Brief report of IAWM steering committee meeting, 18 October.
national |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report
Tuesday October 21, 2003 20:48
by Fintan Lane - PRO, Irish Anti-War Movement
corkantiwar at hotmail dot com
087 1258325
The newly elected steering committee of the Irish Anti-War Movement met for the first time in UCD on Saturday, 18 October. What follows is a brief report of the main decisions taken.
Present: Kieran Allen, Richard Boyd Barrett, Fintan Lane, Tim Hourigan, Mick O'Sullivan, Kirsten Foy, Glenda Cimino, Raymond Deane, Colm Stephens, Harry Browne, Colin Coulter, Laurence Vize, Aoife Ni Fhearghail.
DAY OF SOLIDARITY: It was decided to designate 3 November a 'Day of Solidarity' with the Pitstop Ploughshares (aka Catholic Worker Five) who will be before the courts that day to have a date set for their trial for decommissioning a US warplane at Shannon. Sections and affiliates will be asked to engage in a public act of solidarity on that day. The IAWM will also issue a press statement expressing its solidarity and indicating its full support for the action taken at Shannon by the Pitstop Ploughshares 5.
MARY KELLY: It was agreed to contact Mary Kelly, in advance of her court appearance on 21 July, expressing solidarity and offering whatever assistance is possible.
SHANNON: A date (Saturday, 6 December) was set for the demonstration in Shannon, taking into account that meetings of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign and of the SWP are taking place on the 29 November.
Folowing a lengthy discussion, it was decided that the Shannon demonstration would be a mass blockade of the airport rather than a typical march. The objective of the blockade will be to shut the airport for the duration of this act of mass peaceful civil disobedience. More details on this will be posted in due course.
EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM: Following the decision of the AGM to engage positively will the ESF in Paris in November, a delegation from the IAWM will attend. This delegation will work to deepen the IAWM's international links and will push for activists from other countries to travel to Ireland for demonstrations during Ireland's EU presidency in 2004.
STRUCTURES: Significant changes have been made to the internal structures of the steering committee. Work-groups have now been established to deal with important and pressing areas/issues. The list of of officers (previously restricted to a chairperson, secretary, and treasurer) has also been expanded to included a Finance Officer (fundraiser), PRO, and International Secretary. These positions were filled at the end of the meeting and are as follows: Richard Boyd Barrett (chairperson), Colm Stephens (secretary), Fintan Lane (PRO), Colin Coulter (treasurer), Kieran Allen (international secretary), Aoife Ni Fhearghail (finance, until Christmas or January). Laurence Vize will be in charge of the website. All officers will be active within workgroups and responsibilites will be widely spread.
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Comments (26 of 26)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26Well, this is different eh? It's nice to see that steering commitee deliberations are no longer (pseudo) state secrets.
What does an international secretary do?
he will go abroad promoting his profile as the leader of the irish anti war movement, while RBB will do the same at home. the likes of fintan lane, meanwhile, will do the dirty work. well done SWP.
Six officers - Four of them SWPers.
Although I have to say I will interested in how they build up to the mass blockade. Must be a different wing of the SWP then that involved in the bin charges campaign.
you asked for more openess, seems to be getting there. You asked for solidarity with the CW5, after the grass roots angrily intervened you got it. You asked for direct action (not marching) in Shannon. Again you got it. Yet you're still complaining. It seems you prefer the SWP as something to complain about you'd prefer if they stayed as student revolutionary stereo types.
The IAWM is opening up and moving in good directions, it should be encouraged.
The Irish Times now working with the SWP, the new establishment. great stuff
keep the updates comin, its great to know whats being planned. good stuff.
Attempt to make trial of anti-war activist political
Mon Jun 30 - Irish Times
/Mr Richard Boyd-Barrett, spokesman for the Irish Anti-War Movement, said the
intention was to effectively make Ms Kelly's trial a political one./
https://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/project-x/2003-June/004039.html
Just been announced that Gorgeous George has been expelled from the UK's capitalist Labour party.
What's the betting that the 'van' of the IAWM steering committee will propose a defend George Galloway demo. Desist - get them to protest at our own indigenous capitalist Labour party first.
Thanks for keeping us informed on the topics being being discussed by the steering committee. Openness and transparency are important for building a large, healthy, democratic organisation.
I also appreciated the report on the AGM which I would have liked to have been able to attend but was unable to. Although meant to be a brief report, lacking an alternative version, it's now become the definitive: http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=61391
I'd also like to congratulate the IAWM on their website. It's a nice design and I think the participatory features work very well. I should remember to check it out more often but Indymedia provides me with all the anti-war news I need.
Gorgeous George is a fucking halfwit, but he does what he has to for his subjects in maryhill, besides he's not labour party anymore so there's no reason for the SWP to publicise his case. So no Demo I'd say.
It will be good to see if the DA types back this IAWM action - might show how much trust the old managment have managed to loose the anti-war movment.
Lets face it every everytime there's a march down there the warport is effected, flights delayed, re-routed (to Prestwick or other UK ports) and passengers made late etc..... a Blockade is not going to acheve any more than normal IMHO. It would be over by the time the speeches are finished (or started, its every man, woman and animal for himself when they start that rhetorical crap).
Some people on this site seem so fucking obssessed with the SWP they miss the main point - it being that the policy of the IAWM has just been completely overturned by the incoming steering committee.
The IAWM is now committed to organising a blockade at shannon airport, engaging in direct action/civil disobedience, and supporting people like Mary Kelly and the Catholic worker five. Ask yourselves a couple of questions: why did this happen now rather than during the tenure of the last steering ctte? Do the SWP actually support the planned blockade? If not, have they lost control of the IAWM?
Forget about the SWP and try reading between the lines dimwits.
By the way, should have added that the blockade is a great idea, about time we did something like this, and I hope every anti war activist in the country makes an effort to be there!
however, lets not forget about the SWP just yet. the blockade is an excellent idea and i think a good balance between the trespasses as advocated by the GNAW and the simple march/speech format as advocated (until now) by the IAWM leadership.
I will be there!
I'd certainly echo Padraic's hope that this event will be supported by everyone (except maybe those already banned from Co Clare:) in the anti-war movement. I think it will be.
However, I have a couple of requests for the people organising it:
1 - Limit the speaches, please!
2 - Recognise that taking part in this sort of action - and what role you play when you do - is a personal choice. If people want to maintain the blockade up to and beyond being arrested then let them. At the same time don't try and bully people into do so. In other words lets not have anyone going round with a megaphone telling everyone to get up and move on now (unless they're a cop!) or anyone going round with a megaphone giving out to people who are still on the pavement/want to move at that point. Also lets not have any "leaders" negotiating a pointless end with the cops when there's still people wanting to hold the blockade.
I agree with both the points you make.
It’s official! The steering committee of the Irish Anti-War Movement is under new management. The SWP no longer dominate - numerically, they amount to 3 or 4 (if Colm Stephens is actually a member - not sure about that). With the SP rep, thats 5 trots. But 11 non trots now rule the roost and it seems they are exercising control in a meaningful way, most obviously with the blockade of Shannon on 6th December. So now its up to us. About 300 people joined the Grassroots group in March - so we can surely expect at least 300 in December. And now that the IAWM is supporting civil disobedience (though, in fairness, the Dail blockade was a good start) we can surely expect more for the coming action. Nows the time to be counted. I’m going and I hope you are too. And you. And you. And you .etc.
There are 3 0r 4 SWP members of the IAWM steering committee. This is the same as the previous steering committee. The SWP did not have total control of the IAWM, nor did the SP!
The way I see it, the SWP pretty much controlled the IAWM because the rest of the steering committee let them. The 2 (?) SPers on the committee liked to argue with Barrett and Allen for the sake of it before agreeing with them. Everyone else seems to have had nothing to say. Secondly, Boyd Barrett was allowed to make policy on the hoof ("No time to consult you comrades - its all happening too fast"). The SP always got what they wanted (platform speakers, no direct action at Shanon, etc.) so no complaints from them. The others must have been happy enough because they kept stum.
Them days are gone.
The SP have now lost interest and the SWP have been put on a leash. I can't imagine that the Shannon blockade was their idea, so it seems to safe to conclude that they are not calling the shots.
The SWPs have always taken an anti direct action line in the IAWM, despite occasional rhetoric about the need for civil disobedience. I agree that the dail blockade was a good idea but the IAWM went nowhere with it afterwards - they stepped up and then just stepped back again as if nothing had changed. It's inconceiveable that the SWP have suddenly radicalised and pushed for a blockade at Shannon. More likely that the non-SWP members have pushed them out of the way and left them the office work.
Yeah, second the posties above, blockade should be supported. Hope it's not too late for a big one. Question though, will the SP and SWP be there or will they chicken out?
Does it matter whether the SWP has been shafted or not? Either the blockade is a good idea or it isn't. I think it is, and I don't give a shit whose idea it was.
Agree with above. This could be our last opportunity to do something significant at Shannon (and maybe build a campaign of mass civil disobedience), so enough of the bickering already.
Whatever happened to the Grassroots Network Against the War? Weren't they always banging on about how storming fences and stuff was just the ticket, and how it would REALLY stop Bush in his tracks, and how the IAWM held back the masses from such courageous actions.
Wonder why they went into hibernation?
Wonder why they have not got lots of people doing direct action at Shannon?
Could it be that, having done their prima donna bit outside the mass anti war movement, all the anarchists and assorted crusties have buggered off round the pub for long necked drinks?
Funny how this action by the IAWM seems to have rekindled their interest in a way the GNAW failed so lamentably to do with serious numbers of people.
Still food for a few more meaningless rants by the usual denizens of Indymedia
Next Grassroots Gathering takes place Nov 8 and 9 in Galway. More info at the link below
This stuff about the swp not supporting DA is shite. In the north they led it and in fact where the only ones who made any serious attempt at it. If people are going to talk about this it would help if they DONT TALK SHITE.
that jackie healy-rae and his family have close enough to the same electoral mandate as the SP & SWP. One TD and two councillors
>Could it be that, having done their prima donna bit outside the mass anti war movement, all the anarchists and assorted crusties have buggered off round the pub for long necked drinks?
An intriguing suggestion, and probably tinged with an element of truth... but what's a long necked drink?
But seriously, well done to whoever was involved in changing the strategy of the IAWM to something fucking serious.
That includes the new steering committee, GNAW, CW5 and the small group action crew, MAMA, Refuelingpeace and various relatively sensible trots around the country who finally let their intelligence overwhelm their obedience.
So let's go. It kicks off on 1 November with a meeting in Limerick (see link).
And after Dec 6, let's keep the pressure up. Whatever recruitment gains you were going to make are made (or lost)- so let's just grow up and get serious now.