Day 274 - 04 Jul 96 - Page 40
1 referred to, the earlier part of it, by Mr. Morris or Ms.
2 Steel, I cannot remember which. But I am going to ask you
3 about a little bit. Jonathan was there, apparently you
4 were there, Alan from Catford -- that is Alan Claire --
5 Charlie and Mark, and you were asked about the bit where it
6 says you chaired the meeting. So, if you ignore the first
7 sentence and start at the second sentence of the second
8 paragraph, "Most of the discussion was taken up with trying
9 to decide which organisations to be invited to participate"
10 -- and I will put in the word 'in' -- "in the so-called
11 workshops planned for the coming Greenpeace fayre. I had
12 the impression that no one present wished to be definitive
13 about such matters because whatever they said would be
14 overruled by the "none existent" hierarchy if the latter
15 disagreed", "so much for anarchism", which is Mr. Bishop's
16 own comment.
17
18 MS. STEEL: It is all his own comment.
19 A. Sorry, was that a question?
20
21 MR. RAMPTON: No, no, I am going to ask you a question if I may.
22 That is right, is it not? You see, Ms. Steel Mr. Morris
23 and Mr. Gravett were not at this meeting were they?
24 A. They weren't there, but I would not say that was
25 right. I mean, I actually organised two of the workshops
26 at the London Greenpeace fayre that year. I do not know if
27 I mentioned it at this meeting, but Paul certainly would
28 have been a key member involved in the fayre because he had
29 organised the last two. I mean, you need a certain amount
30 of continuity to organise meetings. I mean, Jonathan and
31 Alan were there as well. It is up to people there to put
32 in their input.
33
34 Q. Those three were at any rate three of the dominant members
35 of this group, were they not, Miss Laporte? Mr. Gravett,
36 Mr. Morris and Ms. Steel?
37 A. No, I definitely agree with Paul. Paul was certainly a
38 main figure in the anti-McDonald's campaign. Dave was
39 virtually absent that year and Helen was not the most vocal
40 of members, and she was certainly was not actively involved
41 in the campaign. No, I mean, I would disagree with you
42 there. I do not know why Mr. Bishop has written this, but
43 I expect it was because Paul was there but both myself and
44 Charlie were there, and we were certainly involved in the
45 fayre.
46
47 Q. You know, Miss Laporte, you are studying Greek, that
48 hierarchy involves probably more than one person. Could be
49 one but it is usually more than one, is it not?
50 A. Yes, except that we all had equal say, there was no
51 hierarchy. I can say that for myself. I felt comfortable
52 in the group. It was one of the first groups I was
53 involved with, and I felt comfortable about saying things
54 in the group and if anyone was going to talk me down, or
55 anything like that, I felt free to speak, and I think it is
56 a shame to me--
57
58 Q. Finally, 13th September 1990. I will start, if I may, on
59 page 187.
60
