Following on from CAFCA’s leading role in the 2006 Keep Our Port Public campaign (which played a part in stopping the Christchurch City Council from selling the Lyttelton Port Company to a Hong Kong transnational corporation) and our 2007 Public Ownership Pledge campaign (which asked Christchurch local body election candidates to sign up not to sell Council assets – dozens signed, from right across the political spectrum), it struck us as obvious that our major focus for the 2008 election year should be on the dangers posed by privatisation (which, as demonstrated by many examples in NZ’s recent past, leads to sales of publicly owned assets to transnational corporations – TNCs). For a detailed analysis of the issue, see my cover article, “Sharks In the Water : Privatisation Rears Its Ugly Head Again”, in Watchdog 118, August 2008, online at http://www.converge.org.nz/watchdog/18/01.htm.

Fighting The Spectre Of Privatisation

We organised the March 2008 Privatisation By Stealth Conference, held in Christchurch, featuring Bill Rosenberg,  Laila Harre and Sue Newberry as speakers (you can read some of the papers online at http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/community/CAFCA/publications/index.html#Privatisation). This was held on a Sunday morning and afternoon – that night, the 2007 Roger Award event was held in the same venue, featuring both Laila and Sue as speakers again, making a full day of it. My role in the Conference was to organise it, chair it and be the introductory speaker (at the Roger Award event that night, I was the MC and also a speaker). The Conference attracted a disappointingly small number; indeed, we seriously considered cancelling it at one point but we persevered and thankfully so, because the standard of both speakers and discussion was very high and extremely informative (sadly there is no hard copy or electronic version available of Laila’s fascinating speech, as she did it entirely from notes). CAFCA flew Sue from Sydney and Laila from Auckland and in both cases it was money very well spent.

The other thing that CAFCA did on privatisation was to produce a modest little postcard (or, rather, two versions of the same postcard) for members and supporters to send to MPs and non-MP candidates. The wording read :

I don’t want my school run by a private equity corporation.
I don’t want my airport owned by a foreign pension fund.
I don’t want my hospital managed by an insurance company.
I don’t want my port or railways owned by a transnational corporation.
I don’t want my roads operated by an investment bank.
I believe that continued full public New Zealand ownership and control of New Zealand public assets and infrastructure is extremely important.
I will not be voting for any candidate or party who supports full or partial privatisation of our public assets and infrastructure.

Initially, we publicised them by e-mail only – our only hard copy mailout of them was to send one of both cards to members with the August Watchdog - and received an immediate surge of orders (ranging from the minimum of ten of each right up to 10,000 of each). For several months a lot of my CAFCA work consisted of processing orders for those postcards. But we had no great expectations that they would have any discernible public impact – after all, politicians in election year get flooded with cards and letters from any number of lobby groups. We were a bit disappointed that we hadn’t thought of anything more original than postcards and we didn’t even bother to mention them on our Website.

But we hadn’t counted on CAFCA’s secret weapon – namely the stupidity of the National Party. On one day in July I started getting e-mails from members in widely scattered parts of the country saying that they had been approached by National MPs who had received the cards from those members and who were demanding to know “who is behind these cards?” Then I got a whole flurry of media calls and ended up doing a dizzying array of interviews because, suddenly, CAFCA was that day’s story in Parliament. The Tories, led once again by Bill English, the Dipstick from Dipton, had alleged that these “anonymous” cards constituted an “orchestrated, covert third party campaign” a la that run by the Exclusive Brethren in support of National in the 2005 election (how’s that for irony), run by Labour and the Greens “in breach of the Electoral Finance Act”. I was happy to put the record straight in the media that CAFCA “was behind” the cards (I was referred to in one report as “the culprit”, as if we’d committed some crime); there was nothing covert about them; and they are in no way in breach of that Act. I was repeatedly asked why our name and contact details didn’t appear on them. The answer is simple – CAFCA was not the sender; that role was performed by the individual who actually sent them to the MP and/or candidate. The person doing the sending put his or her name and address on the card – that was the whole point. After all every reference in it was to “I”, not we (or CAFCA). Covert campaign my arse! It was great to watch Michael Cullen on the TV news solemnly examine the card and say that he’d never seen it before – likewise Jeanette Fitzsimons of the Greens.

Bill English made a complete and utter fool of himself, and we received another surge of orders (and a few new members) from people who’d learned about it in the media. Thanks, Bill, we owe you a favour (although perhaps we should have sued you for smearing us by association with Labour). It was a complete storm in a teacup, which had disappeared from the media and political debate by the next day (but we did make sure that we put the cards on our Website). And it was certainly not coincidental that this all happened on the very same day that National was forced to prematurely announce its policy to “partly privatise” ACC, with attendant uproar in Parliament and the media. Obviously the Tories were feeling both hypersensitive and guilty that day, as they should have done. And now that they are in Government, every indication is that they will be flogging off ACC to their insurance transnational mates.

After that I made sure to regularly electronically publicise the cards, tying them in to some new revelation about privatisations planned by either of the two major parties (the cards were applicable to MPs and candidates of all parties; they were not aimed at just one, contrary to what the National conspiracy theorists reckoned). We received fresh orders every time I did that, right up until within days of the election. Those humble little postcards (I’m immodest enough to say that they were my idea and I wrote the original wording, which was refined by committee) proved to be CAFCA’s runaway success project of the year, and quite unexpectedly so. Which just goes to show that you can never predict just what will capture people’s imaginations and what won’t. The excellent conference struggled to attract more than a smattering of attendees; the rather tatty little postcards were a roaring success.

I haven’t tallied up the figures, but we mailed out over 20,000 of both cards (as I said, the biggest order was for 10,000 of both; there were two other orders of several thousands of both; and many, many orders in the hundreds and dozens of both). All that we asked in return was a donation or, in the case of the biggest orders, that our printing and postage costs be covered (there were only a few non-payers, which is always a risk when you adopt an honesty box approach to payment). It is precisely because CAFCA is in such good financial health (thanks to the unstinting generosity of our members, as we have no other source of funds) that we can carry out such expensive campaigns at short notice without having to resort to fundraising. To give you an idea of the costs involved in the postcards campaign – sometimes our monthly photocopying/printing bill is negligible or in the low hundreds at most. One month in 2008, in the thick of the postcard orders, it was $1,000! CAFCA was able to carry that cost until the donations or reimbursements came in.

Opposing The P4/US Free Trade Agreement

CAFCA’s other unique campaign in 2008, and beyond, is novel for us. This concerned the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, commonly called the P4 Agreement, between NZ, Chile, Singapore and Brunei. It was proposed to extend this to cover investment and financial services and to include the US. CAFCA took the lead in pointing out the dangers and our taking the lead is the novel aspect. Since the early 90s we’ve been heavily involved in campaigns to fight various free trade and/or investment agreements, whether of the global variety – the World Trade Organisation, the aborted late 90s’ Multilateral Agreement on Investment – or bilaterals such as with Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. But previously we’ve always been part of coalitions headed by other groups. This time around we’ve taken the initiative and are happy, at least temporarily, to take the leading role. But it’s a hard slog. My job was to alert Christchurch groups to the dangers and to get them to send a representative to an initial planning meeting. Of all those invited, one person turned up – the redoubtable Christine Dann, from the local Greens (one no show told me that the whole subject makes “my eyes glaze over”). Regardless, Christine and I held a very productive meeting, the concrete result of which was to name the campaign New Zealand Not For Sale, and to start the process of setting up a specialist Website for that campaign (check out www.nznotforsale.org, it’s excellent, if I say so myself. Big thanks to Webmaster Victor Billot – who also established and maintains the Keep Our Port Public Website).

Initially my work in that campaign was just to provide that Website with content. But, in September, the Government surprised everyone by announcing that the P4 expansion proposal had morphed into the means to open negotiations for a full blown Free Trade Agreement with the US, the Holy Grail for the free trading globalisers in both National and Labour (meaning that the election result wouldn’t make any difference). This confronted us with a whole new ball game. We’d only just got the Website up and running and now all the content had to be changed and updated (see Bill Rosenberg’s cover article in this issue ‘Who Gains If We Get A Free Trade Agreement With The US?”). But this time around we had no problem finding allies when we appealed for others to join us, ranging from political parties to unionists and church groups. The proposal has gone from an obscure multilateral agreement to the very biggest possible bilateral deal that NZ can get itself into and the one with the greatest dangers to national sovereignty. We decided to wait until after the election before taking further steps in putting together a coalition and cranking up the campaign. I appeared in the media on the issue (the Press has got into the habit of running my press releases as letters to the editor, quite often as the lead letter with the banner headline, which means that the whole thing gets published, rather than one snippet, and more people read it, as the Letters To the Editor page is one of the most read pages of any paper). Most recently I was quoted in a very good multi-page feature critical of the proposed US Free Trade Agreement which appeared in the new glossy Your Weekend weekly magazine which is included in all Fairfax papers (such as the Press) throughout the country. This is a campaign which will run for several years and will hopefully prevent this lemming like rush by our bipartisan ruling class to enmesh us in the web of the world’s biggest spider.

Roger Award

CAFCA’s regular campaign is, of course, the Roger Award, which has been running since 1997. As I’ve already mentioned, in March 2008 we organised and hosted the event to announce the winner of the 2007 Roger (see my article “A Decade Of Rogering : It’s A Tough Job But Somebody Has To Do It”, in Watchdog 118, August 2008, online at http://www.converge.org.nz/watchdog/18/05.htm). Following that, Laila Harre resigned after several years as both judge and Chief Judge and former All Black Anton Oliver resigned after one year as a judge (he had been our first ever judge resident overseas; his big fat envelope of Roger finalists’ nominations and the evidence against them was sent to him c/o the French rugby club he was playing for). So we had to find a couple of new judges and a new Chief Judge. Geoff Bertram stepped up into the latter role; Bryan Gould and Christine Dann are the new judges for the 2008 Roger. Once again we have six judges – four men, two women; two North Islanders and four from the South. The Roger continues to attract high profile people, such as Bryan Gould, who are happy to accept our invitation to be judges (they do it for no material reward whatsoever, and do their work over the Christmas holiday period). Indeed Bryan Gould (whose latest book “Rescuing The New Zealand Economy” is reviewed by Jeremy Agar in this issue) achieved the distinction of having a December 2008 National Business Review column dedicated to attacking his involvement with the “anti-business” Roger Award – the columnist also attacked me, for the usual reasons. Along with the continued mainstream media coverage that it attracts, this is further evidence of just how established and respectable that the Roger has become (I tend not to think of myself as being associated with things that are established and respectable, but there you go).

Now, for the 2008 Roger, we received fewer nominations than in the preceding years. Does this mean that the TNCs have started behaving themselves and that the Roger Award is no longer needed? Unfortunately not. As in previous election years, it reflects the fact that other organisations on whom we rely to help distribute the nomination forms – unions, the Greens, Alliance, etc – were fully preoccupied with the election campaign. And furthermore, the closing date for Roger nominations was only a week before the election, so there was a total clash of the two. What was lacking in quantity was more than made up for by the quality of nominations. And the election campaign must have distracted the nuisances who every year nominate the Government, the Prime Minister, their local council, etc, etc for the Roger. 2008 must be unique in that we didn’t receive one single ineligible nomination (usually for a nasty NZ company, to which the Roger doesn’t apply) or any nutty ones such as those already mentioned (my favourite from recent years was a detailed but very much tongue in cheek nomination of Greenpeace, mainly on the grounds of it being an “annoying TNC”).

One bonus of there being fewer nominations is that the judges reached their verdict in the fastest time ever, fully a month early. I was on holiday in Manila when, to my astonishment, I was contacted by Geoff Bertram, the Chief Judge, on Christmas Eve to say that they had picked a winner. I had not expected to spend any of my Philippine holiday on Roger Award business but was happy to do so, and to also give the writers of the Judges’ Statement and Financial Analysis a full extra month to get their work done. I’m afraid I can’t tell you who the winner is until after the March event in Auckland at which it will be announced by Geoff.

Watchdog

Watchdog is CAFCA’s voice and face to the world. There is nothing really new to say about it this year that I haven’t already said in my recent annual Reports. It looks really good now (I’ve made a conscious effort to include a lot more illustrations, of better quality), and once again many thanks to Leigh Cookson, who does the layout and Greg Waite who is the Webmaster for the online edition. Despite its small circulation, it has a very high reputation and is read by many more people than those who actually subscribe to it. We know this from the number of people who contact us having checked out our Websites, both for CAFCA and Watchdog. To give one very recent example – the August issue included an article by Dennis Small who singled out a 1980s’ Labour Cabinet Minister for mention because of the latter’s recent role in Bangladesh. That former Minister replied to Dennis, via CAFCA, defending himself, as he’d read the article.

We publish three issues a year (this one was delayed simply because in late November I went to the Philippines for a six week family Christmas holiday) and both previous 2008 issues were the full 80 pages. As our printer now has new equipment, that size limit no longer applies but I don’t expect Watchdog to dramatically increase in length as a result. It will just mean that we won’t have to leave out articles (which were quite often mine) which couldn’t be fitted into 80 pages (and have to be in multiples of four). There’s plenty of times when I think that less is more but there always seems to be copy, sometimes too much of it to fit it all in (for this issue, I decided not to try and cram in a long article by Bill Rosenberg on the global economic crisis, which would have noticeably increased the size of the issue, but to hold that over for the next issue). We have a regular core of writers – myself, Bill, Dennis, Quentin Findlay and Jeremy Agar, who does the reviews. Sadly we had nothing in 2008 from either Sue Newberry or Jane Kelsey; indeed we had little or nothing from any women, which is regrettable. We always get feedback from Watchdog (and not only from 1980s’ Cabinet Ministers!). I’ve found that my obituaries always evince a response, because they provide a humanising touch to what can be a pretty abstract and overpowering subject. To give some 2008 examples – one member was so touched by my April issue obituary of CAFCA committee colleague, Reg Duder, that she cited it as inspiration for a $500 donation to the CAFCA/ABC Organiser Account, which provides my income. That same issue included my obituary of Philip Agee, the former CIA agent turned whistleblowing author and political activist. A Wellington member wrote to say that she’d interviewed him in Cuba for a very recent documentary that she’d made, and sent me a DVD of it. My August issue obituary of Morry Gardner, an old friend and comrade for decades, led to me being contacted by the ex-wife of one of my oldest friends, dating back to high school – he now lives overseas and is one of our online members. He sent it to her and she contacted me. I hadn’t seen her since the 1970s, so we had a lot of catching up to do (all of us, living and dead, had been involved in the former Progressive Youth Movement, so that was the thing that we’d had in common).

Media Presence

CAFCA enjoys a media presence disproportionate to our small size. Quite often we don’t have to do anything; the media comes to us, as was the case throughout the 2007/08 saga of the aborted sale of Auckland Airport. The one day wonder that was the very intense political and media furore surrounding our humble little anti-privatisation postcards was a first, though. CAFCA gets sought out by all kinds of media – print, TV and radio – as we are recognised as the experts in the field. And the resulting coverage can range from a brief quote in a report in a daily paper on a breaking news story to appearing in a very long feature article (as happened when North & South had a critical look at the Bluff smelter). We all also take the initiative and put out press releases, which have a fairly good success rate in being fully or partly published, on subjects ranging from Telecom to the renationalisation of the railways to the (previous) Government buying St James Station in the South Island high country to stop it falling into foreign ownership. A common theme of my 08 press releases was to congratulate the Labour government on doing something but urging them to go further and do more, as there is an awful lot of damage to be undone in the area of foreign control (that is unlikely to be the theme of our press releases under a National government!). John Minto invited me to be a columnist for his excellent monthly paper, the Workers Charter (years ago I was a regular columnist for various papers and magazines). But I must have been the kiss of death – I had one column published, then the bloody paper went belly up.

An amusing side effect of my media profile is that I get approached for comment on subjects that really aren’t CAFCA’s field – in 2008, as an “old protester” I was asked to comment on the Government’s apology to Vietnam War veterans (I said that it should also apologise to the Vietnamese people) and on the latest members of the Rich List, with one radio interviewer most anxious to know whether I agreed with Michael Cullen’s description of John Key as a “rich prick”. Bill is the other half of CAFCA’s media team and he regularly appears in business papers such as the Independent, where he is bylined as an economic commentator – one former national journalist used to describe Bill as the best economic writer in the country.

The Committee

The committee is the largest and most active it has been for years – myself, Bill Rosenberg, John Ring, Jeremy Agar, Lynda Boyd, Quentin Findlay and Colleen Hughes. Lynda is still in Auckland, attending university, but she comes to meetings when she’s back in her hometown during the holidays (she spent her 2008/09 summer holiday housesitting our place while we were in Manila). January 2008 saw the first ever death of a committee member, past or present, namely Reg Duder (you can read my obituary of Reg in Watchdog 117, April 2008, online at http://www.converge.org.nz/watchdog/17/07.htm). Reg had been getting sicker and sicker for several years and was housebound with frequent spells in hospital. We hadn’t seen him at a committee meeting outside his place for a good four or five years and the last time any of us saw him outside of his place for anything was when he attended Wolfgang Rosenberg’s February 2007 funeral. He was absolutely determined to attend that and pay his respects, despite being wheelchair bound and on oxygen. Sheer bloody pigheadedness kept him going for so long, indeed he hosted the final committee meeting for 2007, just days before Christmas, despite the fact that he had, by then, progressed to terminal kidney failure (and his legs were so swollen that he couldn’t wear pants, let alone any footwear. It made for a memorable meeting, and was the last time his committee colleagues saw him alive. He died just weeks later). Reg’s legacy to CAFCA lives on, quite literally, in the person of his daughter Colleen Hughes, who joined the committee in 2007, on his recommendation. This is the first time we’ve ever had two generations of one family serving on it.

Membership

CAFCA membership has dropped, for the first time in several years. At the time of writing it is 460; for years it has hovered just below or above 500 (the highest it has ever been is around 550, but that was years ago). It’s worth reiterating that we purge non-payers from the membership list every year, so we don’t artificially pad it out. Our number might be slightly lower than before but our members belong because they want to, and they’ve paid to do so. Plus, as I’ve already mentioned, CAFCA reaches many, many more people than our actual members. I have built up e-mail lists of various categories of people (such as unions, political parties, anti-war activists, etc, etc), in addition to our actual membership database, and I regularly supply material to those other lists, reaching hundreds, if not thousands, more people. And those people in turn pass our stuff onto their friends, colleagues and e-mail lists. Plenty of the orders for our anti-privatisation postcards came from people with whom we’d had no previous dealings. And that drop in membership numbers is not matched by any drop in our bank accounts (we have a cheque account to pay bills and three term deposits, all four with Kiwibank). Financially, CAFCA is in a very healthy situation (the 07/08 Accounts were sent to you with the August Watchdog).

CAFCA Will Review Our Costs This Year

The major reason is that in 2008, at short notice, New Zealand Post increased the cost of sending Watchdog to you by 50% (with a much higher increase for those of you overseas who receive a hard copy). We postponed the impact of that by stockpiling a year’s worth of postage paid envelopes, bought at the old price (they’re still valid despite the increase, because they are, by definition, postage paid). So we were mailing our 2008 issues at the 2007 price. But those stockpiled envelopes run out with this issue and the (delayed) 50% postage rate increase kicks in with the next one. As for our small number of hard copy overseas members, we will definitely look at increasing the overseas membership rate (currently $30) this year. We can’t use postage paid envelopes for them, so we’ve already been hit by the price hike. Postage to some countries is costing more than $10 per issue (at the cheapest rate), meaning that it’s costing us more than the $30 annual overseas membership rate just in postage alone, let alone any costs of producing Watchdog (such as the not insubstantial printing bill each issue).

The other area where we will now have to pay the going rate is for having our books kept and annual accounts kept (apart from anything else, it is our legal obligation as an incorporated society). As already mentioned in the AGM Minutes, Liz Griffiths has resigned as our voluntary bookkeeper, (she had done the job since the mid 1990s) and despite our best efforts we failed to find a volunteer to replace her. So we have engaged the services of a professional bookkeeper and we don’t yet know how much that will cost (because he won’t know how much work is involved until he’s done it for a full year), but it will be in the hundreds. Constitutionally, we need to have any membership rate increase approved at the AGM, and at present, that has always happened after the August Watchdog has been mailed out (because that issue is the means by which we circulate the notice of the AGM). We are currently considering holding the 2009 AGM earlier in the year, in order to have any new rates (should we decide to increase them) in place by the time we send out the annual Membership Due notice with the August Watchdog. Stay posted.

Organiser Account Needs A Boost

The CAFCA/ABC Organiser Account, which provides my income, has now been doing so since 1991, which is quite remarkable. It is in reasonable financial health (there are now 46 regular pledgers – 50 was the highest there has been in recent years), but it needs to fill the coffers some more, because on a couple of occasions in 08 it dropped too low and we needed to top it up from the term deposit that we keep as an interest earning contingency fund. The number of donations has dropped, doubtless reflecting the harder financial times that people are facing. Having said that, the generosity of some people staggers me – recently the Account received a $1,500 donation, bringing to $7,000 that one person has donated in less than a decade. The Account is in sufficient health that my pay has been increased again recently, from $13.50 per hour to $14. Both CAFCA and ABC have decided to send out a special appeal early this year, and to aim at a wider audience than just our own members, on the basis that a lot of groups and individuals who are not members of either benefit greatly from the work of either and/or both CAFCA and ABC. Once again, my heartfelt thanks to all of you who keep supporting my work, and therefore that of CAFCA and ABC, by your generosity. I (quite literally) couldn’t do it without you.

Waihopai Protest

Anti-Bases Campaign (ABC) had two major projects in 2008, namely our regular January protest at the Waihopai spybase and the Cora Fabros national speaking tour in July. I organised both of them and it’s the first time I’ve organised two such major projects within a few months of each other. The spectacularly successful April 30 th dome deflation by Ploughshares (see my article “Pop Goes The Spybase” in Watchdog 118, August 2008, online at http://www.converge.org.nz/watchdog/18/07.htm) demonstrated that 2008 was going to be a standout year for Waihopai actions.

Not that we’re complaining. For years, our standard response to those who have criticised ABC’s actions as “tame”, “predictable” and “scripted” has been that we don’t claim any monopoly on the campaign to close Waihopai; that we’re only there one day a year; and that others are welcome to do their own thing. As long as it is non-violent direct action, we are happy to support it. That had never been put to the test until 2008, due to a conspicuous lack of Waihopai actions (let alone campaigning) by any other groups. But we were only too happy to declare our full support for the Ploughshares Domebusters’ action. In fact, all three of them (Adrian Leason, Peter Murnane and Sam Land), plus a sizeable contingent of their relatives and Catholic Worker colleagues, played a full part in our January activities. Without them our numbers would have been noticeably smaller.

As ABC’s photographer, Kane O’Connell, put it, his photos from January 2008 look almost indistinguishable from those he took in January 07. And indeed, our activities were very much the same. On the Saturday morning anywhere up to 50 people marched through Blenheim, starting and finishing at Seymour Square. We stopped at the Rotunda in the Forum in the centre of town where there were several speakers : Green MP Keith Locke, John Minto from Global Peace and Justice Auckland and myself, on behalf of ABC.

As well as our copious supply of colourful placards and banners, we used the same props that we have used so successfully in recent years – a giant mock cheque showing the financial cost of the spybase in the 20 odd years of its existence, coffins and crosses and white face masks to represent those killed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which Waihopai helps the Americans and their mates to wage; the eyecatching Uncle Sam (aka Bob Leonard) who always turns up to tell us to bugger off from his little bit of America in Marlborough. This time we were unexpectedly joined by another eyecatching fellow, namely a very tall visiting American dressed just like a Secret Serviceman (complete with TV aerial protruding from his collar, dark glasses and a newspaper with especially cut eyespy holes). He spoke to us “on behalf” of America’s spies. As a piece of street theatre, he was great.

In the afternoon a smaller number (around 30) went out to the spybase where we had permission to march up the access road to the inner gate where there were further speeches demanding the place’s closure. We always have an open mike out there and a number of people spoke, such as local ABC activist, Steffan Browning and veteran Auckland peace and international solidarity activist, Maire Leadbeater, who pointed out the role of Waihopai and its sister bases in spying on independence struggles in countries such as Indonesia. Two of those who spoke outside the gate were among those who got in and deflated the dome three months later. Up until the last minute Waihopai 08 was going to feature a real point of difference with previous demos, in that it was going to include a delegation of Japanese peace activists, including some hibakusha (victims of the American atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945). But, right at the last minute, they had to cancel their NZ visit for various reasons, to the great disappointment of organisers in both countries (ABC has hosted Japanese peace activists at Waihopai before; in 2005, Bob Leonard escorted a group up to the inner gate, to their great delight).

Excellent Media Coverage

ABC’s Waihopai actions may be numerically small and purely symbolic but they always get very good media coverage, far out of proportion to the actual numbers taking part. 2008 was no exception, with very good coverage in the Marlborough Express (which also ran special interest stories such as a profile on the return of “veteran Blenheim protester” Evin Wood, who has been in the campaign from the outset, except for several years teaching in China recently). To the great delight of leading Auckland activist, John Minto, his hometown newspaper, the New Zealand Herald (the country’s biggest) actually ran an article this time on Waihopai, timed to coincide with the protest. Bringing this issue to the attention of the country’s biggest city is always a challenge and this was an excellent result. There was also good coverage from various radio networks.

Although our numbers may be small, they make up in quality what is lacking in quantity. John Minto, in his Blenheim speech, described the Waihopai protesters as the “most discerning” in the country. For example, Bob and I shared our tent with two City Councillors (one each from Auckland and Christchurch, although neither was there in his official capacity). The Waihopai protest is always a most enjoyable and stimulating three day weekend. We camped in a new Department of Conservation campsite this time, at beautiful Whites Bay, complete with beach, bush and, most importantly, minus the bogans who made our last campsite a trial. Once again we had adventures with the ABC tent, specifically the poles needed to hold it up, but nothing that the trusty Alan Liefting couldn’t fix with a pocket knife and some lifesaving insulating tape that our Catholic Worker friends were carrying.

ABC intends to keep going back to Blenheim and Waihopai. One result of the Domebusters’ action is that we (and anyone else, including the media) are now denied permission to go up the access road to the inner gate. That was the status quo throughout much of the first decade of our campaign (we’ve been protesting at Waihopai since 1988) and it doesn’t make much difference to us, as our intention is to regularly focus attention onto the place and demand its closure, not to actually try and storm the place there and then. The difference in 2008 is that others, most dramatically and effectively, joined the campaign and took it to another level. We say, welcome aboard, the more the merrier. Let’s shut this monstrosity down.

Cora Fabros Speaking Tour

A speaking tour always takes a lot of time and work to organise – it certainly did with ABC’s only previous speaker, Canadian ex-spy turned whistleblowing author, Mike Frost, back in 2001. In Cora’s case I spent the best part of a year organising it, dating from meeting her in her hometown of Manila in August 2007 to hosting her at our Christchurch home in July 2008 (the first stop on her NZ tour), with an awful lot of work inbetween those two dates. CAFCA fully supported the tour, in terms of money (both from the organisation and from our members as individual donors to the fundraising appeal); publicity; and our members in various cities were local organisers and/or hosts. Bob Leonard was her travel companion and opening speaker, on behalf of ABC, as he had been for part of the Frost tour. Here is his report on Cora’s tour, originally published in Peace Researcher 37, November 2008.

“Cora Fabros, a seasoned Filipino anti-bases campaigner, was invited by the Anti-Bases Campaign (ABC) to tour Aotearoa/New Zealand from July 6-19 th 2008 to help put our own campaign against foreign bases into a global context. A major part of her brief was to show how the issues we face are not peculiar to Aotearoa but are the result of policies and actions of the US government on a global scale. The spread of a great variety of types of US bases and infrastructure, and basing agreements, in many countries accelerated under the Bush Administration. The tour was  a great success – Cora delivered on her brief, giving the people of Aotearoa a clear and detailed picture of US military and intelligence intentions in the Asia/Pacific region (and globally), and, in turn, she came to appreciate just how entangled our little country is in US war fighting and its so-called War on Terror.

“Corazon Valdez Fabros is well known to members of ABC. We first met her in 1990 when she was one of a number of visitors from around the Pacific who joined our Touching the Bases Tour to protest at the four foreign bases that existed then : the spybases at Tangimoana and Waihopai, the Black Birch US Naval transit-circle telescope facility on a mountain above the Awatere Valley near Blenheim (which closed in 1995), and the US Navy and Air Force base at Christchurch International Airport (the Harewood base). We have been in touch with her ever since and Murray and Becky Horton met with her during their 2007 visit to the Philippines.

“Cora has impeccable credentials when it comes to US military bases. Her home country has a long history of military occupation by the US, dating back over 100 years. And the Filipino people have yet to see the end of the US military despite the closure of two major bases in 1992, the Subic Bay Naval base and Clark Air Base on the island of Luzon. Those closures were the culmination of grassroots resistance over many years despite the best efforts of successive Philippines governments to hang on to the Americans. Cora’s tour paper - Bases Of Empire : The Global Spread Of US Military And Intelligence Bases (which was the title of her tour and which is published in Peace Researcher 37, November 2008, online at http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr37-1721.html) - describes how the US continues its presence throughout the Philippines, and in many other countries, in a variety of both overt and devious ways.

A Seasoned International Activist

“Cora, who is 59, was born in Manila. She is married with four adult children and still lives in a suburb of the vast sprawling city with her husband Gregorio, also a lawyer. She has a long and impressive record of active participation with the anti-bases, anti-nuclear and peace movement – over 30 years. From her CV : “[I am] currently one of the conveners of STOP the War! Coalition Philippines, a newly-formed multi-sectoral coalition of Philippine-based social movements, trade unions, women’s organisations, non-government organisations, political parties, student formations and other concerned organisations and individuals who are in solidarity with the movement for peace and social justice…. Currently the Chairperson of the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (the Secretariat of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Movement) and a member of the Coordinating Committee and Asia/Pacific Coordinator of the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases”. It is her anti-bases work, and in particular her role with the recently formed International Network, that is most directly relevant to ABC. Cora keeps ABC well informed on international bases issue via numerous reports on the NoUSBases! list server.

“The list of her activities goes on at length including her record of recent participation in conferences, meetings, forums and fact-finding missions in a variety of roles. Her world travels in conjunction with the above and many other activities have taken her to many countries including Japan (and its colony Okinawa), Italy, Finland, Thailand, China, Ecuador and several countries in the Middle East. To give a recent example, she helped to organise, and attended, the Asia-Europe People’s Forum in Beijing, in October 2008.

Highlights

“Cora was accompanied on the tour by myself (i.e. Bob Leonard) of the ABC who introduced Cora at meetings, provided technical background on NZ bases, and served as tour guide along with the many local people who were indispensable in arranging all aspects of local organisation and accommodation (a detailed report was circulated to all supporters shortly after the event).  ABC Organiser Murray Horton was the key coordinator of the tour, handling the myriad of details and literally hundreds of e-mails and phone calls to and from local volunteers in the six cities visited by Cora : Dunedin, Christchurch, Blenheim, Wellington, Palmerston North and Auckland.

“Cora gave eight principal talks on international bases issues and did many media interviews ranging from local newspapers and community radio and television to student news publications. She also visited the Waihopai spybase and attempted to visit the base at Tangimoana (in the lower western North Island; Palmerston North is the nearest city). Media interviews were conducted near both bases, although close access had been denied because of the events of April 30, the deflation by Ploughshares activists of one of the domes covering a satellite tracking dish at Waihopai. The two spybases are NZ’s most important contribution to the US military’s ability to wage war in other people’s countries, most notably Afghanistan and Iraq, with resulting massive civilian casualties and social disintegration.

“Two of the three Waihopai Domebusters met with Cora during her tour. Adrian Leason attended her Wellington talk. Peter Murnane had a special two hour meeting with Cora and Bob in Auckland to talk about legal issues surrounding the upcoming court case resulting from their actions at Waihopai. Cora was particularly interested in the philosophical basis for high-profile Ploughshares actions in a number of countries including the US and the UK. She is a lawyer but her expertise does not extend to the kinds of legal arguments that might be raised in the case of wilful fence and dome damage at a spybase.

“Attendance at Cora’s main talks varied from very low to a peak of about 50. Perhaps it is symptomatic of the very challenging foreign bases issue that in cities that should show the greatest concern about nearby bases the turnout was pathetic. Christchurch hosts the US Air Force base at Harewood, in operation since the late 1950s and the only such foreign base within a city anywhere in Australasia. That long history has made the base just about invisible to the people of Christchurch – it is part of the woodwork. Only about a dozen members of the public attended Cora’s talk. Blenheim is only some 25km of nearly straight road from the Waihopai spy base. Three people attended the talk along with the usual small contingent of ABC people and local organisers. In our long experience of campaigning in Blenheim against the spy base, we have found that the town is conservative and almost totally uninterested in the base, except as a Government employer of local people. Blenheim also hosts a nearby NZ Air Force base at Woodbourne, about halfway down the road to Waihopai. You might expect military folk to be fairly unquestioning of the spy activities in the neighbourhood.

“The liveliest meeting in terms of numbers was in Wellington with almost 50 members of the public in the audience. And, as in the other centres, they were very concerned about Cora’s message. They responded with good questions after the talk and with spirited discussion about local and international implications of US imperial ambitions. We ABCers never really know what to expect when we put on a meeting or an action in Wellington. Cora’s reception was excellent. In the past we’ve been known to get disappointing support, apart from the steadfast local core who are tuned into the issues and can be counted on to help us. Attendance in the other centres was 20 in Dunedin and Palmerston North, and 30 at Cora’s first talk in Auckland. Her second talk there the following night drew a similar number of very enthusiastic listeners including several Filipinos keenly interested in the resurgent US military involvement in their home country.

NZ’s Foreign Bases Don’t Fit Usual Basing Pattern

“Prior to her arrival Cora was only slightly familiar with our own foreign basing situation, which is of course rather minor compared to that of countries such as the Philippines and Japan. But as we progressed around the country, visiting the bases (from a distance), and speaking to many concerned people, Cora realised that our two intelligence bases were something new in her experience. They didn’t fit into the main types of bases with which she was familiar internationally and which she described in detail in her talks. She emphasised in her talks that although our foreign bases are rather obscure, and out of sight of most New Zealanders, they were anything but ‘fringe issues’.

“Waihopai and Tangimoana are not like main military bases that cover vast areas of land in places like Japan and Guam and Okinawa. They are not staffed by Americans, civilian or military (although Americans are often directly involved). They were built with our tax dollars, and the spybases are run by New Zealand employees of the Government Communications Security Bureau at our expense (the GCSB was created in 1977; successive Governments have spent more than half a billion dollars on it). But as Cora made clear, and the ABC states over and over again at every opportunity, these are effectively foreign bases because they do not primarily serve New Zealand’s interests. In particular, the raw intelligence gathered at Waihopai by spying on international communications satellites over the Pacific, goes in large part straight to the US National Security Agency (NSA) in Maryland and thus into the maw of the US government, which has been in active warfighting mode ever since the horrors of September 11, 2001.

Reflections On The Tour

“The ABC considers Cora’s tour was very successful. Of course, it is impossible to know the real impact of a speaking tour of this kind. The issue of foreign bases in New Zealand does not bring out the crowds. Over 20 years of protest, research, and education by the Anti-Bases Campaign and many others, including Nicky Hager’s groundbreaking book ‘Secret Power’ (1996) which exposed Waihopai, Tangimoana, the GCSB and the American Echelon global spying system to the world, have drawn little more than sporadic and limited attention to the bases issue in New Zealand. This is not to say our efforts have not had impact within both the GCSB and the international spy establishment. Inside their cocoon of secrecy the spies would have been shocked by Nicky’s revelations, as told to Nicky by the disaffected spies themselves. Nearly annual protests at Waihopai have kept the spies and their nasty business before the public and in the media, however briefly. Without that activity it is very unlikely that such spying, such blatant violations of privacy and human rights, would ever have seen the light of day in this little country. The recent and very neat bit of sickle surgery by Ploughshares that took the wraps off a spy dish at Waihopai was an inspired piece of non-violent direct action that gained international attention and exposure of the issues of spying. Their courageous but reasonably easy breach of Waihopai security will have made the GCSB look like a bunch of clowns to the Boss Spies in the US National Security Agency.

“Cora Fabros’ speaking tour was an important contribution to our ongoing anti-bases efforts and a great success in terms of direct education for those who attended her talks and those who read and listened to her many media reports. It was a networking success, bringing Cora into contact with our own foreign bases and those who try to expose them, and with many other individuals and organisations that need to hear Cora’s message and to spread it widely. The world’s sole remaining superpower is flexing its muscles by spreading its military might and influence around the globe, wherever it can gain a foothold with military visits, ship visits, bases of various kinds and duration, and creative new agreements that effectively bypass processes of democratic approval in the ‘invaded’ countries. Cora told us about all this, and about local grassroots resistance that is gaining momentum in many countries. Waging war requires spying in order to locate targets for so-called smart weapons. Some of that spying is done by bases like Waihopai. We are currently seeing the tragic results in Afghanistan and Iraq. The US cannot function as a superpower without foreign bases. Cora has helped us to see the links more clearly.

“Cora returned to the Philippines with fresh first hand knowledge of a new category of US base imperialism : the spybase with a geographic location well suited to spy on a vast area of the globe and then reported mindlessly and dutifully and directly back to Big Brother in the US. She is now an enthusiast, an international ABCer, carrying the message of our foreign bases struggle to the wider No Bases network”.

Cora Fabros was the second speaking tour by a Filipino activist that I’d organised within nine months – in October/November 2007, wearing my Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa hat, I accompanied Amirah Ali Lidasan, a young Muslim woman leader, from Dunedin to Whangarei (and we had no problem getting permission to go up to the inner gate of the Waihopai spybase, accompanied by a reporter and photographer. That might be the last such visit for a while).

Supporting The Domebusters

Bob Leonard and I went to Blenheim as an act of practical solidarity with the Waihopai Domebusters when they appeared in court for their depositions hearing in September 08. For both of us it was the first time that we had set foot in the Blenheim District Court since the 1997 case of the Waihopai 20, which was the last time anyone had been arrested for anything to do with the spybase. Bob and I had been spectators at that one (which featured the biggest number of defendants of any of the numerous court cases in the first decade of ABC’s Waihopai campaign, which prioritised arrestable actions). Bob himself had been a Waihopai defendant in that court, in 1996 but in 2008 he was there in a very different capacity, namely as a fully accredited court reporter for Peace Researcher – his report appears in Peace Researcher 37, November 2008, online at http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr37-168.htm. We only had the idea very late in the piece and were frankly surprised that our request was granted without demur by the court authorities (the last time I had applied, also successfully, for court reporter accreditation was way back in 1974 when I was Editor of Canta, the University of Canterbury student paper). Not only was Bob there as a court reporter, he was the best dressed one. I had asked what was the expected dress standard and had been told jacket and tie – Bob turned out to be the only court reporter so dressed (and it was a surprise to his fellow anti-bases activists who had last  seen him in his usual Uncle Sam costume at the January 08 Waihopai protest.).

Public Meeting, Vigil

Bob and I travelled up to Blenheim on the day before the depositions hearing, arriving in time to join the Ploughshares group who had come down from the North Island, plus other supporters from Christchurch and elsewhere around the country. We all met up at a central Blenheim Catholic Church where we shared a communal meal and there was a public meeting, at which there were approximately 30 people, including reporters from both the Marlborough Express and the Press (not surprisingly the Ploughshares’ action has attracted major media coverage, including profiles of the Domebusters themselves and articles on the international Ploughshares movement). Bob and I both spoke at that meeting, as Ploughshares regards us as the “experts” on Waihopai and its place in the global US spying and warfighting machine (the media regards us as experts on anything to do with intelligence. The larger group stayed, marae style, in the church hall overnight; Bob and I went off to our motel (which we paid for ourselves in case anyone is concerned about misuse of ABC funds).

Next morning, Bob reported for duty as Peace Researcher’s court reporter and as well as being a court room spectator I joined the Ploughshares group in their vigil in Seymour Square, opposite the Court building. They had come well prepared, with scrumptious food, (including the sausage sizzle which has long been a part of ABC’s protest activities in Seymour Square), literature and specially printed Waihopai spybase T shirts. We had brought up four of ABC’s large collection of Waihopai banners, plus poles, and that turned out to be a good thing, as Ploughshares didn’t have any suitable banners. There were a large number of reporters present, from both local and national media and the whole thing got big coverage. To nobody’s surprise the three Domebusters were committed for trial and when they emerged from the court, having renewed their bail conditions, they held an impromptu footpath press conference at which Adrian Leason spoke passionately about the destruction wrought on Iraq by the US war machine and about Waihopai’s role in aiding and abetting that war machine. After lunch we all parted company – the Domebusters and the rest of the Ploughshares group headed back to the North Island or back south; Bob and I drove out to have a look at the spybase (my first time to see it with only one dome). We spent a second night in Blenheim and came home the next day.

ABC’s 09 Waihopai Action Will Be In Solidarity With Domebusters’ Trial

The Anti-Bases Campaign has publicly supported the Domebusters since the outset, as has CAFCA. One of our Committee members, Lynda Boyd (who is also on the CAFCA Committee), organised people from around the country to go to Blenheim in May 08 when they first appeared in court (and were released on bail after five days in custody in the Blenheim Police Station). ABC has made a respectable size donation towards their legal costs (as has CAFCA) and we will centre our 2009 Waihopai spybase actions around their trial (whether that is held in Blenheim or in Wellington, which is where the defence wants it transferred). This means that we didn’t hold our usual January protest weekend activities in 2009. When we find out when and where the trial is being held, then we’ll start planning our solidarity action to coincide with it.

Waihopai Display

The Waihopai display had a quiet 2008 and hasn’t left Christchurch since it went to Dunedin for the Alliance’s annual conference in October 07. But it spent several weeks on show in the Students’ Association building at the Christchurch Polytechnic (attracting some controversy from administrative staff in the process) and we had it at Cora Fabros’ Christchurch public meeting.

Peace Researcher

I edit Peace Researcher, so I’m biased, but I reckon it’s pretty darned good. I certainly enjoy being the editor and writing about subjects such as the 2007 “anti-terror” raids (see “A Bad Case Of ‘Terrorism’ Hysteria”, my cover story in PR 35, December 2007, which can be read online at http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr35-156.html). My only regret is that I don’t have more time to spend on it, the range of subjects on which I collect material to “one day” write up into articles for it forms a most impressive pile in my office. Getting out two issues a year is as much as I can manage, because of my other commitments, but it’s always good reading and it looks very good, thanks to my wife Becky as layout editor. And the latest issue (37, November 08) marks a first in that we printed one page (and one page only) in colour. It’s the colour coded world map of US bases which accompanies Cora Fabros’ paper. It would be meaningless if printed in black and white. But we’re not going to make a habit of it, as it cost five times as much to print as any other page (and a lot more again if we want to print a page of Watchdog in colour, which is why we won’t be doing that anytime soon).

Bob Leonard, at 70, is now finally retired from a quarter of a century at Lincoln University, so he has more time for ABC activities such as writing for PR, which he edited for the best part of two decades. I’m delighted to have Bob back as a regular writer. Although we are no longer co-editors, I regularly consult him about every issue of PR and we work together closely (right down to doing the mailouts together). Special thanks to committee member Yani Johanson, who is ABC’s Webmaster. Yani waged a hard fought campaign to get elected as a Christchurch City Councillor in 2007, so he had (and has) precious little time for ABC activities. But, eventually, he gets each issue of PR online.

A Committee Of Activists

ABC is in good shape. We have a small membership – it is a specialist niche subject – but plenty of active supporters who don’t need to be actual members (most of those who were the invaluable local organisers and hosts for Cora Fabros’ tour are not ABC members, more of them are CAFCA members, actually). Our committee is in healthy shape, with a couple of new members, namely Andre Prassinos and Dan Rae, both veterans of years of protests at either or both Waihopai and the US base at Christchurch Airport . Lynda Boyd is still at Auckland University but she plays a full part in the ABC committee when she’s back home for the holidays and, as already mentioned, she organised the solidarity activity at Blenheim in May 08 when the Waihopai Domebusters first appeared in court. Frances Mountier resigned from the committee in 08, but she played a leading and active role in all ABC’s 2008 activities, such as at Waihopai in January, at the Domebusters’ Blenheim court appearance in May, and Cora Fabros’ visit to Wellington in July.

Media

I am the ABC’s media spokesperson and did a lot of media work both around our usual Waihopai spybase protest in January and an enormous burst of it at the end of April and early May caused by the Domebusters’ action – newspapers, radio, TV, the works, even writing a guest editorial in a liberal Catholic magazine. The media also rings me for comment about subjects that they think might be related to ABC’s interests so, for example, in 2008 I did interviews about new Police intelligence gathering powers and international Police intelligence sharing. Those are not actually our subjects, but I’m happy to give the hapless reporters a quotable quote.

One Last Campaign For Ka Bel

The other group for whom I work (but in an unpaid capacity) is the Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa (PSNA). I am the editor of its newsletter Kapatiran (Solidarity), and managed to get out two issues in 2008, which is better than other recent years. Every few years we tour a Filipino movement speaker through NZ and as I’ve already mentioned, in late 2007, our fifth such speaker was Amirah Ali Lidasan. You can read my report on her tour in PSNA’s newsletter Kapatiran (29/30, May 2008, online at http://www.converge.org.nz/psna/Kapatiran/KapNo29n30/Kapart29n30/art133.htm).

But it was one of our earlier speakers – Crispin Beltran (universally known as Ka Bel) - whom we toured in 1999 and who was the focus of PSNA’s attention in 2008. As he had been in both 2006 and 07 when he (a Congressman by then) was the Philippines’ most high profile political prisoner, held on totally trumped up political charges which carried a mandatory life sentence. PSNA’s successful campaign of lobbying the New Zealand government to pressure the Philippine government to release him, and our fundraising to help the Philippine campaign to release him have been fully described in my 2006 and 07 annual Reports. As was our jubilation when he was, finally, released in July 2007, when all charges were chucked out without getting within cooee of a trial (they were that disgracefully flimsy).

By happy coincidence, Becky and I happened to be in Manila in August 07, on a long planned family visit, just weeks after Ka Bel was released. So we were able to go to the official celebration of his release, along with several hundred other people (if there were any other foreigners there, I didn’t see them; the whole thing was in Filipino, which Becky obligingly translated for me). This was the first time that we’d seen Ka Bel since he’d been our guest in 1999 – he immediately asked : “How is Christchurch?” and introduced us to his colleagues, saying “I stayed in their home”. It was great to see him again, and he spent quite a bit of time chatting to me. His speech was the centrepiece of the whole hours long event – he brandished aloft the short and polite speech that his staff had written for him, worried that the Government would take any opportunity to have him rearrested and locked up again. Ka Bel duly read that out, for the record; then spoke for nearly 90 minutes delivering one of his classic stemwinding militant speeches, with much clenched fist saluting, to thunderous applause. The biggest laugh went up when he detailed how, towards the end of his hospital imprisonment, he had hatched a plan to escape disguised as a doctor (he was a political prisoner during the 1980s’ Marcos martial law dictatorship. He escaped after two years’ detention without trial, joining the underground movement as a labour organiser and resurfacing once Marcos was overthrown).

Ironically he spoke so long and the event went so much over time that there was no time for the short speech that I had been invited to give on behalf of PSNA. No matter, and anyway, PSNA was among those listed for thanks by the organisers. Being able to attend that event was a real privilege and one of the highlights of any of my several trips to the Philippines (which started in 1987). Sadly it was to be the last time that Becky and I were ever to see him (we had hoped to do so again during our Christmas 2008 visit). Because, in May 2008, the 75 year old Ka Bel died in the most unlikely of circumstances for a leading Filipino political activist (disappearance and/or a horrible murder are a common fate), namely as the result of falling off the roof of his house after he’d climbed up there to repair a leak.

Our solidarity with Ka Bel did not end with his death. There was an urgent appeal circulated to help his family with the costs of his funeral (which was a very big and prolonged affair, because of the huge numbers of people who wanted to pay their respects) and to pay the last of the extortionate hospital bills dating from his 2006/07 detention (which was in hospital, because of his numerous health problems). He still owed thousands of US dollars and had not been allowed to go from the hospital, when the courts ordered him released, until an IOU promising to pay the outstanding amount was signed. So PSNA swung into action and circulated an online Final Appeal for Ka Bel. We raised just over $2,000 (one member deposited $1,000 cash into our bank account) which we duly sent to the Philippines, plus $1,000 directly from PSNA. All up, our three separate appeals for Ka Bel (the first two were in 2006 and 07) raised $NZ7,000, in round figures (many of those who donated were CAFCA members). My tribute to him was quoted in the Philippine media, just one of a huge number of such messages (in the course of our long campaign to have him released I had appeared in the Philippine media on one or two previous occasions).

Memorial Meeting

And, in July 2008, PSNA hosted a small Christchurch memorial meeting for Ka Bel. It was timed so that the speakers could include Cora Fabros, a friend of Ka Bel’s, who had arrived in Christchurch the previous day to start her speaking tour hosted by the Anti-Bases Campaign. The main Filipino speaker was Dennis Maga who had been the spokesperson for the Free Ka Bel Movement during Ka Bel’s incarceration. Dennis had made a very high profile 2007 NZ speaking tour in that capacity, getting major media coverage in both NZ and the Philippines for his leading role in protests against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State visit here. He went back home but not for long and currently lives in Auckland, working for the trade union movement, specialising in organising migrant workers (including those from the Philippines). Dennis spoke at length and movingly of his years of work with Ka Bel, the man he credited with getting him involved with the KMU and into the broader progressive movement. I spoke on behalf of PSNA; Green MP Keith Locke specially came to Christchurch to speak of his dealings with Ka Bel during Keith’s years (1986-91) as national coordinator of Philippines Solidarity. Messages were read from Jane Kelsey, Aziz Choudry and Paul Watson, none of whom could be present. We viewed a short tribute DVD from his Philippine colleagues. Becky Horton put together a small but greatly appreciated display of photos of Ka Bel, taken both in the Philippines in 07 and during his 1999 NZ speaking tour. Cora Fabros brought a couple of photos of him which his family had gifted to us, so we added them to the display. And Cora also brought, from his family, postcards of thanks for us to distribute to Ka Bel’s many Kiwi friends and supporters. We published a special issue of Kapatiran entirely devoted to him, with tributes from both the Philippines and New Zealand. When we were in Manila, in November 08, I was one of those who spoke at the launch of the Crispin Beltran Resource Center, along with his widow and daughter and two of his Leftwing Congressional colleagues (among others).

He gave an amazing 64 years service as an activist, risking his life, starting as an 11 year old courier for the guerrillas fighting the occupying Japanese during World War 2. He was a great servant of the people, not only of his native Philippines but globally. He was the personification of that mouthful of a phrase “proletarian internationalism”. He was a charismatic leader and speaker (definitely one of the old school of clenched fist tubthumpers, and I mean that in a positive way). For me personally he was a valued colleague and friend for 20 years. My memories of him are not just of the political and union variety but range from a raucous night out in a Manila singalong restaurant in 1989 with fellow NZ delegates and leaders of the KMU (May First Movement union confederation, of which he was the long serving Chairperson) to hosting him for a weekend at our Christchurch home at the start of his 1999 NZ speaking tour. We didn’t just discuss politics and unionism, he was curious about everything to do with ordinary New Zealand life, watching his first ever game of rugby (he must have the been the jinx, as the All Blacks suffered their biggest ever loss to the Wallabies), marvelling at the clearness of the skies and the river, and asking “where are the guards to keep the squatters off the beach at night?” (he was surprised to be told that there were none of either). He had an insatiable curiosity about all manner of things and found New Zealand and its people fascinating.

He was endearingly human. Upon arrival at our place I complimented him on his jet black hair, particularly as his tour publicity photo, taken in Manila the previous year, showed him with the expected amount of grey hair for a man in his mid 60s. He candidly admitted that he dyed it as “the comrades in the KMU Central Committee expect me to present a virile image”. I found him repeatedly weighing himself on the scales in our spare room – he confessed that his colleagues had teased him that, as he was coming to the home of dairy products, he’d get fat during his fortnight in NZ, a prospect which alarmed him (not good for the virile image, perhaps?). That room is the coldest and darkest in our house, so I wondered why he stayed in it while the rest of the house was much sunnier and warmer. He replied that he was entranced by the beauty of a tree in blossom outside his window and just wanted to sit and admire it.

The Philippines has lost a great man who was a much finer leader than any of the Presidents who make it their mission to oppress, exploit, assault, abduct, torture, imprison, frame and murder workers and the poor. The world has lost one of the finest exponents of genuine grassroots activism and leadership, a man who lived what he preached, namely to be at one with the people and to serve the people. His friends and comrades in New Zealand have lost a mate, one who exemplified working class internationalism and whose courage and principled militancy made him an inspiration to all who had the privilege of knowing him.

NZ Human Rights Project In Philippines

This is all well and good, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The Philippines has had, for many years, all the necessary formal human rights institutions, such as a Human Rights Commission, and the Government assures the world that its police and military are already subject to human rights oversight. The reality, sadly, is the diametric opposite of that. It remains to be seen what will actually come out of this NZ project (and Rosslyn Noonan was at pains to stress to us that “it’s not a panacea”), how it will be monitored, etc, etc. The Commission has undertaken to include PSNA and similar groups in regular meetings every few months to keep us informed. When we were in Manila on our 08 Christmas holiday we took the opportunity to ask somebody very well placed to comment on it, and the response was not encouraging, sad to say.

Solidarity Can Be Literally Lifesaving

In August 2008, the Philippine media reported that a pastor had been ordered released from political imprisonment. The significance of this is that, out of all the many thousands of political murders and disappearances that have occurred under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo since she came to power in 2001, this one was highlighted by an NZ union press release during her 2007 State visit to NZ. At that stage the pastor had been abducted and vanished (many such victims are never seen again or turn up horribly dead). We have it on reliable information that it came to Helen Clark’s attention and she raised it with Gloria during their talks in NZ. Gloria was embarrassed and dispatched back to Manila one of the top Police officials accompanying her to sort it out. Lo and behold, the pastor was suddenly surfaced. His captors/torturers told him “you have powerful friends abroad”. But he remained in custody on a ludicrous murder charge (i.e. he was supposedly a “Communist hitman”) for more than a year, until a court ordered his release. One small victory, but only a drop in the tsunami of State terror that passes for government in the Philippines.

Dining With A “Communist Murderer”

Our six week Philippines trip at the end of 2008 was a family holiday but I didn’t entirely ignore politics. On our first weekend we attended a glitzy fundraising dinner for a major human rights organisation headed by Marie Hilao-Enriquez, who is also Becky’s Aunty Marie (I hadn’t seen her since I spent a fortnight accompanying her around NZ on her 2004 PSNA speaking tour; my report on that tour is in Kapatiran 25/26, December 2005, online at http://www.converge.org.nz/psna/Kapatiran/KapNo25n26/Kap25n26Art/art115.htm. Marie is a high profile figure. While I was in Manila a newspaper devoted a whole column to attacking her as a “Communist’). Human rights work is a very risky occupation – the evening paid tribute to the 34 murdered members of the organisation. But it was primarily an evening of celebration, of music, song and dance, featuring some of the country’s top progressive musicians. We caught up with many old friends and Marie looked after us very well – she made sure that I was seated next to two of the country’s most high profile Leftwing Congressmen, neither of whom I’d met before.

One of them, Satur Ocampo, was the spokesman for the underground National Democratic Front (which includes the Communist Party of the Philippines and its New People’s Army, which has waged a 40 year long armed struggle, with no end in sight) in the 70s and 80s, a high profile political prisoner under Marcos and the NDF’s lead peace negotiator after Marcos was overthrown. In 2006 he and his five Congressional colleagues (including Ka Bel) were charged with rebellion – which carries a mandatory life sentence. Only Ka Bel was arrested and spent 16 months in custody – the other five were given sanctuary in the Congress Building by the Speaker. Having failed to nail Ka Satur for rebellion, he was arrested in 07 and held in prison for a fortnight on a historic “murder” charge dating from his time in the Communist armed struggle (inconveniently for the current regime, at the time of the “murder” he was a Marcos political prisoner in solitary confinement). The most dangerous time of his 07 spell in custody was when the cops literally dragged him from prison and put him on a small plane to take him to the province where the “murder” allegedly occurred, and where a lynch mob had been assembled by the military. An emergency court hearing resulted in that plane being ordered to turn back to Manila. Murder is a non-bailable charge, so you can draw your own conclusions from the fact that after a fortnight in prison, a judge released him on bail. He told me that he remains “on bail” for that and a more recent historic “murder” charge filed against him. The only restriction is that he’s not allowed to leave the country. There is no trial in sight; this is just part of the State harassment of its political opponents, those who are too high profile to be murdered. Legal Left politics in the Philippines are not for the fainthearted – it was an absolute privilege to meet him, as I had been aware of him as one of the heroes of the Philippine revolutionary struggle for decades.

Reliving The Past Courtesy Of The SIS

As I say in every annual Report, my ancient past (2009 marks my 40 th anniversary as a political activist, God help me) always comes back to haunt me in some way, shape or form. Back in 2006, Bill and I were among a number of people interviewed by a Victoria University thesis writer about the 1960s and 70s Resistance Bookshops in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. We got to read that thesis in 2008 and it constituted a very interesting trip down memory lane. I was interviewed by a Canterbury University Sociology student for a Life Story project. She illustrated it with stills taken from Russell Campbell’s 1991 documentary “Rebels In Retrospect”, about the Progressive Youth Movement (PYM). I thought about those days when the death occurred in 2008 of Ron Guthrey, the Mayor of Christchurch (1968-71), with whom PYM clashed so spectacularly at Cathedral Square’s War Memorial on Anzac Day two years running - we laid a protest wreath depicting some of the hundreds of civilian victims of the Americans’ My Lai Massacre, dedicated “To The Victims Of Fascism In Vietnam”. The Mayor threw away our wreath and the whole thing caused major national uproar. He was also the Mayor who unsuccessfully tried to put a road through Hagley Park – one night, PYM filled a van with dirt from the preparatory roadworks and dumped it all over his Fendalton drive. Ah, the good old days.

The most interesting journey into the past came courtesy of the unlikely source of the NZ Security Intelligence Service (SIS), which, in an unpublicised move, has started dishing out files to people who ask for them. It all started with the SIS releasing some of its previously secret files on the notorious 1970s’ failed attempt to have the late Bill Sutch convicted, under the former Official Secrets Act, of espionage on behalf of the former Soviet Union (for details on this see my article “Speaking Ill Of The Dead : The Vicious Smear Campaign Against Bill Sutch & Jack Lewin”, in Watchdog 113, December 2006, online at http://www.converge.org.nz/watchdog/13/12.htm). In turn this led to Bill’s older brother, George, a former Wellington lawyer who had been involved with the Sutch case, applying for and receiving his Personal File from the SIS  - that included the fact that the SIS had a file on Bill. So Bill got his and alerted all the other people named in it, many of whom, in turn, got their files. CAFCA decided to get the file held on us as an organisation and we have since received 400 documents from the SIS, comprising its censored file on CAFCINZ/CAFCA, spanning the decades from the mid 1970s to the late 1990s. Most recently we have received ten previously withheld memoranda that the SIS sent to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) about us in what the accompanying letter describes as “the Resistance Ride – anti-nuclear ship visit period of CAFCINZ’s history” (i.e. the 1970s). The SIS Director assured us that it no longer keeps a file on CAFCA as we are ”no longer of interest”.

Because of the remarkably indiscreet personal nature of some of the material about named third parties contained in this file, the committee is still mulling how best to make it available to members, the public and the media. But rest assured that it makes extremely fascinating reading (even if the names and identifying details of all the spies and informers have been removed). My favourite quote about me is from a late 1970s’ CAFCINZ AGM where the spy reported that I used obscene language even though there were ladies present, that “he seems to like the sound of his own voice” and “kept interrupting other speakers”. I’m mortally offended! Actually that could have been written by any of my colleagues or by either of the two women with whom I have lived during the past 40 years.  I haven’t applied for my own SIS file yet. That might be a project for this year. Interestingly the SIS has told several current activists that it will neither confirm nor deny that it holds a file on them, which indicates to me that those people are under current SIS surveillance.

Bring It On

Personally, 2008 was a good year. We had a family Christmas in the Philippines, my first there for a decade and, at six weeks, my longest break since before I started as the CAFCA/ABC Organiser back in 1991 (being self-employed and the sole staff means that holidays are scarce). It was a family holiday, with a little bit of politics (see above). Internet access enabled me to keep a daily eye on what was going on back here and to deal with urgent matters, which included, for example, the cover graphic for this issue; the Roger judges having reached their verdict a month early; and being fully informed on the saga, which unfolded every day for a week in December 08, of Rob Gilchrist, the Christchurch-based Police spy/agent provocateur, who did his dirty work among a large number of progressive groups throughout the country for a decade. I hasten to add that we (in this case, ABC) picked him for a spy from the outset – we’ve had spies before, they all basically use the same modus operandi -  and he was never allowed to get into a position to do any damage to us. Other groups and individuals have learned a valuable but painful lesson.

The only detail of What I Did In My Holidays that I will report is that it included me becoming the sickest I have been for years, with a couple of simple head colds turning into nasty lung infections which triggered weeks of asthma (of which I have no history). I still had a mild version of it when we came home; it also made me appreciate the staggering cost of medical treatment in the Philippines, which has no free or subsidised health services. Two visits to a doctor and the prescriptions cost us around $NZ300 (this in a country where tens of millions live on less than $US2 per day). At one point I thought I might end up in hospital but I rapidly backed away from that when I saw a TV news item about hospital patients finding dead cockroaches in their food. Rest assured that this unfortunate illness episode didn’t stop us thoroughly enjoying ourselves – Filipinos know how to have a good time and this trip was no exception. It was great and, to give just one example, my first Manila New Year’s Eve was like nothing else I’ve ever experienced (in a city of 17 million every street lays down a deafening and dazzling hours long barrage of high powered fireworks, gunfire and anything else that will make noise. Once that’s over, you settle down to some serious eating, dancing and general merrymaking. Whoopee!).

I look forward to this being a year of increased activity. I don’t share the gloom and doom felt by some about the election result (see my analysis of that elsewhere in this issue). I’m nearly 58 and I’ve lived most of my life under National governments (not to mention some pretty Tory Labour ones), so that prospect doesn’t fill me with dread. Indeed, as a political activist, my job is easier with National in power. They are the traditional enemy and having a National government awakens from political hibernation many of those timid souls who never say boo when Labour is in office. Everybody knows that National are a pack of bastards. So, I say, bring it on, there will be no shortage of things for CAFCA to get our teeth into, and with global capitalism having a major panic attack, it will be a very interesting time for all of us. Let’s get stuck in.