Day 274 - 04 Jul 96 - Page 12


     
     1   Q.   I will read through it and if there is anything you want to
     2        correct or clarify then stop me at the end of the paragraph
     3        and say so, otherwise I will ask you to confirm it at the
     4        end of the statement.
     5
     6        "Statement of Jane Laporte.  I attended London Greenpeace
     7        meetings between the time of October 1988 to October 1990.
     8        I would go to meetings to find out about forthcoming events
     9        and to meet up with friends using London Greenpeace partly
    10        as a London-wide information network.
    11
    12        "Within a few months of attending meetings I got to know
    13        the group's history fairly well as well as the background
    14        of the campaigns and the people involved.  This was due to
    15        a large amount of time spent explaining the history and
    16        background of items under discussion if there was anyone
    17        new present so that everyone would be able to understand
    18        and become involved in the discussion".
    19        A.  Yes, that is not a large amount of time, but a
    20        comparatively large amount of time of the whole of the
    21        meeting was taken up with that.
    22
    23   Q.  "Meetings were supposed to start at 7.30 p.m. but often
    24        people would arrive gradually in ones and twos and start
    25        chatting.  There was no one chairing the meetings nor were
    26        there any "lead persons" and so it would usually be at
    27        around 8 p.m. that someone would try to get the meeting
    28        started and organise the agenda by rifling through the box
    29        of scrap paper for a blank page.  Next, they would write
    30        "agenda" at the top with numbers down the left hand side
    31        for separate discussion points.  The first few items would
    32        almost always be "introduction", "office/letters",
    33        "reports" and "coming events".  We would try to get people
    34        involved with the group by changing the person who took the
    35        minutes each week.
    36
    37        "People would not necessarily attend every weekly meeting,
    38        some would only attend the monthly meetings at
    39        Endsleigh Street" -- sorry -- "some would only attend the
    40        monthly public meetings at Endsleigh Street.  Others would
    41        maybe only get involved in the run up to the fayre.  A
    42        problem often encountered in trying to organise campaigns
    43        was that almost everyone coming along to meetings would
    44        also be involved with other groups and could regularly
    45        disappear for a month or so without anyone knowing in
    46        advance.
    47
    48        "At the monthly meetings at Endsleigh Street anyone was
    49        welcome to place leaflets of an ecological/libertarian
    50        nature in the centre of the table.  Although these meetings
    51        were supposed to be public meetings sometimes there would
    52        only be people there who we already knew and who had been
    53        involved with the group in the past.  Dave Morris was not
    54        coming to the meetings regularly throughout 1989 to 1990.
    55        From what he said when he did attend or phoned up, this was
    56        firstly due to his involvement with his local poll tax
    57        group, but then his son was injured and Dave spent a
    58        considerable amount of time looking after him.
    59
    60        "Dave was certainly never "heavily involved" with the

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