Good demo at Shannon on Saturday

by Evil Dave Mon Apr 14, 2003 00:53

It's been done so many times before and it never achieved anything then so why would it achieve anything this time?

The SWP don't want to alienate the general public by doing anything too dramatic or contravertial, but in appeasing the general public (and failing because most of them have stopped caring) they are deeply antagonising the activist community.

The turnout at Shannon this Saturday was really small and this time RBB can't blame the GNAW for scaring ordinary people away because of threats of violence. There was zero media coverage because there was absolutely nothing going on. The day was instead devoted to the probaganda being broadcasted more conveniently from the PD's Ard Fheis

by Ciaron O'Reilly - Pit Stop PLoughshares Mon Apr 14, 2003 00:57

Many thanx and much solidarity from the Pit Stop Ploughshares who remain banned from County Clare. Karen Fallon remains in Limerick Prison since the Feb 3rd. disarmament.

Great that folks are continuing to return to Shannnon Airport to say no to this war & Irish complicity in it!

Don't accept the mainstream media definitions of when their wars start and end. Last time they indicated the war aginst the people of Iraq was over..they went on to kill 1.5 million thorugh sanctions. Just a change of tack.
Keep on keeping on

by Good Jim Mon Apr 14, 2003 01:02

Evil Dave and John seem to forget that only 100 people attended the last anarchist gig at Shannon. You know, the one that did nothing more exciting than a typical IAWM demonstration. With such numbers, you'd hardly notice their presence or non-presence at a half-decent march in Shannon. And Saturday's demo, by the way, was a decent size. It wasn't embarrassing to be on - unlike GNAW efforts.

by John Mon Apr 14, 2003 01:08

I think Ciaran O'Rielly is right about this (if I understand him correctly). We've been fed this bs, since the fall of Baghdad, that the war is over. This is de-mobilising people, including activists. That's why so many opted not to come to Shannon, though under the circumstances the turnout was still good.

The war isn't over and neither is our opposition. We need to get that message out there.

by hunter Mon Apr 14, 2003 01:28

i notice thr kildare group wrent mentioned in the above post (not a criticism of the writer) but i was talkin to them and this was their 1st outing. shame they organised so late. still, not to worry, we'll have the war on syria to worry bout soon enuff.

the cops were fat. real fat.

let the socialists sell their paper if they want. i think they are the ones gonna change the world if anyone is.

the war is not over.

shock (and awe) on!

by Eco-anarchist Mon Apr 14, 2003 01:29

Dublin GNAW didn't mobilise for CPA/GNAW march recently and they didn't mobilise for Saturday's event. Does this mean that Shannon is no longer a priority or is it that they're just a bunch of lazy f**ks in Dublin who expect everybody to travel to them but they'll go nowhere themselves?

by lodi dodi Mon Apr 14, 2003 02:06

always the easy thing to do is to blame the swp when you could not bothered your arse doing anything yourself

by Caspian Mon Apr 14, 2003 02:49

These cops who are ever present at demos taking photos. Why don't people make more of this? These Gestapo types who are taking your photos and storing them away for future reference. Why are you not asking what they are doing with these photos? Why are you not asking on radio phone ins etc? Ask Bertie what he intends to do with these photos of ordinary Irish men and women who are speaking out? Find out who these particular cops are who specialise in taking photos at demos. Who are they? We are not a huge country. We should be able to get the names of these cops who go around taking photos of the best and brightest of our people at demos. Who are these guys? Are you related to any of these Gestapo types? If you are, would you care to give us their names so we can expose them to the rest of us ordinary Irish folk. They may be living next door to you.
Take photos of them when they take photos of you. Publish them on the net. Let their neighbours know who these Secret Police are. Don't let them get away with it. Let every demonstrator carry a camera and use it. Let us find out what pubs they drink in.

by Vinnie Mon Apr 14, 2003 09:43

There are pictures of the photographing gardai at
http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=43061 and I also have some more high quality ones. I spent a while pretending to film them just to annoy them.

>Also, there were some great songs at the rally >and I wonder if this might be emphasised more in >future.

I have a recordings of some of the best songs from all the recent demos. They're obviously not the best quality but their quite listenable. I might put them up somewhere as mp3s, I'll announce it when I do, although there might be copyright issues.

by Andrew Mon Apr 14, 2003 10:35

Pretty amusing, if we turn up and do something then people whinge but if we don't (the same?) people whinge as well.

Anyway there were 3 anarchist flags on the march for those who like to keep count of such things. A number of anarchists did travel for the demo but given the fact that the IAWM has decided on such an anti-direct action line its not surprising many didn't think it worthwhile to travel across the country for yet another march to the terminal to hear RBB, Kieran Allen, Joe Higgins and Patricia McKenna tell us once more why war was bad. (I kid you not, all 4 spoke again at this demonstration, surely the SWP, SP and GP have others capable of doing this?)

That and the fact that quite a number of us are actually banned from Co. Clare or have just come through court cases over Shannon has the intended effect of keeping the numbers down. As did the bin-charges conferencs in Dublin on Saturday. But seeing as GNAW never pretended to be 'the biggest' of the anti-war movements I don't quite get the point of the 'mine if bigger then yours' game. Its hardly a secret that (non-industrial) direct action is a fairly new idea here and that 99% still see pleading with politicans as the way to acheive things.

The difference is not in terms of size but in terms of what you do with it. The people involved in GNAW had two objectives back at the time of the Afgan war in terms of campaign tactics.
1. Get people to stop talking about Shannon and actually go down and protest there. This happened.
2. Argue for and where possible organise for direct actions at Shannon rather then passive marches. This happened as well.

We have neither the numbers nor resources to organise a March 1st type action every weekend, even without the arrests. Some of us, including myself, would have seen our role as demonstrating that direct action was
1. Possible
2. Worked

The idea then was that as the more mainstream IAWM saw that the government was refusing to respond to even 100,000 on the streets they would organise such actions themselves. This never happpened, instead a strategy of a march a weekend was followed which perhaps not surprizing resulted in deminishing returns.

'Eco-anarchist' complains again that Dublin GNAW failed to lay on a bus to move his/her lazy ass to Shannon for the day. The reply to this is the same as last time - if you want a coach on every occasion then come to the meetings and play your part in organising them. Don't whine about others not organising things for you, DIY!

In any case Dublin GNAW has never organised buses to an IAWM demo (it wouldn't make sense as it could result in two hald empty buses, no joke at 600 euro a pop!). On March 1st both GNAW and IAWM called demos seperately and IAWM requested that we continue to organise our own coach to make it easier to distance themselves from us. Which is what we did.

The numbers on the march were not too bad considering many will have thought the war over. There were just under 500 protesters. Amazingly there were at least 300 Gardai on duty including 36 in riot gear, plus the crews of 4 or so water cannon (which I think are the airport fire engines).

by Anarcho-syndicalist Mon Apr 14, 2003 13:44

Hah hah hah! The 'anarchists' couldn't make it according to Andrew partly because many are banned from County Clare. Listen mate, a good few 'banned persons' actually turned up on the day. The Catholic Workers are facing serious charges and (understandably) stayed away. Which 'anarchists' are you on about Andrew? No WSM member is banned. And what have you ever done? Stop associating yourself with other people's brave deeds my friend if you ain't on for it yourself.

Andrew will now proceed to bore us with a list of things he nearly did. Hah hah hah.

by Andrew Mon Apr 14, 2003 14:04

Err 'Anarcho-syndicalist' I don't get your point above. If your telling me I'm not a superhero then thanks but I really wasn't under any illusion there. I leave macho posturing for those who find it useful, mostly military forces. I took part in various actions at Shannon as did other WSM members, some were arrested and went to court, others were not.

I'm not of the opinon that the way to build a movement is to restrict it to 'direct action commandos' all of whom have taken some sort of blood oath to sacrifice themselves. Very few, if any, of the people who have been arrested at Shannon are of that opinion. What we have argued for is for actions that people happy with all sorts of levels of risk could take part in.

Thats why on March 1st we had a pink bloc for people who just wanted to show they supported the action but for one reason or another very definetly wanted to avoid arrest. We don't want a handful making martyrs out of themselves, we want effective action with minimum arrests/consequences. Respect to all those that are willing to go further and do stuff where they are sure they will face serious charges but you don't build any sort of mass movement by insisting everyone involved has to be willing to do the same. All you do is scare people away, people who very often when the chips are down will choose to act even if they were not so sure beforehand.

by CONOR (WSM PERSONAL CAPACITY) Mon Apr 14, 2003 19:15

Just to back Andrew up – surprise , surprise – anarchists from the ASF, AF, WSM and Catholic Worker and of no particular group affiliation all took part and mass actions and individual actions. As well as having to put up severe harassment, fines , imprisonment etc we also had to deal with the howling those – doing little or nothing behind your anonymous identities on this and other fora which was a bit irritating.

Mean while the various flavours of Trotskyism marched and marched and marched and issued vague calls for workers action. The IAWM did an EXCELLENT job in the mass mobilisation on February 1st – but we needed to move beyond it and not round and round in circles – same speeches, same people, same time wasting.

We stand over what we did and attempted to do. Personally – I don’t think Catholic Worker would have any problem being “lumped” with us and this atheist would have no problem being lumped with them. I think on a personal level their heroism goes WAY beyond anything I would aspire to and indeed that of most people but we all contribute as and how we can. The REAL difference in the anti war movement in general was between those hundreds who tried to put their politics in to action and those who sat at the side lines and whinged or allowed themselves to be marched around in circles by the grand old duke of boyd and co.

conor

by Misha Mon Apr 14, 2003 22:36

I don't understand what you are getting at "Anarcho-syndicalist". Your comment, no doubt made in a lather of breathless self-righteous excitement, is a meaningless personal attack. Andrew responded to criticism of GNAW. I don't know how you can read this as a piece of self agrandisement. If you have a problem with GNAW or the WSM fair enough but making out the WSM just sit around glorying in the exploits of others is simply untrue. To say that noone in WSM suffered legal consequences because of anti-war activity is also untrue. You are a childish whiner and before you get your knickers in a twist again I am not a member of the WSM.

by bollox Tue Apr 15, 2003 01:06

Is it true that the IAWM now belives in civil disobedience, if so what happened at Shannon?

Is any one capable of public speaking other than the same tired politicos?

Was there really a deal with the cops to march us into that sheep pen?

I've been to a lot of Shannon protests but this was the most disempowering. The open mike idea, that I've seen at some including the last GNAW one, is a lot more engaging than the listen to the politicians one. At the neutrality funeral, about 40 people spoke, said poems and sang songs in turn including an Iraqi woman, a few yanks, some small girls and lots of others. That was nearly half the people there. So even though the march was fenced in people had a greater sense of participation. It might not get the US out but it meant that those people will probably come back.