Protest against continued US Military use of Shannon Airport to take place on 12th October.

Monday October 07, 2002 14:22

by wormholebrothers

Saturday 12th of October is the date set for the latest in a series of protests (1) and actions aimed at highlighting and stopping extensive American Military use of Shannon Airport during the current buildup to an attack on Iraq. The protest begins at 2pm.

Protest against continued US Military use of Shannon Airport to take place on 12th October.

Saturday 12th of October is the date set for the latest in a series of protests (1) and actions aimed at highlighting and stopping extensive American Military use of Shannon Airport during the current buildup to an attack on Iraq. The protest begins at 2pm.

US Military use of the airport has been extensively documented by local activists since late last year when it was used as a stopover for US troops traveling to Afghanistan. (2)

This US Military use of an Irish Airport has continued unabated ever since as has the monitoring of this by local activists (3) (4) (5) (6) (7). A campaign of harassment and intimidation of those attempting to monitor the military use of the airport has been stepped up in recent weeks by Airport Security staff and Gardai (8) (9). The Refueling Peace activists have recently issued a call for help with this ongoing task (10).

A recent action by Eoin Dubsky, a member of Refueling Peace, has for the first time brought this issue to national awareness. He jumped the runway fence, defaced a US military plane with peace slogans and called the police. Read his account of this action and his reasons for undertaking it here (11). The Irish Independent twisted the story and, as is their custom in dealing with protests in Ireland, tried to make an entirely peaceful action appear somehow 'violent' (12).

The protest is taking place at a very sensitive time for the present Government. They, with the help of the supposedly 'balanced' Referendum Commission, have been attempting, using the dubious Seville Declaration, to portray a Yes vote on the Nice Treaty as a vote for Neutrality. Recent polls also show the majority of citizens to be opposed to Ireland using its vote in the UN Security to back up any plans to attack Iraq (13). Government claims that they are upholding our Constitutional Neutrality will not hold water if the general public is made clearly aware of the extent to which Shannon Airport is being used by the US Military. A virtual media blackout on the extent of the US Military use of Shannon has assisted them in this up till now.

The protest on the 12th, a week before the Nice vote, promises to be much bigger in scale than previous protests there and looks set to bring Irish Neutrality back to the heart of the ongoing debate on the Nice Treaty re-run (14).

Irish Anti War Movement Website (15).
Buses to Shannon on 12th (16) (17).
Refueling Peace website (18)