AWI Shannon Demo: Uphold The Right To Demonstrate

national | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Tuesday June 22, 2004 14:33

by Dominic Carroll - Anti-War Ireland

info at antiwarireland dot org

087 1258325

Any attempt to prevent peaceful protest “a serious breach of our civil liberties”

The demonstration will assemble at 7pm in Shannon Town Centre. Protestors will then march to the terminal building at Shannon Airport. On the possibility of the protestors being prevented from entering Shannon, Anti-War Ireland says: “For the guards to prevent a peaceful protest from going ahead would amount to a serious breach of our civil liberties, and would be unacceptable. It would also be ironic, given that Bush expects to be applauded by our government for supposedly restoring democracy and civil liberties to the people of Iraq at the very moment ours are being threatened. At this point in time, we have no reason to believe that the protest will be banned. Anti-War Ireland has written to An Garda Síochana to give notice of a peaceful demonstration, and to indicate the march route. The gardaí have not been in touch with us, so we can only assume that it’s all systems go.”

Anti-War Ireland, a broad-based national alliance of anti-war groups, aims to ensure that President George W. Bush is faced with a mass peaceful protest as soon as he touches down on Irish soil. The demonstration is also intended to send a strong message to the Irish government concerning the continued misuse of an Irish civilian airport for US military purposes. Shannon Airport has been integrated into the US war machine, despite the opposition of a clear majority in this country. Irish complicity with US warmongering must end, and the demonstration on Friday night will be as much about this complicity as about the presence of Bush.

Anti-War Ireland is resolutely opposed to the security operation being put into place for the Bush visit. “It is important that people speak out against the ridiculous waste of public money on security while President Bush is in this country. The latest information we have is that 4,000 gardaí and more than 1,500 troops will be drafted into County Clare to protect this warmonger. Moreover, gardaí have gone door-to-door in Shannon town during the past few weeks to enquire into ordinary citizens' political and moral beliefs, and looking for information to which they have no right. This is a completely unacceptable use of taxpayers' money, and we hope the bill goes directly to the White House. Fianna Fáil and the PDs are behaving like lapdogs for George W. Bush."

Fintan Lane says he expects thousands of people to turn out for the protests against Bush when he arrives in this country: "We expect large numbers to attend the anti-Bush protests in County Clare and we want him to return home with a clear understanding of the depth of Irish opposition to his warmongering. We are calling on people to travel to Shannon for 7pm on Friday 25th June, to make their voices heard as Bush touches down on Irish soil. We are also asking people to support the demonstration on the following day to underline our anti-war message as Bush leaves this country. It is important that people turn up."

Fintan Lane continued: “The majority of Irish people opposed the invasion of Iraq from the very beginning and that anti-war sentiment still prevails,” he said. “Fianna Fail and the PDs have behaved appallingly and have ignored the majority opinion in the country on this issue. The 100,000 people who marched in Dublin on February 15th last year were treated with utter contempt by the government, which continues to facilitate the US war machine at Shannon airport. Anti-War Ireland will be focusing strongly on the misuse of Shannon Airport, and as far as we are concerned these demonstrations will be as much about Irish complicity as about the presence of Bush. We want an immediate end to the transit of US troops through Shannon. More than 125,000 US troops passed through Shannon last year and we can be fairly sure than at least some of those subsequently engaged in human rights abuses in Iraq. The Irish government has made Ireland complicit in this illegal and immoral occupation, and it has blood on its hands. The fact that anti-war activists such as Mary Kelly and the Catholic Worker Five are before the courts is another consequence of Irish complicity, and we believe that the charges against these people should be dropped immediately."

"It is also important that people speak out against the ridiculous waste of public money on security while President Bush is in this country. The latest information we have is that 4,000 gardai and more than 1,500 troops will be drafted into County Clare to protect this warmonger. Moreover, gardai have gone door-to-door in Shannon town during the past week or two enquiring into ordinary citizens' political and moral beliefs, and looking for information that they have no right to. This is a completely unacceptable use of taxpayers' money. If the visit goes ahead, and these security resources are in fact deployed, then we hope the bill goes directly to the White House. Fianna Fáil and the PDs are behaving like lapdogs for George W. Bush."

Anti-War Ireland has issued guidelines for the demonstration on Friday 25th June:
1. The protest is intended to be a non-confrontational march. While Anti-War Ireland supports peaceful resistance to war, we would advise any protestors considering the use of non-violent direct action on this occasion to clearly separate themselves from the main body of the march.
2. Please protest in a peaceful manner.
3. Please avoid drunkenness.
4. Please be aware of the large police/army/secret-service presence beyond that immediately visible.
5. Do not engage in any action that may endanger other protestors.

Anti-War Ireland is a broad-based national alliance of anti-war groups, including the Clare/Limerick-based Mid-West Alliance Against Military Aggression, the Cork Anti-War Campaign, Fairview Against the War, Clonakilty Against the War, the Dublin Anti-War Group, and other groups and individuals across the country.

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Comments (6 of 6)

Agreed. This is about Bush and about our rights

by Karl K.

Tue Jun 22, 2004 14:41

The police might be planning to keep us from Shannon. Our rights are worthless to them. But we must not be supressed. Everyone must come to Shannon and uphold our rights.

IAWM not worried

by P O'L

Tue Jun 22, 2004 15:41

Its amazing that so many people are willing to let our rights be trampled on. Where are the SWP and SP when we need them? Sitting down to tea with the guards and making joint plans for well stewarded marches. Looks like its up to the rest of us to protect what little we have. Shannon is the battleground for our rights.

Article in Irish Times today

by Badman

Tue Jun 22, 2004 16:08

Interesting details from today's piece in the IT

1) The IAWM/SWP and the various paper tigers of PANA and the Mostly-Governmental Organisations Peace Alliance declared that they will agree to any conditions for their protests that the gardai impose on them.

2) Brendan Butler chose to have a not-very-subtle dig at the other protests that are happening during the Bush visit. I don't remember the exact wording but it went something like this: "We believe in marshalling. We believe in a peaceful way and we do not get involved in groups who are involved in any violent way."

Now this might appear reasonable if there existed any groups in Ireland that did have a history of protesting in a violent way - there are NONE. Brendan Butler is enthusiastically weighing in on the side of the state in its attempt to paint anybody who doesn't follow the orders of the SWP as 'violent' despite the fact that there is no evidence or history of any violence at any anti-war protest in Ireland. Why are some of the anti-war crowd so happy to spread lies about other anti-war groups?

Brendan Butler joins the anti-war hall of shame. Happy to co-operate with the Gardia, happy to slander other protestors in the mass media without any attempt to contact them whatsoever.

Brendan Butler needs to make a public retraction on his previous slanders before he has credibility

by Needs to

Tue Jun 22, 2004 16:19

Brendan Butler needs to retract his public statements refering to the Catholic Workers "assaulting & hospitalising a member of the Gardai". A lie initiated by 2 Government ministers, repeated by Butler and rejected by the Gardai press officer statement on the day of the CW5 disarmament at Shannon.

There has not been a public retraction by Butler (and he has had the opportunity to do it at least on talk back radio) and the 2 ministers of this libel that was rejected by the Gardai Press Officer. The slander and its repetition did it's job of muddying the waters and isolating the CW5. They seem to have been playing catch up ever since.

Here we go again

by Deirdre Clancy - pitstop ploughshares

Wed Jun 23, 2004 03:03

Thanks to whoever wrote the last posting, and for the support in regard to slanderous allegations made about our action. These allegations actually started out with Cathy Halloran on RTE as far as I know, and Brendan Butler, amongst others, appeared to swallow it whole. To be fair, Richard Boyd Barrett didn't condemn our action in the same way - he refused to do so on RTE when challenged.

Even the guards put a statement on their web site stating that there had been no assault and no hospitalisation of a guard, but by that point the people who had repeated the lie had done a fair amount of damage. Whether one agrees with ploughshares actions or not - and people are entitled to disagree - there is no justification for the repetition of unsubstantiated and untrue statements.

To be honest, I have no interest in gaining the esteem of the type of people who try to stereotype anyone who engages in nonviolent civil disobedience as somehow violent and/or deviant. I find it incredibly petty in the context of the carnage inflicted on people in Iraq. It's not as if people don't think serious actions through deeply and for a long time before doing them, weighing up the pros and cons.

I also find certain people's consistent desire that protests be celebratory family parties akin to the Teddy Bear's Picnic to be rather reductive of the issues at stake in global geopolitics right now. George Bush and his administration are dangerous people. It's wondeful if families go on protests, but why also encourage people to act as though they're not concerned about policies which lead to escalating cycles of global violence? It's great to have a carnival atmosphere, but it jars a little when the "nice day out" is pushed more than the actual issues at stake.

Butler by Name and by Nature

by Butler

Wed Jun 23, 2004 08:41

Butler is paid to be ineffectual, co-dependent and subservient to the state. Along with the SWP they are "the legitimate voice of dissent".

Word has it that the Trots pulled a swift one on PANA & NGOPA. The Point gig was Butler's initial idea and a 3 way split was planned. Until IAWM secured Christy Moore than as Paul said to John, George and Ringo "the pasrt is/was over". IAWM went on to blow 10 grand booking the point and that is the state of the left in Ireland.

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AWI Shannon Demo: Uphold The Right To Demonstrate

Comments (6 of 6)