RAF Hawk aircraft. Jez/Flickr. Some rights reserved.20 years ago this week an action by three women to damage a Hawk
jet soon to be exported from Britain to Indonesia was successful. On 29
January 1996, Joanna Wilson, Lotta Kronlid, and Andrea Needham were
arrested and charged with causing over a million pounds' worth of
damage, while Angie Zelter was charged shortly afterwards with conspiracy.
All four were in prison for six months pending the seven-day trial which
took place at Liverpool crown court in July 1996.
The defence
case was that the women were preventing a greater crime – the use of the
jet by the Indonesian military against people in East Timor, who had been engaged in a struggle against cruel occupation and for national independence since 1975. The outcome was one of the most remarkable verdicts in recent legal history: not guilty.
At
the time, that judgment was typically described as “perverse”. But it
stood, and the four women were released. Now, two decades later, a
remarkable account has been published by Peace News of the series of events that led to the trial as well as of the women's week in the dock.
The Hammer Blow: How Ten Women Disarmed a Warplane
is a lucid personal narrative by Andrea Needham of why they decided to
do what they did. It charts the work by the four and their six close
supporters, which stretched over years of effort before culminating in the mid-winter action.
The brutal Indonesian counterinsurgency campaign against the independence movement
in East Timor was already a matter of controversy when their protest
began. The Hawk Ploughshares group had tried many ways of campaigning
conventionally to get the government and British Aerospace
to stop the export of the Hawk jets. BAe claimed that the planes were
being exported as trainers, but there was ample evidence of their active
military role; the Hawk Ploughshares group came to recognise that
direct action would be needed, though aware that as a consequence its
members might face many years in prison.
Of
the many fascinating themes in Andrea Needham’s book, four are worth
noting. First, the amount of work involved. The women spent months
pursuing the usual routes before embarking on the action, and then many
more considering how to respond to what would inevitably follow, while
maintaining their focus on possible success.
Second, the
meticulous research and observation of the BAe plant at Warton in
Lancashire, north-west England that provided the information they needed
to undertake the action. The detail here of how they avoided security
is worthy of a spy novel. But also at one stage of a comic one: for
having done the damage, they couldn’t attract the attention of BAe
staff! After two hours in the hangar, they ended up phoning the Press
Association to get the message out.
Third, the group's experience
of months on remand in Risley prison, near Warrington, which provides a
revealing picture of how a women’s prison operates in modern-day
Britain. This period was taken up with preparation for the trial, in
which aid from lawyers and support from many people proved invaluable.
Fourth,
the trial itself. This was presided over by a judge who, to put it as
kindly as possible, was not sympathetic to their case. One high point
was the appearance of witnesses from East Timor, who provided graphic
descriptions of the force being used by Indonesia's government. Another
was BAe's persistent attempt to maintain that the planes were trainers,
even against evidence that they were to be deployed to a squadron with a
known counterinsurgency role and at an airbase within combat-range of
East Timor.
These are but a few details of a determined and
inspiring action which has now resulted in a hugely readable and
informative book. I was fortunate enough to read the whole text at the
proof stage. A sample chapter is available online
and gives a good indication of its quality. If you live within reach of
central London, then Andrea Needham will be at the launch at Friends
House, opposite Euston Station, on Friday 29 January, at 7pm. Go there if you can. If not, then read the chapter and buy the book. This is a story of change-making that works.
