Two reports of Saturdays anti-war demo with pictures

by obvious Wed Oct 02, 2002 23:20

The anti war movement now has bertie's gang of crooks over a barrell, but only untill the Nice referendum is over. They are not maximising their anti Nice position to its full potential,and they squandered one chance to do so last saturday.

by Stephen Wed Oct 02, 2002 07:45

Though a candlelight procession may sound spectacular, it reminds of the torchlight rallies held in nazi Germany.

by Maubere Tue Oct 01, 2002 20:31

If democracy in Ireland means anything then the Government will vote against Bush's war plans and then send the war planes home. Obviously he won't do this so its up to us uphold the will of the majority of people in this country (as shown in the Irish Times poll this morning). See you all in Shannon.

by Verbal Mon Sep 30, 2002 21:04

There were a number of suggesstions for postive action on the "3,000 attend anti-war demo" thread.

You're totally correct in what you say, practical action that disrupts the workings of any organistation or political party that supports or contributes to the war in Iraq is needed. Be it letter writing, boycotting (companies won't like it if there are anti-war protestors outside their front door or if they receive hundreds of letters telling them you're not going to buy their products).

Perhaps entering into a more extreme (but still non-violent) approach is needed. Physically block access to certain government buildings or similar.

by Andrew Mon Sep 30, 2002 16:27

The biggest problem though is not so much capturing the public imagination as doing something effective with the opposition that exists to the war. From the weekend polls in Britain and talking to people here almost no one supports unilateral action against Iraq. Once you have had 250,000 or 400,000 or even 500,000 people on the streets of London where do you go when Blair pushes ahead regardless? I don't think the right answer is to try and get 1,000,000 on the streets.

It's not quite the same here but its similar. We could have a march of 20,000 or 50,000 but its not clear that in itself this would achieve anything. The question is how we stop Irish particapation in the war effort - this is not simply a question of numbers (although it is ALSO a question of numbers) but one of what those people do. Two thousand people inspecting the hangers at Shannon airport is going to leave 'our' government faced with a number of difficult choices. 20,000 having a candle lit parade could simply be ignored although they'd be daft to ignore 200,000.

by Verbal Mon Sep 30, 2002 16:08

Maybe for the next demo - have it on a weekday evening 8 - 9pm (Monday or Tuesday), a candle-light march.

Go all out to try and get as many people to attend and possibly ask people to buy candles as a donation to the cost of the march.

As a spectacle it would be brilliant and might capture the public imagination. Would be worth trying anyway.