Battleangel

Harold Pinter’s long time friend John Pilger muses over Pinter’s political impact and why he is so hated and his critics so disrespectful.

Truthout - I first met Harold when he was supporting the popularly elected government in Nicaragua in the 1980s. I had reported from Nicarugua, and made a film about the remarkable gains of the Sandinistas despite Ronald Regan’s attempts to crush them by illegally sending CIA-trained proxies across the border from Honduras to slit the throats of midwives and other anti-Americans. US foreign policy is, of course, even more rapacious under Bush: the smaller the country, the greater the threat. By that, I mean the threat of a good example to other small countries which might seek to alleviate the abject poverty of their people by rejecting American dominance.

What struck me about Harold’s involvement was his understanding of this truth, which is generally a taboo in the United States and Britain, and the eloquent ‘to hell with that’ response in everything he said and wrote. Almost single-handedly, it seemed, he restored ‘imperialism’ to the political lexicon. Remember that no commentator used this word any more; to utter it in a public place was like shouting ‘fuck’ in a covent’. Now you can shout it everywhere and people will nod their agreement; the invasion in Iraq put paid to doubts, and Harold Pinter was one of the first to alert us. He described, correctly, the crushing of Nicaragua, the blockage against Cuba, the wholesale killing of Iraqi and Yugoslav civilians as imperialist atrocities.

In illustrating the American crime committed against Nicaragua, when the United States Government dismissed an International Court of Justice ruling that it stop breaking the law in its murderous attacks, Pinter recalled that Washington seldom respected international law; and he was right. He wrote, ‘In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson said to the Greek Ambassador to the US, “Fuck your Parliament and your constitution. American is an elephant, Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fellows keep itching the elephant, they may just get whacked by the elephant’s trunk, whacked for good…” He meant that. Two years later, the Colonels took over and the Greek people spent seven years in hell. You have to hand it to Johnson. He sometimes told the truth however brutal. Regan tell lies. His celebrated description of Nicuragua as a “totalitarian dungeon” was a lie from every conceivable angle. It was an assertion unsupported by facts; it had no basis in reality. But it’s a good vivid, resonant phrase which persuaded the unthinking…’

Indeed, there aren’t many like Pinter, who for so long has fought the powers that be. Regardless of personal cost and regardless of the discourse. I’m looking forward to the Nobel ceremony as Pinter will no doubt use the opportunity for political activism. That is why Pinter is great. He has no limitations but plenty of character and drive, no social yoke that forbids him from being politically incorrect.