Gluaiseacht Anti-War 4 Day Meeting & EYFA Wintermeeting

international | anti-war / imperialism | event notice Friday March 04, 2005 00:37 by Tracey Ryan, Mags Liddy & Niall Harnett - Gluaiseacht europe_antiwar_info at gluaiseacht dot net

A non-hierarchical consensus based approach to setting up a European Network of Activists, in association with
EYFA - European Youth For Action, www.eyfa.org

As part of the annual EYFA Wintermeeting, ‘Gluaiseacht - Irish Movement for Global Social Justice’ and ‘EYFA - European Youth For Action’ would like to invite you to take part in a special Anti-War meeting taking place over 4 days at :

The Boghill Centre, Kilfenora, Co Clare, Ireland, from 7th - 10th April 2005. Check out www.boghill.com for details of the venue.

Over 30 wars and conflicts rage around the world today. 60 million people have been killed in wars during the 20th Century, 80% of which are civilians, mainly women and children.

Before the Iraq war, millions of people all over the world came out onto the streets on February 15th 2003 to say NO TO WAR. It was the largest day of co-ordinated protest ever known. But the war in Iraq continues and the threat posed by the increasingly militaristic policies of the US has grown.

Anti-war activity has died down, focus has been blurred and there is no network of activists to support each other and to keep the protests going. We feel the time has come to set up a European Network of Activists who will pledge to take an active stand against the war machine in their own countries, i.e. direct involvement in war, weapons and components production or, as in Ireland’s case, offering the use of Shannon airport for the purposes of war and as a pit stop in the transportation of illegal detainees to be tortured at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The meeting is open to anyone who believes in taking non-violent direct action, symbolic action, or action in solidarity with others, working together despite age, politics or religious differences etc. In order to prevent larger groups overshadowing others, we are inviting people to join this network as individuals. You will meet people from all over Europe to discuss the experiences of war in their countries and ours. As Irish people we will share our experience of the conflict in Northern Ireland, the abuse of our civilian airport Shannon by the US Military and the manufacture of weapons components in our factories. We want to learn about your experiences as Europeans in your countries, in the hope that we can work better together to overcome war with peace and oppression with justice.

We plan to form the network by taking a pledge, the wording of which we can develop together at the meeting.

We are inspired for example by the ‘Trident Ploughshares’ group who pledge ‘… as a global citizen I will endeavour peacefully, safely, openly and accountably to disarm the UK nuclear weapon system”.

We are inspired too by the ‘War Resisters League’ who “… affirm that all war is a crime against humanity. We, therefore, are determined not to support any kind of war, international or civil, and to strive non-violently for the removal of all causes of war.”

We are currently working on the programme schedule outlined below. Your ideas and suggestions are welcome.

Thursday 7th - Skill, experience and information sharing.
Friday 8th - Presentations and Press Conference.
Saturday 9th - Setting up of the Network.
Sunday 10th - Action at Shannon Airport

Please pass this invitation to your group members, friends, email lists, other anti-war and peace activists.

Accommodation and Food available at low cost at the venue. Bring sleeping bags and mats.

Please let us know if you’re coming, we need an idea of numbers to plan for cooking.

For more details and information please email: europe_antiwar_info@gluaiseacht.net

or call Tracey : +353 (0)87 6543425 or Niall : +353 (0)86 8444966.

Hope to see you there,

Yours sincerely,

Tracey Ryan, Mags Liddy and Niall Harnett.