Urgently needed: Civil disobedience, citizens disarmament

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday February 24, 2003 00:30 by Eoin Dubsky - Refueling Peace info at refuelingpeace dot org

Enough activist pomp please!

It's perfectly clear: Shannon is in reality a US airbase and Ireland is participating in America's vicious wars. We can withdraw our concent through practical, nonviolent civil disobedience and citizens disarmament actions.

Airport officials say that over 30,000 US troops bound for the Middle East have passed through Shannon Airport, on the west coast of Ireland, since December 2002. At present the airport is patrolled by the Irish Defence Forces 12th Infantry Battalion, equipped with assault rifles and armoured personnel carriers mounted with machineguns, to stop interference from protesters in the business of US military flights refuelling there. On St. Patrick's Day last year I recall George W. Bush said to a beaming Bertie Ahern: "Ireland is a valued member of the international coalition against terrorism. Ireland has allowed American military planes to use its airports".

DEMONSTRATIONS ARE NOT ENOUGH!

Its not enough by a long shot for people in Ireland to just march about here and there against this war.

Its common knowledge where the airport is. Its common knowledge what the airport is being used for. The opportunities for varying degrees of civil disobedience (e.g. blockade) and citizens disarmament (e.g. hit a plane) are obvious to anyone who takes the time, courage and discipline to hang about and explore a little. The law is clearly on our side too, even if there is some confusion following the "guilty" verdict which I received at Shannon District Court last week. I think that enduring the inconvenience of a few months prison is still certainly worth it!

NO MORE ACTIVIST POMP PLEASE

I'm sick to the teeth of all the activist pomp on mailing lists and websites about "direct action" from people who don't even have the courage and discipline to do an autonomous action at Shannon. You think nonviolent, open and accountable actions at Shannon Airport aren't for you? Fine, if you can do your secret action safely (please don't get hurt or hurt anyone!!) then do it -- do your part to shut down that fucking US airbase and stop whingeing about your revolutionary ideology or whatever your excuse for inaction this week is.

On the mattock used by the Catholic Worker 5 at Shannon Airport was inscribed the Dorothy Day quotation "IF THEY SHOULD COME FOR THE INNOCENT WITHOUT STEPPING OVER YOUR BODY, CURSED BE YOUR RELIGION AND YOUR LIFE!" -- I guess you can replace "religion" in the quotation above with whatever motivates you.

ORGANIZE A WORKSHOP AND LET'S GO

I'll be back in Ireland around March 8th and would be DELIGHTED to facilitate a nonviolence and safety workshop for people preparing for civil disobedience or citizens disarmament actions at Shannon Airport. You'll see my contact details at the end of my homepage (website address below).