Michael Randle
Encyclopedia
Dr. Michael Randle is best known as a peace campaigner and peace researcher, one of the pioneers of nonviolent direct action in Britain, and also for his role in helping the Soviet spy George Blake
escape from a British prison in 1966.
Committee which organised the first Aldermaston March against British nuclear weapons at Easter 1958; Chairman of the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War
, 1958–61; Secretary of the Committee of 100
, 1960–61; and a Council and Executive member of War Resisters' International
, 1960–1988, chair from 1966-73. In 1959-60 he spent a year in Ghana, participating in the Sahara Protest Team against French atomic bomb tests in the Algerian Sahara and helping to organise a pan-African conference in Accra which took place in April 1960. In 1962 he was sentenced, along with five other members of the Committee of 100, to eighteen months' imprisonment for his part in organising nonviolent direct action at a USAF Wethersfield
in Essex
; it was while he was serving that sentence that his first son, Sean, was born. In October 1967 he was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment for participating in an occupation of the Greek Embassy in London following the Colonels' coup in April of that year.
During his time in Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1962-3, he became friends with George Blake
, the British MI6 agent condemned in 1961 to forty-two years imprisonment for passing information to the Soviet Union. His outrage at the “vicious” sentence imposed on Blake led him and two others, Pat Pottle
and Séan Bourke
, to free Blake in October 1966. Blake then stayed at 'safe' houses around London which were mostly friends of Randle's and Pottle's before he was hidden in a secret compartment in a camper van and Michael Randle drove him to Eastern Europe, with Randle's children sitting on top of the seat that Blake was hidden underneath to put off any customs officers who might look into the van. In June 1991 he and Pat Pottle stood trial at the Old Bailey for their part in the escape. They defended themselves in court, arguing that, while they in no way condoned Blake's espionage activities for either side, they were right to help him because the forty-two year sentence he received was inhuman and hypocritical. Despite a virtual direction from the judge to convict, they jury found them not guilty on all counts.
Michael Randle has taken a keen interest in developments in Eastern Europe. In 1956 he undertook a march from Vienna to Budapest with leaflets expressing support for Hungarian passive resistance to the Soviet occupation, though he was prevented from entering Hungary by Austrian border guards. In 1968 he jointly co-ordinated for War Resisters' International
protests in Moscow, Budapest, Sofia and Warsaw against the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. In the 1970s and 1980s he collaborated with the Czech dissident, Jan Kavan
, then living in London, smuggling literature and equipment to the democratic opposition in Czechoslovakia.
He has a degree in English from London University (1966), an M.Phil in Peace Studies (Bradford 1981) and a Ph.D in Peace Studies (Bradford 1994). From 1980 to 1987 he was coordinator of the Alternative Defence Commission, contributing to its two major publications, Defence Without the Bomb (Taylor and Francis, 1983) and The Politics of Alternative Defence (Paladin 1987). He has contributed articles and reviews to Peace News, New Society, the Guardian and other newspapers and journals. He is also the author of several books: The Blake Escape: How we Freed George Blake - and Why, co-author with Pat Pottle, Harrap 1989, Alternatives in European Security, co- editor with Paul Rogers, Dartmouth 1990; People Power: The Building of a New European Home, Hawthorn Press 1991, Civil Resistance (Fontana 1994, out of print but now online at http://civilresistance.info/randle1994), How to Defend Yourself in Court, Civil Liberties Trust, 1995. From 1988 to 1990 he was coordinator of the Bradford-based Social Defence Project, and later coordinated the Nonviolent Action Research Project, also based in Bradford, the proceedings of which were edited into a book Challenge to Nonviolence, University of Bradford Department of Peace Studies 1992, now online at http://civilresistance.info/challenge. He remains an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Peace Studies, Bradford University. In 2005, he co-edited with April Carter
and Howard Clark People Power and Protest since 1945: a bibliography on nonviolent action (Housmans) now online with additional updates at http://civilresistance.info/bibliography.
For most of the life of the Committee for Conflict Transformation Support (1992–2009, previously Coordinating Committee for Conflict Resolution Training in Europe), Michael Randle was minutes secretary and also editor of its bulletin, ultimately titled CCTS Review, online archive at http://c-r.org/ccts. He is a long-serving trustee of the Commonweal Collection at the JB Priestley Library, Bradford University.
George Blake
George Blake is a former British spy known for having been a double agent in the service of the Soviet Union. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and fled to the USSR...
escape from a British prison in 1966.
Biography
Born in England in 1933, Michael Randle spent the years of the Second World War with relatives in Ireland. He has been active in the peace movement since registering as a conscientious objector to military service in 1951. He was a member of the Aldermaston MarchAldermaston Marches
The Aldermaston marches were protest demonstrations organised by the British anti-war Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1950s and 1960s. They took place on Easter weekend between the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, England, and London, over a distance of...
Committee which organised the first Aldermaston March against British nuclear weapons at Easter 1958; Chairman of the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War
Direct Action Committee
The Direct Action Committee against nuclear war was a pacifist organization formed "to assist the conducting of non-violent direct action to obtain the total renunciation of nuclear war and its weapons by Britain and all other countries as a first step in disarmament"...
, 1958–61; Secretary of the Committee of 100
Committee of 100
The Committee of 100 was a British anti-war group. It was set up in 1960 with a hundred public signatories by Bertrand Russell, Ralph Schoenman and Reverend Michael Scott and others...
, 1960–61; and a Council and Executive member of War Resisters' International
War Resisters' International
War Resisters' International is an international anti-war organization with members and affiliates in over thirty countries. Its headquarters are in London, UK.-History:...
, 1960–1988, chair from 1966-73. In 1959-60 he spent a year in Ghana, participating in the Sahara Protest Team against French atomic bomb tests in the Algerian Sahara and helping to organise a pan-African conference in Accra which took place in April 1960. In 1962 he was sentenced, along with five other members of the Committee of 100, to eighteen months' imprisonment for his part in organising nonviolent direct action at a USAF Wethersfield
RAF Wethersfield
MDPGA Wethersfield is a Ministry of Defence facility in Essex, England; it is located north of the village of Wethersfield—about north-west of the town of Braintree...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
; it was while he was serving that sentence that his first son, Sean, was born. In October 1967 he was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment for participating in an occupation of the Greek Embassy in London following the Colonels' coup in April of that year.
During his time in Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1962-3, he became friends with George Blake
George Blake
George Blake is a former British spy known for having been a double agent in the service of the Soviet Union. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and fled to the USSR...
, the British MI6 agent condemned in 1961 to forty-two years imprisonment for passing information to the Soviet Union. His outrage at the “vicious” sentence imposed on Blake led him and two others, Pat Pottle
Pat Pottle
Patrick Pottle was a founder member of the Committee of 100, an anti-nuclear direct action group which broke away from CND....
and Séan Bourke
Sean Bourke
Sean Bourke , from Limerick, helped Michael Randle and Pat Pottle to arrange the 22 October 1966 prison escape of the Soviet spy, George Blake....
, to free Blake in October 1966. Blake then stayed at 'safe' houses around London which were mostly friends of Randle's and Pottle's before he was hidden in a secret compartment in a camper van and Michael Randle drove him to Eastern Europe, with Randle's children sitting on top of the seat that Blake was hidden underneath to put off any customs officers who might look into the van. In June 1991 he and Pat Pottle stood trial at the Old Bailey for their part in the escape. They defended themselves in court, arguing that, while they in no way condoned Blake's espionage activities for either side, they were right to help him because the forty-two year sentence he received was inhuman and hypocritical. Despite a virtual direction from the judge to convict, they jury found them not guilty on all counts.
Michael Randle has taken a keen interest in developments in Eastern Europe. In 1956 he undertook a march from Vienna to Budapest with leaflets expressing support for Hungarian passive resistance to the Soviet occupation, though he was prevented from entering Hungary by Austrian border guards. In 1968 he jointly co-ordinated for War Resisters' International
War Resisters' International
War Resisters' International is an international anti-war organization with members and affiliates in over thirty countries. Its headquarters are in London, UK.-History:...
protests in Moscow, Budapest, Sofia and Warsaw against the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. In the 1970s and 1980s he collaborated with the Czech dissident, Jan Kavan
Jan Kavan
Jan Kavan is a Czech diplomat and politician.-Biography:Kavan was born in London, the son of a Czech diplomat, Pavel Kavan, and a British teacher, Rosemary Kavan. His father was arrested and tried in a Czech show trial in the 1950s; his mother later wrote a memoir, Love and Freedom.He is a member...
, then living in London, smuggling literature and equipment to the democratic opposition in Czechoslovakia.
He has a degree in English from London University (1966), an M.Phil in Peace Studies (Bradford 1981) and a Ph.D in Peace Studies (Bradford 1994). From 1980 to 1987 he was coordinator of the Alternative Defence Commission, contributing to its two major publications, Defence Without the Bomb (Taylor and Francis, 1983) and The Politics of Alternative Defence (Paladin 1987). He has contributed articles and reviews to Peace News, New Society, the Guardian and other newspapers and journals. He is also the author of several books: The Blake Escape: How we Freed George Blake - and Why, co-author with Pat Pottle, Harrap 1989, Alternatives in European Security, co- editor with Paul Rogers, Dartmouth 1990; People Power: The Building of a New European Home, Hawthorn Press 1991, Civil Resistance (Fontana 1994, out of print but now online at http://civilresistance.info/randle1994), How to Defend Yourself in Court, Civil Liberties Trust, 1995. From 1988 to 1990 he was coordinator of the Bradford-based Social Defence Project, and later coordinated the Nonviolent Action Research Project, also based in Bradford, the proceedings of which were edited into a book Challenge to Nonviolence, University of Bradford Department of Peace Studies 1992, now online at http://civilresistance.info/challenge. He remains an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Peace Studies, Bradford University. In 2005, he co-edited with April Carter
April Carter
April Carter has lectured in politics at the universities of Lancaster, Oxford and Queensland, and was a Fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute from 1985 to 1987...
and Howard Clark People Power and Protest since 1945: a bibliography on nonviolent action (Housmans) now online with additional updates at http://civilresistance.info/bibliography.
For most of the life of the Committee for Conflict Transformation Support (1992–2009, previously Coordinating Committee for Conflict Resolution Training in Europe), Michael Randle was minutes secretary and also editor of its bulletin, ultimately titled CCTS Review, online archive at http://c-r.org/ccts. He is a long-serving trustee of the Commonweal Collection at the JB Priestley Library, Bradford University.