David Clark
David Clark, a former special advoser to Robin Cook and researcher for John Reid when he was Home Sceretary, is a freelance writer and lobbyist. In 2009 he is a 'Project Advisor' for lobby firm Champollion[1] and a senior consultant for APCO Worldwide’s London office. He was a special adviser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 1997 and 2001. He first joined Robin Cook’s staff in 1994 and was closely involved in the development of Labour’s foreign policy in the run up to the 1997 general election. From 1991-94 he worked as a research assistant to Dr John Reid MP.[2]
According to an APCO biographical note:
- Clark has written numerous op-ed columns for a range of national newspapers, including Guardian and appeared regularly as a guest on current affairs programs on radio and television. He is also a senior research fellow at the Federal Trust and chairman of the Advisory Council of the Russian Foundation. His academic qualifications include a Master of Arts in War Studies from King’s College London.[3]
Critic of The Euston Manifesto and the Pro-War Left
Harry's Place describes itself as part of the "democratic, secular, anti-fascist, liberal, anti-totalitarian left."[4] Two of the site's bloggers, Harry Hatchet and David Toube, were among the original signatories of the Euston Manifesto in 2006.[5]
In the New Statesman, David Clark decribed the manifesto's supporters as the 'pro-war left':
- In this the Eustonites are reminiscent of the early American neoconservatives. They also shared a background in radical-left politics and became preoccupied with attacking their former comrades' supposed moral corruption on a great issue of war and peace (in their case, Vietnam). It was a journey that led most of them eventually to abandon the left for good. The question is whether supporters of the Euston Manifesto are destined to follow a similar trajectory.[6]
He went on to question the substance of the Eustonites' Pro-War Left credentials:
- There are vague and slightly ritualistic expressions of concern about social injustice and global inequality, but nowhere are they confronted with the kind of passion that is devoted to attacking those considered guilty of appeasing terrorism by criticising western policy - nor is any attempt made to identify their cause.[7]
In a 2008 article for the Guardian website Alan Johnson (editor Democratiya) rejected the term pro-war left, identifying instead "a progressive democratic internationalism set against both a hubristic neo-conservatism and a reactionary "anti-imperialist" left."
- The intellectual and campaigning energies that created the manifesto continue to pulse. Go online and look at normblog, Harry's Place, Engage, Labour Friends of Iraq, Democratiya, and the work of all the contributing online journals, blogs, signatories, journalists and activists. Consider the success of Nick Cohen's book What's Left. Watch the Channel 5 documentary No Excuses for Terror, or the Euston-organised parliamentary seminars on humanitarian interventionism and the terror threat, or the Engage rally against the academic boycott.[8]
Affiliations
References
- ↑ Champollion Our Team: David Clark, accessed 23 November 2009.
- ↑ Comment is Free David Clark, accessed 23 November 2009
- ↑ APCO Web site
- ↑ Harry Hatchet, This is HP, Harry's Place, accessed 16 August 2009.
- ↑ Euston Manifesto, 17 April 2006, accessed via the Internet Archive.
- ↑ David Clark, The politics column - Bring on a new democratic left, New Statesman, 29 May 2006.
- ↑ David Clark, The politics column - Bring on a new democratic left, New Statesman, 29 May 2006.
- ↑ Alan Johnson, The Euston moment, guardian.co.uk, 21 January, 2008.
