BOOK YOUR PLACE ON THE GR BUSES TO EVIAN

by the good bus - the good bus Thu Apr 24, 2003 19:48 thegoodbus at yahoo dot co dot uk

There will also be an Alternative bus going for the non politically aligned or basically anyone who doesnt want to travel and march with the SWP/GR crew in the Red (socialist) Bloc.
Details coming soon.
Send us an e-mail for more info.

by darren Thu Apr 24, 2003 21:44

A whole pamphlet of reasons why you might want to go on the good bus...

The ever wonderful ScNews hace produced a Pamphlet 'Monopolise Resistance' with lots of things you should consider about GR/SWP.

You can download it as a PDF or read it on the Schnews site

Take some time to get informed...

by longtime listener - first time caller Thu Apr 24, 2003 22:00

Its great the buses are going from ireland, its a bit confusing though so i've a few questions:

1. whats the Red Bus like? - it sounds a bit scary...is it okay to sleep on it as well as chant? and what if you don't know the words to the songs? is there a thesaurus onboard aswell as a photocopier? is smoking foreign/any cigarettes frowned on?

2. does the Good Bus play kind of MOR music, non alligned stuff or just loads of very political stuff on blank tapes? is it full-on or laid back? is the air conditioning on or off? what films are shown, if any? whats the Good Bus position on Jello Biafra or SOAD doing MTV? Violence/nonV?

3. aerlingus weren't very helpful. is it true that crossair fly from knock [bless them] and galway/shannon to zurich, and if so, is there a bus from zurich to evian, and if so, is it red or black - or both?

4. finally, if 300 multicoloured demonstrators pay €300 to go 300 miles 3 times a year on a tricolour of buses, how many wells would be dug in [your preferred country] for €270,000?

-good luck to all [the good people] going and spending their 300,000 collective euros. Have a kronenbourg for me & have fun. Make sure to get on de telly slapping some cops around. When u return maybe we'll raise another €300 in some nightclub to make all that videotape into a film and get it on the telly again so people can be inspired to travel to the next G8...

-somewhat cynical ali

by path in residence Thu Apr 24, 2003 23:39

its just hanging around with them on the campsite was a bit of a nightmare.

and also they pretty much coralled everyone into what we thought was a general block but was actually them and their looper socialist buddies shouting marxist claptrap.

also GR never talked about protest tactics so on the day we walked up to the fence in our little goggles and bandanas and got the living shit beaten out of us by coke fuelled, heavily padded riot cops.

did they really think we were somehow going to magically jump the fence? even if we got in, what would we have done in there?

none of this was ever discussed at any meeting. stupid i know, we should have discussed it among ourselves.

learned a lot of lessons in genoa. one was never to bother discussing anything of substance with a GR member, it goes in one ear and out the other with them... and then they try and recruit you or sell the paper.

seriously. rory ahern was constantly asking me "but dont you see yourself as part of globalise resistance now you've been on a protest with us?" and i just stared back at him, incredulous after i had just explained to him at length why i didnt want to be part of any organisation, and i didnt feel the need to be a member of a party to get involved in political shit.

by noone Fri Apr 25, 2003 00:02

but will there be a telly on da bus???

by lazy sectarian - bash all others, do fuck all myself Fri Apr 25, 2003 12:25

looks like the path and the rest of his masked friends intend to fill their bus by trying to turn people off travelling with GR by casting a whole load of mud in the hope that some of it will stick. This type of negative campaigning is absolutely maggotty (though typical of some irish activists who prefer to slander from the sidelines instead of getting stuck in themselves)and harms the struggle for social justice enormously.
Anyway i am sure the gr buses will be far more broad and representative of the social movement in ireland than anything these one-track-mind guys can patch together.

by the cul de sac Fri Apr 25, 2003 12:34

well mr path
i was also in genoa and attended open meetings every morning that disussed tactics and everything else besides
and remember seeing yourself there mumbling under palms to a fellow conspirator. Did not hear you speak out openly though. Guess thats your style.
I see you are so security conscious that you feel free to name other activists online while remaining anonymous yourself.
dont believe a word this guy writes.

by path of least resistance Fri Apr 25, 2003 12:36

these make excellent reading and are a counterblast to the shnews rant.

http://www.resist.org.uk/reports/archive/genoa/index.html

by pissed off Fri Apr 25, 2003 12:39

genuine activists woul;d have a bit more respect for you if you did respond to their political arguments, not just moaning and telling people they are sectarians.

by Joe Fri Apr 25, 2003 13:03

Lots of Irish reports from Genoa and links to international stuff at
http://www.struggle.ws/global/history/genoa/genoa.html

Lots of different angles including anarchists, SWP (pre the 'blame it on the black bloc' line change and others).

by pissed on Fri Apr 25, 2003 13:05

didnt see any political argument, just slander and insinuation.
some people want a nice tidy movement that can be dominated by the loudest macho on the blockhead and where ther is one dominant ideology- autonomism\leftliberalism\anarchism- whatever you want to call it.
The rest of us arent afraid of a bit of debate and interaction between socialists, greens, community activists, trade unionists etc etc.
A will be the Good bus
B will be the GR buses

by Do dah Fri Apr 25, 2003 14:06

GR is a SWP front
do dah, do dah
Go along and be their grunt
do dah, do dah de

by Chekov Fri Apr 25, 2003 14:27

The path gave his personal experience of Genoa, pretty obviously from his own subjective point of view, you may agree with it or not, but so far nobody has claimed that it contained any gross factual inaccuracies. Perhaps if there are some, someone could point them out.

Lazy sectarian responds by accusing him of "casting a whole load of mud". This would imply to me that there are factual inaccuracies in his account, not merely differences of opinion. Yet, rather than point out the inaccuracies, she refers to the author and "the rest of his masked friends", describes his account as "absolutely maggotty"[sic], implies that the author "prefer[s] to slander from the sidelines instead of getting stuck in" and puts the cherry on the cake by claiming the author to have a "one-track-mind". This despite the fact that the lazy sectarian almost certainly doesn't have the faintest clue who the 'path' is.

Now I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out who is throwing mud here!

The only response that even comes close to attempting to addressing the points that the path brought up are that somebody "Did not hear you speak out openly though" at the open meetings in Genoa. This is a fair enough criticism, although I'd say that it is explicable by the fact that it takes a very confident individual to express heresy at a SWP-dominated meeting. The normal response, in my experience, is for a line of SWP members taking turns to prove their loyalty to the party, and their acceptance of the party line by denouncing your views, one after the other. I don't really blame the path if he chose not to go down that route.

On the other hand, I'd encourage people to go to Evian, with GR or with whoever. I'd also encourage people to not allow themselves to be manipulated to any political organisation and to be aware of the techniques of coercion that they may encounter.

Now yez can all tell me what a sectarian, blah, do-nothing, blah, liar, blah, elitist, blah, splitter I am.

by faction fighter Fri Apr 25, 2003 16:53

What do you get for pretending the danger's not real
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel
What a surprise!
A look of terminal shock in your eyes
Now things are really what they seem
No, this is no bad dream.

by The good bus - the good bus Sat Apr 26, 2003 13:55 thegoodbus at yahoo dot co dot uk

We are not being splitters or whatever else you want to call us.
People depend too much on the SWP/GR to do things for them, organise protests, arrange busses. There's nothing wrong with deciding to do something for yourself if you think it needs doing. Fine, maybe the name is stirring shit a little but I like it. It will be a good bus.
GR are arranging busses, we are arranging busses, the more the merrier right? Whats the problem? I dont know who the path is but he's very welcome on the bus as is anyone else who wants to come.
Jump on board!!

by GR watcher Sat Apr 26, 2003 15:25

Is there a need for a new broad anti globalisation group that is not dominated or seen to be dominated by the SWP or any other group?

I think there is, what do people think? can GR be reclaimed?

by paul Sat Apr 26, 2003 16:12

Is the first of June not a Sunday? And if the summit is from the 1st to the 3rd, why are you leaving on the 2nd?

by uncle vanya Sat Apr 26, 2003 18:03

so i call myself after
a liberal russian author
no surprise really

or alternatively(sic)
im the path the force the gizz
oh how internet how noughties how cyberian

(By the way i know exactly who the path is)

by martin - none Sat Apr 26, 2003 18:12

ive done a lot of work with the swp and never been forced into anything
sure i buy their paper
an am damn glad there is people bringing out alternative media reports
Indymedia is excellent and their are other websites but
not everybodys got a computer ya know
I dont know if i can take anyone calling themselves the path or chekov too seriously (sounds like far too many mushrooms to me) or whether id want to spend a couple of days on the bus with them
how can you expect people to book bus tickets if you wont even name yourself and you are obviously going out of your way to cause trouble?

by me - in a personal capacity Sat Apr 26, 2003 21:53

His name actually really is Chekov.
So there goes your argument

by tony - swss Tue May 13, 2003 17:07

his name maybe chekov and if it is cool.

But by martins post he does not know of him.

your reply is a bit of an inditement of indymedia, when something is on, its vital and fantastic with great points.

but when nothings on its fair city for a small group of activists. why would anyone come here if someone throws back a off the cuff comment like 'so there goes your arguement.'

by help? - freedom for peas Tue May 27, 2003 05:12 peas at freedom dot org here 808080

what a load of bollox, go fuckoff to genoa and see what good it does, fuckall 'cept massage a few egos with the chane of some corpeate news air time, tossers the lot of you!
Bah humbug and all that shit