Dear All,
I have just returned from Scotland and was delighted to witness that the protest movement is alive and kicking at Faslane for the Valentines Day Big Blockade.
This year there was a 3 day protest. I travelled with Thomas (16) and we were part of the support team . Thomas helped with cooking at one of the 3 centres that we hired this year to cater for all the activists. I was doing support work at the blockade, and also the mid wife on standby for Babs McGregor whose baby was due on the day of the Blockade.
This year, though the numbers were down, we sucessfully blockaded 3 entances to the base for 4 hours. 115 people were arrested including 2 members of the Scottish Parliament, and several church leaders. The place was crawling with media, and many interviews were broadcast and not censored like on other occasions. There were several complex lock-ons that kept the Police tied up for hours, and they had to get special power tools to move the protestors.
It was great to see so many people there and that the new anti terrorism laws have not deterred people from coming. Some people in wheelchairs did very inventive lock ons.
There seemed to be more Police than protestors. I spent some time trying to engage them in debate. A lot of them said they were not free to comment. I told them I was extremely disappointed that they had not begun to think for themselves and that if a few of them would only follow the fantastic example of the 59 Israeli soldiers who have refused to be part of operations against the Palestinians, we could get rid of Faslane. One Police officer bluntly said he was just a pawn. Too right, I said, but would you not like to be a Knight for a change, and act with courage? I jokingly said that Knights have better sex lives. The Policeman cracked up laughing. Another guy just refused to engage with me, but I said look your Politicians and Church leaders have been arrested and all these elderly people coming here on a freezing wet day must mean there is something illegal about the Nuclear weapons. I pointed out that they were the real terrorists protecting such a hellish place. They could not bear to hear the word terrorist mentioned in that context and one guy told me to shut up and was very touchy.
Within the base I could see groups of three special commandos with machine guns at regular parts of the fence. Usually these guys dont show themselves too much. At the Peace Camp, which is coming up to its 20th aniversary, the people there were told not to try any of their notoriously inventive actions in the aftermath of 9/11 as the Guards were all very jumpy.
One afternoon at a Glasgow theatre we were all invited to a screening of a new film "The Loch Long Monster" that has been made documenting all the 4 years of our protests at the base. It is very good very powerful inspiring and frightening.
Babs got great front page news coverage " Mother vows to have baby on frontline at Faslane". Her fella Brian Quail unfortunately got arrested as there were 2 summonses out for him for non payment of fines for previous actions. Brian is over 60 , a Grand father has had 2 heart bypass operations. The Police were almost apologetic about arresting him. What a cushy time we have as protestors in Scotland. Brian was part of a delegation that went to visit Turkey last year. He could hardly speak about it. Very many political prisoners have died on hunger strike, and so have at least 4 members of their families. 35 of them were forcibly taken off and forcefed, with horrific results; they dont know where they are or why they are in prison. A Mother of one of the prisoners gave Brian her head scarf soaked in dry blood. She had been battered by the police, and this happens all the time. There is almost no coverage of this in the media.
The other very disturbing news was listening to Brian and Babs tell about Genoa and the G8. They were stopped at the Italian border and deported back to England , they were not even allowed attend the demo. Back in London Brian's son drove them in his van to the bus station and saw them onto the bus for Scotland. Halfway up the country Brian got a call from him saying, Dad you'll never believe what has just happened to me. He was surrounded by over 30 police with machine guns, and forced off the road with a helicopter flying overhead. He was terrified. They searched his van and him and eventually let him go. He is totally nonpolitical. It was done to get at Brian.
Thomas and I saw a video that was made about Genoa. It is horrific. It shows a young guy being shot twice in the head, and protestors being beaten ferociously by the Carbinieri. Also the attack on the centre where a lot of protestors were sleeping the night after the killing. They thought they were safe as the building was opposite the big media centre. Again horrific scenes of baton beating , and tear gas. You could hear and see the media people shouting from their building, " Carbinieri, murderers we will not forget this!" 300,000 people came out on the streets next day to protest. I have a copy of the video here at the Cork Peace Alliance.
We all need to keep up with this kind of heavy news.
I had'nt planned to go to Faslane this year but got irresistibly drawn there as a result of the St. Brigid's Day in Dublin.
On 1st of Feb, 12 women from around the country went to the Presidents mansion at Phoenix park. It was a violently stormy and very wet day. We waited and waited at the gate but she would not receive us nor send anyone out to meet us. Many of the women in our group were elderly and there were 2 travellers from Galway who had made a beautiful banner for the President. There was also a beautiful jewelled sword and cloak . We gave these to the security Guards with a letter, asking Mrs Mc Aleese to allow herself to be inspired by the spirit of Brigid and have the courage to convene the Council of State to question the constitutionality of Shannon Airport being used to assist the US/UK bombing of Afghanistan.
Many of the women were shocked at the way we were ignored by the President. She has a caring image, is from the North and appears to have humanitarian concerns. We have heard nothing from her since.
At Government buildings we left a Brigid sword and cloak for the Taoiseach. Written on the sword; "Let the sword of the Spirit replace the sword of war". We spent some time chatting to the security guards explaining to them why we were there. They were very friendly and human and when we said we wanted Brigid's day to be a paid holiday for women, they said they wanted that day off too. We said only if they spent the whole day giving pleasure to their women. They enjoyed that.
Later I linked up with 2 friends from Trident Ploughshares who were in town to train people for the coming Bloackade and a big demo at Sellafield. I learnt a lot and ended up going across to Scotland. We will need lots of that kind of training for coming demos at Shannon. 2 TP women have promised to come over for international womens day of action at Shannon.
Now we have just heard that Henry Kissinger is coming to Cork in 2 weeks time
to train business men for half a day in how to be sharks! Wow! What an
oppotunity! I heard that on his last visit to France someone got an order to
indict him, but he got to the Airport before they could serve it on him. I am
on the case to see if its possible to Indict him for war crimes, and if we
have any legal leg to stand on. We are appealing for people to come from all
around the country to come and support our demo. Usually in Cork we dont have
a strong focus for our demos. Our prayers have been answered.
Mary