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Mothers day on the long road to Shannon Warport national |
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news report
 Tuesday April 01, 2003 15:21 by monkeyseemonkeydo
 hear none see none speak none from struggle site - March 31 2003 Another day of protesting in the capital was followed by a plan for a 'slow march' to the Terminal at Shannon airport on Sunday. So again for GNAW activists in Dublin this meant another early start. Clocks had gone forward an hour be we all still managed to be at Wood Quay for 9.30am. An elderly shrewd woman passer by asked what the red & black flags were for. We informed her we were anarchists on the way to Shannon for a protest and she told us how her local residents group were against this war. She wished us luck and told us not to get arrested. We filled two cars and headed off on the N7 again for what seemed like the 100th time. I know the names of all the towns no matter how small. Boris, Mounthrath, Emo 2Km somewhere to the west of us and Toomeyvara where we have our favourite pit stop. After getting through Limerick the skies darkened ominously. We soon came across the largest road block I've encountered yet for one of these demonstrations.
We tried to hide the flag poles. Fortunately the 12 Gardai were too busy stopping buses to worry about a Dublin registered car with a black hooded suspicious type riding shotgun with two 8 foot flagpoles inside the car. They stopped the bus from Cork, boarded it and searched peoples bags and belongings. Just another paragraph to the history of the intimidation of activists by the State. We got through without being stopped as the boys in yellow were too interested in swapping jokes and going though pre-game analysis of the grand slam decider. We had some time to spare so we went to the Shannon peace house. This house and the people who live here have done an amazing job in highlighting the role being played by Shannon airport in this dirty war. They have shone a light on the proceedings in Clare and for that they are being harassed and hassled by the Gardai. Now the landlady is being hasseled into evicting her tenants. Another dirty little campaign being waged by the forces of law and order. Maybe we'll get another tribunal in ten years time dealing with their tactics here. As we parked around the corner from the house we looked directly at two special branch detectives sitting in the car in front of us. People at the peace house have helped with legal and prisoner support. They also still are documenting the planes and flights that come into and leave the airport ferrying troops and arms to the war zone. We finally arrived into the car park shortly before 2.00pm. It wasn't looking very promising so we went to the pub to watch the rugby. Not my sport but I really enjoyed catching the first thirty minutes of the game whilst people assembled in the car park. I also enjoyed it knowing that the State had mobilised 400 cops for the demonstration and that they probably all wanted to see the game also.
Someone had brought along a ghetto blaster and a slow mournful requiem was being played for auld Irelands mythological reality contained in the black box. The darkness that was in evidence earlier in the day had disappeared and the sun shone down brilliantly on this scene. It reminded me of something that you would see on the set of a Fellini film. I don't really know what the local people who came to the door steps to witness the crowd of about a hundred file slowly past their houses made of it. I looked up and saw the sun glint though the flag and though it looked like old propaganda shots from the Spanish civil war. The mood was fairly sombre and we had many changes of pall bearers. Once again some of the local kids came down to join us in masks and white boiler suits. After about 40 minutes we turned the corner so that we could see Shannon airport up in the distance. Just about 50 yards in front of where the peace camp had been there was a line of 30 of so cops. Then stretching both sides of this line with crash barriers - there was Gardai stretching into the distance on the far side of a 12 foot wide dyke.
There was a lot of triple time over time being made by the lads and lassies in florescent yellow. This peaceful march was going no further. They made that abundantly clear. We sang songs and had a speak out with the megaphone being left on the coffin for all to come up and have a few words. The state was criticised its role in intimidating and harassing us. It was also taken to task for not letting us have a peaceful demonstration to the terminal. In fact we weren't allowed to get to the sign that welcome's people to Shannon airport. Caoimhe Butterly (an activist who has spent a significant part of her time in Palestine) made a very moving plea to the female gardai present to look into their hearts on this Mothers day and themselves what they were doing by protecting this pit-stop for the US war machine. Tim and others explained to the people the harassment that they've continually experienced when they have simply been trying to document the planes that are using this airport. Another speaker asked the guards to raise their hands if they were in favour of the war. It appeared to all present then that they all opposed the war when they failed to react to the question.
Myself and a friend were informed by the inspector that we were out of line when we strayed 10 yards to the left of the demonstration to have a look at the obstacles in our way. It's amazing to think of the arrogance and power that pervades - the force - since they've brought into being the public order act. It appears that they can and will try to tell you where you can stand on a public road. Finally we had 4 women pall bearers slowly march up to the crash barriers and hand in the coffin for Irish neutrality. They refused to take it of course. As one speaker illustrated the last time martial law was enacted in Clare the black and tans we there. It now appears that Bertie imposes martial law around his precious refuelling dump for the UASF every time GNAW call for a protest there.
It was dark and late when we finally rolled into Dublin. The DJ on the radio was playing AC/DC 'If you want blood' and I thought perversely it was appropriate. Bush, Rumsfeld, Blair and Ahern have spilled the blood of innocent people. They've got that on their hands and it appears that's what they wanted all along. I for one can't see what else this war has achieved. For more information see Stop refuelling at Shannon warport |
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Comments (15 of 15)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15well done.
The airbases of the USAF in Europe are spread from the island of Terceira in the Azores 2300miles east of Washington across the continent.
Mostly under control of the airborne command centres these bases are pivotal in providing logistic support to the US/K war machine.
The bases have always been resisted.
In attempts to curry favour with the European states the US has agreed to a limited withdrawal from several countries.
At the same time non military bases have been used to assist the logistic shortfall.
Thus Shannon became a quasi-military installation.
In the last weeks it has also been confirmed that civilian airport air-traffic control centres (such as Prat at Barcelona) are being used to assist overflights by USAF on bobming missions to Iraq.
the Shannon Warport camapaign marked the beginning of increased awareness across Europe of this type of "extra-military" state collusion.
thank you!
There were at least four people there with video cameras, including a guy from Indymedia, any chance someone can put up a short clip please?
all working for nada in munny in spare time most of them indermejja tipes
Yeah, nicely written piece but it reads like the author was on an acid trip rather than anything rooted in the real world.
First, no GNAW buses from Dublin, hence the tiny turnout (about 100), which isn't even acknowledged as it should be - an organisational fuck-up. Full marks to those who travelled but I'd still like to know why buses weren't provided. I don't own a car, mate, and (sorry for this) I wouldn't squeeze in with most of lot, no matter how much I wanted to travel. So, instead I did some chalking in Dublin. Not much but no harm.
Secondly, you say you'll be back with more. Uh huh. When exactly? GNAW has now had three protests in Shannon and never more than 300 at any. In fact, the numbers have gone down rapidly. The next protest at the warport is an IAWM event (and I'll be on their buses, much as I don't agree with everything they do), so is this the next thing for Dublin GNAW? Back with same crowd but also IAWM, hence bigger numbers?? The truth is that GNAW has shown itself to be unable to mobilise significant numbers. Will you ever ask yourselves why?
Finally, big emphasis in this posting on anarchist flags and so on. Bet it's written by WSM-head. Are you starting to act like the SWP now? They bring their placards and flags on Dublin marches to look like they own it, like they are the 'leaders'. Looks like you're doing the same with GNAW.
Anyway, see youse in Shannon on 12th April. I'm fairly certain the IAWM will have the wit to provide buses.
thanks for this, sounds great, wish I could have been there. Like that you emphasise different sectors of grassroots people that spoke/acted. Where I was, however, I did learn some stuff. A woman from the Global Women's Strike in Spain reports that in Barcelona, there is a cacerolazo (pot and pan banging) every night at a certain time against the war. There is a peace camp outside government buildings in the city. I saw video of cacerolazo, it's incredible. And also, with ref to someone's comment re air traffic control and Barcelona, she said that they were refuelling the warplanes over cities in Spain at one point, which is illegal in Spanish law, and there was a massive outcry from everyone. Since then France has allowed use of airspace sadly, so planes are not refuelling over Spain anymore. She said that the movement would have stopped it in Spain, if it had carried on as over 90% of people there are against the war and Aznar.
The 'eco-anarchist' asks a good question. Why only 100 at Shannon? Why is Grassroots so weak and why can't you get big sizable numbers at demos? I'm based in England most of the year so I don't have much of an insight into this but it is very unusual to hear people declare a turnout of 100 to be a success. Particularly when Grassroots sees itself as a viable alternative to the Irish version of Stop The War.
To be perfectly honest, I would say that until you admit to failures you will never get anywhere. We must be willing to be reflective and not dogmatic, and we must be capable of admitting and learning from our mistakes. We need to be humble and not arrogant.
A big factor influencing the turnout must have been the Rugby final. We will have to try once more to see if this was the case. Also the Irish media are pathetically servile towards the government position and unquestioning of the USA propaganda. If you are anti-war here, you hear very little support, and have to do your own research to get at the facts.
These marches are being advertised in all non-mainstream places, and hardly any mainstream 'figureheads' are spearheading the anti-war cause. The result inevitably is that we are missing out on the big middle class numbers, and ending up with only the(perceived)'anarchist fringe'. Surely we could get a few known 'personalities' on board to help get some media coverage and bring the mainstream objectors on board? I'm sure they would participate, but you won't get them to march behind a giant banner saying 'Socialists against the War', or attend a march in which elements declare that they are going to 'rush the perimeter fence' or whatever. We need to be sensitive as to where they're 'at'.
AS an aside, one thing that happened on Sunday was that whenever a really good/strong speaker got up to say something, a helicopter was brought closer, drowning out what they were saying (so the gardai wouldn't have to hear, presumably). Next time we should inform the Gardai that whenever that happens we will wait patiently, and start the speech again when it has gone. This way they will just have to wait all the longer before we go away, and they'll still have to hear the guilt-inducing stuff anyway.
Donal, i can't see your argument about the rugby and the media. There was an important footy match on Saturday and more than 20,000 turned out in Dublin for IAWM/NGO Peace Alliance march. I was there and it was huge. The turnout on Sunday - or lack of it - can't be due to the things you pinpoint. Previous IAWM marches at Shannon have attracted thousands. The next one on 12th April (which is also supported by PANA and NGO Peace Alliance) will probably also attract thousands. I reckon GNAW has to look elsewhere for its weaknesses. As pointed out by some other contributor, it is very, very strange that buses weren't organised from Dublin. That is a very significant weakness.
Was this an anarchist march? Like, a coffin inscribed 'neutrality' flanked by people carrying anarchist flags! Does anybody else find that surreal?
To answer a few questions that have come up on the thread (although my understanding of this might be wrong as I wasn't involved in the planning):
1. The size of the event and the non provisioning of buses from Dublin
There are a number of reasons for this, but primarily there is the factor that this event was never really intended to be a huge march / rally. The funeral march theme was chosen as it would not need a huge mobilisation to succeed in its objectives: to create a powerful visual statement, in the tradition of street theatre, to disrupt the operation of the airport for a while and to keep the focus on Shannon. By these measures, I found the event to be quite a success - the size of the security operation was such that the operation of the airport was disrupted to a considerable extent (loads of roadblocks, cops everywhere) and the visual impact of the event did succeed in attracting a bit of media coverage (although this was a bit dissappointing).
Regarding the lack of mobilisation from Dublin: this event was called less than 2 weeks beforehand and fully finalised only a week in advance. The Dublin GNAW group decided that, although we fully supported the event (as we do for all Shannon mobilisations), the timeframe was not sufficent for us to really carry out a large mobilisation and thus we decided to prioritise other, ongoing campaign work rather than this event - especially since we recognised that it was not something that needed a huge number of people to succeed. Instead we organised a few cars of Dublin people to travel down to show our support. I think that most of us who did travel down from Dublin actually felt that the day was quite a success - we weren't expecting a really large turnout.
The fact that Dublin didn't do a huge publicity drive for the event also had other ramifications. Dublin is where the media lives and if there isn't much in the way of publicity on the Dublin streets, the media is very unlikely to pick up on it, especially since we weren't putting a huge effort into writing press releases, targetting the media and so on.
To sum up, this was intended to be a low key, street theatre event that could succeed in its limited goals without a huge amount of work and keep the pressure on at Shannon - to my mind it was a success. It is also worth noting that in Cork, where the CPA did put a serious effort into mobilising people, more people travelled on the buses to Shannon on Sunday than travelled to Dublin on Saturday on the broader CAW buses.
2. The anarchist flags
On all grassroots events people are 'allowed' to carry whatever flags and banners they like. The people with the anarchist flags stood on either side of the coffin cause they thought that it looked cool. I don't think anybody had any problem with this (and I do think it looked cool). On previous grass roots events we have had welsh flags, scottish flags and jolly rogers. This time there were two anarchist flags and one palestinian one. To compare this with the SWP's attempts to brand their events is silly. The flags are anarchist flags, not associated with any particular organisation and perhaps half of the people on the event probably would identify themselves as anarchists. Also, despite the fact that there were several WSM members present, there were no banners, paperws or placards with a WSM branding - on the other hand the one SWP person there seemed to have a newspaper stapled to his chest all day.
3. Are we coming back?
When we said that we are coming back, we are not only talking about the next IAWM march on April 12th. Indeed we will be mobilising for that event, as we have for pretty much every sizeable event that has taken place at shannon airport in the last 2 years. This is in marked contrast to the SWP/SP/IAWM attitude towards events that they don't 'own'. For example in October, upwards of 100 grassroots people attended the IAWM-called event in Shannon. In December there was an event with a similar turnout, but this time it had been called by GNAW and the IAWM perhaps sent along 2 people, more to observe than to support the event.
However, in addition to attending the April 12th march, we are in the process of agreeing to a plan and date for another major attempt at direct action. When this is finalised, you will certainly hear about it and you can rest assured that buses and whatever else you want will be provided.
Finally can I say that, those people who come on indymedia and give out because "GNAW didn't organise transport", or "GNAW's event wasn't to my liking", should either show up at GNAW meetings and make their case, or go off and organise their own stuff. GNAW is an extremely democratic network and everyone has the ability to affect policy changes. We are a network of groups and individuals who are trying sincerely to come up with ways in which we can help stop this war. We are not a service provider, putting on events and organising transport to suit the whims of armchair activists. If you want us to change, get involved.
Interesting that chekov brags about CPA bus to shannon having three more poeople than CAWC bus to dublin! Leaving aside the difference in distance, none of the CPA leaflets or posters distributed in cork mentioned them as the organisers. In fact, their was no organisation's name on the literature and the general impression out there was that the CAWC was organising the shannon buses. Leaflets for shannon handed out at the huge CAWC march on 22nd of March seemed to come from the organisers - i thought it was CAWC organising for shannon!! There was no mention of either CPA or Grassroots on any leaflets or posters. What up with that??
How come, dear Chekov, that lot in Cork could so 'successfully' mobilise for Shannon in such a short time, but it was beyond the capabilities of Dublin GNAW? Your comments on CPA bus kinda sink your excuse for Dublin, don't they? Do Dubliners do things at a slower pace?
Mad muppet,
Do you really think that the branding of leaflets makes that huge a difference? If you think that the CPA carried out a subtle subterfuge to make it appear that it was the CAWC which was mobilising for Shannon and this is why people came, then your name is apt indeed. Also, I didn't realise I was bragging, thanks for letting me know.
And Maximoff, next time read slowly and don't leave out words:
"we decided to prioritise other, ongoing campaign work rather than this event"
To sum up,
Yez are snide, sneering, sectarian shitheads and I wish you'd stop bothering us. I should have thought that we are too irrelevant to your grand plans anyway.
Yes, of course, you are entirely correct. You are utterly irrelevant to our plans. Why bother? Oh well, one must amuse oneself occasionally. Yes, one must, one must...ahhh. It is so nice when people like Chekov begin to understand their role (or lack of same) in the grand scheme of things.
PS I suppose I should point out that this is my first contribution to this thread, though I can't imagine how I missed it before! Tut, tut. Must keep ones eyes peeled.
Hah hah hah! Chekov doesn't see 'branding' as important!! Has anyone ever seen a WSM publication without their name all over it? Nah, didn't think so.