Yeah well, it's not just a case of the SWP/ StWC not organising NVDA against the war...they don't support people who are before the courts, in jail or who are organising further resistance.
I set off for the march to increase awareness of the upcoming Raytheon 9 trial in Belfast in May
http://www.raytheon9.org/ . This is a significant resistance trial of 9 activists who nonviolently disabled the mainframe computer at Raytheon in Derry during the bombing of Lebanon (with Raytheon equipment) in the summer of 06. The SWP/StWC are well placed ot make this trial very widely known and encpourage support fo the defendants. They have chosen not to
My pathetic cardboard sign and a few goes at street speaking to the assembling crowds was the only mention of this trial at the rally on Saturday
When an SWP member took a break form selling the paper to ask me how are those people doing?
I responded "You tell me, three of them are your party members looking at years in jail. Why aren't they mentioned at this rally etc etc?"
A farly heated debate ensued.
Concluding with my reponse "For all if it's rrrrrrrrrrrevolutionary rhetoric, your party are a bunch of moderates who rather provide a platform for Labor Party politicians than support anti-war resisters before the courts. You have hung out your own people to dry etc."
This was my experience in Ireland as we went through 3 trials for $2 1/2 million crtiminal damaage to a U.S. war plane being refueled at Shannon
http://www.peaceontrial.com/ The SWP primarily see the anti-war movement/ these biannual rallies as marketing/brand profile lifting opportunities for their party, newspaper selling and recruitment. They are the first line of policing of the anti-war movement. Whether they have been infiltrated (as were similar groups in the '60's) or whether such a strategy of groundhog day rallies, cattle drives through empty streets, centralisation and dissipation just dovetails into their short term aims - it probably makes little difference.
A good anarcho critique of the SWP, authoritarian and moderate left screwing the anti-war movement in Ireland can be found on the following link.....
http://indymedia.ie/routeirish
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