[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <mailto:Undisclosed-Recipient:;@mindspring.com> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 3:31 PM Subject: BLAIR ELECTION RIVAL CONTINUES CAMPAIGN FROM PRISON PRESS RELEASE : HELEN JOHN CONTINUES CAMPAIGN AGAINST TONY BLAIR FROM NEW PRISON Vote Helen John, Ind. Sedgefield Constituency NO STAR WARS Campaign Tel. No. 01943-468393 [There is television footage of John's election announcement, made at the International Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space conference, Leeds, UK, available through: Lynn Ferguson, Mobile No. 078-8921-7446. Members of the press wishing to speak to Ms John may make their request directly to the Askham Grange Women's Prison on 01904-704236.] Helen John and Anne Lee, the Menwith Hill peace women given a long custodial sentence for �300 of damage to the fence at the Star Wars base in North Yorkshire, have been transferred to Askham Grange open women's prison. Please write to them there from now on. Any post sent to Low Newton should be forwarded to them at the new location eventually. The new address is: Askham Grange Women's Prison, Askham Richard, York YO2 3FT, England. Ms John is to be supplied with special communications facilities to allow her to continue the campaign from within prison. She is not disqualified from running because of a three month sentence. People are only disqualified as candidates if they get a prison sentence of a year or more. Helen John, who is standing as a parliamentary candidate in Prime Minister Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency, was given a prison sentence six times the normal length for damage at this level. Anne Lee, who only has four previous convictions, was given four times the normal sentence length, even though the judge said they were "valuable members of society." Please send letters of protest about their imprisonment, and about ballistic missile defence, to: The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, MP for Sedgefield, 10 Downing St., London SW1AA 2AA. Helen has applied to the prison governor for a day release so that she will be able to attend the election count on 7 June, as is her democratic right as a standing parliamentary candidate. Several women from the campaign, as well as local supporters, will also attend on the evening. You can recognise us because we'll be wearing the white, green and purple sashes, like the suffragettes, who also went to prison to protect our rights. This Saturday, 26 May, peace campaigners will meet in the constituency to continue canvassing the Sedgefield voters. They will be meeting at 1pm in the car park of the Newton Aycliffe Youth Centre, just off the A1 south of Durham. All peace campaigners are welcome to join us. We will also go out again on the following Saturday. A text version of Helen John's election communication to the 38,000 Sedgefield constituents follows. The address will be posted out this coming week. In England, the fact that she is running against Tony Blair in Tony Blair's constituency does not mean she is running for Prime Minister, as Prime Ministers here are not directly elected. The party with the largest number of seats chooses the Prime Minister, usually the leader of that party. Ms John's candidacy is a serious challenge to the government, however. Labour has a 25,000 majority in the 38,000 member constituency. This means that substantial numbers of people, disillusioned with Mr Blair's Conservative policies, will feel free to vote for Ms John without fearing a return of the people who actually call themselves Conservatives. Even if (when?) Mr Blair loses his seat to Ms John, the polls say Labour will win enough seats in Parliament to form a government. Protests against Ms John and Ms Lee's harsh prison sentences are being sent in from several Scandanavian countries, the United States, Australia and Argentina, as well as throughout the UK. Some people are sending letters of protest to their local English Embassy. Mr Blair will never be able to say that ballistic missile defence was not raised as an election issue. The Menwith Hill Women's Peace Camp[aign] would also like to send messages of solidarity to the other anti-nuclear protesters facing prison at this time, including Bonnie Urfer and Michael Sprong in Wisconsin, who caused several thousand pounds of damage to a Trident communications facility [Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]]; Fr. Carl Kabat, in Colorado, who damaged a nuclear silo [Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]]; Susan van der Hijden (32), from Amsterdam, and Father Martin Newell (33), who were found guilty of �31,000 pounds of damage to a nuclear convoy truck but already served their six months' term [Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]], and all those citizens of Vieques who are currently imprisoned there for protesting against US military insanity [Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]]. Regular information about all imprisoned peace protesters can be found on the following website: http://www.nonviolence.org/nukeresister/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ELECTION COMMUNICATION Please use your vote in the Constituency of Sedgefield Thursday 7 June 2001 for Helen JOHN, Independent Your alternative Parliamentary representative ** NO STAR WARS ** To all constituents in the Sedgefield election area: I would like to introduce myself. I am a retired midwife, aged 63, and I was a founder member of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp in the 1980s. Since 1993, I have campaigned against the illegal activities of the United States space-war spy base at Menwith Hill, North Yorkshire. I have opposed nuclear weapons, nuclear power and militarism for most of the last 20 years. Women and children have virtually no significant voice in decision-making on these issues, and we must be heard and understood for all our lives to improve. I left the Labour Party when Tony Blair became leader because I did not wish to support his Conservative views. I voted for my Labour MP, Harold Best, in the 1997 election, and will do so again. I do not wish to see the Conservatives re-elected in my lifetime, nor do I want to see "New Labour" promoting Conservative policies. Because I am not affiliated with a party, I can speak my mind freely. I am contesting this election in order to expose the secrecy and misinformation surrounding ballistic missile defence and theatre missile defence, which will require upgrading Menwith Hill and Fylingdales, and will affect every other US base in the UK. The US Space Command's own policy document, Vision for 2020, reveals that their mission is to "dominat[e] the space dimension of military operations to protect US interests and investment." [Not defend against 'rogue states']. Ballistic missile defence (BMD) is the armed wing of globalisation. It is an offensive, not defensive system. Approval of BMD will break both the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 and the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. It will lead to a new and dangerous arms race in outer space and to the destabilisation of international relations. China is already being presented as the next 'evil empire.' And space-based technologies have already been used in the bombing of civilians in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia. Yet Tony Blair has tried to keep Star Wars off the election agenda, pretending that no decisions have been made, even though the required infrastructure has already been built at Menwith Hill. Only after the election will George Bush visit Europe to discuss the Star Wars plans. You have the right to know now, before the election, how your Member of Parliament intends to behave. The Prime Minister should not be able to give the necessary approval by himself. 178 MPs have already signed an Early Day Motion expressing their concern about ballistic missile defence. Mr Blair needs to be reminded that if re-elected, he represents you and the United Kingdom, not George Bush and the expansionist aims of the United States. Tony Blair's first act in power was to go to Washington, DC to pledge that all US bases would be safe in his hands. This means none of us are safe from America, whose multinational companies and globalisation policies are already making all our lives harder. LINKING STAR WARS AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE: GLOBALISATION, HEALTH CARE AND EDUCATION If Star Wars goes ahead, it will increase America's global economic, military and political dominance. This can only be recognised as tyranny, wherein the US insists on free trade under its rules: weakening health and safety regulations, reducing workers' injury compensation, removing the right to collective bargaining, and reducing spending on health, education, public transport, and the police and fire services. When Mr Blair talks of 'modernising,' what is really in his mind is privatising and ensuring the profits of the private sector. So, when Mr Blair assures us that the National Health Service will always be "free at the point of use, why should we be worried if there is a role for the private sector?" we should all be concerned. Somewhere along the line our tax money will be providing profits to a private company - not reimbursing the NHS. Globalisation means that in this constituency people who have families to educate, feed and house will always get the lowest possible wage for their work. Here, one has to look no further than Newton Aycliffe to see the effects of domination by multi-national companies. Major manufacturing jobs have gone to overseas workers earning one-sixth of UK wages. This trend will continue. Mr Blair should spend more time in Newton Aycliffe, and less time in Islington - then he would see "the special relationship" in practice. In education, funding and standards are falling. At the last election, as you will all remember, he stated that his first priority was "education, education, education." Well, he was exact - he only had three children then. It would have been more honest to say, "fees, fees, fees." Can you trust this man? No! AVOIDING THE NEXT ARMS RACE: WHY I AM WILLING TO GO TO PRISON I am not a politician. I want my grandchildren and yours to grow up in a world free from another terrifying arms race. I will be spending time in prison during this election period because I acted against Menwith Hill, one of the Star Wars bases. I believe this place is exactly the same as a concentration camp - the only difference is that all the people to be harmed live outside the perimeter fence. On 19 June 2000 I cut through this fence, along with two other women, Anne Lee and Angie Zelter. We caused what the Ministry of Defence has said is �300 worth of damage each. On 21 May 2001 Anne was given two months and I was sentenced to three months in Low Newton Women's Prison [now Askam Grange Women's Prison, Askham Richard, York YO23 3FT]. (This does not disqualify me from standing as your candidate). Along with other women peace campaigners, I take pride in following the traditions set by the suffragettes who also went to prison to gain and protect our rights. In my life, I try to apply their slogan, "Deeds Not Words." I will go on campaigning from within prison, and between now and the next general election. We must protect ourselves from George W. Bush's far right-wing fundamentalist hypocrisy and cruelty. Tony Blair must not support this man nor his anti-women, anti-labour, anti-environment, pro-militarist agenda. None of us are safe from the forces of globalisation, nor from American exploitation. These go hand in hand with the Star Wars plans. Beware! On 13 October, people from over 20 countries will be protesting against Star Wars. If you have access to a computer, you can find out more about Star Wars and the protests by logging on to the website of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space: www.space4peace.org I ask to be your representative and will work for your interests, not those of George W. Bush and the arms manufacturers, oil companies and nuclear industries he represents. I ask you to lend me your vote. I would use it well. A vote for me represents a demand for equal representation of women in defence decision-making. It represents opposition to Star Wars and opposition to American-dominated globalisation. A vote for me represents a demand for better wages and working conditions, and better funding for health, education and socially acceptable jobs. Surely we can find better uses for the �3 million a day we spend on Trident nuclear warheads - yet another outcome of making deals with the United States! How many more billions will it take to make America feel safe?? Together, ordinary people like you and me can resist insane military might. Only recently, non-military sanctions have been lifted against the people of Iraq - not thanks to Mr Blair or Mr Bush, but to thousands of people throughout the world who would not accept the illegality and the cruelty those sanctions inflicted, particularly on the women and children. If you feel you can vote for me, please do. It will help put Star Wars on the political agenda for all to see. Whether you vote for me or not, please take a moment to put the slip of paper below in an envelope and send it to Mr Blair. You are all his constituents - he needs to listen to you. Because of his position, the rest of the world will be listening to you as well! My thanks to you all, Helen John An Independent parliamentary candidate for the constituency of Sedgefield representing Women for Life on Earth and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space Printed by Chippendale Press, 65 Bondgate, Otley, West Yorkshire Published by Helen John, 26 The Oval, Otley LS21 2ED West Yorkshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Dear Tony Blair, I am a voter in your Sedgefield constituency and I am opposed to Britain's involvement in US plans for ballistic missile defence. Please do not co-operate with plans to increase American military, political and economic dominance. No matter when President Bush officially asks you, WE WANT YOU TO SAY NO TO STAR WARS. We need real national security and real national defence - accessible hospitals, quality schools, improved public transportation, generous pensions, and a better deal for those who make their living working on the land and in multi-national companies. We do not need a new arms race. Yours sincerely, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Please cut out this slip of paper and send to: The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair MP for Sedgefield, 10 Downing St., London SW1A 2AA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- MEDIA CONTACTS: Contacts: Menwith Hill Women's Peace Campaign: 01943 468593 Trident Ploughshares: David Mackenzie 01324 880744 (07775711054) Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space Website: http://www.space4peace.org TP website: http://www.tridentploughshares.org There is television footage of John's election announcement, made at the International Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space conference, Leeds, UK, available through: Lynn Ferguson, Mobile No. 078-8921-7446 Members of the press wishing to speak to Ms John may make their request directly to the Askham Grange Women's Prison on 01904-704236.
