Shannon Residents to organise protest against Bush Visit and Security Measures in Shannon

by Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group - Indymedia Ireland Wed Jun 09, 2004 19:46

The phrase "Those attending expressed their opposition to the continuing occupation of Iraq"

leaves out who exactly did attend. What parties, groups etc were represented at this meeting and how many people were there overall? Thanks. R. Isible

by Dominic Haugh - Shanon SP Thu Jun 10, 2004 00:34

The meeting was attended by approx 35 people.

Meeting was addressed by Greg Duff (Labour candidate), Damon Wise (Independent) and Kieran Allen (IAWM). Also in attendance was a representative from Ambush, 3 or 4 people from Limerick, 3 members of Shannon Socialist Party. The rest of the attendance were people from Shannon most of whom had never been involved in any political activity in the past.

by John Cunningham - Galway Alliance Against War Thu Jun 10, 2004 01:34

Fair play to Dominic and all involved.

by IMC reader Thu Jun 10, 2004 08:37

Is GAAW still affiliated to the IAWM/SWP?

by John Cunningham Thu Jun 10, 2004 14:26

GAAW is not, and has never been, affiliated to IAWM/SWP, to AWI/GNAW, to CIA/MI5, or to any other formation. But it is our policy to co-operate with other anti-war groups.

by Loki Thu Jun 10, 2004 14:46

Domnic Haugh who wrote this article is a leading member of the SP who did his best last year to sabotage any direct action with hysterical postings about the Gardai shooting into an unarmed crowd. Now it looks as if Mr Haugh is up to his old tricks again.

"One thing that was repeatedly stressed was the need for the protest to be peaceful in order to ensure that the maximum participation possible from Shannon. "

Who has suggested that any protest be violent? Why is Mr Haugh doing the States work by hyping up the possibility of violence?

"It was also felt that any protest organised in Shannon should be under the stewardship of the Shannon residents"

What gives the "Shannon Residents" the right to Police any protests? Going on this type of logic only the residents of the Navan Road should have been allowed to Police the Mayday Ashtown Gate protest. Haugh is also well aware that DGN and amBush oppose the stewarding of protests.. His intervention here is yet another attempt to divide and sabotage actions.

" and it is the intention of the organising committee to engage in discussions with others intending to protest at Shannon to consider this issue. "

Haugh has been aware for some time that these protests are going ahead. Haugh and his clique have made no attempt so far to contact either DGN or amBush.

Haugh and his SP led clique are not going to decide the nature of the protests at Shannon. Nor is Mr Haugh going to steward any protests other than those organised by his (SP) front organisation.

by observor Thu Jun 10, 2004 15:38

'Who has suggested that any protest be violent? '

It has been suggested. Sp trolls pretending to be Black Blok or DGN members spent a lot of time last week calling actions to push through the Garda lines. Other SP members were pretending to be DGN members who were worried at the prospect of Black Blok 'violence' at Shannon.

Now in the latest phase of SP black ops, Domnic Haugh is doing his level best to sow confusion. I can only presume that the SP have decided to win back some ground from the SWP. Its the only explanation for the Domnic Haugh stunt.

by pc Thu Jun 10, 2004 16:28

can any one remember whether theres was protest by the residents of the small village bush was in, in england... i think i remember sometihng about a free speech zone....

this is exciting news i hope it makes the experience alot more enjoyable for the residents

by Dominic Haugh - Shannon SP Thu Jun 10, 2004 19:03

The organising of the protest is now well underway.

It appears the mayor of Shannon will be among the dignatories to welcome Bush to Shannon. It is intended to go door to door to publicise the demo, encourage participation in the demo and to gather a petition that will be presented to the mayor to highlight that if he does meet Bush he will not be doing it on behalf of the people of Shannon.

During the door-to-door canvas cards will be distributed to residents with the relevent quotation from the constitution to be presented to Gardai as an alternative to the security passes being handed out.

Also being considered is a march to wherever the police lines are blocking protestors coming into Shannon, as an act of solidarity with those who want to demonstrate in Shannon but will be prevented from doing so by security.

Young people are playing an active role in organising the protest with two school students on the steering committee. It is intended to organise other activities to encourage the youth of Shannon to attend. It has already been indicated that at least two local bands would be willing to play, as part of the protest.

Signs are very encouraging at the moment that this protest has the potential to involve hundreds of residents in Shannon. Several people have contacted members of the steering committee today apologising for not attending the public meeting and offering to help organise it. This is the first time in over a year that this potential has existed.

As mandated by the meeting, members of the steering committee also had an initial meeting with the Gardai today to discuss the security measures and the decision to organise the protest. It has been agreed that a further meeting will take place early next week with a superintendent in charge of security arrangements. Following this meeting a decision will be made on the type and location of the protest.

As for the other comments on this thread... these do not surprise me and were to be expected. I have absolutely no intention of responding to them.

by eamonn crudden Thu Jun 10, 2004 19:12

/

by Plover - anti-war Thu Jun 10, 2004 20:28

Mucho confusion here. Damon Wise is not an independent, as Dominic Haugh states in his report. Damon Wise, and his wife Karen Wise, are standing as representatives of the SWP. So, to recap, the meeting was addressed by two members of the SWP and a member of the Labour Party. Very representative!
http://www.stormcentre.net/elections/candidate.cfm?id=5817

by pc Thu Jun 10, 2004 20:33

theres good range of people and the residents run it, wow the loki was pretty precise havn't heard from him since....

by Cupasoup Thu Jun 10, 2004 21:02

Dominic Haugh says that any protest at Shannon “should be under the stewardship of the Shannon residents”. Would you care to elaborate Dominic? Are you saying that those of us heading to Shannon on 25th and 26th June will be told what to do by you and other Shannon-siders on arrival? But you’ll be in town and we’ll be kept back at the barricades. It doesn’t make sense. I’m sure the anti-war people organising these national protests at Shannon Airport (or thereabouts) will know what to do. Surely you trust them? Do you?

by Anon Fri Jun 11, 2004 00:39

The Anti-War Ireland protest is going ahead in Shannon Town Centre and it's not very helpful for the IAWM and Dominic Haugh to be projecting the image that it's not happening. Truthfully, it's hard not to see this as a cheap maneoure to undermine the Anti-War Ireland demo.

Dominic, have you contacted and spoken to Fintan Lane or Dominic Carroll of Anti-War Ireland, the organisers of the Shannon demo? If not, why not? What did you expect to learn from Kieran Allen of the IAWM who has had NOTHING to do with the demo at Shannon and who in fact opposes it?

This is a good move only if it works in conjunction with the march scheduled to assemble in Shannon Town Centre. The banning of such a march is much more than an attack on the Shannon residents - it's an attack on ALL anti-war activists. We all have the right to assemble and protest in Shannon town.

by Realist Fri Jun 11, 2004 00:54

I welcome the Shannon residents dewmonstration, and their idea to march towards the barricades in solidarity with other activists i think is a very powerful one.(if i am interpreting the plans correctly)

The Shannon people organising the march have every right to decide how they want their march to be run. I don't think they are trying to control the actions of others.

Realistically the AWI and AMBUSH marches will be banned from Shannon and it's really welcome to have the local population on our side against state oppression.

by Anon Fri Jun 11, 2004 01:27

First off, of course it's good to have the Shannon residents up in arms but a ban on the Anti-War Ireland march wouldn't simply be an attack on JUST the people of Shannon. It would be an attack on all of us, and we should all be there to oppose such a draconian measure by the State.

Secondly, the danger in this 'the ban is inevitable' stuff is that not only is it self-fulfilling (the cops will think we're ready to accept it) but also is very capable of putting many ordinary people off travelling to Shannon. So, the more left-wingers carry on with this scaremongering hype, the more they put ordinary folks off. Stop it! Organise quietly within Shannon, and organise on the basis that your key demand is that the Anti-War Ireland demo should be allowed to proceed.

In other words, the cordon around Shannon is designed speciffically to stop the anti-war demo and our key demand must be that it be allowed proceed. This is about ALL our rights and not just those of the good folks in Shannon.

Don't accept a ban, fight it!!

by Loki Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:08

"It has been agreed that a further meeting will take place early next week with a superintendent in charge of security arrangements. Following this meeting a decision will be made on the type and location of the protest."

I am not at all surprised to see that Haughs Front Group is co-operating with the cops. Just one thing Haugh - you will not decide the type or location of any protests other than those of your local clique. After reading the above comments by Haugh I would be worried about any contacts that amBush and DGN might have with the SP/IAWm Shannon front. You never know what information Haughs "residents" might let slip in his meetings with the cops.

Lets be clear - we all want peaceful demonstrations. The only people who are raising the spectre of violence are the SP - Haugh is doing it openly while SP trolls posing as the Black Bloc have also done so. This is making any possibility of joint action impossible and is poisoning the atmosphere. I suppose its naive to think that any SP members will speak out against this sabotage.

by Tim Fri Jun 11, 2004 22:30

Shannon STOP Bush Meeting
Shannon, Tuesday 8th June 2003, Oakwood Arms Hotel

Greg Duff
Kieran Allen
Damon Wyse (SWP local candidate in Shannon)
the fourth speaker never turned up. some guy called Malone.

Just prior to the meeting SKY News Ireland did a spot about the Garda lockdown of Shannon, Eibhlin Ni Conghaile spoke to two local residents and Kieran Allen. It was pretty good coverage, fair play to them.

Attendance was not too bad, besides the usual people from Ambush, MAMA, SP, and few former peace campers, and the residents who had just been on Sky News, there was a decent turnout of people who hadn't been previously at meetings.

Gregg Duff made the point that there is need for debate about the use of Shannon, and that Aer Rianta, the town council, and the Clare Trades Council were refusing to have that debate. He also said that the main threat to jobs came, not from protesting, but from the governments plans to break up Aer Rianta.

Damon Wyse addressed the crowd and gave a faily poor talk about neutrality, and then said that he was interested in totally peaceful protest, which is why he didn't go to to "that ANARCHIST meeting held here last week" (arranged by MAMA)

Kieran Allen, after boring the crowd by telling them about the torture in Iraqi prisons that they'd already heard about, spoke about the use of Shannon which he said had been "covered up, until 17-18 January last year, when some of the workers exposed what was going on, in the Guardian newspaper" He made no mention of the peace camp.

There was little in either speech other than rhetoric and an attempt to airbrush out the good work done by activists not in the SWP.

The meeting got a lot better, however, when opened to the floor.
Shannon people were very pissed off about the restrictions being imposed on them by the Garda Siochana.
A lot of them voiced anger about being asked to give all their details just to move about their own area.
Some had refused to fill out the Garda questionnaires, and were not issued passes and were told they could not drive their cars without the passes or have visitors to their homes without having passes for them.

One resident suggested that people should apply for more visitors passes, that each resident should get the names of 50 protestors coming from outside, and list them as visitors.

Kieran immediately suggested that those extra passes should be given to people in his organisation as they "could be trusted".

It was the only proposal Kieran made all night.

Another resident proposed that the local people would gather together to burn the passes, either before the visit, or during the protest.

A local woman asked, surely it must be unconsititutional to put these restrictions on people.

Another woman, said she was an ordinary woman from one of the estates and knew all her neighbours and they were all looking for someone to lead them in protest against George Bush.

One man, who said he used to work at the airport, said that "because of people cutting the fence, he was being stopped from planespotting, and treated like a criminal by the Gardai"

I repsonded to that, and a number of other points.
To the local planespotter, I explained that I was spotting military planes at Shannon before anybody painted a plane or cut the fence, and even then the cops were treating me like a criminal, not because any damage was done, but because I was exposing what was they were trying to keep secret.

I refused to be treated like a criminal and asserted my right to be in a public place doing something perfectly legal.
To the locals I said "It's your town, don't let them treat you like criminals.
The idea that you need permission, or else are doing something criminal is the first barrier they put up, and it's in your own head.

Assert your right to go about your lawful business. If you're going around town and a Garda tells you that you can't go up to protest, remember this,
under the public order act, you are obliged to obey a LAWFUL and REASONABLE order from a Garda, but not ANY and ALL orders from a Garda. If the Garda has no legal reason to stop you, then assert your right to assemble in your own town and voice your opposition.

I told the woman who was looking for leadership and organisation that seemed perfect person to do that organisation, you don't have to look to someone else, you know the people, and you can organise amongst yourselves.

I also addressed the inaccurate statements of the two SWP heads.
I'd like to know what Danny (sic) Wyse means about the "not going to that anarchist meeting here last week". That meeting was chaired by Greg Duff, the same man sitting next to you now, and it was a very good meeting about safety implications of tranporting weapons through airports. He told us about a charter plane carrying weapons through an airport in Amsterdam. It was a very good meeting, and if you'd gone you would have learned something. there's no point hoping these things won't happen, the people of Bijlmermeer didn't think it would happen, until 1992. It was covered up for years, until people started suffering from radiation sickness.

If that happened here, people would be worried about a lot more than jobs.
I also assume that it was an innocent ommission that Kieran Allen 'forgot 'to mention the peace camp, when he says that it was not until Jan 18 that things were finally exposed at Shannon. - at least I hope it was an innocent mistake.

To the woman who asked if there was something unconstitutional about the restrictions, I said "yes, you are perfectly right, you are guaranteed the right to peaceful assembly by article 40 of the constitution. The propsed passes, actually have no legal justification.

Given the sacrifices made to get us our rights, we should not surrender them easily and I'd propose that we make alternate passes by photocopying the page containing Article 40. of the constitution and that when anyone is asked for their pass, they can show it to the Garda and explain that article 40 is the only pass that they need.

I also proposed that residents get together and present complaints to the Garda Station.

Dominic Haugh, a local SP activist, suggested that everyone meet up in
Shannon town centre Lidl 7pm on Friday 25th.

Donagh informed the meeting that AWI & Ambush also plan to meet there and then, so there will be a decent crowd at it.

Kieran tried to undermine that as well by telling them that they wouldn't get in (the opposite of the line he was making for his own organisation 5 days earlier in Limerick.)

Overall it was a good meeting. The crowd was angry and willing to do something about it, all the proposals came from the floor.

About 6 locals volunteered to organise local resistance.
I gave my contact details to one of them, and told her I would help with the alternate passes and other legal questions.

Dominic Hough didn't try to scare people away. The residents in Shannon are worried and some attempt has to be made to reassure them.

two people said that "support crumbled in the town following Mary Kelly's action" - that says that they had very cautious opposition to the war, so much so that fear of criticism of SOMEONE else's action was enough to stop most of them protesting.

Plus they are getting an 'inaccurate story' from the authorities.
One guy tried to tell me that Owen Dubsky had lied about jumping the fence to spray a plane and had in fact sneaked in on a Ryanair flight... he said he was told this by airport police. I explained that Dubsky flew to Shannon the DAY BEFORE the action, and had then done his action in the early hours of the following morning... the Garda rumour mill is sure to be at work as well, so there is some need to reassure the locals.

If you have criticism of Dominic, you might choose to think that he's not being diplomatic enough rather than that he is conspiring.

by Badman Sat Jun 12, 2004 02:46

The account of the short-sighted sectarianism of the SWP present is really shocking. For F***s sake, they surely don't even want to stop the locals protesting at Shannon do they??

ENOUGH LIES SWP

by Badman Sat Jun 12, 2004 02:54

QUOTE "One resident suggested that people should apply for more visitors passes, that each resident should get the names of 50 protestors coming from outside, and list them as visitors.

"Kieran immediately suggested that those extra passes should be given to people in his organisation as they "could be trusted". [only comment he made]

I just realised that the SWP/IAWM are not having any protests in Shannon, so why would they want the passes??? They are hardly going to march from Dromoland and present a load of passes to the cops at the police lines that stop them, are they? I can only assume that he just wants to make sure that nobody else gets into Shannon.

Now I understant that Kieran is a pathologically sectarian man, but not even sectarianism could explain this. If a limited number of people got into shannon with passes and disrupted stuff, it wouldn't affect the SWP-led "mass" movement at all. It's exactly what we could expect the secret polcie to be doing. Not only do we have the SWP acting as regular police on demos, now we see them doing the work of spooks.

Shame, shame, shame.

by luther van dross Sat Jun 12, 2004 02:58

. so photocopy the passports

by supporter Sat Jun 12, 2004 15:26

is the residents that need organise this... and we follow their lead...

they need to be strong though

by John Sat Jun 12, 2004 16:57

But they must link up with Anti-War Ireland as the poster above said. The IAWM have systematically undermined demos in Shannon and the SWP (who run that front) are not to be trusted. The fcuking nerve of Kieran Allan thinking the SWP should get the passes into the Shannon!! Firstly, the 'passes system' should be opposed lock, stock and barrell - this isn't arartheid South Africa, and secondly the collaboration should be with Anti-War Ireland and not with those money-grabbing SWP fools in tht IAWM.

Two other questions:

1. Tim says the Sky news report was good. Didn't see it and am happy to hear that. HOWEVER how dare Kieran Allan act as spokesperson for Shannon activists! All he has done is sytematically try to undermine the good work of activists who've focused attention on Irish complicity at Shannnon warport. He does NOT represent anti-war activists; he only represents the SWP.

2. Read in the paper that Christy Moore is recording a single and the money will go to the IAWM, and that the proceeds from the Point concert will go to the SWP, opps, IAWM. Has anybody thought of letting him know what the IAWM actually is? He thinks he's giving money to the anti-war movement and in reality its going directly to a discreditted front for a tiny Trotskyist party. This is a disgrace. Is the media going to expose this? Are we? Or for the sake of false unity (don't want to appear like the Life of Brian etc) are the SWP going to be allowed get away with stepping on the backs of the dead in Iraq, and the hard work of anti-war activists here, and pocket this money? I am f**king outraged at the idea!