’ve held Blenheim public meetings before as part of our Waihopai activities (featuring speakers ranging from Green MPs to a Marlborough District Councillor to a world renowned British investigative journalist, not to mention ABC spokespeople). But we’ve never held one as wonderfully successful as the Nicky Hager one in January 07. The idea arose quite late in our planning, because “The Hollow Men” and resulting uproar didn’t happen until late 06. We had no idea if he would come to Waihopai, as he had regularly expressed a wish to “move on” from that subject. We invited him to speak tying together the themes from his two books from a decade apart, and to our delight he agreed. We knew that this would be a major public drawcard as he was the man of the moment and he hadn’t spoken at any public meetings since the book came out. We notified the media (who interviewed him on the day, sent reporters to the meeting and gave it national coverage), spent some money on advertising in the Marlborough Express and publicised the meeting widely. Despite it being during the summer holidays and in a conservative provincial town, 100 people packed the overflowing venue to hear him on a sweltering Blenheim night and they weren’t disappointed (you can read the full transcript of Nicky’s speech elsewhere in this issue). Nicky was the sole speaker (Bob Leonard chaired it on behalf of ABC) and the response can be measured by the fact that the collection was by far the biggest we’ve ever gathered at any of our public meetings. Long after it was over members of the public were pursuing us to thrust money into our hands, and it was $20 notes not 20 cent coins. It got the weekend off to a flying start and we came out of the central Blenheim venue to witness the awe inspiring sight of Comet McNaught streaking through the night sky. It was a good omen. Nicky had done his old ABC mates a great favour and he took the weekend off for a well earned rest, playing no further part in our Waihopai activities.
As for the actual protests, they basically followed the
pattern of recent years. On the Saturday morning up to 60 people from as far
north as Hokianga and as far south as Wanaka, and all points inbetween,
assembled in Blenheim’s
After our Seymour Square sausage sizzle (with vegetarian
sausages for the non-meateaters), we headed out to the spybase in the
afternoon, where Uncle Sam inspected our Undemocratic Republic of UKUSA
passports at border control as we crossed into foreign territory (the UKUSA
Agreement is the top secret divvying up of the world for purposes of electronic
and signals intelligence gathering by the relevant spy agencies of the US, UK,
Canada, Australia and NZ). We all then marched up to the inner gate (the GCSB
allows us onto the spybase’s outer perimeter for an hour, as long as we promise
to “behave ourselves) for a rally with more speeches, one from Russel Norman,
Green Co-Leader (the Greens’ have always sent one MP, and quite often two, to
every Waihopai protest, and have always sent one of their Co-Leaders. Russel is
not an MP). As we do each time we go there, we let the spies know that we want
them gone and their blot on the
In fact this rally at the spybase gate, in front of the
spies, cops and media, became the unlikely forum for a very public debate on
tactics when ABC’s Blenheim organiser, Steffan Browning (a nationally prominent
Green and well known in Marlborough as an environmental activist) publicly
asked me, the MC, if it was time for a return to direct action tactics (which
we had used, with resulting dozens of arrests, during the first decade of the
campaign). To say that this Devil’s advocate question, in this setting,
surprised me was putting it mildly. But I was happy to explain, via megaphone,
why ABC has adopted the family friendly tactics that it has, because we want to
involve Blenheim people and make it something that they feel taking part in
(and they do, so it works). This internal debate did not go unnoticed by the
reporters present and when I got home to
Excellent Media
Coverage
ABC’s Waihopai protests have always enjoyed very good media coverage and 2007 was no exception. Obviously it didn’t get as much as the previous year, which had the unique Rod Factor, but it was still very good. It was on TV3 News, Radio New Zealand News, private radio networks and got plenty of print media coverage, especially in the Marlborough Express and the Blenheim Sun (the latter gave it lavish pictorial coverage). For the first time, the Express also decided to host a post-protest debate on the base itself, inviting both sides to comment. The spies and Government have no comment, so the pro-Waihopai case was put by a local former NZ Army officer (“Waihopai station works for our best interests”, 7/2/07) and Steffan was invited to put the case against (“Base is a cog in the corporate war machine”, 8/2/07). As the base and what it does is shrouded in secrecy, ABC is delighted that the local paper decided to shine a light on it.
The three day weekend at Waihopai is always an immensely
enjoyable social gathering. Even the
Although a lovely place to camp, Onamalutu wasn’t as much fun this year because there were a lot more people staying there and a significant minority were bogans who spent every waking hour roaring around the place in anything with an internal combustion engine (including very young kids on tiny motorbikes). Then an entire riding club, complete with lots of horses, horseshit and attendant blowflies took up residence (making nonsense of the signs forbidding animals). Part of our reduced camping enjoyment was self-inflicted. The family of ABC committee member Lynda Boyd had generously given us a very large family tent. But the previous year we had committed the cardinal error of not drying it out before putting it away for 12 months, with the result that a number of us had to spend two nights and three days in a very mouldy, smelly tent (with who knows what health consequences). So, next time we go to Waihopai we will give Boganville a miss and camp elsewhere and we will have the use of another tent (the mouldy one had to be dumped, as it couldn’t be repaired) which we will look after better.
We’ll Be Back For As
Long As It Takes
ABC will keep going back to Blenheim and Waihopai as long as
that spybase is there as
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