Report on Shannon

national | miscellaneous | news report

Friday October 18, 2002 11:13

by Harry Pollitt

Report on Shannon and on the importance of democracy and direct action.

This ain’t what democracy looks like or a tale of two protests.

The first demonstration I was at in Shannon warport had an open meeting for all participants prior to it.

We formed a circle and debated our course of action, while our entrance to the airport grounds was being blocked by the police.

Would we refuse to negotiate and march up the pavement?, or negotiate?, or not talk to the cops and march up the road regardless of their orders?

We decided collectively as equals.

In the end (and this was a short-ish discussion, based upon the idea that we could go separate ways) most people marched up the road with no negotiations, no compromise and no surrender.

Others choose a different route – as was their right.

On October 12th as the call went out to assemble for the meeting, the megaphone wielding apparatchiks of the “Socialist” Worker’s Party successfully sabotaged this (despite prior assurances there would be a meeting) and led the march up the road to the airport. This, incidentally after negotiations with the police (i.e. accepting the authority of the state), and, according to a police spokesman, giving assurances to them there would be no action.

The megaphone being of course the ‘means of production’ at a demonstration, have one and you’re the boss.

So what did this mean?

Firstly; that proceedings belonged to the “Irish Anti-War Movement” (the current pseudonym for the Politburo of the “Socialist” Worker’s Party) rather than to all participants as equals.

Secondly; that there was no collective open discussion about direct action prior to it kicking off.

Which made for a number of things:

Firstly; that the direct action when it did take place was verging on the spontaneous, which could have been quite dangerous (and with prior discussion less people would have been arrested, in my opinion). Similarily it could have been more successful.

Secondly; that people might, in the “heat of the moment” participate in something they would not have done otherwise, with the opportunity for reflection.

Thirdly; the direct action could have been totally sabotaged, as it was, it was successful largely due to the slow witted response of the Garda.

Fourthly; as far as I could see the brief discussion of the action went through “friendship networks”, essentially an informal hierarchy, excluding people who otherwise might have desired to take part in the taking down of the fence or had other different plans for action. This was of course rendered necessary by the original sabotage of the meeting.

Finally people critical of the action when it did take place had no opportunity to make their argument prior to the action.

So, anyways, we marched to the airport building, and upon arriving spontaneously blockaded the entrance to the terminal. Out with megaphones for an “open mic” and this soon died away. An “open mic” which by curious design had as it’s first speaker none other than Patricia McKenna MEP for the Green Party. All similarities to your average stroll around Dublin, reproduce the hierarchy of capitalism and don’t forget to build the vanguard party, type event, is, I’m sure, purely co-incidental.

Not desiring to hear something along the lines of a recording of ‘Questions and Answers’ at this point I absented myself. Apparently it later did become an ‘open mic’ and as an amusing aside an Arab air crew collected up some banners and brought them in to the terminal building.

Some hours later, after hearing what we already know, ‘Is this it’ was the consensus where I was standing.

Thankfully the situation was saved when a number of individuals took the initiative to tear down the fence on the way out of the airport, and about one hundred people piled across, much to the consternation of Mr.Plod, both of the soft cop and regular variety.

A number of arrests were made.

Eventually a stand off ensued when a body of protestors refused to the leave the runway grounds, despite arrests and threatened use of water cannon and police dogs.

Refusing to leave until the arrestees were released.

Meanwhile outside the now demolished perimeter wire, another group of protestors briefly blocked the road, for the same reason. This group included a number of prominent members of the S.W.P., who were then ordered to desist by their leadership!

After assurances that the arrestees would be released, we went en masse to the cop shop to make sure.

Despite what I was told by a sneering Trotskyite “They’ll be taken into Limerick and you wont see them again tonight”, with an unruly mob (o.k. slight exaggeration) outside the police station the ten arrested people were processed and released. Files are being sent to the DPP.

The question is, and the sting isn’t directed towards the S.W.P., but toward myself and all other believers in democracy and direct action, what steps can we take the build a national network for anti-war action? . That is to say, action aiming at disrupting the Irish end of the war effort, in either it’s state or corporate guise.

NOT ‘action’ which reproduces the workers-management hierarchy, which has zero effect what so ever except to legitimise capitalism (e.g. meaningless ‘mass’ demonstrations propagating the myth that the government will respond to chants and placards), and which has as it’s goal nothing more than building the party.

There are far more people who believe in basic principles of democracy and direct action around in today’s Ireland than even a short while ago, and it is up to us to build the alternative to both capitalist war and it’s ‘loyal opposition’.

A lot of excellent work has been done on the Shannon issue, but it can be greatly built upon.