Tractors.
national |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Friday January 10, 2003 14:24
by iosaf jedi svengali and weedy bookworm type. - recuperem els carrers!
barcelona
just like farmers there are lots of different types.
IFA President John Dillon said today's convoy to Government Buildings could easily have numbered 5,000 based on the high level of support farmers had been shown. They agreed to restrict it to 300 vehicles to avoid further inconvenience. "I could have had 30,000 farmers and 5,000 tractors in Dublin because of the level of frustration and anger out there," he said.
As a Reclaim the Streets! activist who has spread such lunatic fringe ideology throughout languages and cultures for quite a few years, I naturally have thoughts upon Tractors.
And I would so like to share them with you.
Tractors cause less road deaths than any other form of mechanised transport.
that for us in RTS is a good thing.
Tractors cause less reified capitalist identity stuff than cars.
that for us in RTS is a good thing.
Tractors can be used to blockade roads and seal off areas from entry by cars, vans and armoured vehicles.
that for us is a very good thing.
Tractors do not require tarmac for routing.
that is also a very good thing.
Tractors do not generally travel on roads with empty passenger seats.
that is a very good thing.
The world brand names though are pretty awful.
Caterpillar has in the last five years invested heavily in merchandising and as a result has become the first agricultural / engineering corporation to employ sweat shop labour in Asia for the purpose of making tshirts and boots.
That is a very bad thing.
New Holland have in the last two years expanded their operation to take advantage of Caterpillarīs redirection and are presently fulfilling state contracts in Asia and Australia where their machinery is used to great ecological damage.
That is a very bad thing.
Tractors are still for the main using old lead type heavy fuel, though way down on the list below airplanes and cars as a source of atmospheric pollution they still are smelly noisy and pollute.
That is a not too bad thing.
300 tractors are approaching Dublin here is how the city folk have reacted;
"Farmers are welcome to Dublin any time to protest, and the more the merrier, but not in their tractors," said Dublin Chamber of Commerce director Declan Martin. Congestion already costs Dublin 4m a day and the protest would mean further costs because of traffic delays and overtime, Mr Martin said.
4,000,000 a day is what congestion costs Dublin.
isnīt that interesting?
It might be typically offbeat of me to remind the reader that more people were killed in Northern Ireland 1969-1995 as a result of car accidents than terrorism.
But offbeat I am.
The car is the corner stone of our capitalist idiotic system.
It has seperated one from another, enforced class division, encouraged dependence on bank loans, become a reified symbol of patriarchy, and a tool of death.
I am a good horseman as well as fairish cricketer.
I can trot canter and gallop with glee, though I would not presume to operate 300 or more horses at the same time.
Yet in our present society a license to operate a car has become a rite of passage, a symbol of coming of age.
Most road deaths and accidents are cuased by young males, which is why they are most expensive to insure. Young males are subject to hormones that encourage them to take risk and put themselves in situations of danger. I will furnish you with reams of psychological, psychiatric and neurological research to support that opinion, and also point to the Gardaiīs own data on road deaths and accidents.
I really donīt like cars.
Which is why as often as possible I with my pals strange folk they reclaim the streets for a short while from the nasty things.
put very simply
Cars = Oil = Tarmac (an oil byproduct) = more roads = banking = pollution = Death.
In less than a century the Car has become an "indespensible item"?
Todayīs Roscommon Herald reports the failure of Western Irelands roaming doctor service.
(that is one of my typical offbeat asides)
Tractors are great - Farmers of Ireland.
I wrote yesterday that if I were in Ireland today I would be learning how to drive a tractor. And well I think I would just for the day.
I suggest to people in Dublin to go out there and welcome the tractors to the "heart of Irelandīs oligarchy".
In Venezueala we have seen many tractors without petrol left on the streets of certain areas.
Do not underestimate the power of a tractor.
IF I suggested you bring down Dublin City Council just for practise, (I have made my thoughts known on the bin charge thing, I favour recycling rubbish refusing to pay state charges and keeping any rubbish you can not recycle in your bedroom along with your excretea, urine and nail clippings).
Then I also suggest you learn about the full range of Tractor use in modern urban protest.
Mr Dillon you have very strong bargaining tools, though I would be very careful of that "I could have had 30,000 farmers out. you seem to be trying to keep alive the twentieth century tradition of male leadership, one that is happily becoming more and more irrelevant day by day, that is because Mr Dillon the evolving revolution has changed the meaning of "chaos" for ever".
I have provided links to the last articles in this forum which might concern Farmers.
and lovers of tractors.
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=23510
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=23420
o as if.
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgo?id=23386
Iosaf = Mr O as if