[…] the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR): “Critics of a power elite theory often call it “conspiratorial”, which is the academic equivalent of ending a discussion by yelling Communist. It is difficult to lay this charge to rest once and for all because these critics really mean something much broader than the dictionary definition of […]
[…] on IRD’s domestic operations takes that contention a good deal further forward. The authors tell us that in 1956 the Conservative MP Douglas Dodds-Parker, a former anti- communist ally of Labour Foreign Secretary Bevin, had been appointed to the Foreign Office as Under-Secretary – and apparently in formal charge of liaison with IRD.(2) Dodds-Parker […]
Brian Crozier HarperCollins, London, 1993 This is a very interesting book which greatly adds to our knowledge of the clandestine shaping of British politics in the 1970s and 80s. It is also a book which, like Chapman Pincher’s Inside Story, will repay repeated re-reading. But amidst all the new material a surprising amount of these […]
[…] Hollis, and Norman Reddaway representing the IRD. At the end of it, Brook instructed Hollis to make available to the Foreign Office, with security collateral, intelligence about communist malpractices in the unions that could be used by IRD. This led, among other things, to the ousting of Foulkes and Haxell from the leadership of […]
[…] Indonesia. ‘The bodies of the murdered generals were found in a well near the air force base of Halim (the air force had been a centre of communist influence among the military). A gruesome pogrom followed through the country as opponents of the PKI took their revenge.’ The crude attempt to imply that the […]
[…] Vice-President, a post from which I resigned and went back to my course. While living in Sheffield in 1977, I had been briefly a member of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Netherthorpe Branch. Pat had told me that Legg’s job was positively vetted; consequently I asked her whether my political background was […]
[…] are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures’. The speech was used to draw financial backing from Congress to Truman’s determination to support anti- Communist regimes in Greece and Turkey. These governments had been propped up by the British but the expense of the operation was by late 1946 too much […]
[…] who theorised and rendered the process possible – in terms of a Gramscian war of position or construction of a hegemony – were former members of the Communist Party or members of the Demos think tank. Names like Peter Mandelson, Stuart Hall, Martin Kettle and Martin Jacques spring to mind immediately What particularly interests […]
[…] pieces of research by Desmond Fernandes on the European-wide oppression of the Kurds. The first is ‘United States and NATO inspired “psychological warfare operations” against the “Kurdish communist threat” in Turkey’, published in the Glasgow-based magazineVariant no. 12: www.ndirect.co.uk/~variant The second is a monograph,The Targeting and Criminalisation of Kurdish Asylum Seekers and Refugee Communities […]
[…] Great Betrayal Nicholas Bethel (London 1984) This is either a ‘snow job’, designed to discourage further research in this area (British intelligence attempts to destabilise Soviet and communist influenced regimes), or is just a poor effort on Bethel’s part. One can’t deny that it is useful – after all, it is the first book […]
