Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: 'The Values We Share'

'The Values We Share' 
 
by John Pilger 
When Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke recently about his government's
devotion to the United States, "founded on the values we share," he was
echoing his Foreign Office minister Kim Howells, who was preparing to
welcome the Saudi dictator to Britain with effusions of "shared values."
The meaning was the same in both cases. The values shared are those of
rapacious power and wealth, with democracy and human rights irrelevant, as
the bloodbath in Iraq and the suffering of the Palestinians attest, to
name only two examples.
The "values we share" are celebrated by a shadowy organization that has
just held its annual conference. This is the British-American Project for
the Successor Generation (BAP), set up in 1985 with money from a
Philadelphia trust with a long history of supporting right-wing causes.
Although the BAP does not publicly acknowledge this origin, the source of
its inspiration was a call by President Reagan in 1983 for "successor
generations" on both sides of the Atlantic to "work together in the future
on defense and security matters." He made numerous references to "shared
values." Attending this ceremony in the White House Situation Room were
the ideologues Rupert Murdoch and the late James Goldsmith.
As Reagan made clear, the need for the BAP arose from Washington's anxiety
about the growing opposition in Britain to nuclear weapons, especially the
stationing of cruise missiles in Europe. "A special concern," he said,
"will be the successor generations, as these younger people are the ones
who will have to work together in the future on defense and security
issues." A new, preferably young elite – journalists, academics,
economists, "civil society" and liberal community leaders of one sort or
another – would offset the growing "anti-Americanism."
The aims of this latter-day network, according to David Willetts, the
former director of studies at Britain's right-wing Center for Policy
Studies, now a member of the Tory shadow cabinet, are simply to "help
reinforce Anglo-American links, especially if some members already do or
will occupy positions of influence." A former British ambassador to
Washington, Sir John Kerr, was more direct. In a speech to BAP members, he
said the organization's "powerful combination of eminent Fellows and close
Atlantic links threatened to put the embassy out of a job." An American
BAP organizer describes the BAP network as committed to "grooming leaders"
while promoting "the leading global role that [the U.S. and Britain]
continue to play."
The BAP's British "alumni" are drawn largely from new Labor and its court.
No fewer than four BAP "fellows" and one advisory board member became
ministers in the first Blair government. The new Labor names include Peter
Mandelson, George Robertson, Baroness Symons, Jonathan Powell (Blair's
chief of staff), Baroness Scotland, Douglas Alexander, Geoff Mulgan,
Matthew Taylor, and David Miliband. Some are Fabian Society members and
describe themselves as being "on the left." Trevor Phillips, chair of the
Equality and Human Rights Commission, is another member. They object to
whispers of "a conspiracy." The mutuality of class or aspiration is merely
assured, unspoken, and the warm embrace of power flattering and often
productive.
BAP conferences are held alternately in the U.S. and Britain. This year's
was in Newcastle, with the theme "Faith and Justice." On the U.S. board is
Diana Negroponte, the wife of John Negroponte, Bush's former national
security chief notorious for his associations with death-squad politics in
central America. He follows another leading neocon, Paul Wolfowitz,
architect of the invasion of Iraq and discredited head of the World Bank.
Since 1985, BAP "alumni" and "fellows" have been brought together courtesy
of Coca-Cola, Monsanto, Saatchi & Saatchi, Philip Morris, and British
Airways, among other multinationals. Nick Butler, formerly a top dog at
BP, has been a leading light.
For many, the conferences have the revivalist pleasures honed by American
PR techniques, with management games, personal presentations, and a
closing jolly revue to lighten the serious business. The 2002 conference
report noted: "Many BAP alumni are directly involved with U.S. and UK
military and defense establishments."
The BAP rarely gets publicity, which may have something to do with the
high proportion of journalists who are alumni. Prominent BAP journalists
are David Lipsey, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, and assorted Murdochites. The BBC
is well represented. On the popular Today program, James Naughtie, whose
broadcasting has long reflected his own transatlantic interests, has been
an alumnus since 1989. Today's newest voice, Evan Davis, formerly the
BBC's zealous economics editor, is a member. And at the top of the BAP Web
site home page is a photograph of the famous BBC broadcaster Jeremy Paxman
and his endorsement. "A marvelous way of meeting a varied cross-section of
transatlantic friends," says he. 
 
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