Bush Visit: IAWM, Anti-War Ireland, Ambush 2004! must liaise

national | anti-war / imperialism | news report Thursday April 08, 2004 13:31 by Dominic Carroll - Clonakilty Against the War / Cork Anti-War Campaign (personal capacity)

Several plans, it seems, are afoot with regard to the June visit of Bush.

The Irish Anti-War Movement has announced the following (taken from IAWM bulletin):
25 June, 7pm: STOP BUSH Demonstration, Dublin
25 June, 9pm: Cavalcade of buses and cars to Shannon and/or summit location from all cities and towns in Ireland to unWelcome George W. Bush to Ireland
26 June, morning: Protest at summit location

Anti-War Ireland has made the following announcement (taken from Indymedia):
Anti-War Ireland [proposes to] organise and build for a large demonstration at Shannon airport on Friday evening, June 25th, to ‘welcome’ George W. Bush as he arrives in Ireland and to simultaneously highlight the Irish government’s complicity with the US war machine.

Ambush 2004! has announced the following (as posted by Galway Grassroots on Indymedia):
… we need to go to the general Shannon area, on both the Friday, June 25th, and the Saturday, June 26th, while Bush is there.
… we aim to have some form of peace camp or protest village
… the main emphasis of the protests should be on the airport rather than Dromoland castle, but this is not to rule out a lesser focus on the summit site itself.

Unfortunately, these plans are somewhat at variance with one another, particularly if, as is now widely accepted, Bush intends to hop by chopper the eight miles from Shannon Airport to Dromoland Castle.

The IAWM demo for Dublin and Anti-War Ireland’s Shannon demo clash (both are planned for the Friday evening). The IAWM’s proposal for a cavalcade to Shannon assumes that anti-war protestors will have first travelled from across Ireland to Dublin for the 7pm demo, and then join the cavalcade at 9pm. If, however, the IAWM anticipates some protestors making their way directly to Shannon (skipping the Dublin demo), its announcement that the cavalcade will commence at 9pm “from all cities and towns in Ireland” is unhelpful since it offers no encouragement to join the Anti-War Ireland Shannon demo earlier that evening (nor does it make sense, since nobody in Ireland needs to leave for Co. Clare – or anywhere – thirteen hours before the Saturday morning demo is scheduled to commence).

It seems that the IAWM has bitten off more than it can chew. Its primary focus is on the summit on Saturday, but given that people from Dublin would have to leave at around 5am (and that too many people would simply throw the alarm clock across the room and go back to sleep), the IAWM hopes that they’ll be persuaded to board buses after the Dublin demo and drive through the night. On arrival at the summit location at around 2am, they can catch a few hours sleep on the bus in preparation for the demo at around 10am. They can expect to return to Dublin by 7pm on Saturday, 24 hours after departure. In all seriousness, how many people can be expected to sign up for such a gruelling programme? A secondary motivation for the Dublin demo is the IAWM’s insistence that meaningful demos must take place in the capital, “the seat of government”, and its reluctance to concede that Shannon Airport should be the primary focus for demonstrations. A further consideration is that the IAWM knows that the Dromoland demo – far-flung and early in the morning – is likely to be small (especially since the IAWM’s activist network has fallen asunder), and hopes for a large demo composed of the small number likely to sign up for the night-ride and the larger number of Dubliners unwilling to travel to Dromoland but anxious to show opposition to Bush.

In my view, the IAWM needs to reconsider, if only because its plan is impractical. Yet, one good way of ensuring a good attendance in Dromoland on Saturday morning is to encourage people to join the protest at Shannon on Friday evening. The IAWM should unite with Anti-War Ireland and Ambush 2004! to jointly organise the Friday evening demo at Shannon, to organise facilities in Shannon to encourage people to spend the night there, and to jointly organise the demo for Saturday at Dromoland.

The call by Ambush 2004! for the establishment of a peace camp/village is a good idea, both politically and practically. But Ambush 2004! needs to clarify its other objectives. Calling on people “to go to the general Shannon area” is somewhat vague. Is it actually intended that people should protest at Shannon Airport? And join the Anti-War Ireland protest on Friday, circa 8pm? And the IAWM protest at Dromoland on Saturday, circa 10am?

Anti-War Ireland, though obviously focussed on the Friday night demo at Shannon, should offer its support for the IAWM demo at Dromoland.

It’s clear that all three organisations – the Irish Anti-War Movement, Anti-War Ireland and Ambush 2004! – need to liaise with one another to ensure plans for the Bush visit are effective and complementary. However, it seems that the onus is on the IAWM to reconsider its plan. The most sensible and effective approach to the Bush visit is to organise a large demo at Shannon for Friday night (cancelling or downgrading the Dublin demo), to establish a peace camp (no matter how rudimentary) to accommodate people overnight, and to organise a demo at Dromoland for Saturday morning. Both demos can also expect to attract many people not necessarily attending both, though the Friday evening demo is surely likely to be the bigger of the two.

In conclusion, I should acknowledge that several of my assertions here are open to contradiction:
on the plan to bus people from Dublin on Friday night: “how many people can be expected to sign up for such a gruelling programme?” (perhaps the IAWM has reason to expect huge numbers);
on Dromoland on Saturday: “the IAWM knows that the Dromoland demo – far-flung and early in the morning – is likely to be small” (again, the IAWM may have good reasons to expect big numbers – I anticipate 3,000 at Dromoland);
on Bush’s plans: “if, as is now widely accepted, Bush intends to hop by chopper the eight miles from Shannon Airport to Dromoland Castle” (we may all be wrong about Shannon and Dromoland).

These are judgments on my part, and I am willing to be challenged, especially since my entire proposal appears to rest on these judgements. But I would add that my preference, and that of Anti-War Ireland and Ambush 2004!, for THE major anti-Bush protest to be held at Shannon Airport on Friday evening is based on the need politically to focus on Shannon Airport. The practical considerations, in this case, are subordinate to politics.