Galway Marches Against War

by Conor Rush Tue Feb 25, 2003 19:23 Riverside, Galway

The reason Saddam Hussein and so many other
dictators and military regimes are a menace
is because they have been armed, mainly by the U.S.
and Europe. So it's long overdue that these
countries stopped creating and facilitating deadly
dictatorships. The Arms industry is a
multi- billion dollar industry worldwide. Most
Arms producers don't care who they sell to, as
long as they sell. If the potential customer is
too embarassing to deal with directly, it's never
difficult to find go-betweens. Many British Arms
exporters have received "the Queen's Award for
Industry" for their efforts. How many countries
are there in the world where there are plenty of
arms but ordinary people can hardly survive -
Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Iraq, Angola, etc,
etc?? Many countries also use the sale of their
last generation arms to finance their current and
next generation of arms. This is regarded as
"ecomonically sound". How much did it cost the
U.S. and everyone else in 1990 to try to regain control of the Arms they sold to Saddam previously?

by Niall O Brolchain - Green Party Mon Feb 24, 2003 10:52 niallob at esatclear dot ie Galway 091 596680

This was an amazingly well attended march considering the small amount of publicity it got.

On the subject of Mary Harney and her party, they keep suggesting that they disagree with the appeasement of Saddam Hussein. They clearly have a different understanding of the word to the rest of us. Dreadful and all as Saddam is, in this case he is clearly not the aggressor. George Bush is.

It was the appeasement of an agressor that eventually led to the 2nd world war. If the present situation gets out of hand and destabilises the middle east, history will be very unkind to the likes of Mary Harney just as it was to Neville Chamberlain before her.

by Derrick Hambleton - Labour Party South Ward, Galway Sun Feb 23, 2003 23:40 hambletonderrick at ireland dot com Kingston, Galway 0872544496

My placard in Dublin read, Not Anti American - Just Anti War.
I detest the way in which messrs Harney & McDowall are insinuating that to protest for a peaceful solution to this contrived crisis, you have to be mad or bad. I think that the population generally are begining to realise that being passive, as they have for the past five/six years, is not now an option and that by gathering together to protest against this cruel war, they can make a difference!

Keep up the good work.

by Phelim Murnion - Galway Alliance Against War Sun Feb 23, 2003 22:37 gaaw at eircom dot net Galway

From the Indymedia article you'd think that the people of Galway appeared in Eyre Square by osmosis! The Galway march didn't just happen. It was organised. Galway Alliance Against War organised it, and that means that a tiny number of activists worked hard to make sure it happened in a very short time scale. The establishment has an organised system and if we are going to confont them we have to organise as well.

I urge anybody from Galway, particularly anybody that marched to join GAAW and help with the work. It's much easier to organise if you can spread the load among many hands.

We meet at Richardsons pub in Eyre Square every Tuesday at 8.30pm. Or cobtact us at [email protected] or check the web site at http://homepage.eircom.net/~gaaw.

rgds
Phelim
GAAW

by Frank Dubois Sat Feb 22, 2003 19:51

The powers-that-be are worried. Shown by Harney's vituperation. Ahern is sitting on the fence so long he clearly has no balls left. They fear real politics, mass protest, participatory democracy, and direct action. Let's end the politics of evasion and lies. Let's give them what they fear!

by Gaillimheach Sat Feb 22, 2003 18:55

The organisers reckon about 3000 joined the march —overwhelmingly young people. This was very good for a low-key local demonstration, called as recently as Monday. Padraic Stevens sang (and wrote) the song mentioned above. There were also powerful musical contibutions from Leo Moran, Eoghan Burke, Rob Stafford and Blue Germaine. Poems were contributed by Rita Ann Higgins, Michael D. Higgins, Kevin Higgins, Louis de Paor and Pearse Doherty.