Report of Dublin Anti-War Open Meeting held on 10 June

dublin | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Sunday June 11, 2006 12:58

by Fintan Lane - Anti-War Ireland

A personal report

The fourth plenary meeting/gathering of anti-war activists took place in the Teachers' Club, Parnell Square, Dublin between 2.30pm and 5.30pm on Saturday, 10 June. The meeting was facilitated by Deirdre Clancy of the Pitstop Ploughshares and Anti-War Ireland.

What follows is my personal report and reflections. The minutes should be posted soon. I'm fairly sure that I'll forget things, so, please, do add additional information if you were at the meeting.

The attendence was quite good with representatives present from a range of groups, as well as individual 'unaligned' activists. Those in the room included members of the Unmanageables, the Belfast Peace and Justice Group, Irish Anti-War Movement, PANA, Anti-War Ireland, Cosantoiri Siochana, Pitstop Ploughshares (including Ciaron O'Reilly, just back from 6 months 'rest'), Peace People, Irish Socialist Network (Dublin and Belfast), Green Party, Dublin Catholic Worker Group and others that I can't recall off the top of my head. Among the absentees were the anarchists (WSM and Grassroots Dissent) and the Trotskyist groups such as the SWP and the Socialist Party; this is regrettable because both the anarchists and Trotskyists represent significant strands within the active anti-war movement and their voices should be present. That said, it could equally be pointed out that Sinn Fein, the Labour Party, etc. etc. were not in attendence, but their engagement with the anti-war movement has been less consistent over the past few years. Anyway, these are simply my own personal observations...so, moving on.

The meeting was essentially divided into two sessions:

1. Reports from groups and activists on ongoing activities.
2. Proposals and discussion.

1. REPORTS
Reports were made by the Unmanageables, Anti-War Ireland, the IAWM, PANA, the Strategy Subgroup, the Media/Communications Subgroup and the Pitstop Ploughshares about recent and ongoing activities. Among the matters discussed or reported on were the upcoming Pitstop Ploughshares trial (beginning in early July), the Afghan hunger strike, IAWM public meetings, the Unmanageables' various actions, and so on. One thing that became clear as the reports were being heard is that there is a great deal of anti-war work ongoing which may not be obvious to everybody in the movement and beyond.

2. PROPOSALS AND DISCUSSION
A number of proposals arose from discussion of the earlier reports. The minutes, when posted, should detail these, but the following are those that stuck in my mind, and they're not listed in the order in which they occurred:

a) It was agreed to name the open meetings/gatherings/alliance as the 'Anti-War Network'. This name may be revisited at a future stage, but the current intention is simply to put a working name on the project.

b) A working group was established to do support work for the Pitstop Ploughshares during their forthcoming trial.

c) Future meetings will include discussions of the strategic positions of the various constituent groups, as a way of increasing understanding between activists.

d) An email list is to be created that will consist only of those who have attended the meetings. This will be used to keep participants up to date on forthcoming meetings etc. Constituent groups, of course, will also use their own mailing lists to keep people informed. Subgroups will set up their own email discussion lists, which will be for issues particular to that subgroup.

e) Subgroups are for internal clarification purposes only and cannot organise public events without referring back to a plenary meeting of the Anti-War Network.

f) Michael Youlton of the IAWM will facilitate the next meeting of the Anti-War Network (to be held at the beginning of July). This was suggested because the previous four meetings have been facilitated by Cosantori Siochana and the Pitstop Ploughshares/Anti-War Ireland, and, in short, it was felt that it was the IAWM's turn.

Overall, the exchanges were positive, constructive and very useful. The purpose of the project is to unify the anti-war movement and to develop greater coordination and cooperation. I think we are continuing to make good progress.