Well last Saturday, I headed off to the march in London on the 5th. anniversary of this war.
These groundhog day cattle drives through empty streets when the left goes marketing crazy in a confined space as you run a gauntlet of newspaper sales, recruitment drives etc always has the heavy potential to demoralise. So I thought I'd lower my expecations and set myself limited political objectives for the day. To be honest, I go to these things primarily to socialise and catch up with old comrades from campaigns of daze gone by.....
If yet another groundhog day cattle drive through the empty streets of London is not a relevant response 5 years into this war - what is?
Basically, nonviolent resistance to the war and proactive solidarity with nonviolent resistance is relevant. The war has never had popular support but there is little visible oppostion either.
I believe if 1% of those who marched against this war in 03 had gone into nonviolent resistance in the spirit of Ghandi and King to the point of imprisonment and the other 99% commited to proactive solidarity with the resistance (help feed the cat, pay the rent, deal with the hysterical parents, spread the word) we would now have a vibrant anti-war culture and movement and not be reduced to these biannual holy daze of obligation marches and the government would have a lot of trouble prosecuting this war. (It was interesting how many people I asked on Saturday "Why are you here?" who had the repsonse "I'd feel guilty if I didn't come!") If this campaign of civil disobedience had occured it would have had a dissident response from within the British and U.S. military.
The people who organise these rallies (the Labor Party - yes they happen to be the government presently blowing the crap out of Iraq & Afghanistan, the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party who have all the fervour and single mindedness of evangelical christians on speed but who in praxis (when you strip away the chanting & posturing) is pretty moderate, and the mainstream NGO's who like the others see the war and the anti-war movement as an excellent opportunity to promote their brand in a target audience) DON'T support or mention nonviolent resistance to the war or promote solidarity with nonviolent resisters before the courts , in prison or preparing for more NVDA.
So last Saturday, I set off for the march to increase awareness of the upcoming Raytheon 9 trial in Belfast in May www.raytheon9.org . This is a significant resistance trial of 9 irish activists who nonviolently disabled the mainframe computer at Raytheon in Derry - during the 06 bombing of Lebanon. The Israeli military used Raytheon equipment extensively in their indiscrimate bombing that summer.
I got to the rally and their were thousands (maybe 10 max, down from 2 million in 03) passively milling about in Trafalger Square. I had brought with me my homemade "Free the Raytheon 9 - Disable the War Machine! www.raytheon9.org " placard and unaccustomed as I am to wait for the official anti-war leadership - I began steet (soapbox without the soapbox) speaking to small clusters of folks about the Raytheon 9. Those not interested drifted away, those interested came in tighter. I did this 6 or 7 times before the main rally started and the amps drowned me out. People were excited to hear about the Raytheon 9 and they were exicted by the spontaneity and initiative of street speaking. They were probably relieved I wasn't trying to sell them anything or recruit them (although a R9 info leaflet would have been handy for those interested!). Nonetheless, lots of them wrote down the Raytehoen 9 website.
As I walked around the crowd with my placard during the rally I had lots of conversations with many people (some seasoned anti-war activists) who had never heard of the Raytheon 9, their action or their trial.
The Socialist Workers Party/Stop the War Coalition are well placed to make the Raytheon 9 trial very widely known throughout Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and internationally and encourage support for the defendants. They have chosen not to!
It is an important trial and should be a show trial of the arms trade in Ireland and Britain.
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 this past Saturday
When an SWP member took a break from selling the paper to ask me "How are those people doing?" My resolve not to get pissed off, by employing the praxis of lowering expecations of the rally, finally broke.
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 fairly heated debate ensued.
The debate concluded 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 criminal damaage to a U.S. war plane being refueled at Shannon www.peaceontrial.com
The groups who organise these rallies 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, deflation 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.....
indymedia.ie/routeirish
Meanwhile from the platform ex Labor Party/Respect parliamentarian George Galloway suggests during his speech that maybe the movement has been "too peaceful and too legal" over the past five years hinting that Stop the War Coalition are going to start breaking the law and unleash civil disobedience soon…
This seemed to be an echo from five years previous when Tony Benn stated “I never thought I would say this but we have to take whatever steps necessary to stop this war. If that means taking direct action like blocking the roads and railways then so be it!” Five years on Tony Benn is sitll giving entertaining speeches but has avoided being busted while a million Iraqis 4,000 young Americans and 150 Brits have died.
Rather than Galloway and Benn flirting, posturing, teasing about NVDA as a response to the war....they should simply support the nonviolent resistance that is occuring (Raytheon 9, Trident ploughshares, my 2 CW community members who are being sentenced to day for Dsei resistance etc etc). It is the Socialist Workes Party/Stop the War Coalition policy to censor and marginalise nonviolent resistance to this war!
Nonviolent resistance can be the most empowering experience of your life or the most disempowering - it's all got to do with spirituality and solidarity. The resister's spirit is subjective terrain but solidarity is something we can all contribute to.
17 years ago I, and three others, broke into a B-52 Base in upstate New York on the eve of Gulf War 1. We were able to put a B-52 Bomber, on scramble alert, at Griffis Airforce Base out of action for three months. It didn't get to drop its naplam, cluster bombs and fuel explosives on the people of Iraq.
5 years ago I joined another 4 good folks in Ireland to disable a U.S. war plane at Shannon Airport.
The '91 crew were the longest serving political prisoners in the U.S. for resisitng that war. the nine of us have come out of those experiences, including 13 months in U.S. jails, three trials in Ireland, deportation from the U.S. etc - stronger than we went into it. We came out stronger because of our spirituality and the culture of solidarity that surrounded us!
As we grow as a movement to stop this war, the reistance is going to spring from the most unlikely of places! Our movement is going to be so big and broad that we are going to have different hairstyles, musical tastes, politics and spiritual traditons. Resistance is going to come from country and western fans in the U.S. military
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
it's going to come from rad Salvation Army kidz
http://samuelhill5.blogspot.com/
anarchist punks
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/393970.html
socialists and republicans
www.raytheon9.org
We have to develop a movement that whenever resistance goes down - we reach out to the resister offering proactive practical solidarity. The more solidarity the resister experiences, the easier the resistance is going to be. The more likely the resister will be back with more resistance!
We have to reject the censorship of anti-war resistance by those who try to manage the anti-war movement and organise these rallies.
These groundhog day cattle drives through empty streets when the left goes marketing crazy in a confined space as you run a gauntlet of newspaper sales, recruitment drives etc always has the heavy potential to demoralise. So I thought I'd lower my expecations and set myself limited political objectives for the day. To be honest, I go to these things primarily to socialise and catch up with old comrades from campaigns of daze gone by.....
If yet another groundhog day cattle drive through the empty streets of London is not a relevant response 5 years into this war - what is?
Basically, nonviolent resistance to the war and proactive solidarity with nonviolent resistance is relevant. The war has never had popular support but there is little visible oppostion either.
I believe if 1% of those who marched against this war in 03 had gone into nonviolent resistance in the spirit of Ghandi and King to the point of imprisonment and the other 99% commited to proactive solidarity with the resistance (help feed the cat, pay the rent, deal with the hysterical parents, spread the word) we would now have a vibrant anti-war culture and movement and not be reduced to these biannual holy daze of obligation marches and the government would have a lot of trouble prosecuting this war. (It was interesting how many people I asked on Saturday "Why are you here?" who had the repsonse "I'd feel guilty if I didn't come!") If this campaign of civil disobedience had occured it would have had a dissident response from within the British and U.S. military.
The people who organise these rallies (the Labor Party - yes they happen to be the government presently blowing the crap out of Iraq & Afghanistan, the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party who have all the fervour and single mindedness of evangelical christians on speed but who in praxis (when you strip away the chanting & posturing) is pretty moderate, and the mainstream NGO's who like the others see the war and the anti-war movement as an excellent opportunity to promote their brand in a target audience) DON'T support or mention nonviolent resistance to the war or promote solidarity with nonviolent resisters before the courts , in prison or preparing for more NVDA.
So last Saturday, I set off for the march to increase awareness of the upcoming Raytheon 9 trial in Belfast in May www.raytheon9.org . This is a significant resistance trial of 9 irish activists who nonviolently disabled the mainframe computer at Raytheon in Derry - during the 06 bombing of Lebanon. The Israeli military used Raytheon equipment extensively in their indiscrimate bombing that summer.
I got to the rally and their were thousands (maybe 10 max, down from 2 million in 03) passively milling about in Trafalger Square. I had brought with me my homemade "Free the Raytheon 9 - Disable the War Machine! www.raytheon9.org " placard and unaccustomed as I am to wait for the official anti-war leadership - I began steet (soapbox without the soapbox) speaking to small clusters of folks about the Raytheon 9. Those not interested drifted away, those interested came in tighter. I did this 6 or 7 times before the main rally started and the amps drowned me out. People were excited to hear about the Raytheon 9 and they were exicted by the spontaneity and initiative of street speaking. They were probably relieved I wasn't trying to sell them anything or recruit them (although a R9 info leaflet would have been handy for those interested!). Nonetheless, lots of them wrote down the Raytehoen 9 website.
As I walked around the crowd with my placard during the rally I had lots of conversations with many people (some seasoned anti-war activists) who had never heard of the Raytheon 9, their action or their trial.
The Socialist Workers Party/Stop the War Coalition are well placed to make the Raytheon 9 trial very widely known throughout Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and internationally and encourage support for the defendants. They have chosen not to!
It is an important trial and should be a show trial of the arms trade in Ireland and Britain.
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 this past Saturday
When an SWP member took a break from selling the paper to ask me "How are those people doing?" My resolve not to get pissed off, by employing the praxis of lowering expecations of the rally, finally broke.
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 fairly heated debate ensued.
The debate concluded 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 criminal damaage to a U.S. war plane being refueled at Shannon www.peaceontrial.com
The groups who organise these rallies 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, deflation 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.....
indymedia.ie/routeirish
Meanwhile from the platform ex Labor Party/Respect parliamentarian George Galloway suggests during his speech that maybe the movement has been "too peaceful and too legal" over the past five years hinting that Stop the War Coalition are going to start breaking the law and unleash civil disobedience soon…
This seemed to be an echo from five years previous when Tony Benn stated “I never thought I would say this but we have to take whatever steps necessary to stop this war. If that means taking direct action like blocking the roads and railways then so be it!” Five years on Tony Benn is sitll giving entertaining speeches but has avoided being busted while a million Iraqis 4,000 young Americans and 150 Brits have died.
Rather than Galloway and Benn flirting, posturing, teasing about NVDA as a response to the war....they should simply support the nonviolent resistance that is occuring (Raytheon 9, Trident ploughshares, my 2 CW community members who are being sentenced to day for Dsei resistance etc etc). It is the Socialist Workes Party/Stop the War Coalition policy to censor and marginalise nonviolent resistance to this war!
Nonviolent resistance can be the most empowering experience of your life or the most disempowering - it's all got to do with spirituality and solidarity. The resister's spirit is subjective terrain but solidarity is something we can all contribute to.
17 years ago I, and three others, broke into a B-52 Base in upstate New York on the eve of Gulf War 1. We were able to put a B-52 Bomber, on scramble alert, at Griffis Airforce Base out of action for three months. It didn't get to drop its naplam, cluster bombs and fuel explosives on the people of Iraq.
5 years ago I joined another 4 good folks in Ireland to disable a U.S. war plane at Shannon Airport.
The '91 crew were the longest serving political prisoners in the U.S. for resisitng that war. the nine of us have come out of those experiences, including 13 months in U.S. jails, three trials in Ireland, deportation from the U.S. etc - stronger than we went into it. We came out stronger because of our spirituality and the culture of solidarity that surrounded us!
As we grow as a movement to stop this war, the reistance is going to spring from the most unlikely of places! Our movement is going to be so big and broad that we are going to have different hairstyles, musical tastes, politics and spiritual traditons. Resistance is going to come from country and western fans in the U.S. military
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/ it's going to come from rad Salvation Army kidz
http://samuelhill5.blogspot.com/ anarchist punks
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/393970.html socialists and republicans
www.raytheon9.org
We have to develop a movement that whenever resistance goes down - we reach out to the resister offering proactive practical solidarity. The more solidarity the resister experiences, the easier the resistance is going to be. The more likely the resister will be back with more resistance!
We have to reject the censorship of anti-war resistance by those who try to manage the anti-war movement and organise these rallies.
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Hide the following 10 comments
Good to see positive article
18.03.2008 14:04
At the march on Saturday despite all the comments I saw very few people out there advocating direct action except for a few leaflets from Trident Ploughshares about a 'Big Blockade' at Aldermaston in October (
Perhaps it would be worth going to the CND event at Aldermaston on Easter Monday (
plunk
e-mail:
plunk@hushmail.com
Des Moines Military Recruiting Center Shut Down on 5th Anniversary of the War
19.03.2008 21:07
in Des Moines (Iowa, USA). Two people were arrested after a group carried a flag-draped coffin into the foyer of the Armed Forces Career Center on SE 14th Street in Des Moines, and blocked the entrance to the four Armed Forces branches that have offices there. Today is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the start of the Iraq War.
Edward Bloomer, 61, and Kirk Brown, 25, both Des Moines Catholic
Workers were among about a dozen protesters holding anti-war signs and distributing "anti-recruitment" literature. Mona Shaw, 56, also a Catholic Worker told those present the group was there to do three things:
1. Mourn the tragic lost of life caused by the war including nearly
4,000 military personnel and more than one million Iraqis.
2. To send a plea to others to do more to stop the war.
3. To protect more young adults from losing their lives by shutting
down military recruiting at the Des Moines recruiting center for at
least one day.
The office shutdown was cut short after about 40 minutes when Des
Moines Police arrived. After consulting briefly with recruiting
staff, a staff member from each branch office emerged from that office and asked the protesters to leave. Most protesters chose to leave at that time with police finally arresting Bloomer and Brown who were continuing to block the Center's entrance. Kirk Brown was cited and released. Ed Bloomer was taken to the Polk Co Jail, presumably to spend the night in jail and go before a judge tomorrow.
"When we were protesting "Shock and Awe" five years, ago we feared
aloud then that this war would last this long," said Brian Terrell,
51, another Catholic Worker from Malloy, Iowa, and director of
Catholic Peace Ministry "We take no satisfaction in making such an
accurate prophecy."
Des Moines Catholic Worker
Palm Sunday in Bethany
19.03.2008 22:06
Dear Friends,
I'm writing from Hebron, at the CPT apartment in the West Bank,
Palestine. This Palm Sunday morning approximately 67 of us
participated in a presence with prayer at a check point in Bethany,
also known as Azarea. Jesus raised Lazarus (Azar) from the dead
shortly before he began His journey to Jerusalem to face His own
torture, crucifixion and ultimately His resurrection.
We chose this check point to exemplify how Palestinian Christians and
Muslims, who, for years have traveled with others into Jerusalem to
visit the holy sites, are not allowed to pass through the check points
and the apartheid wall. Thousands of Palestinians are cut off from
employment, access to hospitals, health care, access to worship in the
churches and mosques in Jerusalem, access to their own family members
who may be on the other side of the wall. We carried banners asking
"Where Could Jesus Go?" with a picture of the wall painted through the
words and gave out leaflets that read the same. We later passed them
out to thousands of internationals and locals who processed through
the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. We plan to carry these banners again
and pass the leaflets out to the many thousands who will process
through Jerusalem on Good Friday. We ask that you act in solidarity
to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine and stop the apartheid
wall, this Holy Week.
Nora Carmi of Sabeel said, "Today, what we are doing is re-living this
memory [of Jesus] and challenging the authorities in the same
nonviolent, peaceful way, that Jesus did . . . A few soldiers with
their guns and their tear gas, are not going to stop us from praying."
Israeli border police arrived and threatened to fire tear gas at the
worshippers, but they continued with some Scripture readings. While
the group were completing their event on the grounds of a local
religious community, the border police came and again told the
worshippers to disperse.
Our group was made up of about 30 Palestinians, including local
community members of Azarya, including the mayor, members of the
Sabeel Community ( a liberation theology activist community based in
Jerusalem), members of MEND (a Muslem community activist group), 40
internationals, many who where with the Chrisitan Peacemaker Team from
Hebron, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of the Diocese of Detroit,
international press, including Reuters, AP and the Catholic News
Agency.
Mary Anne Grady Flores
Ithaca Catholic Workers
West Bank, Palestine
For more information, contact Christian Peacemaker Teams: 022228485
For photos go to:
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an ecumenical initiative to support
violence reduction efforts around the world. To learn more about
CPT's peacemaking work, visit our website www.cpt.org Photos of our
projects are at www.cpt.org/gallery A map of the center of Hebron is
at
The same map is the last page of this report on closures in Hebron:
www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/docs/UN/OCHA/ochaHU0705_En.pdf
Mary Anne Grady Flores-Ithaca Catholic Workers
Homepage:
http://tinyurl.com/3xbanx
A boot stamping on a human face - forever
20.03.2008 01:50
I'd like to criticise the Ploughshares movement in general but still agree with the gist of your post. IMCistas blanket ban any criticism of groups such as yours as 'unconstructive' so it is pretty impossible anyone to respond to your post honestly and constructively except for the people who agree with you. Ploughshares for me is more of a problem than the SWP.
However, with your permission to blaspheme against your group, I do have a tuupence worth to chip in on this subject that the admins may allow if you were to permit free-speech on this subject.
sincerely,
Danny
Fire Ahead
20.03.2008 10:08
But I'm pretty much from the original 1980 kick off Berrigan U.S. plowshares tradition
than the post-96 British Trident Ploughshares trad.
Ciaron
Homepage:
http://www.peaceontrial.com
As positive as I can muster
20.03.2008 12:05
In my experience the people who rise to prominence in the peace movement (the names) are the same personality-types who rise to positions of power in the business world. Given the failure of the movement it is best for new comers to ignore the old guard completely. Don't even introduce yourself, all you are missing out on are a few crappy parties. Pacifist groups are encouarged by the state as they act as a filtering system, 'the first layer of defence'. Effective acts are discouraged or grassed up, instead new comers are used as cannon-fodder to bump up the total number of arrests. And what do the newcomers get from the deal ? Their fingerprints and DNA stored forever and their chances of employment shafted, which effectively stops most of them being able to achieve more than more gesture actions. A group can teach you techniques but nothing that isn't already on sites like Schnews. Groups eat up everyones time, and even non-hierarchical groups tend to have distinct if subtle structural hierarchies. Groups can provide support but honestly they don't ( that's not a personal gripe, I've never seen any activist properly supported). Groups - any group - can also mess you up with internal shennanigans or by error or external infiltration and monitoring.
Now there are some key people who turn to activists when they have stumbled upon something in their jobs that they find morally reprehensible. Such people can often achieve more than anyone already in the movement, but they need to have genuine confidence that the people who they are informing won't betray them even accidentally. I don't think that is the case just now which is why we get so few defections even though most people agree with us. For example, one Sunday five years ago on another forum I got a tip-off that the replacement barrel breech at Dundrennan had just been dropped off near the gate, and that a few people would be able to liberate it.. It might have been a set-up or a mistake, but it was worth investigating as the tests were resuming that Monday. I couldn't interest a single activist, including I suspect one of the recent 'inspectors'. Assuming it was a genuine tip-off, I doubt that person blew another whistle. Seriously, half the people who work in high-security environments are consciously sizing up that security and seeing it's holes. These are the people the existing movement should concentrate on. Orwell said assasinate a hundred key technicians and the British Empire would fall, that number has doubtless risen but it is better to recruit them than kill them.
The other priority for the movement is like you say, support for the people who have achieved real results and are facing years in jail because of that, fundraising and publicity. The Raytheon action is the only action of the war that I admire. I wanted to repeat it but ( and here is my dig ) a TPer sold the story to the papers in advance. Regardless of that, I am amazed that you now say the SWP aren't supporting their own. It is a cliche that SWP can't and won't do actions, and for them to pull off the best action and then disown it is bizarre.
I used to attend marches to recruit for NVDA but I honestly think the sort of people who go on marches are less likely than the general public to take direct action unless they are already involved. In any circumstance I find it is better to work with competent people rather than supposedly 'well-motivated' people.
The last successful action I saw was by a young guy who broke into a high security base to take photos. He hadn't had any training, didn't have any support except the loan of a camera, and wasn't politically motivated beyond proving that he was more capable than any soldier or activist..He considered all activists 'wankers' although to be fair he has probably only met me. He'd been made by the New Deal to attend an army recruitment drive to attract doleys and they'd insulted him so he wanted revenge. Now there was a large bunch of activists there too and they achieved nothing. I was going to recommend he introduced himself to them after but I honestly couldn't see any advantage to him. I never tried to recruit him but I told him if he ever wanted to recruit me I'd try to keep up wth him. He said he loved the buzz. He did it himself, but I could have recruited half the New Deal doleys with little more than the promise of a pub lunch afterwards. I've not seen him since but there was another action near here since that I'm sure must have been him. And if I got a tip-off in future about anything, I'd contact him, not any professional protestor.
Danny
YOUTUBE & Anti-War Report-5 Catholic Workers Busted in Worcester Courthouse
21.03.2008 05:57
This morning at the federal courthouse in Worcester, after attending
mass and with about a dozen supporters outside, Mike Benedetti, Ken Hannaford-Ricardi, Sandra McSweeney, Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, and Roger Stanley entered the pre-lobby, knelt, prayed for an end to the war in Iraq, and said a rosary. People came and went from the courthouse, though additional participants weren't allowed to enter.
Related Link:
worcester (birthplace of abbie hoffman!)
Homepage:
http://Related Link: http://www.pieandcoffee.org/2008/03/19/5-arrested-for-p...ster/
Photos & Youtube-of Ooccupation of Military Recruitment Centre in Des Moines, US
21.03.2008 13:08
Military Recruitment Offices in Des Moines IA
After 5 years of what people finally know is an illegal, immoral,
unjust war, peace people who new it was wrong all along, are still
standing up for the troops, and for the people of Iraq.
These peoplein Des Moines Iowa are bring attention to the insidious, anduntruthful nature of the military recruitments center, while sending young and old alike to fight and kill in this illegal endeavor. People all over the nation are protesting the war in Iraq as well.
Photo Slide Show: March 19, 2008 - Occupation and arrest at US
Military Recruitment Offices in Des Moines IA
Roger
Homepage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5xxXFcfvAI
Responses to Danny
21.03.2008 20:13
well there's plenty of bad words about me, some have a basis, some don't.
"Groups - any group - can also mess you up with internal shennanigans or by error or external infiltration and monitoring. "
You sound like a solo act, which is fair enough. When I was in the U.S. there was a woman whose anti-war vocation was to remove the nation state flag from the sanctuary of church's. She worked alone and very effectively and had a big job to do. Some people work solo and find community and groups a drag. Each to his/her own. Horses for courses etc.
..."security"
....is an important issue to protect the action and protect others not up for the consequences from jeopardy. Our movement has leant from our Camden 28 conspiracy trial
"but it is better to recruit them than kill them".
We are a pacifist movement. Some of our best people are/were combat veterans from Vietnam, Korea WW2. We believe everything and everyone is redeembale, no one is expendable.
"TPer sold the story to the papers in advance."
Trident Ploughshares is a little different from the U.S. plowshares movement www.plowsharesactions.org
There is more of a Ghandian influence in TP and initially more of a respect for the law/ world court. There is more of radical faithbase, experiences of working with the homeless &in the Third World with the plowshares. There is a good academic study on the movement due out later this year by an academic Nepstead. Google for it later in the year.
"Regardless of that, I am amazed that you now say the SWP aren't supporting their own. It is a cliche that SWP can't and won't do actions, and for them to pull off the best action and then disown it is bizarre. "
I assume the central committee didn't clear this one and are deflating it out of concern their cadre may drift toward NVDA, dunno? just guessing?
"The last successful action I saw was by a young guy who broke into a high security base to take photos. He hadn't had any training, didn't have any support except the loan of a camera, and wasn't politically motivated beyond proving that he was more capable than any soldier or activist..He considered all activists 'wankers' although to be fair he has probably only met me."
Well you never know where the resistance is going to spring from, the most unlikely of places. "Campaigners" and movement people (with all the status and cliques that often accompanies the subculture) are sometimes immune to potential that is outside their circles.
Ciaron
Homepage:
http://www.plowsharesactions.org
Need to know
22.03.2008 13:48
>Each to his/her own. Horses for courses etc.
You mean that certain people are suited to individual activities and certain people need a group in the same way certain horses are suited to certain types of race course. It's not a matter of horses for courses. The race is fixed - all the races are fixed. If you start a new race that isn't fixed, it will soon be, the gangsters that fixed the other races will interfere to fix yours too.
In terms of the future direction of 'the movement', 'the movement' failed. At the risk of confusing equine metaphors, the movement is a cart being pulled by many horses. Each horse is able to take up the slack of the others but if any of those horses dies, then the cart stops moving. At that point the solution isn't to add more horses, first you have to remove the dead horse to get moving again. However if the horses keep on dying pulling the cart then it is better to cut the horses free and abandon the cart.
>"Campaigners" and movement people (with all the status and cliques that often accompanies the subculture) are sometimes immune to potential that is outside their circles.
I'd say it is worse than that, I'd say they actively short-circuit that potential. If every existing activist and campaigner dropped dead or retired overnight I think there would be a stronger movement tommorow. Smaller, less experienced, but stronger. Demos need quantity, NVDA needs quality.
In the Camden 28 case Bob Hardy acted as an informer, and you know that because he testified to it. You say you have learned from that, but the state learns too. Say Bob had merely sent the FBI an anonymous tip-off, even they wouldn't know who he was. Or say Bob had been an undercover agent rather than an informer - wouldn't he have risen by know to be a respected and trusted figure in the movement ? Why were there 28 defendents for an office break-in ? Any successful office break-in requires as few people as possible, not as many as possible. Proper observance of the 'Need to know' wouldn't have saved that action since the informer would have still been one of the people who needed to know.
The weaknesses of the movement aren't just infiltrators and informers, an informal non-hierarchical cell-structure is fundamentally flawed for pacifists. Terrorists/ freedom fighters use that structure to avoid getting busted, but vitally these groups have both investigatory and disciplinary functions that apply to all cells. Communications within or between pacifist cells lead to power/knowledge accumulating with key individuals which is an inherent network weakness. To monitor or influence the network you only have to identify these key nodes.
I am not recommending existing group members to drop out their groups or give up on their 'course'. I do strongly recommend newcomers to try not to form into groups, but if they do then not to liase or communicate with existing groups and known protestors. Whoever they are, and whatever they have achieved is less relevant than the fact that the existing peace movement failed to stop the war. Everything a newcomer 'needs to know' about any group can be read up on on Schnews or here or somewhere, and the less those groups know about you, the better.
Danny