Cork Anti-War Campaign disaffiliates from the IAWM

LETTER FROM CAWC TO THE STEERING COMMITTEE OF THE IAWM (24/2/04)

Dear Friends,

I am writing to inform you that at its meeting last night (Monday, 23 February) the Cork Anti-War Campaign decided to disaffiliate from the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) with immediate effect.

We have many reasons for doing this, but principally it is in opposition to the decision to call off demonstrations at Shannon airport and because we believe that at this stage the IAWM can be safely characterised as a front for one political organisation and has lost its credibility.

The national meeting of the IAWM on January 31st was remarkable in many ways, but not least because of the manner in which the Socialist Workers' Party successfully steamrolled over opposition to its position. We were amazed to discover subsequently that the delegates from all of the Dublin 'branches' of the IAWM (who constituted the bulk of the attendance at the meeting) were in fact members of the SWP. Even more remarkable was that these 'delegates' were largely representing long-defunct or non-existent sections of the IAWM. The meeting was clearly rigged, and, if it wasn't (which it was), then we face an equally bleak situation where virtually every 'active' member of the IAWM in Dublin is a member of one particular political party. Moreover, as things stand, four of the five officerships on the IAWM steering committee are held by SWP members.

This does not indicate a broad movement, which is how the IAWM likes to see itself. In truth, the IAWM is a shell with hardly any active members outside of the steering committee.

One serious difficulty with such a situation is our objection to the SWP (now IAWM) position on demonstrations at Shannon. Those of us from outside of Dublin who wanted to continue the demonstrations were effectively steamrolled over by the SWP majority at the meeting. We respect the SWP as part of the diversity of this movement, but we do not agree with its attitude to Shannon demonstrations and we do not want to be complicit in legitimising the decision taken on January 31st.

Our worries about the behaviour of the SWP in rigging the January 31st meeting were compounded by the ambush and expulsion of two of their political opponents at the most recent meeting of the steering committee. Laurence Vize and Mick O'Sullivan could have been censured by the SC for their behaviour on January 31st, or if they misbehave consistently at a meeting, they could be excluded from that meeting. However, as Tim Hourigan has said, there was no attempt to exclude them from the meeting on January 31st, and that was the appropriate time to raise the issue. What occurred at the last SC meeting was a carefully prepared ambush (it was not on the circulated agenda) designed to expel political opponents by taking advantage of some misbehaviour. It was underhand and utterly unacceptable. Moreover, it is truly a case of 'first they came for the...etc. etc.' If we endorse such a course of action, it will almost certainly happen again, and who knows who is next.

The Cork Anti-War Campaign is a broad-based organisation that draws support from a wide range of individuals and political parties. We wish to see a genuine broad, mass, democratic anti-war movement in this country and we are interested in working in collaboration with like-minded groups to build this. We will be contacting other anti-war groups throughout the country over the coming period with the intention of establishing an informal national anti-war network that perhaps might develop organically into something more formal over time. The anti-war movement, in the genuine sense of that term, is a broad and diverse movement, and we see that diversity as a positive attribute that should be embraced.

Best regards,

Fintan Lane,

Chairperson, Cork Anti-War Campaign