A-Infos (en) Workers Solidarity No 73 - Stopping the war

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Polls show most people in Ireland oppose the war, and
refuelling at Shannon, yet the government continue to
provide support for the US and British war drive. This
is yet another demonstration of how meaningless
parliamentary democracy is. Unless we are talking of
marches of tens or hundreds of thousands we won't
frighten the government into a change of policy. If the
Iraq war is like other recent imperialist ones - where
the actual fighting happens over a period of weeks
rather then years - then its unlikely we will see tens of
thousands mobilised. There is one way we can stop the
war - this is mass direct action.

While a march of 5,000 or even 10,000 in Dublin won't
effect government policy, similar numbers tearing down the
fence in Shannon and taking over the entire airport would.
With those sort of numbers we could physically stop
Shannon being used and physically dismantle any war
planes we caught on the ground. The government would
then have to choose between militarising the airport and
arresting hundreds or asking the US to take its war planes
elsewhere.

This would have an important direct impact on the war as
it's clear that considerable war supplies and troops are
moving through Shannon. But in Europe it would also have
a massive political impact in encouraging the use of the
same methods elsewhere. If even half the 300,000 who
marched in London started closing down British war bases
then Britain would effectively be taken out of the war.

But it's also not a question of counter posing direct action to
mobilising the largest numbers we can. Instead we need to
look at how the two can help each other - the media
attention received after the last Shannon direct action will
hopefully encourage people to go on the Dublin
demonstrations. Hopefully the Dublin demonstrations will
be used to encourage as many people as possible to head to
Shannon to help shut down the airport.

Of course the tactics used also have more general
implications for the future. We want to see people take
power into their own hands rather then relying on a few
good men in the Dáil. A victory on refuelling as a result of a
Dáil vote would be a step forward but would have a limited
long term impact. A victory on the basis of thousands of
people stopping the use of Shannon themselves would
transform politics in Ireland.

                                  Joe Black

See also

   Stop refuelling at Shannon warport http://struggle.ws/wsm/shannon.html
   Shannon airport in offically 'neutral' southern Ireland
   has been used for at least a decade to refuel US war
   planes. This page details opposition in Ireland to the
   role the Irish government has chosen to play in the US
   imperialist adventures.
                      ==================
This page is from the print version of the Irish
Anarchist paper 'Workers Solidarity'  http://struggle.ws/worksol.html .

We also  provide PDF  http://struggle.ws/ws/pdf.html files of
all our publications for you to print out and distribute locally

Print out the PDF file of this issue http://struggle.ws/wsm/pdf/ws/73.html



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