WAIHOPAI PROTEST 2001
– A CELEBRATION?
The Anti-Bases Campaign has
yet to come up with a foolproof plan for an annual demonstration that will
close Waihopai for good. So we usually make our pilgrimage to the base in order
to protest, a negative activity by definition. But this year at our January 20
day of action in Blenheim we had a cake for a celebration of sorts. What’s to
celebrate?
ABC and many other groups and
individuals in NZ regard the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB),
which operates the Waihopai and Tangimoana spy bases, as an outlaw agency - outlaw in the very real sense that the
GCSB is not covered by its own law. ABC has complained loudly in various ways
about this situation. A generous interpretation of ABC’s impact in all this
would be that the Government has been forced to write a GCSB Bill (see elsewhere in this issue for details).
So we celebrated our small victory at Blenheim with a cake.
We’re not at all sure the cake
conveyed the message we intended (we forgot to put an explanatory sign in front
of the cake in Seymour Square), but it was the focus of media attention, both
print and TV, nevertheless. The cake was worthy of attention – in fact it was
two delicious cakes, frosted in white and with the spherical shape of the two
domes out at Waihopai, complete with a red cherry on top of each. (A few people
saw something vaguely anatomical in the “domes”, but fortunately this
perspective did not make national TV, although the cutting of the cakes did
make the primetime One News on TVNZ.).
ABC organisers offer our sincere thanks to the Hunnisett family of
Blenheim for producing the cakes. They vastly exceeded our expectations. Quite frankly they were as beautiful as the
real domes and far tastier. In a further touch of inspiration, the cakes were
displayed on a mock paddock consisting of old news clippings about Waihopai
actions, and all was surrounded by a miniature fence, which fortunately was not
electrified.
Celebration was an unusual and
positive aspect of this year’s activities. Overall, the weekend was a pleasant
one, as it was last year, with no confrontations with Police or spies. Despite
the calm and quiet, ABC organisers feel it was time well spent because Waihopai
2001 was yet another step in the process of education about the GCSB. Since the
January action more information has come out about the proposed GCSB Bill and
the Government is even making a show of wanting people to know about the GCSB
and all the wonderful things it does for Aotearoa.
Once
again ABC supporters were invited to camp on a property near the base, Pleiades
Vineyard, with a generous supply of water despite the severe drought in
Marlborough. Having driven past miles of burnt-out Wither Hills from the
Awatere to Blenheim (burnt in the Christmas – New Year period) we all had great
respect for the total fire ban that was in place. We set up camp on Friday
afternoon and made plans for the following big day in Blenheim and at the base. During the night on Friday a few souls
ventured down to the base to see the light show, or up the river for a cool
dip, or both. Once again we were joined by intrepid Green MPs, Rod Donald and
Keith Locke. Rod, being a fan of cold water at midnight, was the leader of the
cool-dip expedition.
On
Saturday morning an advance contingent from camp drove into central Blenheim to
distribute information sheets about Waihopai and the day’s activities to
members of the public. At noon we put on our by-now traditional sausage
(including vegetarian) sizzle in Seymour Square followed by dessert – the
official cutting and rapid consumption of the dome-cakes. We were of course
delighted that our low-key celebration attracted not only members of the public
but reporters and cameras from both print and electronic media. In fact the
cakes were such an attraction that a handsome photo of them made it into the Marlborough Express on the Friday.
There
were at least two Americans in attendance at our activities on Saturday. Uncle
Sam had flown to Christchurch on a US Air Force Starlifter and hitchhiked to
Blenheim in time for lunch and to give a short but boring speech about the
benefits of Waihopai to New Zealand. A second American showed up at camp in the
morning and introduced himself as a local farmer and fan of the base. He also
appeared at our picnic in the Square and put on a brief show of support for the
base in the afternoon just down the road from our activities. But he
disappeared before we could get a picture for Peace Researcher of his one-man demonstration.
By
mid-afternoon our demo-cum-celebration
had moved to the heavily fortified spybase itself in the Waihopai Valley.
Unable to shake off Uncle Sam, we had to run the gauntlet of his
passport-checking before we could venture down the access road to the front
gates of Fort Waihopai. As usual,
passports to enter the Undemocratic Republic of UKUSA[1]
were required for entry onto UKUSA territory - paddocks full of sheep, electric
fences, razor wire, rotating video cameras, satellite dishes, domes and police
cars, nominally presided over by the amiable Kiwi Officer-in-Charge, Bruce
Miller. Rod Donald had negotiated access to the front gate with Bill Clinton,
in one of the lame-duck president’s last major liberal actions before the
crowning of George II in Washington (just coincidentally on the same calendar
day as our action).
After
12 years of protest at Waihopai, walking down the several hundreds metres of
asphalt to the front gate is a very familiar activity for some of us. Sometimes
we are arrested in the act; sometimes we are cautiously welcomed by the
authorities as long as we promise not to trash the place. The menacing,
fortress-like feel of Fort Waihopai is almost comical to this protester. Everyone knows, and many have demonstrated,
that the “defences” are a mere façade (albeit a bloody expensive one), easily
breached if one is willing to pay the consequences of being caught in the act.
On at least two occasions, television crews have been escorted, under cover of
darkness, over, under, or through (few know for sure) the barriers and up to
the windows of the top secret buildings. The cameras have filmed through gaps
in the curtains (American spies please note this lax security, if that’s what
it is) the automated, computerised goings-on inside, all with an authoritative
narrative by a NZ expert speaking quietly into the microphone. (You gotta
wonder if it isn’t all an inside job). It brings a smile to my face. Waihopai
security – what a joke (except that it’s all paid for with our tax dollars).
With
UKUSA passports in hand, about 50 of us protesters, members of the public and
media made it to the gates once again. Speeches were made, including another
boring rant by Uncle Sam. We may be nuts (or Don Quixote), but we like to think
that every protest at Waihopai, every word spoken against the GCSB and its ilk,
every media report of our actions and objections against the fungal monstrosity
in the peaceful Waihopai Valley, makes yet another crack in the façade of
legitimacy that surrounds corrupt spying. We returned to the farm gate and our
vehicles. Some walked back to camp
about a kilometre down the road.
After
a rest and delicious dinner at camp, and not wishing to waste an evening, we
drove back into Blenheim for a video and free flowing discussion at the
Community Trust Rooms in High Street. Twenty seven of us were primed for action
by a couple of short video segments about Echelon (Waihopai’s raison d’etre)
and about Mike Frost, ex-Canadian spy. Some of the discussion revolved around
why in the world we would want to bring Frost to New Zealand on a speaking
tour. And he is indeed coming (see the
flyer enclosed with this issue. Plus the review of his book “Spyworld”. Ed.)
as we have managed to raise enough funds for his plane fare and some of his
other expenses (more money is needed however). The Frost tour in October 2001
will be ABC’s main activity on the anti-bases front over the next 12 months or
so. The action at Waihopai this year ended by midday on Sunday, all serious
discussion and debriefing having been wrapped up the night before. We will not
be back in January 2002 unless some other branch of ABC (not Christchurch)
organises the action.