Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
 RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony
Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
Waiting for SIPO Anthony Public Inquiry >>
Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
Year After Lockdown Saw Massive Spike in Attempted Child Suicides Mon Feb 03, 2025 09:00 | Richard Eldred
Lockdowns and school closures have triggered a devastating surge in child suicides and self-harm, with hospital admissions soaring and mental health disorders skyrocketing.
The post Year After Lockdown Saw Massive Spike in Attempted Child Suicides appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Chancellor?s ?Growth Agenda? Is Full of Sound and Fury, but Signifies Nothing Mon Feb 03, 2025 07:00 | Ben Pile
Ben Pile brands the Government's 'growth agenda' as empty political theatre, with wooden actors stumbling through hollow lines, written by someone who has no clue what growth actually is.
The post The Chancellor?s ?Growth Agenda? Is Full of Sound and Fury, but Signifies Nothing appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Mon Feb 03, 2025 01:19 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Towards Post-Totalitarianism in the West: Some Warnings From the East Sun Feb 02, 2025 19:00 | Michael Rainsborough
The West's moral, spiritual and political decay mirrors the post-totalitarianism of Eastern Europe, says Michael Rainsborough. The difference is today's authoritarianism wears a progressive mask.
The post Towards Post-Totalitarianism in the West: Some Warnings From the East appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Sky News Scrambles for Survival Amid Exodus of Viewers Sun Feb 02, 2025 17:00 | Richard Eldred
With viewers tuning out, finances in freefall and an industry in flux, Sky News is betting everything on paywalls, podcasts and a political reset to save itself from oblivion.
The post Sky News Scrambles for Survival Amid Exodus of Viewers appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?118 Sat Feb 01, 2025 12:57 | en
80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp Sat Feb 01, 2025 12:16 | en
Misinterpretations of US trends (1/2), by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jan 28, 2025 06:59 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter #117 Fri Jan 24, 2025 19:54 | en
The United States bets its hegemony on the Fourth Industrial Revolution Fri Jan 24, 2025 19:26 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
March 20 - Action at TOP
 national |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report
 Monday March 22, 2004 02:38 by j26
A small group left the main march on Saturday and blockaded TOP Oil in Amiens St in protest at their continuing refueling of military planes at Shannon. Outside Pearse St. Garda Station small groups of people rolled up their banners and flags and peeled quietly away from the main march which was winding its way past the gates of Trinity College. It had the look of a planned desertion as many of the participants were carrying black or black and green flags and banners. This had the look of an anarchist/anti-capitalist black action. I asked one why they were leaving the march and he told me that they were going for an action at TOP oil. Despite the fact that it was not publicly announced, and that no call was made for people to join, and not knowing whether I was welcome, I decided to tag along. It seemed to make more sense that participating in a long march to listen to more speeches. Besides I was sick of seeing the SWP mock charges (they’re quite good the first time you see them, but they get so boring after a while) There is a time and a place for that, and a rainy day in March didn’t seem like one of them. In all about 30-35 made their way along the quays and up past Busaras as the rain bucketed down. I joined in as we passed the IFSC and got several quizzical looks as people tried to work out who I was. I think some thought I was a journalist (I’m not - except the odd post to Indymedia) or a Garda (while my friends think I look like one - must be the haircut - I ain’t one of them either). Pretty soon the group had arrived at their target - TOP Oil in Amiens St. Several of the members of the group masked up to keep their identities anonymous.
As soon as we arrived 2 masked members entered the forecourt and tied up the pumps with cable ties. Everyone then proceeded to blockade the entrances to the forecourt with bicycles, banners flags and most importantly bodies. Very soon a Garda on a motorcycle arrived. The manager of the forecourt looked severely peeved and stood on the forecourt glaring at the protestors and smoking cigarettes (!!) on the forecourt. The first Garda was followed shortly by 14 other Gardaí, some on foot, more motorcycles, a van and 2 jeeps. They didn’t seem to have any real idea what to do. They were happy enough to pose for the camera though. Eventually one of them asked who was organising the protest and on being told that there was none, told us that it was an illegal and criminal action and that if we moved off to the side we could have our protest and everyone would be happy thanks very much. There ensued a stand-off which lasted until the Gardaí decided to drive their van through the centre of the protest. It was pretty obvious that any attempt to fight back would have resulted in numerous arrests. As the tension escalated, the perpetrators of the cable tying decided (validly) that it would be better for them to leave the protest rather than risk arrest for criminal damage of something similar. Then it settled down into an old fashioned stand-off. At this point one or two people started to approach me to find out who I was, and some seemed disappointed that I was not a journalist, merely a person who is against this war.
There was considerable support form passing traffic, although there were one or two jeers also. Of course there were a couple of people who will always pass a picket or protest line and this time was no exception. The first was an elderly lady who insisted on driving her Micra into the forecourt. The protestors stood up to the attempted entry, but the Gardaí intervened and pushed the protestors out of the way. The same happened very shortly after at the other entrance to the forecourt when a van decided that his diesel was more important than the lives of the thousands of people whose deaths we have become complicit in due to the use of Shannon. The timing of the two attempts to enter the forecourt were a little suspect, coming so close together and testing both sides of the blockade. It would not be surprising it they had been asked by the Gardaí to come and test the blockade. It seems very strange that only one other car made any real attempt to enter the forecourt and these people did not continue after being informed of the reason for the protest, but that these two should arrive in such a short space of time and be so insistent on entering. Even having entered the forecourt, some of the protestors made every effort to talk them out of actually purchasing fuel, but to no avail.
About 5 o’clock it was decided to break off the action, the point having been made. In all the action was effective, but it could have been more so had the groups involved not been so secretive about it in advance. I still do not know what group(s) participated in it as I did not feel it was appropriate for me to ask as everyone was looking suspiciously at me (I did enjoy the feeling of me being the bogeyman for a day though!). Had it been announced, or had an anti-capitalist bloc or even an unspecified action been announced, then perhaps many more would have turned up. As the group dispersed at the end, a few more protestors were arriving, certainly lending credibility to my assertion that publicity for the action was poor.
Anyway, photos will follow soon once I have them shrunk down to size (presumably 1mb+ pics aren’t welcome on the servers). In deference to a previous discussion on the matter in another forum, the faces of all participants will be blurred. If anyone who was there feels the need to correct any errors I may have made, or to add in any important info I left out, please do - I’m writing this from memory, and some mistakes are inevitable.
|
printable version
Digg this
del.icio.us
Furl
Reddit
Technorati
Facebook
Gab
Twitter
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (18 of 18)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18Sorry for the confused, slack-jawed, paranoid stares you got from me : )
It was stupid of us (the galway heads behind this action) to be so paranoid and secretive about it. Initially we had planned it as a critical mass down to Top, and announced this on indymedia (without revealing the destination). However this fell through. I think this was due to a combination of confusion over times, buses being late, terrible weather, and lack of interest.
However, if we had openly announced the planned blockade, we undoubtedly would have had more people and possibly media interest. This paranoia is a serious problem. You seem to see the funny side of the cold reception you got from us, but it isn't on. How can we ever achieve mass direct actions if we don't make people feel welcome?
Good report, look forward to the photos
Good report indeed.
Any sign of Top budging from their position??
"We're here to help" (from Top's opening web page)
They have a comments section if people could send in their views of they supplying killing machines which the Irish people (as with the Spanish) have clearly demonstrated they do not want.
We and our familys/friends are all potential customers. As always, be polite.
http://www.top.ie/set_com.htm
or [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
and
TOP,
Promenade Road,
Dublin 3,
Ireland
"If you would like any questions anwsered or if you have any comments to make, please add them below:" (from the comments page)
Nice detailed report for a non-journo ; )
The action which took place was only decided upon the previous Thursday - another action was being planned but was cancelled. Obviously the best way to do what was done would be:
(a) announced here and with flyers
(b) and done after the march
..on point b this was impossible (and one of the final speakers at the rally did offer to announce the action) due to the fact the bulk of the people involved, including the people organising the thing, had to leave to get their bus back to Galway.
Top Oil. What? a multi-million dollar oil company? A few small protests (minus rts) at one of its petrol stations is not going to stop this company from wanting to make more money.
On the march, I was lucky enough to spot the bikes and green and black flags gather outside Trinity. If I had been on the other side of the crowd, I could easily have missed them altogether and continued on in the rain to Stephen's Green for the speeches.
It would have been better if the action had been publicly announced or people had waited until the march had reached Stephen's Green before heading for Top Oil (though that would have meant a longer walk and people had to be back in town in time to get their buses). I'm sure that if more people had known about it, they would have joined in. About mid-way through the action, I counted 37 people (including myself) at the garage. It would have been more encouraging to have a few more.
I thought that the gardaí behaved quite reasonably on the day. They didn't try pushing the issue after it had been explained to them that it was the anniversary of the attack on Iraq, that we were making an important point about Irish companies complicity in that war and that we were only going to be there for a limited time. At the time that I counted 37 protestors, there were a couple of vans and 17 cops on the streets so they could have forced the issue if they had wanted to. Instead, they accepted our assurances that we were going to leave after a certain time and some of them actually left before we did.
Once again, well done to the author on the good report. I'm glad he isn't feeling too miffed about the suspicious looks.
I was actually quite entertained by it. As I said it was kinda funny being the bogeyman.
Earlier on ...
Later on ...
fine report; it's always encouraging to hear a positive report on an action you're involved in, from an outside perspective.. even when the way the action's been organised, though spirited, hasn't done any favours in terms of reaching out to people, or has involved other unfortunate, innocent gaffes.
but good to know, in the event such shotcomings are overcome, your activities have resonance beyond your particular circle.
here's to publicising our actions, and to open and accessible practices...
and to getting the finger out for the bush visit
Got fed up trying to make the pics small enough to upload on to Indymedia, so I put them here. Most are rubbish, but there are one or two good ones.
Check out http://www.pbase.com/j26/top_action
Sorry but for the first action (I think) organised by a group in existance for two months max., involving quite a few people now very active in the Galway scene, that hadn't been during the anti-war highpoint a year ago ('outside your circles' etc..,) , that the plan for which changed - dramatically - little over 24 hours previous to implementation (hence lack of publicity), and that was put into being by a group of people who live a 3 or 4 hour bus ride away (and who helped organise a bus) - some of whom would get lost on O'Connell Street, ...that was the most inspiringly brilliant thing I have been at in a long time (especially given that it's on an almost forgotten front) - actually it was all that without those conditions!!! (ps I had very little to do with it, - was advocating we go join Tim and Ed in Shannon, and have only attended a grand total of one of the meetings of the group which got it together - so I'm not being egotistical). Well done everyone who came along!!!
First of all, this was a blockade, not a protest. We were causing the station to lose money (though obviously a relatively tiny amount).
Second, we're trying to revive the Top Oil boycott, and this was part of that. We were leafletting passing pedestrians and hopefully also getting the message through to motorists (many of whom, including a Dublin Bus driver, expressed solidarity). A successful boycott would cause Top Oil to lose a lot of money, thus making it good business sense for them to stop refuelling U.S planes
So there you go, we're not ASKING them to listen to us, we're trying to force them out of the U.S war effort
i glanced over the crtical mass for peace and thought you saying it be in galway?
...................................................................
passing a leafet to a top oil consumer
passing a leaflet to the garda
garda trying to open blocade
the blockade
the walk to top oil from the mass demo
Well done to all involved in the TOP oil protest. Diversity of tactics is the way forward.
maybe I've missed something, but I am confused by your last
comment, maratist..
I had only marginal involvement in the action, but I thought it
was cool, and encouraging. as a friend and comrade of the
folks in galway grassroots who was there on the day, I would
like to
think ye are aware of this, and of my full support for your
activities.
however, all grassroots-type activities in this country are of a
fledgling nature. fact. for this reason, and inevitably, there are
many
obstacles
and
shortcomings (e.g. lack of resources, people, experience) to
be
overcome. these problems come into play especially when
interest in varous issues is at a lull, such as now in the
context of anti-war activity, as you pointed out.
nevertheless I felt saturday's action was a positive step on the
way to re-building effective grassroots-type anti-war activity.
well done indeed.
maybe I've missed something, but I am confused by your last
comment, maratist..
I had only marginal involvement in the action, but I thought it
was cool, and encouraging. as a friend and comrade of the
folks in galway grassroots who was there on the day, I would
like to
think ye are aware of this, and of my full support for your
activities.
however, all grassroots-type activities in this country are of a
fledgling nature. fact. for this reason, and inevitably, there are
many
obstacles
and
shortcomings (e.g. lack of resources, people, experience) to
be
overcome. these problems come into play especially when
interest in varous issues is at a lull, such as now in the
context of anti-war activity, as you pointed out.
nevertheless I felt saturday's action was a positive step on the
way to re-building effective grassroots-type anti-war activity.
well done indeed.
Great Action...good model self activating affinity groups keeping the coporations and govt. agencies involved in servicing the US war machine in Ireland on the hop.
We continue our Mon - Fri vigil outside the Aviation Building in downtown Dublin 11.30 am - 12.30 pm. If you find yourself in the area drop in for a chat.