Vivienne’s diary 1 – 20 March

Events which should have been on the last Diary entry:

“Red Carpet Green Dress”. I told you about Suzy Cameron and her project . How did we get on? I think the winner, Michael, is talented. He changed the colour according to the wishes of “Skyfall” star, Naomie Harris, who wore it to the Oscars. It was a beautiful colour of yellow earth dyed from plants, goldenrod and chamomile, which could be scaled up for commercial use. Very seductive, these natural dyes. How green were the beads? They were recycled, taken from old garments. And the fabric itself, the silk? Samata, who had run the whole research, told us the silk is very good because it doesn’t kill the worms. “Why is that good for the environment?” I asked. “And tell me, surely the cocoon of the worm is the silk. Why is it kinder to unwind the silk down to the naked live little worm rather than just gas it or kill it outright?” she answered that it is kind and that the worm will “be able to re-enter its community”. I am waiting to hear more.

Thank you to Suzy and Jim Cameron (director of ‘Avatar’) who sent this video to support Climate Revolution, “Avatar” is about an evil oppressor programmed to kill what is good in the world (we think this sums up the history of American foreign policy).

Friday, 1 March: The really best news this month is that Leonard is to be transferred to a softer prison. After 40 years in jail. We hope he will now receive treatment for his medical problems. Perhaps this move will be the first step towards greater freedom; perhaps, eg, he’ll be able to live on the Rez. He hasn’t moved yet but we are all keen to hear from him as soon as he does.

Saturday, 2 March: We had our Gold Label show. It was at the Musee de l’Art Moderne in Paris, in a room too small and narrow for décor. Andreas decided to have it as just a black tunnel. The theme was Medieval and the black allowed great focus and concentration. Lighting (misty, time travellers), as usual, by Toni, Andreas’ friend from his village. The models looked so beautiful (Hair, Sam McKnight, Make-up, Val Garland) and they loved the clothes; they were so happy. The music: we spoke by phone to a young composer, Dominik Emrich, “Medieval, not religious, troubadours, triumph, another world” we told him. He sent a CD: beautiful, timeless, modern. That was it.

It’s wonderful the help we get: the whole is more than the sum of its parts. I’d like to mention the Scottish mill, Begg Scotland, who made our blankets. I sent them the designs late. Their machines were in full use; they got people to come in to work at night. I adore our Climate Revolution blanket-cloak. Thank you.

Sunday, 3 March: Showroom. I got involved in the presentation of the collection to the buyers. I have to secure all the links down the chain of our enterprise if I am to push for greater and greater quality. Whilst in Paris I met up with Adrian Cheng to discuss how we can launch Climate Revolution in China. You’ll be hearing more. Adrian’s into modern art and he himself paints – quickly – 23 minutes is his record. He wants to help art students.

I should have introduced him to my friend, Franz, who in his hotel particulier houses his collection of modern art. At dinner, Franz told us he’s selling the house. The French government wishes to tax private art collections.

Wednesday-Friday, 6-8 March: Back from Paris. Until now, I have managed to see one or two friends, read, caught up on stuff and I’ve been busy, mostly to do with Climate Revolution. The most concentrated day was Friday, the 8^th, working with Green Peace. You saw the graphics we designed for “Save the Arctic”. The flag is white. Meanwhile, there has been a competition for anyone 6-26, organized by the Girl Guides, to design an Arctic flag and we were here to judge it in my office/workroom – myself and two young women. http://www.graziadaily.co.uk/fashion/news/vivienne-westwood-on-climate-change–publishing-a-book-and-why-leggings-are-vulgar–exclusive-interv . They were very clever and articulate and I hope to see them again. The finalists had been limited to five and we really liked them all but we agreed on the winner, 13 year old Sarah Batrisyia from Malaysia. This was all being filmed (VIDEO and flag, news http://www.wagggs.org/en/news/22322) and I had to phone her at home to tell her she had won. I felt quite emotional.

The winning flag and a time capsule containing millions of signatures (including Pamela’s, Andreas’ and mine) protesting commercial exploitation of the Arctic, will be planted at the North Pole by a team of skiers on 7 April. Our friends, Elise and Abigail also sent copies of their designs; here they are.

Pamela Anderson popped in to have her photo taken in our “Save the Arctic t-shirt. She was at Elstree rehearsing for the finale of the skating show. I saw her the day before with her friend, Dan Mathews from Peta, who’s so passionate about his work that he’s done really outrageous stunts which worked. When he was a kid, he was on the floor winded in a fight, couldn’t breathe, other kids looking down at him, laughing. Soon after, his dad took him fishing and he was looking down at a flounder, just hooked and on the deck, gasping for oxygen, looking up with its two funny eyes and people looking down, laughing.

Peta just stopped the culling of baby seals. Pamela went to see Putin’s lot and they won’t import the pelts. She’s full of relief. The fate of Paul Watson, founder of “Sea Shepherd” (http://www.seashepherd.org/ ), which is committed to saving ocean wildlife worldwide, is another of Pamela’s major concerns – since skipping bail in Germany where he was arrested for a confrontation with Costa Rica over shark finning, Paul is now confined to a Sea Shepherd ship unable to dock. Along with Julian Assange, he has been awarded an Original Nation passport by the Aboriginal people of Australia.

Wednesday 13 – Wednesday 20 March: I started on Wednesday with a cold – this thing lots of you have had that goes into the head. It’s awful. I felt as if two stones had been hammered into my temples; stayed in bed but dragged myself out on Thursday night to the “Friends of the Earth” fundraising dinner to launch their latest initiative to put the onus on suppliers to offer shoppers green choices. I hate these auction dinners but the high point of course is the people you’re with and that was all our important member friends of Climate Revolution, the first time so many of us have met. We all got on extremely well and there has been quite a bit of communication between us since: Matthew Owen from Cool Earth; John Sauven, Greenpeace; Mo Constantine, Lush; Franny Armstrong, “Age of Stupid”; Richard Betts, Hadley Centre; Andrew Simms, New Economic Foundation; Charles Roberts, Greenstar; Mark Ellingham, publisher and Johan Eliasch.

By Saturday I was feeling well enough to read instead of just lying there in pain. So in bed I re-read for real interest and passion, the terrifying, “The New Rulers of the World” by John Pilger. Much about this in the next Diary because I must use the present opportunity to tell the real facts about Assange. I spent Monday at home still and swatting up my research. (I got most of it from http://justice4assange.com/extraditing-assamge.html .

In the evening I went to the Café de Paris to the Latin UK Awards. My friend, Fernando Montano, is “Personality of the Year” and I presented him with his award (See ‘The Latest’, 20 March). I really enjoyed myself, such good looking people, all dressed up.

My speech went like this: “Fernando is a wonderful personality because he is the lovliest person, but he deserves the award because he is a ballerina and in presenting him I’d like to acknowledge the others – Tamara and Carlos, they’re here – because traditional ballet is one of the high art forms of human achievement – along with Japanese Noh theatre and I think the temple dancing of South India – I long to see it; the training, the “turning out” which makes possible the “line” in three dimensions and which lends itself to a completed expression through dance. So many art forms come together in ballet.This is surely human evolution at its highest point.

“Secondly, with the weakening of the US (the US may not look weak because it continues to boost its arms sales but it can no longer underwrite the destruction of the Earth). It is so great to see the countries of Latin America take more control of their countries and face up to the US. (Huge enthusiasm!) In particular, I’d like to thank Ecuador for standing up to the US and protecting free speech in the person of Julian Assange.”

The next day, Tuesday, I went to work to start next season’s Gold Label. In the evening I went with Andreas to see the David Bowie exhibition at the V&A.

I don’t know much about Bowie because at the time I was working with the Sex Pistols. It is possible he got his hairstyle from me as his then wife, Angie, used to come into our shop. He became famous very quickly. I first knew that because all at once people began to call after me in the street – David Bowie!

Bowie was a phenomenon. You know more about him than me – art school, studied mime with Lindsay Kempe, terrific style, androgyny, each song a concept. I learnt about him tonight – it’s a very good exhibition. I liked best his acting in “Elephant Man”, the suits for a man of perfect proportions with a 28” waist. At dinner I sat between the photographer, Terry O’Neil and Kansai Yamamoto who designed many Bowie outfits. I enjoyed myself but great as Bowie is, I’m not so interested in popular culture.

Wednesday, 20 March: Day off to write up on Julian. I want to reply to those women who think Julian Assange should go to Sweden to be interviewed over sexual allegations; why he absolutely can’t go and why he needs your support. These are the basic facts with some comment.

The two women’s complaints to the Swedish police centre on the alleged misuse or failure to use condoms which can be illegal in Sweden.

According to the Swedish Criminal Code, the investigations of the allegations “should be conducted so that no person is unnecessarily exposed to suspicion, or put to unnecessary cost or inconvenience.” There is an agreement of mutual Legal Assistance between the UK and Sweden, which is common to EU countries. The rules for procedure show that a foreign prosecutor can interview a suspect by telephone, by video link or in person. Sweden routinely interviews suspects abroad. Questioning Julian in London has always been the quickest, least costly way of progressing the investigation while causing minimum inconvenience to him. The prosecutor may then decide whether or not to close the investigation. Julian has always been available for this.

Why is the Swedish prosecutor abandoning standard procedure for Julian Assange?

She answers, “interviewing Julian Assange in London would be legal…..but it would not be appropriate….He needs to be available in Sweden.” Surely, she might as well say “He needs to be in Sweden because he needs to be in Sweden.”

At this stage you may have the opinion that “Sweden is a paradise for sexual for sexual norms in which any woman in any context can bring the full force of the law against any man who oversteps any sexual boundary.”

“Guess what: Sweden has HIGHER rates of rape than any other comparable countries – including higher than the US and Britain, higher than Denmark and Finland – and the same Swedish authorities do a worse job prosecuting reported rapes than do police and the judiciary in any comparable country. And these are flat-out, unambiguous reported rape cases, not the ‘sex by surprise’ Assange charges involving situations that began consensually.” This comment and research comes from Naomi Wolfe, Huffington Post, February 8^th 2013.

Going back to 30^th August 2010 when the allegations first erupted Julian ‘voluntarily remained in Sweden to cooperate with the investigation. He answered all questions asked of him. He was free to go.

Now later there are four allegations written onto the European Arrest Warrant, three of which Julian had not heard before. Moreover the language of the warrant does not represent what is said in the women’s statements to the police, eg. the word “force” is used in the warrant and there is no allegation of it in the statements, only the phrase “rough and impatient” The allegations of the warrant are trumped-up allegations and therefore the warrants are invalid.

Both the English Magistrates Court and the High Court decided on extradition based only on the claims of the warrant deeming it “unnecessary” and “not apposite” to look at the actual allegations in the statements. The courts excluded expert evidence showing that the trumped- up charges would not be crimes in England. I think it is very unusual for English courts to refuse to admit prime evidence.

I can think of only one conclusion that fits all of these facts: Julian is wanted physically in Sweden so he can be extradited to America. Sweden will not give Julian the guarantee not to extradite him, otherwise he would go immediately.

America wants Julian Assange: A multi-agency task force was created in September 2010, initially 80 strong, but later increased to 120, to spearhead operations against and investigations into WikiLeaks. The task force operates out of what is described internally as a “war room,” based in suburban Virginia. The investigation into WikiLeaks is not a single agency investigation, but a whole of government investigation. It is well known.

The Washington Post reported, “Federal prosecutors….are handling a critical aspect of the biggest leak case in US history. The investigation is focused on whether the anti-secrecy web site WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian  Assange violated US. Laws in posting hundreds of thousands of military and diplomatic cables on the group’s website and sharing them with mainstream news organizations”

(The same paper published a letter from a Senator demanding the death penalty for Assange.)

Details of the operations of the ‘war room’ were given to the Daily Beast including the identity of the counterintelligence expert who has been put in charge: Brigadier General Robert A Carr of the Defence Intelligence Agency. Carr has served in Afghanistan. In his battle against Assange, officials say, Carr’s central assignment is to try to determine exactly what classified ‘information’ might have been leaked to WikiLeaks, and then to predict whether its disclosure could endanger American troops in the battlefield, as well as what larger risk it might pose to American foreign policy.

The investigation of Assange is part of official correspondence between cooperating governments. People have already been subpoenaed to appear, and from what they say the alleged connections between Assange and Bradley Manning are important.

In consideration of the danger Julian is in from the US, it is worth remembering that in 97% of all cases there people plead guilty, also the inhuman conditions of supermax jails.

Amnesty International believes that the forced transfer of Julian Assange to the USA in the present circumstances would expose him to a real risk of serious human rights violations, possibly including violation of his right to freedom of expression and the risk that he may be held in detention in conditions which violate the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

On February 28^th at a military hearing Bradley Manning admitted leaking the biggest leak of classified material in U.S history – State department cables that documented back door deals and war crimes – to WikiLeaks. He said he was disturbed by the seeming disregard by American troops for the lives of ordinary people, being “obsessed with capturing and killing human targets on lists,” he was appalled by a combat video of a helicopter assault which killed eleven men including a Reuters photographer and his driver: “the seeming delightful bloodlust the aerial weapons team happened to have…similar to a child torturing ants with a magnifying glass.”

It is worth noting that Bradley first approached the N.Y Times (who didn’t return his call) and the Washington Post (who didn’t take him seriously) with the Afghan and Iraq material. Then he turned to WikiLeaks.

How brave that young soldier was for making those calls and then exposing the cover-ups of the war propaganda. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. It’s worth comparing Bradley’s statements with what Prince Harry said, comparing killing people to playing video games. He said he was, “good with his thumbs”.

We just received Samata’s reply about the silk worms:

“The peace silk (known as Ahimsa Silk after the worms is it extracted from) allows the worms to live out their nature cycle. As I mentioned before normally silk worms are boiled to kill them and extract their silk (without them breaking the cocoon) as a single strand. With peace silk the worms are not interfered with and it is only after they have shed their cocoon naturally that it is taken and used to make silk – the pieces are broken as the silk worm moth has naturally broken through it. This is why it is slightly ‘broken’ in appearance unlike normal silk as the cocoon has been broken when the worm emerged.”