Which John Smith MP is dead?

Many people have been confused by the fact that there have been two Labour MPs called John Smith in recent history. Just to clarify the matter, smug right-winger and Monklands East MP John Smith died in 1994, while smug right-winger and Vale of Glamorgan MP John Smith persists in breathing, though dead from the neck up.

No politician has identified themselves more intimately with the proposed St Athan military training complex than Smith. Memorably, Smith opined that campaigners opposing the project should be ’stopped’; meanwhile this stalwart defender of free speech himself been given double-page spreads in local newspapers to advertise the great benefits of the scheme.

Now, however, as has been recorded here and elsewhere, the St Athan super-deathschool project is beginning to unravel: senior armed forces officers have questioned its economic benefits and ability to deliver suitable training; financial backers have been scared off by the credit crunch; the jobs claims have been shown to be misleading; the moral case against Metrix has been greatly strengthened by the victory of the Raytheon 9 in a Belfast courthouse.

Metrix have responded by a propaganda campaign (or ‘consultation exercise’ as they quaintly call it), with meetings and exhibitions in the St Athan area. Unfortunately, however, they have discovered just how far they have to go to convince local people of the advantages of having a huge military presence on their doorstep, consisting of recruits to the armed forces of any country willing to pay for training in South Wales.

John Smith, however, is undeterred. In response to an assertion from Plaid councillor Nic Hodges that St Athan will be an ‘isolated gated village’, he argues that the Metrix PFI project will provide ‘wonderful’ state-of-the-art swimming and leisure facilities which will be available to the local civilian population and benefit our future Olympic stars, bringing an ‘incalculable’ number of jobs (whatever happened to those confident calculations of 5,500?)

There are two problems with this argument. One is that many people will simply not believe it. The security implications of concentrating all armed forces training into one complex are obvious to all; just try wandering into MOD St Athan now, or even being photographed nearby.

The second problem is that, possibly unknown to John Smith, “the best all round water and fitness facility in the UK” is currently being completed in Cardiff, including a state-of-the-art swimming pool (another PFI project) costing £32m. To quote the council blurb, “a 50m ten lane international competition swimming pool with two submersible booms and floating floors at either end of the main pool, capable of creating three 25m training pools; a family water area with four flume rides, including ’space bowl’ and ‘lazy river’, a beach area, plunge pool and water slides. In addition there is spectator seating for 1,000; plus extensive state-of-the-art fitness and leisure facilities”

How about a real public consultation over whether it is a sensible use of taxpayers money to build a £11 billion military training complex in order to have another pool less than twelve miles away?

The leisure complex represents even more profits for Metrix partner Laing O’Rourke, who also built the Millenium Stadium and most of St Davids 2. Perhaps there will be a place for John Smith on their board when he finally recognises that he is fooling nobody but himself.

Climate camp: interview with imprisoned activist

James Thorne, a climate camp protestor is currently in Elmley Jail, after being arrested during the Climate Camp. His conditions for bail were that he should not re-enter the Hoo peninsula, the site of the camp. He refused the conditions and was jailed as a result. His hearing will take place on Monday. PR spoke to him today from prison.

What’s been going on?

The level of police repression against the Climate Camp is remarkable. Around 1,500 officers have encircled the climate camp, with constant harassment of campers and their supporters. Helicopters constantly circle overhead, there are systematic searches of people entering or leaving the camp, the sexual assault of women protestors by female police in front of male officers, the theft of campers equipment, including children’s crayons and bike locks (attached to bikes), the arrest of protestors for a variety of generally trumped up charges, and the bailing of those protestors on condition that they do not re-enter the Hoo peninsula, during the climate camp.

What happened to you?

I was arrested on Thursday afternoon at approximately 5pm, allegedly for “assaulting a police officer” when entering the Camp for Climate Action! I probably don’t need to tell you the ridiculous circumstances of the arrest but try and imagine a kneeling man with an injured hand…

And then what?

I went to court on Thursday morning and pleaded not guilty to police assault, but the court would only grant me bail on condition that I did not go on the Hoo peninsula.

I would not accept that restriction on my freedom of expression so I withdrew the bail application. This is becoming a pattern; at DSEI in 2007 they banned protestors from the borough of Newham for the entire duration of the event. I think the charge was police assault there too. So we need to resist this ban on protesting. What I feel we should do is to refuse to accept bail if the bail conditions conflict with our human rights. There have been about 20 people arrested so far (up to Saturday).

The climate camp legal team are dealing with people. The other thing for me is that if I had taken the bail conditions I could have either gone home to Manchester, which was out of the question, or they are inviting me to break my bail conditions which is another offence, so my other option was to come to jail.

How is jail?

Well it is quite interesting. I have had some experience of the prison officers; from their point of view they were incredulous. I’ve told them to write to their MPs. Similarly with the SERCO guards; one of them was in Greenpeace and she said “nice one lovee”. And prison is a place that is full of humanity. I’m in the first night wing, which is to provide a reassuring environment, with an Iraqi guy and Nigerian guy in our three man cell. They call it a bachelor pad! According to Meridian reports, which is the local ITV news, their reporter was searched in a very intimidating way. I will probably get out on Monday or Tuesday.

The magistrates said that “your bail conditions could allow you to go back to the camp once, accompanied by a police officer to collect your things”, to which I replied “I’d rather have my human rights than my tent!”

What were your impressions of the camp?

There are 1,500-2,000 at the camp, which has been a liberated zone since Monday when the cops were pushed off. It’s been under siege since Monday, including the Lib Dem MP, there have been incidences of sexual assault by women police officers when they are searching women, in front of male police officers.

Everyone at the climate camp is discussing questions around authority and the state, but it has been a very positive experience, although on Monday I was pepper sprayed and my finger was almost broken in a separate incident. And it’s not true about porridge in jail – you get cornflakes!

Additional info

On Thursday 6 July at approximately 1pm James was remanded in custody until 12 August. He had given the Camp for Climate Action as his bail address as he is currently homeless and considers this community his home for the week. He was offered the option of bail conditions that excluded him from the Peninsula. He withdrew his application for bail because of this. We are challenging this in the Crown Court on Monday.

Other people are also refusing the restrictive bail conditions that are being imposed solely to restrict our freedom of expression and our right to protest.

They inspire us, and we want this inspiration to be with us on Saturday as we think of how angry they will be to miss the event and how proud they will be of our actions.


For a further report of life in the climate camp, see PR’s main site.

Special report: Barack Obama in Berlin

The flow of people from the Brandenburg Gate to the Victory Column in the heart of Berlin seemed truly endless. On 24 July, up to 200,000 people came to Berlin’s central park, the Tiergarten, to hear a speech by U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama. As with the “fan mile” for the European Cup, which had been in the same place on month earlier, there were jumbotrons alongside the countless beer and sausage stands.

The performance itself was surprisingly minimalist: a single speaker, without music or a warm-up speech, without huge posters as a backdrop. The theme of the 28-minute speech was … basically everything. Obama, went from the Berlin Airlift, of his illustrious predecessor Jack Kennedy, to religious conflicts, global warming to the threats of war against Iran.

At times, the speech sounded like something from the Cold War. It was about evil “communists who sought to extinguish the flame of freedom”, using the bogey men of yesterday to root for the military operations of today. Obama referred to a speech by West Berlin Mayor Ernst Reuter in September 1948 in which he appealed for help against the Soviet blockade. Then he succeeded, relatively easily, in changing the topic from the Cold War to so-called “war against terrorism”, according to the motto: “then and now we have to stand together against the evil from the east!”

The central message of the speech was clear: “Send more troops to Afghanistan!” Obama adeptly avoided a direct reference to the topic, but he spoke of the need for Europeans to “take on more responsibility” in Afghanistan. He spoke of the “heroin dealers on your streets” who are connected to the “Al-Qaeda terrorists on the Hindu Kush”. (But since opium cultivation has massively increased since the beginning of the occupation of Afghanistan, it’s debatable if this argument really speaks in favour of a continuation of the military operations.) Finally, he said, more or less directly: “The people of Afghanistan need our troops and your troops.”

Despite the clear demands for greater military engagement, many in the audience thought of Obama as a genuine opponent of the U.S. crusades of recent years.

But as a reporter for the New York Times said, most onlookers were “a little hazy on [Obamas] politics.” As evidence for this, he quoted a young woman who praised Obama: “He’s against the Iraq War … that’s the most important thing “(1). Every New York Times reporter knows that Obama has only promised a gradual troop withdrawal from Iraq – and then only to free up more troops for further wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries. Nevertheless, countless do-gooders in Germany seem to suffer from the misapprehension, that Obama somehow opposes the Iraq war. When he said, on the topic of Iraq, “this war must finally come to an end,” shouts of “O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!” rung out.

To point out these contradictions, a number of activists protested in front of the event. Stefan, a U.S. activist who served in the Vietnam War and has protested against imperialist wars for 30 years, said: “There was never a U.S. government that I supported.” In his view, Obama’s speech consisted in nothing but empty phrases: “The only thing he didn’t say was: ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’.” Michael, a Trotskyist activist from Seattle, said in the direction of his countrymen: “They have to understand that elections are not the way to affect change in our country. ” (Other Americans present were noticeably less passionate. Cameron, who was selling huge Obama buttons on the side of the road, said: “I am a supporter of the Obama campaign, but I also have to pay the rent.”)

In the run-up, the organizers of the rally had prohibited any kind of posters or banners. A long way out from the stage was a barrier where there were security controls like in an airport. Anyone with political materials was harassed and driven off by private security people.

The mood among the majority of participants (at least the ones towards the back, who hadn’t waited for six hours in the sun) was more curiosity than hope. Many young people referred to Obama as a “lesser evil”, not as a “ray of hope”. But the German bourgeoisie are thrilled about the idea of a U.S. president who consults about the war plans of the might America with other big powers like Germany. The German capitalists hope to get a bigger say in world politics with the help of a President Obama (and the liberal wing of the U.S. bourgeoisie who stand behind him). For this reason, has the bourgeois press in Germany pushed this election rally constantly.

But it’s not only the German bosses who love Obama. The Left Party’s chairman Gregor Gysi gushed that Obama was ready “to approach other countries” – that he was “didn’t want to culturally dominate, but accept different cultures” (2). The Left Party leadership are not against imperialist wars per se, but only those which they consider “illegal” or particularly “aggressive”. With their eyes on a seat in government involvement at the federal level, the Mssrs. Government Socialists prove that they could support “legal” and “humanitarian” wars.

Even more shocking was an article in this month’s issue of “Rotdorn”, the magazine of the Left Youth-Solid in Berlin-Brandenburg, which proclaimed that Obama – as the Left Party – wants to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq, introduce a universal health care system and rely on diplomacy rather than war resolving Iran “with direct diplomacy and, where appropriate, international cooperation and economic sanctions” (3).

Any anti-war activist should know that such sanctions primarily hurt the mass of the population. The sanctions against Iraq, decided by the UN led to the deaths of well over a million Iraqis between 1990 and 2003 (4) – thus, they were much more destructive than the second Iraq War, which took place without the consent of the UN. Again pacifism, including the boundless devotion to the UN as an instrument of world peace, shows itself rather helpless against the growing wars in the world.

Instead of placing hopes in a “lesser evil” like Obama, we should get active against imperialist wars and show solidarity with the people in the affected countries who are struggling against the occupation forces. If the 200,000 Berliners had not gone to a semi-political fan mile in the Tierpark but rather on a militant anti-war demonstration, that would have been an important step in this direction.

Wladek Flakin, from the independent youth organisation REVOLUTION (http://www.onesolutionrevolution.org)