Irish Times: Ten arrested at Shannon Airport protest

by Sparks Sat Mar 01, 2003 20:25

So, let us recap. A peaceful organised march against the war generates the single largest march in the past thirty years. An organised demonstration against the war with a stated plan to break the law, on the other hand, gathers a total of 500 people.

Lesson learnt?

Oh, obviously we have to bitch about how the IAWM/PANA/NGO/Whomever caused the problem and COMPLETELY IGNORE REALITY!

Dammit, the whole bloody point of Feb15 was that the normally silent majority were so pissed off that they came out.

Here's the whole point that not only the GNAW, but every other political organisation on this messed-up island seems to have missed:

There aren't that many of you.

Look around your next committee meeting. How many are there? How many people are so enthuastic about your cause that you can count on them to be there on a cold saturday afternoon? If the answer is over a hundred, you're probably FF.

So why didn't the masses support you? Because the masses don't like the idea of breaking the law, even in a nonviolent manner. Why did they support Feb15? Because the people up for a nasty death weren't Saddam or Bush (who most couldn't care less about), but ordinary people that we could sympathise with.

And how do you get the masses to continue to support you? You don't. That's the whole point.

The masses don't support you, YOU FACILITATE THEM!!!

Do a good job, and everyone comes out. Don't and you get the crazys. Now if Bertie&co got that message, we wouldn't have needed F15, we wouldn't have a convicted gunrunner as an elected TD, and we'd all be a lot better off. Instead they focus on themselves and trying to get the people to follow their lead. And in the meantime, SF snuck in and grabbed several seats by appearing to follow the lead of the people instead of FF.

It's enough to make you despair - it's such a simple idea, so why doesn't anyone follow it?

by non-aligned peacenik Sat Mar 01, 2003 21:03

GNAW - you've had your day out, your tactics were a disaster and you played into the media's hands like right patsies.
Will you get the message? - you don't have the support for a mass action right now.
Blame who you like (as I'm sure you will) but your "support" just wasn't there,you are a minority and you managed to turn what could have been another mass mobilisation of who knows 10,000?, 20,000? at Shannon into 1,000 and a paltry 150 in Dublin.
Get real and accept that you got it wrong.

by Paddy Ahern Sat Mar 01, 2003 21:41

I have been requested by my brother Bertie, to express not alone on his behalf, but on behalf of the entire government, his sincere and heartfelt to the young men and women of the GNUFF or is it GNAW for their invaluable assistance at a time of great crisis for his administration. After the huge turnout on Feb. 15, Bertie was very stressed but now only two weeks later, the number protesting has dropped from a horrific six figures to a miserable thousand (even Mary is smiling). Thank you again to Pat C, Chekov, Phuq Hedd and everyone else at GNUFF/GNAW, I would offer you cabinet seats but Noel informs me that you would not pass the intelligence test and of course could not keep a secret (tribunals). I must try to get along to one of your grassy gatherings, I am interested in studying your methods of organisation very closely. Party headquarters are producing a video on how not to organise a campaign and I have no doubt that your grassy organisation can be of immense help. If only you fine young people had being around and involved in the anti Vietnam war campaign in the sixties, our American friends would never have lost the country to those lousy commies.

Bless you all

Paddy Ahern pp
Bertie

Ps have any of you considered joining F.G.

by fergus robson - free thinker Sat Mar 01, 2003 23:09 fergusrobson at hotmail dot com

im probably younger than any of you and even i can see getting revenge or abandoning allies is not the way to go for any of us.There was a problem for us today the general release of plans was possibly a bad move !we have to admit that the majority of people in ireland are too happy with the world as it is(good for them wish i could say the same for myself)to take part in something recieving such widespread condemnation.The spread of opur ideas publicly by newspapers and radio has given the mainstream control of the image we will project.to be realistic this will continue to be the case so we must be prepared to say to ourselves 'is complying to majority rule worth the possible deaths in iraq and worth the blood we will have on our hands if we fail to act.this is where the split has come and it divides not those for and against violence but those who are hoping to benefit politically .of course there are those who are hoping for party gain and personal gain on both sides but it has for the most part been unmasked now.let us continue to represent our consciences not our prestige ratings in our war on war!
fergus

(bet ill get slandered for saying this!)

by fergus again Sat Mar 01, 2003 23:12

just meant to add that my idea of an effective way of spreading info is by telling only people who you know are safe and telling them to do the same .It will get around its a small country and hopefully there is enough cohesion taken place by now for us to use indymedia properly.

by pat c Sun Mar 02, 2003 18:37

Thanks to the SP, SWP & nIAWM for sabotaging the DA with their disinformation & scare tactics.

by Sparks Sun Mar 02, 2003 21:34

Pat C,
Would you care to read what I wrote? Me, I'm not affiliated to any political party, I don't like the idea of political parties at all myself. I figure if I'm smart enough to earn the cash to pay taxes, I'm smart enough to have a valid opinion on how the country is run, and I see no reason to surrender that to anyone. Not FF, not FG, not SF, not LP, not the Greens, not the IAWM, not the SP, not PANA, not NGO, not GNAW, no-one.

Now if you'd read what I wrote, you'd have guessed that. What, do you think that yesterday's demo was GNAW property or something? Do you think Feb15 was IAWM's? Reality check - Feb15 belonged to a large mass of people that were not affiliated to any group, but were just pissed off enough to come out and show they disagreed with their government. Whatever IAWM/NGO/PANA/GNAW say, it wasn't "their" protest and seeing them complain that some other group sabotaged "their" protest indicates to me that people have lost perspective and should take a day or two to step back and regain perspective.

Welcome to a representative democracy. You don't lead, the people choose you to REPRESENT them, hence the name. FF appear to have forgotten that - we don't need any more new groups to start up for the purpose of forgetting it as well, thanks.

by kitty-kat Mon Mar 03, 2003 10:40

That was precisely why the plan was made public, so people could make up their own minds and represent THEMSELVES, not have someone else do it for them. So it wouldn’t be a bunch of *elitists* with their own little plan, kept secret and alienating people further. The plan was explained, the intention was clear and the nature of the action; ie. NON-violent was made very clear. You cannot deny that press statements released by the likes of Ed Horgan et al put a lot of unfounded fear out there. A huge number of people stayed away but those I’ve spoken to who did were misinformed by the media and confused.
Absolutely, the 15th didn’t belong to IAWM, nor did Saturday belong to GNAW. The difference was Saturday wasn’t about just getting pissed off and waving placards...if we do that we’re “easily led” or “anti-american” according to FF, they dismissed the massive turnout and nothing changed.

Now is not the time for recrimination, standing on the sidelines and sneering does nothing to help the movement, it is time for EVERYONE to take stock, reflect on the mistakes made, and what we are truly up against, listen to each other and find the the best next step. We need comrades, not heroes.

Solidarity.

by Eamonn Murphy - Peace Party oh the Nation of Ireland Sat Jun 07, 2003 16:03 imeamonn at hotmail dot ie

Certainly, we will initially be fielding a number of candidates in June next year. We invite anybody with constructive forward-seeing views to contact us NO MESSERS