Proposal for Anti-War Picket of EU meeting in Galway: Thursday 15th January 2004

national | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Thursday January 01, 2004 16:21

by Dominic Carroll & John Jeffries - Cork Anti-War Campaign (personal capacities)

corkantiwar at hotmail dot com

087 1258325

Informal Council Meeting of the Employment and Social Policy Ministers: Galway 15th-17th January 200

This meeting, the first major ministerial gathering of Ireland’s six-month presidency of the EU, provides an opportunity for an anti-war protest.

On Thursday 15th January (the opening day of the council meeting), Fintan Lane will have completed 50 days of a 60-day sentence for his part in a peaceful anti-war protest. Other anti-war protestors are before the courts at this time, and still others (Catholic Worker 5 and Mary Kelly) await their trials for non-violent acts of resistance. It is proposed that this form the theme of the protest picket (i.e. anti-war / anti-occupation / solidarity with Fintan Lane, anti-war defendants and those already convicted).

The timing, it must be said, is problematic. Anti-war groups may not have enough time to discuss the proposal (the IAWM steering committee, for instance, will not meet again until 10th January; similarly, GNAW is not due to reconvene before 15th January). Nevertheless, efforts could be made to convene meetings, and any individual is at liberty to commit to the protest picket. Please give this proposal serious consideration.

Frank Fahey, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, has declared that the conference will be “a huge event for the city of Galway and will be a marvellous occasion to showcase the west of Ireland and its rich culture to our EU colleagues.” Let’s expose the lie behind such nonsense.