Grassroots Network Against War

by Qui va la Sat Mar 01, 2003 15:21

This show of force only clarifies the governments willingness to stop at nothing to defend it’s position of supporting the US in this war and their use of any means to put down dissent

The motto of the Order Of St. Patrick is appropriate,
Quis separabit? who shall separate (us)?

by jeff Sat Mar 01, 2003 15:27

The above is also the motto of the U.D.A. ...

by AM Sat Mar 01, 2003 16:14

As a North American activist in Ireland, i'd like to express my support and solidarity for all participating in today's non-violent direct action in Shannon. To those who have directed criticism towards GNAW's call to civil disobedience, a simple reminder: it was the sit-down protests and other expressions of direct action that shutdown the WTO in Seattle '99. We're now facing the imminent indiscriminate bombing of a civilian population in which 50,000 are projected to be murdered. The symbolic gesture of bringing down a fence should not even be up for debate.

by scheduled rioter! Sat Mar 01, 2003 16:16

"100s of gardai in Shannon for riots

Several hundred gardai have been deployed around Shannon Airport for this afternoon's march by anti war demonstrators."

Elsewhere they mention:
"The heavy garda presence includes some officers in riot gear and others armed with guns."

......... wonder who scheduled the riots. Will there be an advertising break, half-time?

Notable also is the continuing inability to actually produce factually corresct reports, thus the GNAW action is described as a breakaway contingent from a demonstration organised by ...... the Irish Anti War Movement!

by Qui va la Sat Mar 01, 2003 16:20

The Latin phrase can be applied to any group.
I did not mean to imply that it is exclusive to the Order of St. Patrick.
The acronym UDA also refers to the United Digital Artists: http:www.uda.com

by pat c Sat Mar 01, 2003 16:47

the LP,GP, PANA etc have succeded & the turnout is low.

The IAWM also helped in the sabotage by spreading disinformation & using scare tactics about the need for medics.

The SP in particular used the scare tctic about the need for medical back up. When have the SP ever arranged medics to attend a demo?

I was involved in joint work with the SP , facing down Youth Defence , on several occasions there was a serious risk of vioence occurring. Never once did the SP suggest the need for medics.

RBB did his best to talk down the demo onevery occasion.

Even in the SP press release there was a sly suggestion that GNAW were non peaceful.

by pat c Sat Mar 01, 2003 17:16

Gardai arrested two people at Shannon



16:06 Saturday March 1st 2003

Two people have been arrested at Shannon airport for attempting to breach a perimeter fence during an anti-war protest. Demonstrators failed to carry out a plan to pull part of the fence down and are in a stand off with Gardai in riot gear.

by King Mob Sat Mar 01, 2003 19:05

The usual suspects - the socialist party, the socialist workers movement, sinn fein the worker's party, the labour party, the green party, provisional sinn fein, the irish anti war movement, the peace and neutrality alliance, the NGO peace alliance, the trade union movement, the roman catholic church, etc, etc, and so on. Oh I could go on and on forever about the number of snakes in the grass who stabbed us in the back. But be warned we will have our day of revenge. Our day will come! And you'se had better watch out you scum.

by King Mob Sat Mar 01, 2003 19:07

I seem to have converted Pat C to our cause. The only glimmer of hope on an otherwise dismal day.

by Bob Nowlan Sat Mar 01, 2003 19:45 ranowlan at uwec dot edu

As an Irish-American as well as a teacher and student of Irish history/politics/and/culture, a socialist, and a fellow activist against War with Iraq, I write to thank you for all of the great work you are and have been doing and to express my solidarity with your efforts. I am proud to let everyone here in the U.S. with whom I maintain contact know that massive numbers of Irish people not only firmly reject the Bush administration's position but also actively oppose this course of action.

As a member of all of these organizations mobilized against the War (a sample of some within which I am currently involved), I thank you:

Wisconsin Peace and Justice Network

Socialist Party USA

Chippewa Valley Just Peace

UWEC Progressive Student Association

Eau Claire Staff and Faculty for Peace and Justice

by non-aligned peacenik Sat Mar 01, 2003 21:06

Instead of blaming everyone else
by non-aligned peacenik Sat, Mar 1 2003, 8:07pm

by King Mob Sat Mar 01, 2003 21:16

The only mistake we made was in allowing hippies like you to parade down in Shannon today and to f**k up our planned mass direct action at the fence. I hope you're happy now. Happy that 10 of us have been arrested.

by Lone Gunman Sat Mar 01, 2003 21:45

8P[prudent prior proper planning prevents piss poor preformance].Try learning that it works wonders

by Anti war activist Sat Mar 01, 2003 22:34

Grassroots Networks actions leading up to and including what happened today at Shannon are in reality a form of sabotage. The last protest at Shannon attracted 3000, todays protest only attracted about 1200 despite the 150,000 that marched in Dublin. The main reason why the numbers today were so small is due to the Grassroots Network splitting from the main anit war movement and undemocratically deciding that they would attempt a trespass. The Grassroots Network made it clear that they were going to Shannon for a confrontation and if possible a riot with the state forces. This has engendered a mood amongst ordinary people that anti war protests will now be an arena for "extremists" to carry out violent protests. The Grassroots Network failed miserably in its attempt at a trespass, they obviously didn't have the bottle to back up their fighting talk with action, and they have assisted the government and the state in damaging the anti war movement. Tonight Ahern and Harney will be delighted by what their auxilaries in the Grassroots Network have done for them.

by silo Sat Mar 01, 2003 22:52

"Grassroots Networks actions leading up to and including what happened today at Shannon are in reality a form of sabotage. The last protest at Shannon attracted 3000, todays protest only attracted about 1200 despite the 150,000 that marched in Dublin."

The last protest at Shannon attracted slightly less than today's; the fact that it was pouring rain all morning might just posssibly maybe be a bigger reason for this than and supposed 'sabotage'. (Also, the Dublin protest had 100,000, not 150,000; let's at least get that straight.)

"The main reason why the numbers today were so small is due to the Grassroots Network splitting from the main anit war movement and undemocratically deciding that they would attempt a trespass."

The numbers were not small compared to previous Shannon demonstrations, as outlined above. The idea that it is somehow 'undemocratic' to decide to NOT march with everybody else is plainly ridiculous. If we also consider that the GNAW announced their intentions in early February to have a direct action today, and that the IAWM subsequently attempted to stifle this by holding an 'alternative' demonstration, the accusation of being 'undemocratic' is simply grossly hypocritical.

"The Grassroots Network made it clear that they were going to Shannon for a confrontation and if possible a riot with the state forces."

This is a straight lie. They did nothing of the sort. They specified that they would be engaging in non-violent direct action. They didn't go 'for a confrontation', and certainly not for 'a riot'.

"This has engendered a mood amongst ordinary people that anti war protests will now be an arena for "extremists" to carry out violent protests."

Only if we assume the same assumptions that you do, which are plainly false.

"The Grassroots Network failed miserably in its attempt at a trespass, they obviously didn't have the bottle to back up their fighting talk with action, and they have assisted the government and the state in damaging the anti war movement."

The GNAW did not say that there was going to be direct action at all costs, and the fact that they were able to so adequately and democratically decide what to do (in this instance, not to attempt direct action) is not only reasonable and well-thought-through, but laudable and admirable.

"Tonight Ahern and Harney will be delighted by what their auxilaries in the Grassroots Network have done for them."

An obvious conclusion to come to, considering the ludicrous assumptions on which this argument is based.

by john - sy Sun Mar 02, 2003 01:04 analyse_and_interpret at hotmail dot com

things didnt go according 2 plan and the left turns on each other.
lets not pretend that the evil trots sabotaged your direct action.
the media campagin that was designed to divide the movement did that
and it looks like they are succeding again. this petty secretrian
bickering is exactly what they want so lets try and advoid it.

by non-aligned peacenik Sun Mar 02, 2003 01:18

“The last protest at Shannon attracted slightly less than today's; the fact that it was pouring rain all morning might just possibly maybe be a bigger reason for this than and supposed 'sabotage'”

The last Shannon demo was attended by at least 2000 by my estimate. Let me get this straight….are you saying that a spot of rain put off what, at a conservative estimate would have been another several thousand people? Not the fact that the other peace organisations/political parties etc. pulled out because of the media scare stories. Which just might have been facilitated by GNAW’s naïve (I’m trying to be kind) tactic of publishing their plans. Right. OK. The rain.

“The numbers were not small compared to previous Shannon demonstrations”
Previous Dublin march = 3,000, Dublin march Feb 15th = 100,000. You don’t think we might have expected a healthy growth in numbers at Shannon too? Ah yes, I forgot. It was raining in the morning.

"This has engendered a mood amongst ordinary people that anti war protests will now be an arena for "extremists" to carry out violent protests."

Obviously bullshit, but the point he’s making is that this is the impression that has gone out via the right-wing media. Friends of mine backed out of coming today because of the press hysteria.

“The GNAW did not say that there was going to be direct action at all costs, and the fact that they were able to so adequately and democratically decide what to do (in this instance, not to attempt direct action) is not only reasonable and well-thought-through, but laudable and admirable.”

But where were the hordes of direct action activists when you needed them? You had your chance and you have to face up to the fact that you read the mood wrong, didn’t get the numbers and chose the wrong tactics BIG TIME. You failed in your stated aim, and f***ed up any chance of a large protest. Just admit it. I doubt there’s much lauding or admiring of GNAW going on tonight.

And do you really, really, really not think in your heart of hearts that the Govt. won’t be just a tiny bit pleased with the outcome of all this confusion? Really?

But we have to put today’s f***-ups behind us a.s.a.p. and get on with restoring the momentum of the peace movement. We may have stalled, but we can kick-start it again.
As long as it’s not raining of course.

by Donnacha - none Sun Mar 02, 2003 02:41 donnacha at sortedmagazine dot com London

"Obviously bullshit, but the point he’s making is that this is the impression that has gone out via the right-wing media. Friends of mine backed out of coming today because of the press hysteria."

Fuck 'em if they take the media seriously is all I can say. The media has never done much other than slag off the left. At the London march a few weeks ago, over a million marched, leaflets were handed out at the beginning by different groups about other tactics, such as the CND sit-down protest in Picadilly Circus and the Disobedience direct action at the US embassy. Those who weren't interested didn't take part in the more radical actions, pure and simple. If fair weather friends are going to decide not to take part in a protest because they don't agree with another groups' tactics (that they can easily keep away from) then they're no value at all to any movement.

D.

by Protester Sun Mar 02, 2003 05:16

GNAW put out a national appeal and got huge media publicity. Despite this, only 300 or so participated in the miserable failed 'direct action' at Shannon. 1,500 (including the regional groups: Galway, Waterford and Cork anti-war groups) joined the IAWM march, despite all the shit in the media.

What does this mean? It means that support for what GNAW were up to is fuck all. Of the 300 or less present, only half were interested in direct action. I noticed some senior WSM heads carrying pink flags. Bottom line: it was a flop and caused huge numbers not to turn up. Give up the macho trip, lads.

by sad Sun Mar 02, 2003 08:25

im just sad no one got there head kicked in yesterday, ppl might not want a war, but fuck all give a shit if shannon is used to fuel plans or not, it makes jobs to feed families, if thiers no jobs in the region are U going to give them money for food cloths and morgages. hell no. U will just fuck off somewhere else and try to be the minority like you are now.

by mr jinks Sun Mar 02, 2003 08:43

so much for the HUGE turnout at shannon yesteday. it was laughable really. i drove around to see what all the hype was about and would have laughed if it wasnt so pathetic to see crusties and mostly scummy people walking towards the airport in their 10's. ya!! in their 10's.
give it up will ye, the interest in ye low lifes gets less and less with every passing week. why dont ye fcuk off back up yere tree's and stay out of normality. maybe come down when some endangered species is being threatened by the ozone or something like that. ye are not wanted... if only ye were intelligent to notice it. ye're 15 minutes of fame has come to an end.

by a question Sun Mar 02, 2003 17:03

Questions need to be answered before this happens again

http://indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=31744

by conor (wsm personal) Mon Mar 03, 2003 13:48

(answering a few points)

Anti war activist: The Grassroots Network made it clear that they were going to Shannon for a confrontation and if possible a riot with the state forces.

ME: We NEVER said any such thing - your scare mongering has failed TOTALY - it was a paeceful well organised action - next time it will be bigger and the next time bigger again
- grow up!

sad:GNAW put out a national appeal and got huge media publicity. Despite this, only 300 or so participated in the miserable failed 'direct action' at Shannon.

ME:yes but the "publicity" was almost all scare mongering BULLSHIT none of which happened (as per anti war activist above)

- in this context that 300 - 400 people put themselves on the line and prepared to take down the fence is highly significant - I wouldn't have DREAMED about a turn out like that even a year ago

sad: 1,500 (including the regional groups: Galway, Waterford and Cork anti-war groups) joined the IAWM march, despite all the shit in the media.

I don't know if you were there sad but it was more like 600 (not that that is good I would have liked if both protests were much larger)

- people from all the regions joined either protset (some actually did both !)

ha ha ye're 15 minutes of fame has come to an end.

we'll be back - the scare mongers were wrong - 700 seems to be THE MAXIMUM cop mobilisation -
there was no extra work done on the fence - It's just begun

and what about these sort of posts ??????????????????

FWD to......................
by Lone gunman Mon, Feb 24 2003, 6:13pm
[email protected]

An Garda Siochana,
Aer Rianta ,
US Embassy Dublin,
CIA,FBI,NSA,The White House,

Anyone who is so IDIOTIC as to post their plans and tactics on an open website like this DESERVES to be arrested and have their heads cracked with a riot baton!!!
Thanks for fucking up a better plan yet again Morons!!!!

me: just didn't happen for ya did it "lone gunman" !!

Thanks a lot guys!
by Kieran - Irish Anti-War Movement Thu, Feb 27 2003, 11:34pm

Grassroots have succeeded in dragging down the anti war movement as a whole to a new low!
This is exactly what we do not need.

me:I think IAWM and PANA managed that rather well themselves - the lack of solidarity was noted cheers guys!

Suppose you had pulled the fence down
by Frankie Mon, Mar 3 2003, 12:09pm

Suppose you had pulled the fence down, so what?
Would that have stopped planes refuelling?

Would it have justified reducing the size of the demo by several thousands of people?

me:As has been repeated many, many times direct action AND mass protest are needed and not in contradiction - huge demonstrations have made their point now we have to move to end the stop over!

Conor

by PAddy Mon Mar 03, 2003 14:21

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.Pitiful excuse for a march.I say that was some direct action that took place on Saturday.Did you see the guy in the brown jumper fall on his ass as he walked like a lemming towards the garda.And then he got arrested.Criminal record for falling on his ass Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.Thanks to the Grass roots network for providing the biggest fucking dissapointment of direct action ever.I was there on Saturday observing from a safe distance (so as not to be associated with your likes) and i have to commend the gardi for their restraint and professionalism.In the face of 200 hundred or so morons attemping to breach security and not one person got marked.If the grass roots network are so commited towards direct action thne why did so many off them have their faces covered.Surly if you believe in the cause so much you should not have to hide them away behind scarves and caps.Not to do so shows that your only protesting because your looking for trouble and confrontation andproves the point to the public that you lot are only trying to stir up trouble.

by Evil Dave Tue Mar 04, 2003 20:42

It wasn't like we had a lack of opportunity. Nobody can call anybody who stood in the line a coward or a trouble maker. Would you stand eyeball to eyeball 4 foot away from riot police and attack dogs at great personal risk to yourself unless you believed that it was the right thing to do?
The people who are "having the last laugh" are those who come onto an independent media site having already believed the propaganda spewed by the national press (who couldn't get even the most basic facts correct in their prior or subsequent reporting

by ralph Thu Mar 06, 2003 13:32

most of the posts seem to fall into a few catagories- people who blame different factions for "spoiling the demo" people trying to calm the bickering and be positive, and people laughing, sneering and wishing that more protestors had got injured.
I find it difficult to understand the third type of person. Where does their hatred and spite come from? Most protestors are people trying to save lives, people risking injury and arrest to prevent mass murder for the benefit of a few rich oil men. Most protestors are thoughtful, caring, kind, brave, decent people, people who read books, study politics, apply cynicism and a critical eye to the mass media and government lies. And some people out their hate them for it. How can you hate someone, how can you wish them harm, for trying to stop a war? If you are so confident that this war is justified, and these protestors are "confused" or "misinformed" then surely pity, or compassion are the appropriate emotions? The fact that most rants seem to cover the same basic themes- that peace protestors are "scum" or "crusties" suggests the pro-war people a) think anyone not wearing smart or expensive clothes is a less worthwhile human, and that b) having peaceful political opinions puts you in the same catagory as murderers, thugs, rapists, etc.. the normal "scum" of our society.

the image of someone sitting back laughing at protestors as the police beat them up makes me feel sick. What kind of human thinks like that? wheres your decency?

by Joe Thu Mar 06, 2003 13:56

Saturday proved that a mass non-violent direct action in Shannon can work if greater numbers take part. We came close to getting down the fence even though there were almost as many cops as there were of us. And we stayed non-violent despite the hysteria of the media and others.

We felt good about the action afterwards. Now we'll look at how it can be done better next time. Hopefully some of those who opposed it for honest reasons will now be more open to supporting and even organising similar actions. Direct Action can stop refueling at Shannon, its driven out 3 out of 4 commercial troops carriers already. At the end of the day that is what matters.

by Anti-war/pro common sense!!! Fri Mar 07, 2003 18:25

If you can't keep you're mouths shut about the one (idiotic)plan you come up with, you deserve to be arrested, possibly worse. What did you possibly hope to achieve by pulling down a fence? If I were you I'd head back to cornwall or wherever and just wait until Glastonbury comes around again. What a pathetic bunch of crusties. You're laughable. You had public support by the thousand and you blew it. The public finally saw you all for what you are- bungling idiots. I can picture it now, a campfire outside shannon with 20 dreadlocked crusties passing a joint when suddenly one of you're ilk leaps up and shouts, I know, lets pull the fence down! Brilliant. Any of your radio/tv/newspaper opportunities have been a disaster, rendering you as impotent in anything aside from this rag of a site where any joe soap (hey, just like me!) can post a story he claims is "shocking new evidence". This is like the national enquirer. Pointless except for a bit of a read in work. Anyone who takes you seriously is an idiot and you proved it with your stunt last weekend. Look at your submissions here! Arguing over what UDA stands for! Latin motto's!!! Great work, this is ground-breaking stuff.
Thanks to overwhelming (and over-estimated) public support, you found yourselves in a position of relevance you could scarcely have dreamed of. You thought you were representing the public, and for a few seconds, the public thought the same. But you can fool some of the people............
Now you are truly out of the debate, admit defeat and don't bother with any more stupid publicity stunts. Let someone with intelligence take over and cut your shouting. A soft, intelligent whisper in the right ear, is better then a hundred crusties shouting slogans through megaphones.

by Anti War/Pro common sense!!! Fri Mar 07, 2003 18:49

"If fair weather friends are going to decide not to take part in a protest because they don't agree with another groups' tactics (that they can easily keep away from) then they're no value at all to any movement."

Thats the public you're talking about, the people of Ireland! Don't you want them onside? If not, then your just a tiny minority, a flea on an elephants arse. the reason so many turned out in Dublin was because your "fairweather friends" felt strongly about this war. Now they look at you and your 'action', if it can be called that and have rightly decided they don't want to be associated with it. All of which limits their options of how to protest. Once again the few have spoiled it for the many.

And ralph, when you take the moral high road like that you sound like that other anti-war icon, Dana. People are angry for just the reason I've mentioned above. Protests were getting somewhere (planes were being diverted to Frankfurt) and now the peaceful protester has to keep away for fear of being lumped in with the sort of pointless idiocy we saw last week. If it manifests itself like it did with me above, so be it. Don't deny people their opportunity to speak frankly, God knows on this site any idiot can.

by Plain Speakin Fri Mar 07, 2003 23:10

Looks like you got your name mixed up, certainly you appear to be Anti-commonsense and that makes me wonder if you're also Pro-war!

GNAW announced an open plan so that anyone that wanted to take part could do so knowing in advance what they were getting themselves into.

There is no way of having a large number of people informed in advance without there being some leakage of information. So there are two options left:
1. Don't inform people, have a secret group of leaders who will suddenly spring the plan on everyone on the day.
2. Inform everyone and don't bother trying to make it secret.

Tactic 1 is something that most people aren't interested in turning up for. They want to discuss and decide what the action should be. This can only be done in advance.

Tactic 2 had the advantage that it stated clearly and unambiguously what the plan was so that noone could claim to have misrepresented it "by mistake".

However misrepresentation and outright bald lies were told. Shame on those that told them (MAMA, PANA, Labour, Green Party, IAWM, SP) and believed them.

Thanks to the approximately 400 people who turned up ready to take non-violent direct action against the fence. They showed that despite betrayal from the left and liberals there is substantial interest in asserting our right as citizens to drive out foreign forces from Irish soil.

As regards "turning people off", most people agree with this action. It's just the namby-pamby politicians and whited-sepulchres of the "peace professionals" that are against it.

We'll be back, larger in number and more determined in spirit. We're not just going to sit by while our constitution is flouted and the USA shreds the laws of international conduct.

by Anti War/Pro Common sense Mon Mar 10, 2003 13:32

Why worry about politicians? Did you ever really expect them to follow through on anything? They change their spots according to public opinion, so they were always going to go against anything radical such as last saturdays action.
Ok so you got into bed with some reds and got burned. What did you expect? If its any consolation, no one really listens to the SP anyway unless they're talking about bin charges, which they should stick to by the way.
However...... the more radical you attempt to make your movement, the more the common man will feel alienated. Granted, the vast majority of individuals seem quite content to sit and watch the smart bombs fall, and have the men who fire them come through our soil. But there are those who do want to have a voice, its just now everyone is talking about trespassers and fence breakers and razor wire, not the actual issue of the breaking and violation of the principals upon which this country was founded.
Thats where protests like this fall down, they distract from the real issues. Spokespeople from your movement have come across as loud mouth radicals and have only had the effect of giving the government and mainstream media all the ammunition they need to call you a minority. I can't agree with any action that alienates the Irish citizen, because ultimately 400 people won't change the governments mind, but 3.5million can.

by Eamonn - Peace Party Fri Jun 06, 2003 17:32

This was good and this made me laugh when one 'critic' said he imagined one of us standing up between a joint an saying 'I know! Lets pull the fence down! Well, as a matter of fact we got a hook onto the fence an if we wanted to we could have tore it down there an then an damaged every plane on the runway. Mabye this would have made some of you very happy who knows but we found out we can damage the government any time we want but do not any longer feel like tellin any one when or where so keep up your cynical attitude it is so unbelievably entertaining and we will have our own fun where and when we like but LOOK OUT it is you who will be paying for it (in fact you already are!

Cheers and Excellent health and long life to all in G.N.A.W.