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Brief report of Anti-War Ireland organising meeting, 15/5/04
 national |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report
 Monday May 17, 2004 16:15 by Fintan Lane - Anti-War Ireland info at antiwarireland dot org 087 1258325
Organising for the Bush demos and in support of Mary Kelly
Anti-War Ireland, a national alliance of anti-war groups, held its most recent organising meeting in the Teachers' Club, Parnell Square, Dublin, between 2pm and 6pm on Saturday, May 15th. Roughly 30 people attended, mostly from Dublin groups, but also including activists from Galway, Cork, Kilkenny and Clonakilty. The following is a summary of decisions taken:
1. BUSH VISIT: Anti-War Ireland has called a demonstration to oppose the presence of Bush and the US military at Shannon airport. This will assemble at 8pm in Shannon town centre, on Friday evening, June 25th.
There was a wide-ranging and energetic discussion on the Bush visit, during which members of the Galway-based AmBush2004 group and various Grassroots groups indicated their willingness to work alongside Anti-War Ireland. Many suggestions were made regarding the format of the protests at Shannon, but everybody agreed that Shannon is the place to be on Friday evening, June 25th, as Bush arrives in the country. It was suggested that we should be looking at a weekend of events rather than just the demonstration on the Friday night. The auspices under which this wider range of protests/manifestations will be organised has yet to be decided, but it was agreed to establish a Bush visit working group (drawn from from a number of organisations) that will meet again at 8pm in the Teachers' Club next Saturday night.
The Cork Anti-War Campaign has suggested that the weekend before the arrival of Bush be made a national weekend of 'festive protest' with the aim of creating inclusive events that would bring out large numbers in opposition to the war policy of the Bush administration. A concert/peace picnic and 'white ribbon day' will be held in Cork city, and other areas have indicated an interest in doing similar events. This weekend of protest (broad-based and inclusive) would help to build for the events the following weekend at Shannon, where we will meet the warmonger-in-chief as he arrives on Irish soil.
2. ANTI-WAR IRELAND CONFERENCE: It was decided to hold the first conference of Anti-War Ireland two weeks after the Bush visit. It will be a two-day event (comprising a day of discussion and a day dedicated to organisational matters). All literature distributed in the lead up to the Bush visit will include information on the forthcoming conference, and information will also be distributed at the Bush protests themselves. The conference will be held in Dublin, with the understanding that the next AWI conference will be held outside the capital city.
3. MARY KELLY CASE: There was considerable discussion of the forthcoming re-trial of Mary Kelly. Her trial for decommissioning a US warplane at Shannon airport will begin on June 15th, and it is essential that anti-war activists take part in solidarity events.
Anti-War Ireland is continuing to run a solidarity stall and leafleting in Ennis town centre every Saturday in the run up to the trial, and it is requested that activists should make the effort to travel to Ennis to help with this stall. Information, and offers of help (including financial help), to Liz Tully at [email protected] or [email protected].
Those who cannot make it to Ennis are asked to set up information stalls in their own cities and towns to highlight Mary's case.
It was also agreed to issue a press statement in support of Mary prior to the trial and that all press statements will mention her pending case.
In addition, Anti-War Ireland will produce a 'Support Mary Kelly' poster which will be distributed in pdf format throughout the country. This should be available soon and will be emailed to everybody on our emailing list.
4. MARCH IN SOLIDARITY WITH CONGOLESE PEOPLE: The Congolese-Irish Partnership are organising a march (assembling at 2pm at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin) this coming Saturday in solidarity with the Congolese people. The march to government buildings is intended to highlight this little-noticed conflict.
This is a country that has been plundered for its mineral resources, with more than 5 million people dead as a result of war since 1998. Anti-War Ireland will be attending as a gesture of solidarity with the ordinary Congolese people who have suffered at the hands of invading armies and their own. Fintan Lane (Anti-War Ireland) will be among the speakers at the rally.
5. VOTE NO IN THE RACIST REFERENDUM: Anti-War Ireland agreed to call publicly for a 'no' vote in the forthcoming citizenship referendum. It was also decided to endorse the recently established Campaign Against the Racist Referendum.
The next meeting of the Anti-War Ireland organising group will be held in Cork. Details later.
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Comments (16 of 16)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16that will have the iawm quaking in their boots in fear of being usurped as the main anti-war group in this country.
How many were at the last IAWM general meeting?
Was there more than 5 at that meeting that are not in the SWP?
Was any sort of report given?
If you can answer these questions, then maybe you will have a right to be smug.
I was unable to make the organising meeting, and I read the report with interest. I had high hopes that Anti War Ireland would pose a genuine and much needed alternative to the IAWM, with a new focus on Shannon.
I am very dissapointed that not only was the organising meeting held in Dublin (Teacher club - what does that remind of ? )
Now I find that our first conference is also taking place there. The way we approach this movement has a symbolism whether we like it or not. It looks like we are simply parroting the IAWM.
It is not enough to say that Shannon is the place to be, to genuinely put the focus on Shannon, we should be organising around the area in a dynamic and imaginative way. This means breaking with the usual leftist mediocrity and build a huge movement.
This is a poor way to go about things, and doesnt look like we are as ambitious and imaginative as I hoped we would be
then the awi one,thats all that matters.
I think that this was the third or fourth AWI organising meeting - and it was the first one in Dublin. The location of the first conference was discussed and there was some disagreement about it. However, we can't wish away the fact that the country's population is overwhelmingly concentrated around Dublin and that our transport infrastructure focuses enormously on Dublin. If you want people to come from Belfast and Cork, any other choice is going to be vey difficult for people coming for one or the other. It is especially important to maximise turnout at a founding conference. Thus Dublin was decided upon for the initial conference with the proviso that the following one must be elsewhere. This seems to me to be a reasonable compromise.
By the way, the Grassroots Gatherings are a good example of how meetings can be rotated around the country. Only 2 out of 7 have been held in Dublin so far which roughly reflects the distribution of the population. Hopefully, AWI will have similar success in breaking out of Dublin-centrism.
Shannon Activist: Pity you couldn't make the meeting to put your concerns to the meeting. It's open and democratic. You should have been there.
Tim: Don't you mean Dublin?
shannon demo the 26th,its all on the website
Where? Dublin and Galway?
Hardly Nationwide
prove me wrong
The old argument, most people live in Dublin so lets have it here, dont you realise this is exactly what the IAWM have been preaching at us!!!!
For heavens sake, we're supposed to be different and dynamic, yet we end up parroting their line to justify this old thinking.
Still waiting on that report from the last IAWM meeting. What's wrong, afraid it will look like a SWP meeting.
Any more resignations off the steering committee?
.
Most people at the organising meeting were there in a geunine attempt to build a complementary anti-war group in Ireland, not to "usurp" the IAWM or have them "quaking in their boots". Personally, I have no interest in a group with such a ridiculous agenda.
Also, to the people who have a problem with the meeting being held in Dublin, I hate having to repeat what's already been pointed out, but the first two meetings of the group were held in Limerick. Like it or not, you will get a bigger attendance at a conference if it's held in Dublin as opposed to, say, Leitrim or Cork, because it's easier to reach for those dependent on public transport. This is not an "argument" - it's just a fact of life. It's not ideal that we live in a society obsessed with centralisation in terms of intrastructure, but we've got to work with what we have. We have agreed that those who need to travel to any meetings or events will have everyone at the meeting chip in for their travel expenses (the waged more than the unwaged obviously), which is a lot more than most groups do. So far, one meeting has been held in Dublin, which is hardly Dublin-centric. It has been agreed that the second conference will be held outside of Dublin. I don't think we can do much more than that to decentralise.
For those who want AWI to be more imaginative, why don' t you inject your own imagination into it, rather than sitting around and expecting everyone else to do so? AWI isn't there to spoonfeed its members - the members ARE AWI. So if you see things you want to change, put your stamp on it and take some ownership. Others have travelled to the meetings; some from neither Limerick nor Dublin (for instance, several Cork people) have travelled to all three. I couldn't make the Limerick meetings for various reasons, but I didn't complain about AWI being "Limerick-centric".
So Anti-War Ireland is promoting one side or another on the referendum? You people are BREATHTAKINGLY stupid! You are unbearably pathetic. What the f&@#$ck does either side of a referendum about immigration have to do with war? Huh? Why don't you tell me how to think about abortion while you're at it? Or marajuana use? Or education policy? You pathetic little gobsites. YOU ARE NOT ANTI-WAR. YOU ARE ANTI-REALITY. You are sorry little losers.
I say this as a person who is passionately against the war in iraq and passionately against a yes vote in the referendum.
2000 people at most against Bush. Mark my words. In a country of 4 million with 63% against the war. God you people make me sick....
David C: Anti-War Ireland took a position on the citizenship/racist referendum because it wants to be supportive of those escaping war-zones and because it believes racism needs to be opposed in all its forms. But I suspect you're only trolling anyway.
Shannon activist: Get a life! Two Anti-War Ireland meetings have been held in Limerick; one in Dublin; and the next one is in the Cork. The IAWM/SWP held ALL its meetings in Dublin. Stop being so bloody negative. If you want to see a new and deomcratic anti-war movement, then get involved instead of sniping about minor issues. Anti-War Ireland is firmly focused on Shannon.
Tim: Pathetic. The IAWM/SWP is finished. As far I know, all (except one or two) of its Steering Committee members are SWPers. Good luck to them (they do good work) but it's time you stopped pretending to a broad-based national anti-war movement. The IAWM is an SWP front and nothing more. With regard to Shannon, the IAWM march vaguely announced for the 26th is tokenistic sop that will never happen. What? Protest at Dromoland and then, when Bush leaves, march 7 miles to Shannon to arrive hours after he's left that airport? If you think the IAWM is serious about a Shannon demo then you need help you poor thing.
The REAL anti-Bush, anti-Irish complicity demo will be in Shannon town centre at 8pm on Friday, June 25th. See you there.
'Tim' is a rare fella indeed. He thinks that the way to build anti-war sentiment in this country is to wish ill-will on Anti-War Ireland and on the demonstration that will assemble in Shannon town centre at 8pm on Friday, June 25th. What a strange attitude!
I think most serious anti-war activists will be hoping for large turnouts at ALL the demonstrations that will take place that weekend. The Shannon protest is particularly important because that is where Bush will land, and it is where his war machine is ensconced. It is crucial that we have a large turnout to underscore the widespread opposition in this country to Fianna Fail and PD complicity with the Bush killing machine. Shannon is the point of complicity.
The queries with regard to meetings in Dublin have been answered already by other contributors. The next meeting is in Cork. I can't imagine how anybody could possibly characterise Anti-War Ireland as Dublin-centric.
There is a lot of work to do over the coming weeks, and we should get on with it. Apart from the Bush visit, Mary Kelly is about to face trial and possible imprisonment - and she needs our support. And there is the Anti-War Ireland conference to build for.
Tim Murphy (probably a pseudonym) has contributed 4 comments to this thread. To described them as negative would be kind – 2 of them amount to nothing less than pure bile, while 1 is akin to racism. It’s certain that Tim is a member of the IAWM and probably of the SWP, too. During my time in the SWP, I would have challenged such sectarianism, openly and publicly. I hope that current members of the SWP feel sufficiently outraged by these disgraceful comments by one of their number to take issue with said member here and now. It really is not helping the cause of the IAWM and the SWP to allow such comments to go unchallenged.
Tim Murphy’s comments on this thread:
oooh...30 … that will have the iawm quaking in their boots in fear of being usurped as the main anti-war group in this country.
far more people will be at the iawm shannon demo .... then the awi one,thats all that matters.
regional demos the 25th .... shannon demo the 26th,its all on the website
anti war ireland:more like anti war cork with a few crusties thrown in from elsewhere … prove me wrong