Congratulations to Michael Randle and Pat Pottle, who last week were found 'not helping super-spy George Blake to escape from Wormwood Scrubs in 1966. The prosecution of the two occurred because of a vindictive campaign by the rightwing Freedom Association, backed by 100 Tory MPs.
Interviewed by Socialist Outlook last vear Pat Pottle was pessimistic about being acquitted. He said: 'Sometimes I dream about it. I get this idea that we tell the jury what we did. and they'll say "Oh yeah, we agree with that - that was great". But being realistic, every attempt we make to tell people what we did and why we did it, the judge is going to tell us to shut up. I think we will be found guilty.
Which all goes to show that dreams do come true, even for left wingers!
The outcome of the trial, in which the two defendants admitted their part in the escape, shows the importance of fightAfter 16 years fighting for In this trial the judge virtually ordered the jury to find Randle and Pottle guilty - but thev openly defied him. Instead of thanking the jury at the end of the trial, he dismissed them with a curt Please ciear those seats - I've got another case to try!
The case casts an interesting sidelight on the genuine radicalism which sections of the peace movement displayed in the 1960s. Randle and Pottle were both leaders of the Committee of 100 which organised mass sit downs against the threat of nuclear war. They were imprisoned under the Official Secrets Act for organising sitdowns at US nuclear bases.
Bruce Kent, who only came top prominence in CND in the 1980s, commented that the actions of people like Pottle and Randle were a 'diversion' from the issue of nuclear disarmament, and that he would 'never have dreamed' of doing anything like freeing George Blake. Quite. Maguire's name, the judge-