''Bringing Protests at Shannon to a New Level''

national | anti-war / imperialism | feature Thursday November 20, 2003 12:27 by Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group - Indymedia Ireland

The Re-Birth of Non-Violent Civil Disobedience in Ireland

''What is planned for Saturday, December 6th, is designed to bring protest at Shannon to a new level. Before deciding whether you intend to participate, take some time to examine the context. Shannon airport is effectively a US airbase, with 100,000 troops shuttled through in 2003 alone. In September, 141 US military flights landed at the airport bringing through 10,000 armed soldiers. Moreover, documents revealed in Edward Horgan�s court challenge indicate that Patriot missiles have been transported through the airport. Bluntly put, an Irish civilian airport has been integrated into the US war machine and is helping to kill innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We cannot allow this to continue and, with resistance to the US occupation rising in both Iraq and the United States, we need to take what we�ve been saying seriously. If Shannon airport is helping to kill people, and with the government continuing to ignore the sound of marching feet, then it is entirely justified to disrupt normal business until the US military presence is removed. Enough is enough. Civil disobedience is completely justifiable as a tactic when human lives are at stake. Think of Shannon as a US airbase, and then consider whether you find that acceptable on Irish soil.''
- Fintan Lane, PRO of the Irish Anti-War Movement

Civil disobedience and Shannon airport: the blockade in context
by Fintan Lane - Irish Anti-War Movement Thursday, Nov 20 2003, 12:02am
phone: 087 1258325 [email protected]

It seems that a momentum has developed around the blockade planned for December 6th at Shannon airport.

Organising meetings have taken place in a number of localities, posters have gone up throughout the country, and buses are booked in a number of areas including Dublin and Cork. Certainly, with the anti-war movement having just endured something of a lull, it�s heartening to note the organic nature of much of the mobilisation for the Shannon demonstration. People are doing it for themselves.

That said, there are some within the anti-war community who have reservations with regard to the upcoming Shannon blockade. This is hardly a surprise because what is planned is significantly different from previous IAWM events at Shannon: it is an act of peaceful mass civil disobedience aimed at physically shutting, or seriously disrupting, the airport for the duration of the protest, and that is no small thing. However, in the context of daily deaths and the appalling suffering in both Iraq and Afghanistan, it is no big thing either. Quite literally, there is a war on, and that cold fact needs to be remembered when people discuss the morality and political purpose of the blockade.

Civil disobedience has a long and proud tradition in social movements across the world. The American civil rights movement deployed the tactic effectively, as did those opposing the US war on Vietnam. More recently, encirclements and blockades have been used to much effect by anti-capitalist and �anti-globalisation� activists in places as distant as Seattle and Genoa; from the beginning the global justice movement instinctively understood the empowering and creative nature of mass action, and, as well as huge gatherings that have made cities such as Porto Alegre household names, we have seen a global resurgence in the use of peaceful civil disobedience. The anti-war movement that has developed since the American onslaught on Afghanistan has its roots in this movement, and in its opposition to the expansion of US politico-military power it shares many of the concerns of global justice activists. That isn�t to say that it is the same thing because it isn�t � anti-war activists can differ widely in their attitudes to globalisation and to capitalism itself � it is simply to acknowledge that the anti-war movement and its development are interlinked in significant ways with the global justice movement.

Mass civil disobedience has less of a tradition in Ireland in recent years, though it formed the basis of much political activity in nineteenth-century Ireland. What was the Land League movement except a social movement based on collective, and largely peaceful, civil disobedience? The protest at Carnsore Point is also worth looking at in terms of the efficacy of collective action, and we have seen smaller scale actions at the Glen of the Downs, Carrickmines, and elsewhere. In terms of Shannon airport itself, small scale actions by Eoin Dubsky, Mary Kelly, and the Catholic Worker Five have had a significant influence on events and forced the government to expend enormous resources on military and garda security, thereby further accentuating Irish complicity with the US war machine.

What is planned for Saturday, December 6th, is designed to bring protest at Shannon to a new level. Before deciding whether you intend to participate, take some time to examine the context. Shannon airport is effectively a US airbase, with 100,000 troops shuttled through in 2003 alone. In September, 141 US military flights landed at the airport bringing through 10,000 armed soldiers. Moreover, documents revealed in Edward Horgan�s court challenge indicate that Patriot missiles have been transported through the airport. Bluntly put, an Irish civilian airport has been integrated into the US war machine and is helping to kill innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan. We cannot allow this to continue and, with resistance to the US occupation rising in both Iraq and the United States, we need to take what we�ve been saying seriously. If Shannon airport is helping to kill people, and with the government continuing to ignore the sound of marching feet, then it is entirely justified to disrupt normal business until the US military presence is removed. Enough is enough. Civil disobedience is completely justifiable as a tactic when human lives are at stake. Think of Shannon as a US airbase, and then consider whether you find that acceptable on Irish soil.

December 6th will be about people power and it will require large numbers if it is to work. In other words, if activists and supporters of the wider anti-war movement fail to turn up, it is unlikely to be a success. That is why it is crucial that everybody play a proactive role in mobilising for this blockade. It is up to us to make this a success. If it succeeds it should be the first of a series of peaceful blockades aimed at ending the US military presence at Shannon. With Iraqi resistance to the US occupation deepening, it is important that we play our part by evicting their war machine from our country.

Assemble at 2pm, Shannon town centre, on Saturday, 6th December.

http://www.irishantiwar.org/