|
|
Blog Feeds
Anti-Empire
Human Rights in IrelandPromoting Human Rights in Ireland
Lockdown Skeptics
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international edition
|
Direct Action at Shannon shows the way national |
miscellaneous |
news report
 Wednesday February 05, 2003 15:40 by Joe Black
 The success of the actions at Shannon shows that we can 'Stop the war' and not limit ourselves to 'oppose the war' or insisting that it is 'Not in our name' Direct Action at Shannon shows the way The coming war is a vast effort for the US and its lapdog Britain as the hundreds of thousands of men and the tens of thousands of tons of equipment they require are transported from bases in the US and Britain to the Gulf. Modern war requires an enormous supply chain to keep all those fuel guzzling tanks and planes on the move. The modern way of killing using enormous quantities of bullets, bombs and explosives. In 'Moving Mountains: Lessons in Leadership and Logistics from the Gulf War' General William G. Pagonis revealed that 7 million tons of supplies had to be shipped to the battlefield then. Winston Churchill said of war: "Victory is the beautiful, bright-coloured flower. Transport is the stem without which it never could have blossomed." There is often a feeling among anti-war activists that there is little we can do to directly impact on war. The figures above suggest otherwise, for these supplies move through airports and ports near us, or down road and rail networks near the places we live. The quantities of supplies needed to fight this war are enormous, in 1991 for instance the 1450th transportation company supplied 7.75 million gallons of fuel to the airforce and tanks attacking Iraq[i]. We are not just talking tanks and infantry here, in WWII the US army depended on over three times as many men to supply the information and transport as were actually in combat[ii]. One airport these supplies are flowing through is the commercial airport at Shannon in the south west of Ireland. Every day and average of 5 or 6 US military planes land here to refuel as they transport soldiers and supplies to the Gulf. Some of these planes, like the Hercules C130 are obviously military, and can even be used to drop bombs. Some others are of a civilian type but are owned by the military and have a role in providing the essential support services that allow war to be waged. Most however are commercial airlines charted by the military to transport troops. Over the last year Shannon airport has seen many protests by those who oppose the war. These protests have involved Direct Action, it the attempt to directly effect the ability to wage war, on a number of occasions. The numbers involved in these actions have not been huge, perhaps a couple of hundred in all. But already they are having an impact on the war. On three occasions individuals or small groups of activists have succeeded in reaching and damaging military planes. One result of this has been that one of the commercial airliners ferrying troops, World Airlines, have announced that they are going to stop using Shannon, and are diverting their next 17 troop transports to Frankfurt airport [iii]. The activists have also succeeded in grounding a US Navy plane, after it was attacked firstly with an axe and days later by five more activists from the 'Catholic Worker' organisation with hammers and axes. Of course if this sort of action only took place at Shannon then, although it has already caused headaches for those shipping supplies to the war, it would not present an insoluble problem. World Airlines have diverted to Frankfurt for the moment. But if these actions start to happen everywhere there is an anti-war movement then the war machine is in trouble. And there is mass opposition to this war in every country in Europe and in the US itself. Direct Actions are taking place in other countries already. Britain has seen well over a dozen with a particular focus on the naval port of Portsmouth where Greenpeace is engaged in a sustained campaign to block the shipment of war supplies. But as in Ireland it is only a tiny minority of those involved in the anti-war movements who are involved in such actions. Shannon demonstrates that direct action gets the goods, that even a tiny number of people tacking action can cause hiccups in the logistics chain. What is now needed is that the anti-war movements start to take themselves seriously. Up to now the political parties that are leading these movement have rubbished direct actions such as the ones at Shannon as ineffective 'individual action'. Now we have seen that these individual actions have had more of a direct impact on the war then six hundred times this number passively marching though our towns. The slogan 'Stop the War' needs to be taken as more then a passive plea to our rulers to stop supporting the war effort. It needs to be seen as a call to action - it is up to us to stop the war. If 300,000 can be mobilised to march through London then surely 50,000 can be mobilised to shut down Northwood Military HQ also in the London area. Or 20,000 to march on the bomber and refuelling bases essential to the war that are scattered around Britain. Marches have and will continue to have an essential role in building opposition to the war and bringing new people into the movements. But it is now clear that we can do more, that we can take action against this war. In this war our rulers do not need us to fight as soldiers, they would like but do not require our support for the war. They do however need us to remain passive, for if we turn our disgust at this war into action against it then their war machine will grind to a halt. Joe Black More information on the protests at Shannon at http://struggle.ws/wsm/shannon.html and www.indymedia.ie More information on direct actions around the globe at http://struggle.ws/stopthewar.html i See http://www.millersgulfwar.org/utpage.html |
printable version
Digg this
del.icio.us
Furl
Reddit
Technorati
Facebook
Gab
Twitter
|
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8As brave as Eoin, Mary and the CWM have been and I commend them, I myself do not want to participate in similar actions. With 2 kids to look after I cannot really get that involved in direct action. So when an oppurtunity to do something whether it be attend a meeting, or a demo or whatever arrives I like to get involved in these actions. I really cannot get involved (I believe) in the direct actions that are part and parcel of the movement as well. That is fine amongst most people but Joe you seem to rubbish the 'limited' opposition to the war that I can provide. I believe that as long as I am doing something and it is as much as I can do and support those who can do more then fine.
Please Joe don't preach about direct action being 'better' than anything else, and I hope that your actions will be as good as the ones carried out so far.
PS I believe the peace camp should stay, don't be intimidated by the liars and the warmongerers.
Louise,
in fact I wrote "Marches have and will continue to have an essential role in building opposition to the war and bringing new people into the movements. But it is now clear that we can do more". So I would certainly not rubbish the contribution you have chosen to make. I'm not sure of your use of the term 'better' but it seems self-evident that the actions of the CW 5 have more of an impact then if they had instead written to their TD's or marched down O'Connell st on a Saturday afternoon.
Not everyone is in a position to take direct action but in any case I think at this point (with the army down there) we need to move onto mass direct action involving thousands entering the airfield. Is this 'better' (more effective) then marching down O'Connell st? I think so but I'll still march down O'Connelll st as well. I recognise that's as far as some people want to go and I welcome the fact that they have gone that far, unlike the majority who are anti-war and have yet to rise out of their armchairs.
Louise,
You can still take part in Direct Action at a relatively low risk to yourself. You do
not have to be the one tearing down the fence or smashing up the war machines, which
obviously entail a fairly high risk of arrest.
Direct Action is best when it is Mass direct action and it is in this context, that even
small token low risk efforts make a great deal of difference.
For example, if some people decide to push their way through to some place where the
war machines are, you can help by simply physically walking over to where the activity
is taking place, like a fence for instance. By just standing there and adding to the
numbers that is already making a huge difference. To go a bit further you can join with
others and link arms to prevent the oppressors from stopping the direct action. With a
little bit of imagination, you will be able to think of lots more low risk, but useful
actions.
Each direct action event will be different, but as I say the more people involved the
more can be achieved and the harder it is for the media to put a spin on it.
With the current direct actions so far it has been unfortunate so few have been involved,
except for the one protest back in Oct 2002 in Shannon, where at least 150 protestors
were involved in a mass direct action trespass of the runway area.
Some pictures of this can be found at:
http://struggle.ws/wsm/news/2002/shannonOCT.html
Any plans for mass direct action at the Dublin demonstration, an action where parents and their children can choose to take part. This doesn't have to take away from the main march, but an option to take a different step. There's sites in Dublin that benefit from a war on Iraq, they should be pointed out and hampered.
Don't wait for someone else to do it, bring your own element of surprise and spontaniety to the march. Stopping the war doesn't have to be symbolic, each of us can have a peaceful direct impact. Remember this is a war for oil and any effect on the bank balance of those who profit is a tangible success.
Use your imagination to blow away clouds of fear ?
George Orwell wrote during WWII that protesting pacifists were "objectively pro-Fascist."
Anyone participating or supporting these "direct actions" are objectively supporting Saddam Hussein, Mullah Omar, Osama bin-Laden and their versions of fascism, secular "Ba'ath" party and religious respectively.
They support everything Saddam did to the Kurds, Shiites, to any democratic opposition. All the torture.
They support the Taliban's oppression of women, the destruction of ancient Buddhist temples, execution of homosexuals.
You really can't wit to see the raining of mass explosives on women and children can you? You're just longing for the mangled bodies of the innocents so US oil companies can cash in on the oil. Does the thought of it give you an erection or something? Isn't about time you joined the human race?
Listen Irish American, I for one do care about the Buddist temples, I dont give much of a shit about anything else you mentioned. Anyway the peace camp people have ran away from Shannon when they heard the Irish army was coming, so much for direct action! You should be happy I suppose.
Irish American you are incapable of carrying out a rational argument
against the peace activists, so you throw out the absurd paragraph above.
The reason you are incapable is because any, even slight casual examination
of the facts from the camp you seem to support, could not possibly win any
argument under what might be considered a logical and balanced debate. Hence
and understandingly, you have to resort to this absurd nonesense and diversion
from the real issues.
Why do you take such position? Are you afraid of authority? Are you afraid of
your friends and collegues if you change your mind. Is it patriotism which
unfortunately as we know at it's ultimate core means doing your duty to murder
strangers in another country on behalf of another set of strangers in your own.
Have you bought in this this propangada?
Why don't you take a good long hard long at some of these pictures of the handy
work of your government so far in Afghanistan to-date and then seriously ask
yourself, do you truly believe that we support this? Ask yourself why none of
it appears in the so-called free media in the so-called democracy of the US.
http://www.robert-fisk.com/pictures_civilian_casualities.htm