Re: Conference on the Special Relationship (UK)

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

maybe the US elite didn't want him to? or they never thought of it? 

in any event, I was simply making a hyperbolic & cynical remark spawned by a Monday-morning caffeine shortage.

------------------------
Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Baer [mailto:pbaer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 9:25 AM
> To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Conference on the Special Relationship (UK)
> 
> 
> If this were true Blair would have torpedoed Kyoto.
> 
> --pb
> 
> >I don't see why this conference is needed. The 
> >US tells the UK what to do. They do it. Period.
> >
> >------------------------
> >Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>  -----Original Message-----
> >>  From: k hanly [mailto:khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> >>  Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 7:20 AM
> >>  To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>  Subject: [PEN-L] Conference on the Special Relationship (UK)
> >>
> >>
> >>  [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]
> >>
> >>  Call for a Conference on the "Special Relationship"
> >>  ****************************************
> >>
> >>  Website: www.specialrelationship.net   Subscribe to the
> >>  discussion list by
> >>  sending a blank message to
> >>  specialrelationship-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>
> >>  You are invited to participate in a project to organise a
> >>  two-day Conference
> >>  on the "Special Relationship". It will be a national 
> conference with
> >>  international dimension, with speakers from the US, the
> >>  Middle East and
> >>  elsewhere. It will take place in Sheffield in early 2005, and
> >>  maybe also in
> >>  Manchester and London. A book will be produced of the
> >>  Conference papers.
> >>
> >>  The main themes of the Conference will include:
> >>  -    the origins of the "special relationship" in post-WW2
> >>  Middle East, in
> >>  particular the 1953 military coup in Iran and the 1956 
> Suez Crisis;
> >>  -    the economic relations between the US and the UK;
> >>  -    the $ vs.?, US vs. Europe
> >>  -    the "special relationship goes to war" - the invasion
> >>  and military
> >>  occupation of Iraq;
> >>  -    the Israel-US-UK triangle
> >>  -    what is imperialism? (This has been included as a theme since
> >>  examination of the specific alliance between imperialist USA
> >>  and UK needs to
> >>  be informed by a working concept of imperialism in general)
> >>  Please contact us via our website or discussion list for a
> >>  full Conference
> >>  Prospectus, in which these themes are broken down into
> >>  individual elements.
> >>  All who read this are invited to consider submitting a paper
> >>  on any of these
> >>  topics - and we welcome suggestions for new topics.
> >>
> >>  The Conference Working Group invites and urges you to offer
> >>  some of your
> >>  time over the next twelve months to realising this project.
> >>  We need YOUR
> >>  help with many and varied tasks - from selecting articles for
> >>  the website
> >>  and considering proposed papers, to designing publicity,
> >>  raising funds,
> >>  translating important articles into English, organising 
> the Conference
> >>  itself. Please volunteer to help share these tasks, and you
> >>  will also share
> >>  in the overall design and direction of the event.
> >>
> >>
> >>  ***********************
> >>
> >>  What is the "special relationship"?
> >>
> >>  The 1956 Suez crisis ended Britain's pretensions of being a
> >>  stand-alone
> >>  imperial power. Ever since, Britain has protected its vast
> >>  "interests" in
> >>  the Middle East and elsewhere by maintaining the closest of
> >>  alliances with
> >>  the USA.
> >>  This "special relationship" is responsible for doz-ens of
> >>  military coups and
> >>  invasions, the deaths of millions of people, and the theft of
> >>  trillions of
> >>  dollars.
> >>  Few phenomena are as important, yet suffer such
> >>  incomprehension, as the
> >>  "special relation-ship". At the Labour Party Conference,
> >>  Jeremy Corbyn asked
> >>  with amazement "why are we, a British Labour Government with
> >>  a very large
> >>  Parliamentary majority, so signed up to the ul-tra-right wing
> >>  George Bush?"
> >>  A review of the 50-year"special relationship" and of the
> >>  Labour Party's rôle
> >>  within it would show that nothing could be more natural.
> >>
> >>  Did you know.
> >>
> >>  Question: what is the name of biggest oil com-pany within the US?
> >>  Answer: BP (British Petroleum), which has 40% of its
> >>  employees in the USA.
> >>
> >>  Question: the ruling families of which country own two of the
> >>  three biggest
> >>  oil companies in the world?
> >>  Answer: Britain (BP and Shell; Exxon is the big-gest). BP 
> has major
> >>  interests from Colombia to Africa to central Asia. Along with
> >  > other British
> >>  banks and multinationals, it relies on US mili-tary power to
> >>  protect its
> >>  property and super-profits.
> >>
> >>  Question: which country is 2nd only to the USA in the size of
> >>  its empire of
> >>  overseas wealth?
> >>  Answer: .you've guessed it; Britain. In 2001, Britain's
> >>  overseas direct
> >>  investments totalled $902bn, 14.4% of the world total
> >>  (compared to 21.1%
> >>  owned by US imperialists, 7.9% owned by the French, 7.8%
> >>  owned by Germans,
> >>  and 4.6% owned by Japanese).
> >>
> >>  *********************************
> >>
> >>  The motive for the Conference is to respond to the almost
> >>  universal failure
> >>  of the anti-war movement to comprehend why Britain has joined
> >>  in the US-led
> >>  war and occupation of Iraq. "Blair is Bush's poodle" sums up
> >>  a widespread
> >>  view, propounded by Steve Bell cartoons, Tony Benn, the SWP
> >>  and many other
> >>  influential voices critical of the Blair government's 
> actions. It is a
> >>  notion which only makes sense if we ignore the fact that
> >>  Britain is itself
> >>  an imperialist power, the home for two of the three largest
> >>  oil companies in
> >>  the world, and the owner of the second-largest stock of FDI
> >>  after the USA
> >>  (second to none in relation to its size).
> >>
> >>  The Conference organisers (at the moment, myself and a 
> number of other
> >>  non-aligned activists in the anti-sanctions and anti-war
> >>  movements) have a
> >>  working concept of the 'special relationship' which the
> >>  Conference will test
> >>  and enrich. Central to it is the perception that the 'special
> >>  relationship'
> >>  was forged in the Middle East following WW2, as the US and UK
> >>  were forced
> >>  into an alliance in order to confront and roll back democratic and
> >>  nationalist movements in oil-rich and strategically 
> important Iran and
> >>  Arabia. There is no "special relationship" (or only a weak
> >>  reflection of it)
> >>  in Africa, Asia or Latin America. The rest of the world tends
> >>  to be divided
> >>  into 'spheres of influence'; in the Middle East, these
> >>  spheres overlap like
> >>  nowhere else. [I leave aside the very different case of West
> >>  Germany during
> >>  the Cold War].
> >>
> >>  The aim of the Conference is to assemble all the relevant
> >>  facts which we
> >>  need to answer the question "why did Britain go to war". It
> >>  aims to put this
> >>  war and this crisis into its necessary context - this is why
> >>  it might seem,
> >>  at first glance, that the history and current reality of
> >>  Iraq's crisis is
> >>  just an aspect of a more general remit, when in fact it is
> >>  right at the
> >>  centre of the Conference, its raison d'être, no less. "
> >>
> >>  John Smith (johncsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx),
> >>  Convenor of Conference Working Group
> >>
> >>
> >>  ---
> >>  Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
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> >>
> >>  _______________________________________
> >>
>