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"As Europe's biggest defence contractor, BAe gained massively Thatcherism's arms sale driven foreign policy" tack aircraft, and the factories to make more of them, to Saddam Hussein.
The Foreign Office banned MoD salesmen from visiting the Baghdad arms fair in April 1989, after the uproar following the use of chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurds.
At the time, a former BAe executive, David Hastie, was on secondment to the MoD's Defence Export Services Organisation. He had been handpicked by DESO's head, Sir Colin Chandler, who was previously Hastie's boss as BAe group marketing director.
To get round the ruling, Hastie was released from his secondment for a few days and despatched to Baghdad as a 'BAe representative'. Thus, when Labour MP Tony Banks later asked Alan Clark, then defence minister, if any MoD official had attended the fair, he could safely be told: 'No.' Talk about economical with the actualite.
As Europe's biggest defence contractor, BAe gained massively from Thatcherism's arms-sale-driven foreign policy of the eighties.
Pergau Dam On a visit to Kuala Lumpur in September 1988, Margaret Thatcher, then prime minister, explicitly linked aid for the Pergau hydroelectric dam with the Malaysian Government Malaysian spending £1,000 million on BAe Tornado fighter-bombers.
The Malaysians subsequently cancelled, but placed an order 28 Hawks, worth up to €400 million, instead. The dam project, at a cost of €234 million to the British taxpayer, has proved totally unsuitable for the country's development needs. Meanwhile, neighbouring Indonesia is buying 24 Hawks, assisting a military effort that includes the illegal occupation of East Timor.
BAe is also the main winner from the gigantic Al Yamamah Two arms deal with Saudi Arabia, worth £20,000 million over "BAe's links with remain close. Lord Hesketh, former minister of state in Michael Heseltine's Department of Trade and Industry, was appointed to the board only last December" 15 years, and probably the biggest export contract of the century. An initial memorandum of understanding was signed by Thatcher and Prince Bandar, Saudi ambassador to Washington, in Austria in July 1985. Sir Colin Chandler, the ex-BAe man, handled subsequent negotiations.
After a period when the Saudis threatened to opt for American equipment instead, 1988 saw the signing of the Al Yamamah Two (AY2) deal, the subject of another NAO report. Scandalously, this one has been suppressed.
Concern centres on commission payments of up 30 per cent to British middlemen, including Thatcher's son Mark, and members of the Saudi ruling families, described as 'exceptional commercial expenses'. One wonders what Michael Portillo makes of it all.
by a Cowley worker The 'democracy' of the right wing has been shown up by the series of elections that have taken place in the Rover plant in Cowley, Oxford.
First came the election for the branch secretary of the main T&GWU branch, 5/60.
This position has sometimes been elected at branch meetings, and sometimes by ballot. The ballot method of election of a TGWU branch officer is unique to Cowley: it was originally imposed on the old Morris' branch in Cowley by the Regional bureaucracy in the late 1970s, as a device against the left.
The 5/60 right wing decided to hold this election for branch secretary at the December branch meeting. As the the meeting came closer it became clear that the right wing branch secretary, Roy Edney, was going to lose. End of the line for more than half of Rover's Cowley works. What was the longest production line in Europe will give way to a Tescos Land Rover workers in struggle in 1988: their plant is key prize for BMW Clive Soley, the Labour MP, has also claimed that Prince Bandar met Michael Heseltine, defence secretary at the time the original deal was struck, in London just before the last election, and donated £7 million to Conservative Party election funds.
In January 1993, John MaSo in the week running up to the election the right wing started circulating a petition within the plant, which achieved 300 signatures. This called for changing the election to ballot.
But the rules of the union are clear; it is the branch that decides the method of election, and both the November, and then the December meeting, decided to elect at the meeting. The right wing then tried to change this at the election meeting itself.
They were defeated, and then had to run the election, with left winger Tony Richardson being elected by 26 votes to 3.
Mass meeting
The following week the right wing declared they would not accent the result and, completely against the rules, they called a stewards' meeting followed by a decision making mass meeting.
The amazing thing about this mass meeting was that SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 57, 26 February 1994, Page 11 jor, the prime minister, signed the formal contract for BAe to supply Saudi Arabia with 48 Tornado fighter-bombers and 60 Hawks, together worth £5,000 million, as part of AY2. The work will keep BAe's facilities in Warton, Lancashire, going until 1996, when production of the Eurofighter 2000, the the company stopped production for one hour, and told the membership to attend. It is estimated that they lost in the vicinity of £1-2 million of production.
Strong support
What surprised the right wing was the strength of support for Tony Richardson. His supporters thought that he had won, but the right wing chair declared it was too close to call'. He then divided the meeting - only to repeat the same declaration. This was follwed by the announcement that he was calling a ballot.
The right wing were in complete control of the administration of this ballot, and it was subsequently announced that Roy Edney won by 688 votes to 588.
All of this breached T&GWU rules, and complaints went to the Regional office, but of course the investigation only took place after the ballot. The result is not:
scaled-down version of the European Fighter Aircraft, is set to commence. Eurofighter 2000 is further testimony to Tory support for BAe. German defence minister Volker Ruehe tried to kill the four-nation project in 1992, arguing that it did not suit western Europe's post-USSR defence needs. Only British insistence stayed his hand.
BAe's links with Government remain close. Lord Hesketh, former Government chief whip in the Lords and minister of state in Michael Heseltine's Department of Trade and Industry, was appointed to the board only last December. Presumably his remuneration is not inconsiderable. known.
At the same time the elections for senior and deputy senior steward were taking place in the plant.
The votes for senior steward were 1001 for Tom White, 712 for Roy Edney and 654 for Tony Richardson. The run off was 1468 for White and 917 for the sitting Roy Edney. For deputy the votes were 1542 for Bernard Moss and 948 for Tony Richardson.
Dissatisfied
Edney's defeat was a clear indication of the dissatisfaction felt by the membership over the lack of opposition to 'Rover Tomorrow', the new draconian discipline procedure, the introduction of short term contracts, and many more issues relating to New Management Techniques.
The contortions to which the TGWU has been prepared to resort to exclude a left wing candidate suggests that more tough times are ahead for the Cowley workforce.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 57, 26 February 1994, Page 12