KEN COATES
It is with great sadness that the Bertrand Russell Peace
Foundation announces the death of its Chairman, Ken Coates. Ken died
suddenly at home in Derbyshire on Sunday 27 June 2010, in his eightieth
year. He had served the Foundation ever since its inception in 1963.
He was editor of The Spokesman
journal, starting with the first number, published in 1970. The
forthcoming issue, no.109, will carry a full appreciation.
A Special Relationship ... with Truth?
Edited by Ken Coates
The Spokesman 108
Editorial
We recently gave our attention to the strange mutations which have taken
place in the British constitution as a result of developments in the
alleged intelligence services. As we observed, their trade in
intelligence proper has not always been attended by much success, but
regardless of this disadvantage their influence has grown and grown.
It would not be unfair to remark that this process has been accompanied
by another, not dissimilar: the never-ending continuity of the so-called
special relationship, between Britain and the United States. This, too,
has hardly been immune from the processes of change. It began with a
rather different shape from its present one, but from lusty young robber
to decrepit old monster, it has developed, with ubiquity, a distinct
modesty, which means that it is hardly ever discussed objectively in its
own right.
True, permitted are endless rather flatulent commentaries in which the
deep ties of consanguinity and linguistic affinity are hymned. But what
it is all for, and how its mechanisms are arranged, is not a matter to
discuss in front of the children.
If one studied official American military doctrine, one could be excused
for failing to find any relationships, anywhere, but those of
subordination. ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ is still the official credo of
the American military-industrial complex, and there, it might be
thought, is an end of it. But Britain is perhaps unique among the
dominated in seeking actually to celebrate its subordination. That is
why it was so refreshing to hear Clare Short testifying before the
Chilcot Inquiry.
When Sir John asked her if she had any comments to make on the
reevaluation of her experiences, which she had described with some
candour, she said that she thought that her old Department of
International Development had not been adequately involved; that the
machinery of Government ‘has broken down quite badly’; and that the role
of the
Attorney General must be adjudged unsafe following his various
pronouncements on the legality of the war. But then she added a fourth
comment, braver than all the others, which broke new ground for the
Inquiry. The fourth problem, she said,
‘is about the special relationship. We really need a serious debate in
our country about what we mean by it, whether it is unconditional
poodle-like adoration and do whatever America says, or whether we have
bottom lines and we sometimes agree and we sometimes don’t and we use
our influence responsibly, and I think we have ended up humiliating
ourselves and being a less good friend to America than we could have
been if we had stood up for an independent policy.
But that’s a bigger question, because you should see, when America asks
for something, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor all get terribly
excited and love America asking us to do something, and we really need
to rethink that.
Ken Coates - READ MORE
This new issue of The Spokesman can be bought from our sister website.
The Iraq Inquiry
Questions for Jack Straw
Reports of the International Committee of the Red
Cross on breaches of the Geneva Conventions are normally confidential,
being addressed to the authorities which may come under criticism. This
was the case when the International Committee
of the Red Cross presented its
twenty-four page report on serial breaches of the Conventions on
the part of coalition forces in Iraq.
Iraq Inquiry Digest
For further information please visit the Iraq Inquiry Digest's website.
Russell Tribunal on Palestine
On 4 March 2009, the
Russell Tribunal on Palestine was launched at a press conference
in Brussels chaired by Stéphane Hessel, Ambassador of France. The
initiators of the Tribunal, Ken Coates,
Chairman of the
Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation,
Leila Shahid,
General Delegate of Palestine to the European Union, Belgium and
Luxembourg,
and Nurit Peled,
winner of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought,
discussed why they called its creation.
Speaking for the Tribunal’s Organising Committee, the former Belgian
Senator Pierre Galand explained how it will work. Amongst more than a
hundred international personalities who have given their support to the
Tribunal, Ken Loach, Paul Laverty, Raji Surani, Jean Ziegler, François
Rigaux, Jean Salmon and François Maspero were present in Brussels to
give encouragement to this project.
In the tradition of the Russell Tribunal on War Crimes in Vietnam, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine is a citizens’ initiative which aims to reaffirm the primacy of international law as the basis for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and at raising awareness of the responsibility of the international community in the continuing denial of the rights of the Palestinian people.