Report on George Galloway talk, March 13.

national | anti-war / imperialism | news report Sunday March 14, 2004 11:02 by Noel

George Galloway, Mary Kelly etc, speak out against the lies of Bush, Blair & Bertie.

Today 13 March 2003, George Galloway, Mary Kelly (Shannon direct action with an axe activist), Richard Boyd Barrett, and Micheal O'Dwyer of the ATGWU spoke of their actions during the war on Iraq and their plans. The meeting took place in the ATGWU hall in Middle Abbey St, and was attended by about 120 people. It was MCed by Robin Hennessy of the Fairview against the war organization. Robin got the ball rolling introducing the guests and reading some excerpts from Ramsey Clarkes (former US Attorney General) book "Fire ??? ??? ???" which is only available by mail order from www.iac.org . The main message was "the ultimate crime is the crime against peace". A minutes silence was observed for the victims of the Spanish terrorist bombings.


1. Mary Kellys speech

First at the stand was Mary Kelly who attacked a US Navy plane with an axe early last year and is still being dragged through the courst over it. Extraordinary, how long it can take to judge the action of 1 person with an axe, as opposed to the almost immediate right of way give to 125,000 US soldiers with M16s etc which have used the airport since then. Mary described her experience in Columbia where US business interests are trying to control everything, including the rainforests, her stay in the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem with 150 Palestinians, when it was besieged by the Israelis and how the Israelis deported her back to Ireland afterwards. She also made people aware that 150 weapons producers operate in Ireland according to a list on the AFRI website.

Mary reminded us that one of the major outcomes of WWII in which 50 million people died, was the announcement after the Nuremburg Trials in 1945 that "Individuals have duties which transcend domestic laws". Millions died because German civilians were afraid to challenge the Nazi party when it was only a domestic party since domestic law prohibited it. She described how her and other plane spotters knew the timetable of US military flight arrivals and departures from observation so she picked a large grey military transporter plane near the edge of the runway, far from the terminal building and set to work on it. When approached by a member of the police, who warned her that he would "tear her ******* head off" she laid down her axe and explained she was a peace campaigner and was arrested. She showed her support for Eoin Rice who came out of jail on hunger strike for about 20 days after he refused to allow Judge Mangan to bar him from the whole of County Clare. He is now only banned from within 1 kilometer of Shannon airport, and is continuing to fight against it, in order to continue his plane spotting and peaceful protesting. Mary described how in the Primetime coverage of police violence no mention was made of Eoin being arrested, handcuffed, forcefully stuffed into a police car in Galway when he tried to talk to some EU delegates coming out of a meeting. In Galway police station she said the gardai put him on the ground, face down while one of them stood on the back of his neck for 2 minutes.. He later required stitches to his scalp as reported on Indymedia.

Mary described how Ramsay Clarke and Denis Halliday were both witnesses for her at her trial in Co Clare. This resulted in a hung jury so she is to be put on retrial on June 10th. Marys ultimate aim is to put Bertie, McDowell, Brian Cowen and Inspector Kearns of the Shannon police force on trial as war criminals. She asked for peoples continuing support of the Catholic Worker 5 who are also being dragged through the courts for similar action, and for Irish peace campaigner Michael Bermingham who is still in Iraq monitoring the situation. She asked the IAWM for their support in organizing further Shannon protests since that is the epicenter of Irish participation in the war.


2. Richard Boyd Barrett

Richard, the chairman of the IAWM and SWP member spoke of the need for mass protests around the country as opposed to direct action. This is the way the US was forced to loose the Vietnam war which is won militarily (2,000,000 Vietnamese & Cambodia killed, 58,000 US killed) but lost politically. He says it would be expecting a lot to have 100,000 on the streets on Mar 20, as there were last Feb 15, but people must circulate the word to everyone they know. He and others, described how the government are trully afraid of the the IAWM. This is shown by Berties appeal to people not to protest when George Bush visits on June 25 & 26, by the unannouncement as yet of the location of this visit, and it's probably rural location. He also condemened the Dublin city and county councils decision to crimialise the posting of public meeting / protest posters on lamp posts and other public property.


3 Paul O'Toole

Paul, a retired musician from Fairview against the war played the very poignant "I can't Believe" from his album "From Shannon with Love". This is available from [email protected] for about E10 and all proceeds to to the defence fund for Mary Kelly. In his introduction he expressed his regret that no Irish musician or celebrities have spoken out against the war, unlike in the US. He also had an anecdote from an Iraqi doctor friend of his, that during the Irish famine in 1847, 3 Iraqi ships full of food arrived in Dundalk for the starving people but that the British turned them back. There is a plaque in Dundalk commemorating this. But that hasn't stopped Ireland becoming part of the logistical machine ferrying soldiers and bombs to Iraq.


4. George Galloway

George Galloway, ex-Labour MP was the highlight of the meeting. In his Dundee accent he announced how James Connolly came from St Marys Lane, Dundee, where he also grew up, and this stroke him as he used Connolly train station. He informed people that he was held for 35 minutes in Heathrow last night, from where was to take his flight to Belfast , by airport police. He was told this was under the Terrorism Act 2002. He explained how he was an MP for 20 years and fought against this act as [George Galloway] proposed by David Plunkett etc, and that it took a very liberal interpretation of it to use it to stop people going to meetings. The airport police said they had the "right to know what he was going to say" at the meetings in Belfast, Dublin & Galway... George explained to them that "Tony Blair doesn't tell me what to say and neither do the Metropolitan police"... He intends following up on the reasons for his holding by the police.

George emphasized the need for a MASS movement from the grassroots up, and not relying on some hierarchy to organize it top down. He was arrested at Faslane ? during a protest a few years ago and was karted off by the police, but thought that this was just because it was a small protest. In building mass protests the IAWM had to find the points of maximum unity in order to pull Ireland out of the war. He stated bluntly that Ireland is very much part of the axis of criminals who are perpetrating this unnecessary war. "No dancing by Bertie" can excuse it. "He cannot get away with running with the hare and with the hounds". George said it pains him to say anything personal against Bertie as a fellow Celtic fan and someone he has met on several occasions. But "Bertie should not be shaking the bloodstained hand of Bush". Same treatment for Gerry Adams. George is confident that they have Blair " on the ropes" in the UK and that bu the end of the year they will "have him on the canvas". George doesn't accept Blairs US style psychobabble about "closure" the the war and his insistence that people just get on with their lives as if nothing is happening. "Stop calling me a liar" Blair says, but George believes "He was the biggest liar ever in 10 Downing St.and there have been a few". He thinks that something was agreed at the summit in Crawford, Texas that may even have went as far as Blair praying ! with Bush, which meants Blair secretly decied on war. If you are to "accept that he is not a liar, then he's just an idiot". This would be bizarre since Blair had a free Oxford education, courtesy of the British taxpayer. Was he really "bamboozled by the Brain of Texas?" ...which got a few laughs from the crowd.
George quoted from a discussion about the time of Egyption war involving the Suez Canal between "Bevins" and "Edan".

"If he knew he what was going on he was too wicked to be PM, if he didn't know what was going on, he was too stupid to be PM". Blair "knew" of the 45 minute threat to British bases in Cyprus from nuclear weapons. "Why were they're British bases in Cyprus?".. He didn't show much surprise when it was revealed the 45 minute claim was in relation to short range battlefield armamanets, not nuclear ones. Galloway recalls Blair saying "It was all boll****" 3 times at one meeting, regarding the guff used to justify the war. The Powerpoint slides presented the the UN SC, the mobile labs, the hiding of chemical weapons in the presidential palaces. The US is now running Iraq from the very same presidential palaces, but still haven't found these "evil toxic weapons that would be used to kill millions." " Even David Kay the right wing hawk appointed head of the Iraq survey group testified before congress that "we got it wrong". "But WE didn't get it wrong"

"The house of commons is 90% tedium, 10% terrifyingly exciting moments". One of these moments was when "Blair says he didn't know the only had battlefield weapons, not capable of hitting Cyprus within 45 minutes. But Hoon, Short and Cook knew". Another such moment was Blairs defence that "maybe the war wasn't legal, but it should have been". George extrapolated from this that some of us should try "walking into a Virgin record shop, robbing a few albums and when caught declare that - it's isn't legal, but it should have been", or "walk into a police station, smoke a joint and tell the PC - it isn't legal but it should be" and see what happens.... which really got the crowd going.

Hes also heard this justification from Dr Una King, who has a PhD: "I voted for the Iraq war because Tony had a promise from George who had a promise from Ariel Sharon that Isreal would withdraw from Palestine" when 100's of thousands of western soldiers invaded an Arab country..... "Every sentient being knows that Isreal will not pull out. It continues building it's huge wall and causing misery". George says he knows the Gaza strip well, and it is one of the most forsake, rat infested places on earth. In the context of all the coverage the Madrid bombings are getting he told us about an incident last week where a column of Israeli tanks entered the Gaza strip, killed 17 Palestinians and wounded 100 otheres. The dead included a 5yr old, 7 yr old and a woman expecting her first child who died later of her injuries. Zero Isreali injuries or casualties were sustained. "How much mass media coverage did that get? " George asked us seriously. Then he pronounced a shocking truth: "The blood of some people is worth more in todays world than the blood of others".

He recalled an interview he did with a radio station in the US. The interviewer played him a mobile phone message left by a husband kidnapped by one of the 9/11 planes on his wifes answering machine, minutes before he and thousands of others were murdered. The interviewer asked George how could he not support the war on terror after listening to it. He replied "just because Afghan women don't have mobile phones or answering machines, doesn't make their deaths any less obscene". The US doesn't even do body counts of it's victims in Afghanistan, Iraq etc. "This double standard is what's feeding the hatred that Al Qaeda use". About Madrid he said "If it is Al Qaeda we must condemn the bestiality of the attack". About defeating international terrorism he says " If you live by the side of the swamp (of hatred), it doesn't matter how many fly swatters you have."

Israel won't be punished for killing those 17 Palestinians, or breaking international law. "Instead she, Israel, is given diplomatic respectability." "The only sanction they'll receive is forcing them into the Eurovision Song Contest"....

About claims by Bush and Blair that "there would be less terrorism if we invaded Iraq", George asks "Who would welcome foreign soldiers invading their country?". The US military have "carved Iraq up like a shawarma and handed it out to the corporations who helped Bush during the elections". "Be he fool or just naieve, Tony Blair is not fit to be PM". About the way forward for the IAWM he says "If direct action is necessary but not sufficient, then mass demos are necessary, but not sufficient". He claims that the mass protests in London surrounding Bushs visit there, especially the toppling of a mock gold statue of Bush in Trafalgar square, showed how a mass protest could send a clear message to the US public that the British public are not following the government line of "standing shoulder to shoulder, or as Tony Blair is, lips to posterior" with the US war machine, and that the Irish public should do the same. "George Bush is not coming to Ireland for the "craic", but for a cheap electioneering stunt among Irish Americans".

He also called on people to boycott Israeli goods, especially fresh fruit and vegetables. These no longer have "Produced in Israel" on them, for obvious reasons, but you can get the bar codes from the Ireland Palestine Solidarity campaigns website. He says "Every Euro sold on Isreali products grown in stolen land, is a bullett in the head of a Palestinian, a brick in the aparthed wall"...


5. From the floor

An organiser from the Drumcondra against the war group made the remark the Bertie has recently said that protestors must really have nothing to do, to be bothered protesting Bushs visit etc. Bertie is still using the presence of WMD in promoting the War on Terror in his constituency even though Bush and Blair have downplayed it. She asked for a picket outside Berties constituency office at 6pm Tuesday March 16th asking Bertie not to give warmonger Bush a bowl of Shamrock.

A speacker from the "Hands off Venezuela" campaign spoke in a Venezuelan accent of US participation in coups against their democratically elected president.

Ciaron Fallon of the catholic worker 5, made people aware of a protest for 1 hr every day that is taking place outside the "Irish Aviation Authority" HQ on the south Quays opposite Libery Hall. He wants people to know that 10,000 US armed soliers per month are still going through Shannon. He said non violent resistance is backed by International low, Irish law and Divine law. About Madrid, he said it is truly tragic that in a country where 90% of the population were against the war, such terrorism should occur.

Someone from the SWP quoted "Brecht?" a German philospoher " Your gun can fire 100 bullets a minute, but you need someone to fire it. Your aeroplane can fly 1,000 mph on it's way to drop bombs but you need some to fly it". Its up to the antiwar movement to "win the hearts and minds" of those soldiers and air force pilots. The best way to do this is to have mass protests. He was arrested 17 times in the last 4 years, mostly due to protests being small. What's needed are MASS protests which the police are less able to criminalise. He spoke of dismantling the "US war machine" and the "Mass media lying machine".

A speaker highlighted "Exectutive order 13303" which gives legal immunity to US businesses with the oil dealings with Iraq? and how George Bush set up a trust fund for the revenues from Iraqi oil in an attempt to show the war isn't about oil.

Another speaker condemned SIPTU and Des Geraghty for not supporting the 1 day strike proposed on the day the war started last year, and also for not supporting the Shannon workers who wanted to refuse to refuel military planes. Its a bit late for SIPTU to be organising strikes next Thursday against 100 proposed job losses in Shannon.

A speaker asked us to remember that even though Feb 20 is the 1 year anniversary of the Iraqi occupation, May is the 37th anniversary of the Palestinian occupation. He condemned Dublin corporations action to remove a "No war" banner hung on the the 12th floor balcony of a Ballymun flat by crane 2 weeks after the owner refused to remove it. He asked people to vote Joe Higgins for Europe, and asked for people to support the transport workers strike, French style, since one of the bidders for CIE is TNT who setup a coup in Chile in 1970.

For more see http://voteoutffpd.com