Requiring Army Deployment? Was her Editor Drunk too?

by slurring my words Mon Feb 09, 2004 23:22

Above the Headline: We Infiltrate the worldwide anarchist network targeting EU Celebrations.

Oh Deirdre - you infiltrated 'the worldwide anarchist network' by visiting a publicly advertised 'Anarchist Drinking Evening' upstairs in Chaplains bar on D'Olier st. It was promoted under the catchy slogan of 'An evening of increasingly slurred discussion for anarchists '. Now did you really discover a Worldwide Conspiracy in Chaplains? Sure it wasn't some strays from the INTO mixing drinks with the SIPTU opposition? The whole thing sounds unlikely. On a UK websites (with good lawyers I imagine) used as reference material by You in Your article to prove your worldwide anarchist network theory of events it says you felt so at home 'in the inner sanctum' that you joined in the general spirit of the evening and revealed yourself as a paid infiltrator to some of the global conspirators?

It all sounds highly unlikely. But is it true? The bit about the Teachers and the SIPTU opposition I mean. Were they really mixing their drinks? And what's this about WOMBLES!

by Obedient Citizen Mon Feb 09, 2004 23:58

In spite of this embarrassing episode — one might have thought it would have shamed the practitioners of such speculative Theory — facts, reason, and rigors are less in favor than relativist, constructivist, and/or esoteric mystifications, when it comes to research in history, sociology, economics, and politics that offer tools for analyzing our objective reality. And yet the gurus of Left Theory allude to such methods (even while damning them as hegemonic tools of the master) to bolster their speculations. In a recently published interview, for example, Gayatri Spivak tells us that because of the "law of curvature" it would be false to communicate in a clear and "straight line". Rather, to write obscurely and "counterintuitively" is not only following a natural law, but is the way for us to resist and intervene into capitalist hegemony and open the possibility for "critical practice" to happen. Is that what was going in? Maybe it is - it says so on a website.

by a womble Tue Feb 10, 2004 02:09

can someone put the newspaper article up on IMC? we haven't seen it over here in London & while I'm sure it's total bollocks, it would be interesting to see what they have to say.

BTW - there's more that 12 of us (but less than 15,000!)

How did the meeting go?

by ipsiphi (an elf) Tue Feb 10, 2004 13:20

underground overground wombling free,
recycling rubbish and naming yourselves after geographic features, with your cute attachment to common lands and rights and your shy timid natures keeping out of sight.

But the Irish Independent newspaper group knows all about you!!!

"sure a womble is an awesome creature, equal the weight of a hundred men, sure the collective is equal the power of the whole Garda Siochana force, both lads and ladettes. There's only one thing we can do decent mudders and faders of Erron, we must recruit a few thousand extra Garda by Mayday, we could call them "specials" or something..."

In Brighton years ago, someone made a trump card set of local characters and charlatans, an idea I love, "I'll swap you one BBC for one Pravda", "oh no a BBC is worth two Pravda's!", "OK I'll swap you this BBC for that Pravda and that Al Jazeera!" - "cool"
Now let's move onto the wombles and muppets, "ok I've got a madame chovrelet ", "oh!!! well let's do a deal, I'll swap you the rapid response unit and half the rightwing media and phone-in radio shows, and .............

by W Tue Feb 10, 2004 13:38

excellent! you seem to be experience the Mayday experience in dublin already. Hyped-up media speculation and infiltration of meetings, no doubt exposes will follow nearer the time. Anyway keep it strong and solidarity from across the shores. C u in Dublin on Mayday!

W

by moomin Tue Feb 10, 2004 13:51

Unfortunately ireland on sunday don't put articles online but their site has a phone number on it that you can ring and they will send you the previous weeks copy of their offensive rag for free, which is nice of them. Don't know about sending it to the UK but its worth a shot.

by Rag Tue Feb 10, 2004 14:02

what a load of shite, what annoys me most is that its a rehash.the daily mail did the same piece during the bushs visit in london.

by Joe Tue Feb 10, 2004 14:08

Turns out the journalist is also on the Irish anrchism email list - yet another infiltration of a public list.

by Sad Hack Tue Feb 10, 2004 14:18

We infiltrate the worldwide anarchist network targeting EU celebrations
PLOT TO WRECK DUBLIN SUMMIT by Deirdre Tynan (February 8,2004)

Thousands of anarchist protesters plan to bring chaos to the streets of Ireland's capital on May 1 - the day that marks the high point of our six-month presidency of the EU
An Ireland on Sunday investigation has discovered that up to 15,000 so-called anti-globilisation demonstrators from around the world are poised to pack into Dublin's city centre on May day.
They have vowed to meet violence with violence should Gardai attempt to halt their "protest", which is intended to paralyse the city on what, ironically, is officially being called Ireland's 'Day of Welcomes'. A serious clash might even see the Defence Forces having to police the capital. The hate-filled protesters have in the past brought two major cities - Seattle and Genoa - to their knees when similiar protests turned into bloodbaths with riot police battling armed thugs to protect property. On May 1, Dublin will be the centre of the world stage, hosting no fewer than 25 heads of state for glittering celebrations to mark the accession of 10 new member countries to the EU. But instead of a carnival atmosphere, gardai now fear the city's streets could be transformed into a battleground. Ireland on Sunday has infiltrated the shadowy groups intent on causing violence and can today reveal details of their elaborate global conspiracy to smuggle known agitators into the country in advance of the protest.
A British extremist group called the Wombles, which has strong links with the PKK - Turkish Kurd communists who have been placed on the EU's list of international terror organisations - will be among the demostrators. But the event is being advertised worldwide on anarchist and subversive websites. The Wombles have a chilling track record of violence and vandalism. They are dedicated, hard-core anarchists who earned their stripes dodging tear gas and plastic bullets on the streets of Seattle at the World Trade Organisation summit in 1999. The resulting chaos saw a state of emergency imposed on the city. Gardai are taking the matter so seriously that they have begun liaising with security forces around the world, including the PSNI, the Metropolitan Police, Europol and Interpol. Officers from the Garda's public order units have been undergoing riot training for 18 months. They have also been given the names of known international agitators. But with little or no experience of riot situations and fewer than 1,000 officers specially trained for it, gardai will be seriously outnumbered by the seasoned protesters, who have jammed internet sites with advice on how to get into Ireland without detection. Gardai may be forced to call for back-up from the Defence Forces, who plan to have 11,500 men on standby. One sinister website advises demonstrators to stagger their arrival in Ireland over a number of days, to travel in small groups through airports in Dublin, Cork and Belfast, and to use ferry services. In some chatrooms, they are calling on protesters to descend on Dublin for May Day rather than London because the Metropolitan Police have become expert in counteracting their violence. ' In no other British city is it as hard as London,' said one activist. 'We managed it for a while between 1994 and 1999 but now we have to face the fact that the cops have caught up with us. Personally, I am more attracted to the Dublin EU summit.'
Green MEP Patricia McKenna last night voiced her fears that gardai did not have the necessary resources to cope with the sheer scale of the event, which will also see the Government throw a fireworks extravaganza, street parties and a concert in Dublin. 'I hope the gardai know what may hit them. If they go in with a heavy-handed attitude, there will be trouble. I just hope the whole scale of the event will not be too much for the gardai to handle.'
* * * *
LOTS OF FIGHTING TALK ABOUT GIVING POWER BACK TO THE PEOPLE, AND SMASHING THE STATE - THEN TIME FOR A PINT By Deirdre Tynan and Priscilla Lynch
They were young, idealistic, committed to destroying the State... and very middle-class. Despite the shaved heads and scruffy combats, there was a distinct air of educated privilege in the smoke-filled bar on Hawkins Street where anarchists held an extraordinary meeting last week to fine-tune plans to bring chaos to the streets of Dublin on May 1.
Ireland on Sunday infiltrated the meeting and, for more than four hours, heard speaker after speaker calmly discuss how to maximise the impact of the deliberately disruptive protest. Ireland's anarchists were not brought up on the streets but that's where they believe the battle should be fought. And while other students and young workers were busy drinking themselves into a pre-weekend stupor on Thursday night, the gathering in Chaplin's Bar had more specific issues on their minds.
In the large, dimly-lit bar room, where nearly everyone was smoking roll-up cigarettes and drinking pints of cider or Guinness, revolution was in the air. The meeting , which started punctually at 8pm and was attended largely by young men, opened with a spine-chilling talk on 'black bloc' tactics - masked protesters forming blockades, a tried and tested technique that has been used by anarchists the world over. It was a mixed crowd of students, academics, unemployed activists, two or three feminists and one pacifist, whose nationalities ranged from Irish and British to Australian and Spanish, brought together by the same strongly held beliefs. Some were dishevelled, some were neatly dressed. One man in his mid-30's had long, dreadlocked hair to rival Bob Marley. But most were nondescript. The bar is by no means Dublin's trendiest haunt but it's comfortable. The low chairs and worn wooden stools made for an almost intimate atmosphere. The night had been advertised as an 'Anarchists Social Evening/Bad Thoughts Discussion'. The light-hearted notice posted on A-infos said it would be an evening of 'increasingly slurred discussion for anarchists, 8pm til late'. The 'anarcho djs' set promised for the end the night (sic) never materialised but the meeting ran on into the small hours - it is a passion that consumes the lives of these people and they have the ability to talk on the subject for hours.
The anarchists unwittingly told IoS that they were used to being infiltrated by reporters but that the Garda did not pose a problem: 'All those Special Branch guys are fat, over 50 and close to retirement. They'd stick out like a sore thumb at any meeting,/ said one activist. He added that the muscle needed for dealing with a confrontation with gardai would come from abroad. 'The guys coming over from Italy and Greece will show us what to do. They're more physical.' Chekov Feeney, 27, the son of the late Evening Herald journalist John Feeney, cautioned the crowd that the use of black masks would have different connotations in Ireland. 'People will associate it with an IRA gunman.' That sparked a debate about what colour the Irish bloc should wear. 'It would have to be something that everyone has in their wardrobe,' said one. 'What about green?' asked another. The question was eventually left open until another night.
But Feeney's point about black masks and their place in the Irish psyche was agreed upon even though the possibility of a bloc of Ireland football jersey-wearing anarchists mobilising on Dublin's Dame Street was shot down because nobody wanted it to look like as if Eircom was sponsoring the protest. The discussions lasted for two-and-a-half-hours and, after that, the socialising began - but they never strayed from the subject closest to their hearts. Feeney, the main organiser, has been an anarchist for a decade and has spoken about the cause in cities such as Quebec, Montreal, Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Not invited to the party was the Socialist Workers Party's Richard Boyd Barrett, 'a legend in his own lunchtime'. The group giggled as they recalled how he had commandeered the crowd at the Shannon anti-war protest. The anarchists by their very nature oppose hierarchy and leadership. Anyone with a penchant for the limelight is frowned upon. Also absent was ex-Trinity College student union president Rory Hearne. The 25-year -old from Tramore, Co. Waterford, is busy with Global Resistance, an international activist group. Hearne and the anarchists 'wouldn't associate' according to one left-wing source, proving as ever the radical left is prone to splits. He dismissed Hearne as 'fluffy'. Irish anarchists will never get it,' he added. 'There is no anarchist tradition in Ireland. It's anathema to say to Irish citizens, "Don't use your vote; smash the system". It doesn't register with the ordinary Irish man or woman.'
Regardless of the inter-group rivalry, one thing is clear - come May 1, they will provide one massive headache for the powers that be.

by elf Tue Feb 10, 2004 16:02

take one, jump up and down in a while you'll feel better.
oh and I do enjoy my fine air of educated privelage.
Yes. we did think about the "black mask association" and didn't it work?
very sophisticated us. we think about everything. How is "inter police co-operation these days?"

by bluekingfisher Tue Feb 10, 2004 16:06

Ho ho ho... She emailed the earrach/samhradh contact address, here's the text of the first mail:

Hi,

I've seen your website, I'm a freelance reporter working for an Irish Sunday paper. Before you stop reading, I'm a lot more supportive of of your politics than you might think, even though I work a newspaper.

From what I have gathered so far,the gardai are gearing up for a "big day out". Im being asked to write an article about their preparatiopns and also who is likely to be attending the protests.

Could you estimate how many people are likely to turnout? And how many international activist are you hoping to attract? Also, what's your stance on violent action? Would it be a help or a hindrance? Can it be avoided?

Are there any international acitivists you would NOT want in Dublin? If you think you coudl help me answer these questions and maybe a few more, could you send me an email?

Thanks, and best of luck, there is a lot more support out there from people who wouldnt mention it because of where they work etc, than you think.

Deirdre

--
I didnt bother emailing her back, didnt think there was much point. Judging from her questions, focusing on the 'security' angle rather than immigrants being treated like shit, corporate takeover of basic services, an increasing police state in all EU countries, less democracy and further militarisation; it was plainly obvious even to a moron like me that she had no interest whatsoever in the issues involved. So much for balanced journalism.

So anyway the article came out on Sunday. I wrote back to her last night, here's the text of the mail:

I've seen your article. I'm just curious how you think your claim of being "supportive of your politics" is reflected in it.

I dont expect a response now you've got your story, but surprise me.

And, surprising me, here's her response, earlier today:

If you're asking me to defend the article I can't and I won't.

Again, if you're asking me to defend myself, I cant to do that either. All I would say, is never talk to a mainstream print reporter, the individual reporter may be sympathetic but their editor will never be so. At least on radio you can answer back.

Read this:
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0FQP/4635_132/101191877/p1/article.jhtml

--
So there you go.

I'm not bothered commenting much on it but I will say this. What kind of a journalist writes an article, and then afterwards says "I cant and wont defend myself" ?? Wafer thin integrity. As a journo, if you cant stand behind your story then what can you stand by?

From all I heard from talking to people who were at the social, she really is a pathetic character. All night she repeated this line about how she was just a pawn in the bigger game. About how she felt that "everyone comprimises their beliefs at some point in their life". About how she felt terrible for writing for a big newspaper like IOS.

From the way she went on (and as the blurb promised, her discussion became increasingly slurred: as she told people about her husband, her time abroad in Europe and Asia, other personal details which bored any listener) you'd swear she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Oh, our heart bleeds for a well-travelled moneyed mainstream press journalist writing scurrilous articles who is dealing with an inner ethical crisis. She would cry on any shoulder that was close by, and when one wasnt (most people drifted away from her after ten minutes of her blabbing on), she offered to buy them pints from the company account. Thanks for that Rupert Murdoch.

I'm not exactly sure why she emailed me the link to the New Statemen article. What does she think she's proving? That she can locate an article on the internet that is somewhat sympathetic to the anarchist cause? Who knows. Her standard of print journalism ranks fairly low on the paper scale, somewhere between the Sunday Sport and the double quilted Andrex roll hanging off the wall next door.

At the end of it all, I imagine she wont care. She'll get her paycheque, she'll think she's still some sort of 'alternative' type, although how it manifests itself I'm no clearer. She'll brush her blonde curls in front of the mirror in the morning and for a split second get a wash of self-loathing and intense self-disappointment, but brush it away and stroll on her merry way to write exactly what she's told to write.


FUCK THE CORPORATE MEDIA. We have our own media. LETS USE THEM. That is why stuff like Indymedia, Anarchomedia are out there. Freedom to post, right to response, debate and discourse. They may be small but they can only grow.

by pc Tue Feb 10, 2004 16:14

shes says this, I'm a lot more supportive of of your politics than you might think, even though I work a newspaper.

and then she writes that article... editor or not theres alot of things she could have left out or changed .....

she has no character

by Joe - WSM Tue Feb 10, 2004 16:19

A busy year for the anarchist bogeyman

On virtually every occasion that anarchists were mentioned in the media in 2003, it was in the context of a scare story about threatened violence. The reality of anarchist activity was far, far different. While we were arrested, fined, injuncted and jailed in significant numbers for taking part in peaceful protests, we did not thrown a blow at a single person. Never once were we given a chance to give our side of the story

Continues at http://struggle.ws/wsm/ws/2004/79/bogeyman.html

by pc Tue Feb 10, 2004 16:20

Again, if you're asking me to defend myself, I cant to do that either. All I would say, is never talk to a mainstream print reporter, the individual reporter may be sympathetic but their editor will never be so. At least on radio you can answer back.


is she giving advice on not talking to mainstream reporter so why would ye talk to her?

she even try to get her sympathy for "our"politics across in her article ?

by from scotland Tue Feb 10, 2004 17:08

man that is so sad. that woman must have pretty low self-esteem.

there is only one way she can redeem herself: i hope she joins us on the first.

if she really is just going to shapeshift back into some hole, there really is no point in living.

a tragic tale. shakespearean.

by badman Tue Feb 10, 2004 17:09

See link below (editors please do not collate - this response deserves to get some attention after the scandalous attack in IoS - not buried in the comments of an article that is about the wombles).

by jeff Tue Feb 10, 2004 18:04

it is their job to be spineless. That way, they can suck information out of people.

If Deirdre Tynan feels bad about all this, she should look for a new job.

I do not know why she would admit to any anarchists there what she was really up to. Maybe she does feel bad.

However, these days, being a journo is being a muckraker. When I was a kid, my dad needed an operation that required him going abroad. Some journo from the Indo (surprise, surprise, ) rang up, looking for a story. He managed to get my granny's name, but she told him "no".

He rang back, five minutes later, with "Hellooo, Julia!"
My granny is great person; she kept calm, and did not use any language. Anyway, that was my earliest experience with a journalist; nine out of ten times, they're scum, but they're sad scum. I'm looking forward to an honest career teaching. Kids. In school.

by GGer Tue Feb 10, 2004 18:29

Ah, Brian Cahill aka Nigel Irritable being unable to resist an opportunity to flame GG. Odd to see him posting on an English site, when he could be giving us, his wonderful insights here. Must be afraid to go home grown with his sectarianism. He's obviously been assimilated into the federation of the British Isles already.

by . Tue Feb 10, 2004 20:45

.

by IMC genoa Tue Feb 10, 2004 21:22

What happened to the last person picked on by the same newspaper group in the same way your editors picked on Chekov Feeney in IoS? You don't know? Details: follow the links for the full story

http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/genova/sky.htm

http://www.mailgate.org.uk/uk/uk.politics.censorship/msg15249.html

http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2001/07/7092.php

http://media.gn.apc.org/fl/0109cops.html

Now Deirdre and Priscilla: See why it might be a good idea to quit while you are ahead - get a cheap flat with a flat rate dial-up and a lousy but ethically unchallenging career and come work for the good guys for free.

'Sky' (1 of IMC UK)

by little mai Tue Feb 10, 2004 22:09

The fact is that sub editors and editors dont just check your spelling, they have control over the content and will change the meaning and tone at will to suit their politics and what they believe will sell the best, articles printed can be entirely different to those submitted and the journalist still have their names connected to it. The average hack journalist has no more power than an office worker. This however does nothing to vindicate the journalist, if she had sympathies then her report should have had as little information as possible, less to twist. Before embarking on her 'ahem' infiltration she should have been prepared to decide what her report could contain and what she would present to editors. The foolish belief that any of your sympathies will show through is more damaging as it can lead to articles that seem more balanced than a rant. The lesson to all is not to give any journalist no matter how friendly or sympathetic any information since the journalist has little or no control over the finished article depending on the morality of their employer. A more sympathetic reporter is nothing more than a trojan horse for their paymasters and their agendas.

by Kind of Flattered Wed Feb 11, 2004 13:52

Australian-pacifist-dreadlocks to rival Bob Marley in his mid-30's. The woman took 10 years off me! Lucky I couldn't wait around for drinx - he went thataway!

by Chekov Wed Feb 11, 2004 16:29

If she didn't know my age, why did she make it up? If she wanted to know, why didn't she ask? Not that it's important one way or another, but it's symptomatic of a pretty casual approach to facts.

by DG Wed Feb 11, 2004 16:34

So your 24 then?

by Grey Blocker Wed Feb 11, 2004 16:37

I wish she could knock a decade or two off my age.

by Chekov Wed Feb 11, 2004 16:39

I'm 30

by antrophe Wed Feb 11, 2004 16:56

Download a copy of the Ireland On Sunday Spoof from http://www.geocities.com/antrophe/IOSSPOOF2.pdf

EU Plot To Wreck Public Services

by babybromley Wed Feb 11, 2004 16:56

This portrayal of the WSM and the Wombles does raise really difficult issues in terms of how we as activists relate to mainstream media. There is a genuine tension between wanting to get our point of view accross in organs that are read by significant numbers of people, and knowing that distortion and ridicule is inevitable. The truth is that journalists are only part of a much bigger institutional structure and have limited power as a consequence . Sure, corporate bosses, editors and sub-editors can mess with their good intentions and yeah, journos do work in shitty circumstances with limited control of the means of production. So many hacks are now employed on a freelance or contract basis, it's not that surprising that they sink to such tactics when attempting to secure a front page scoop.

That said they can and do make choices all the time. The National Union of Journalists makes no effort to challenge the instituionalised racism, sexism and general right wing bias of the mainstream press. While they sometimes do adopt motions sympathetic to 'our' politics, no real effort is made to ensure that journalists know, understand and feel ownership over them. When do they publicly challenge the monopolisation of media ownership and dumbing down on content that is happening around us? I don't hear their squeaks of resistance.

Journalists themselves want to be seen as intrepid reporters on the hidden issues of society. But every time the hype a story about the wrongs (real or imaginary) of working class kids, anarchists, criminals, refugees, they make a decision not to highlight issues of globalisation, democratic deficit, workplace bullying, exploitation ......

Journalists are lazy and irresponsible. Lazy because they make so little effort to understand or higlight he broader context of the issues they enounter. Irresponsible because whenever they are challenged on the content of stories they always pass the buck upwards. And while there is truth in their innocent pleas, they share the guilt too. The bottom line is always be wary of anyone who tells you that they are going to change the system from within - being inside means compromise has already happened.

by Grey Blocker Wed Feb 11, 2004 16:58

30, so you're beginning to become mature. Don't regard it as something negative.

by Watcher Wed Feb 11, 2004 17:06

What is the WSM position on the Black Bloc. Will they condemn their disruption of political protests or do they support the mindless violence of this unrepresentative minority? Will Chekov once again delete anything that is critical of him or the WSM?

by Pup off Wed Feb 11, 2004 17:17

Amazing, how the SP, the leading advocates of 'non-trolling', seem to have a blind spot to this sort of thing.

by antrophe Wed Feb 11, 2004 17:41

Ios Spoof poster advertising struggle.ws and indymedia.ie

download here Spoof Poster

Image of same availible at http://antrophe.freeservers.com/Ios.gif

apologies for clogging comment section..

by Barry Long Wed Feb 11, 2004 21:28

From reading the article it's obvious the more emotive language was inserted at the behest of the subs. In the reality the story wasn't very interesting so they spiced it up. The people who have resorted to personal attacks on Deirdre Tynan should examine their own consciences and their own motives. Could it be they are annoyed with themselves for talking to her?

Fact is, the people in the bar talked to her knowing she's a journo. And they knew the paper she writes for. Did they really think IOS would publish a glowing account of events. Be real.

IOS is a tabloid that wants to tittilate and stoke fear. If Deirdre Tynan hadn't wrote the article someone else would. The result could end up being positive with IOS rivals like the vile Sunday Indo doing all they can to rubbish Tynan's piece.

by Phuq Hedd Wed Feb 11, 2004 21:56

include George W. Bush (he doesn't just wreck cities he does whole countries!)

The Gardai-rioters (every event these sinister uniformed characters are there attacking people)

Special-Branch (these people torture citizens after they drag them off to one of their sinister headquarters)

I'm sure we can all add our own for Deirdre's next article.

by ec (middle management) Wed Feb 11, 2004 23:40

sounds very blairist to me!

Signed:
Middle management

Translation by:
Subeditor

Excuse:
Doing Job

by Poland in EU from 1 May 2004 Thu Feb 12, 2004 02:48

In Poland we're going to have our baptism into "economic summit" resistance actions around the same time as your 1 May stuff - and we've already got our first taste of media bullshit.

We should probably do a proper translation, below is one analysis of the (one) propaganda report we have so far on the alterWEF and antiWEF preparations in Warsaw - 28-30 April 2004, going through to 1 May 2004. See http://www.alter.most.org.pl/wef for antiwef stuff http://www.alter.most.org.pl/ase for alternative summit stuff. For those too lazy to click ;), the good news is that we *will* have a fairly decent alternative summit - it won't be called a "social forum", so the leftists should not be jealous (it's a non-hierarchical summit, not a forum ;), and i think they will participate. :)

The bad news is that we really have no idea how many "guest" activists from the rest of Europe will come and visit, nor how they will coordinate on tactics with each other and with locals. The other bad news is that a Warsaw newspaper has come out with the expected rubbish igoring all the human rights issues and claiming that protestors are mostly just ignorant, violent people, or else hoping to divide "good" protestors from "bad" ones...

The newspaper article focuses on "radical anarchists" who are likely to organise "fighters", and that their favorite technique is "black bloc" - who do "aggressive street fights". It refers to the Prague IMF actions and bullshits as you can expect. It ends up talking about skinheads associated with football fans of the "Ligia" football club in Warsaw being likely to participate as well - given that the football fans are better known for being associated with neonazi groups than anti-capitalist groups, though the popular press present football supporter violence as spontaneous, ignorant violence, pretending to ignore the racist aspect. Why this is mentioned is probably to associate the idea of irrational violence with the protests, and get all the debate focussed on the use of violence and nothing on the main issues.

We don't really seemed to have planned any direct response, apart from analysing the text on pl.indymedia.org and showing how silly it is.

BTW, someone known as Mary McAleese, who's apparently from your neck of the woods, is going to turn up in Warsaw for the WEF. If you have some nice links, not too long, that we can translate to show why Ms McAleese is a terrorist and a systematic human rights violater, that might be useful. (i'm only guessing here, i don't really know if Ms McAleese is that bad...)

While it would be nice if the WEF chickens out like it did in Dublin :), we're probably not well enough organised for that, and the symbolism of European extension being associated with rapid capitalist exploitation is something that the powers-that-be in Europe are unlikely to give up lightly.

If anyone from .ie is planning on coming to Warsaw - it might be worth keeping in mind that the face-to-face interaction and networking could be very inspiring to local activists. At the moment, if there are 2000 people in the main demo, we would probably call it a success - so a few dozen or so activists from each EU country would be enough to boost numbers by 10% and build up a rich web of getting-to-know-one-another relationships that can endure through email/web afterwards...

Hoping to see some of you over here in Warsaw... The usual obvious advice applies: the earlier you cross the border the better, both for not having your human rights violated (being stopped at the border), and for getting to know the locals, adapting a bit to local conditions, getting to know the internet cafes, etc.

(If you're an indymedia activist coming to Warsaw, you can contact the Warsaw collective at http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-pl-wawa )

--- citation begin from http://pl.indymedia.org/pl/2004/02/3900.shtml ---
PAP& MFI "reported" that a "Black Block"...
http://www.alterglobal.w.pl 10.02.2004 13:55

Polish press agencies PAP and MFI "reported" today that a "Black Bloc" may demolish Warsaw during the upcoming economic summit: "Polish anti-globalists are announcing protests that will be supported by foreign comrades". The last word has a negative meaning, as a result of Poland's era in the USSR sphere of influence.

Who the Black Bloc really is, see below Agnoletto's account from G8 meeting in Genoa, Italy. If the establishment is able to do it to tens of thousands
of peacefully protesting people, think what it could do to the anti-uranium weapons and anti-war movements. My recent warning about the behaviour of some people in the movements serve to make the leaders act preventively. Hate is the precondition for Black Bloc and violent police behaviour.

The PAP "report" is based on a story in the capital's daily "Zycie Warszawy". Using a negatively biased language, the daily suggests that "radical anarchist" factions of the national anti-globalist movement are planning Black Bloc havoc during the summit.

The daily cited assurances from Warsaw anarchist group that even their most radical ranks will not use any violence. City security chief Lucjan Belza said the matter is being discussed with the Office of Government Security (Biuro Ochrony Rzadu) and no "Prague protests scenario" is anticipated.

"Zycie Warszawy" suggested that skinheads connected with football fans will take part in the Warsaw protests. Like "radical anarchists" these groups are condemned by an average Pole for socially unacceptable behaviour.

Note that Black Bloc provocations were already plain in official TV reports from Seattle. Vioelnt persons were seen demolishing businesses on the street with police standing nearby.

Polish readers on the list are urged to - translate and broadcast Agnoletto's story to the Polish public - make President Kwasniewski and Warsaw's mayor Kaczynski aware of the provocation being prepared by the globalist forces to discredit civil, citizen protests in Warsaw.

DU Watch

--- citation end ---

The original article from Życia Warszawa is also quoted at
http://pl.indymedia.org/pl/2004/02/3900.shtml
from
http://www.zw.com.pl/apps/a/tekst.jsp?place=zw2_ListNews1&news_cat_id=9&news_id=31854

by Shane OCurry Thu Feb 12, 2004 16:09 s.ocurry at ulster dot ac dot uk

Does anyone know anyone in the NUJ who would write this up for "Journalist" which is distributed to members both in Britain and Ireland. A good piece should make the point about Ms Tynan's status as a freelancer (& presumably non-unionised) and therefore her vulnerability vis-a-vis the editors, making the connection between casualisation and poor reporting.

I'd do it myself but you (rightly) have to be a member of the NUJ to write for it.

by Badman Thu Feb 12, 2004 16:12

"From reading the article it's obvious the more emotive language was inserted at the behest of the subs. In the reality the story wasn't very interesting so they spiced it up." No it's not. That's not how it works. The story was essentially written by the time it left the desk of the editor who comissioned it. The editor simply took a similar article written by the UK hate-mail / evening sub-standard and commissioned a freelancer to fill in some local details to give it some credibility. Most of the (fake) details are taken directly from recent British scare-stories. The journalist took this on board in the full knowledge that that was her job and knowingly complied. As with any anti-social activity (which spreading blatant lies is), all of those who were knowingly involved bear some of the blame. The owners and editors definitely bear more, but that does not absolve the footsoldiers of guilt. Just as the existence of drug barons and death squads does not absolve the guy knocking out smack on his estate. "The people who have resorted to personal attacks on Deirdre Tynan should examine their own consciences and their own motives." Nobody has resorted to personal attacks on D. Tynan. Her name was put to an article that was packed full of blatant lies about a group of people. This was diseminated on the front page of a newspaper that sold about 170,000 copies. In response nobody has done any more than point out the truth and the truth of what happened has reached a far more limited audience than the lies that she helped spread. The truth paints D. Tynan in a poor light, but you can hardly blame anybody else for that. She also has a right to reply to any of the allegations against her, something that IoS hardly offers to those it slanders. "Could it be they are annoyed with themselves for talking to her?" I don't think that anybody is annoyed to have talked to her and that most people expected the article to be the heap of shite that was eventually printed. The article was if anything probably not quite as hysterical as it would have been if there had been no contact. The wombles don't talk to the mainstream media at all - and that hardly helps them. Whereas the wombles are painted as psychopathic terrorists, the Irish anarchists are just made to look like muppets. I know which one I prefer.

by silo Thu Feb 12, 2004 16:58

I was under the impression that Deirdre Tynan was going to use indymedia as a method of replying to criticism of her article. Where is she?

Perhaps we should email her instead; a quick google reveals that missives should be directed towards deirdretynan@hotmail.com.

Anyone who feels like writing should remember that it helps to be rational, concise, coherent and polite.

by tomsk - wombles Fri Feb 13, 2004 03:04 wombles at hushmail dot com c/o Wimbledon Common

Badman posted above to say "The wombles don't talk to the mainstream media at all - and that hardly helps them"

That is true now. Originally we took it on a case by case basis, and some people went out on a limb and guess what? evrything we said was distorted (a few articles in small london magazines were ok, i'll admit).

but in general we found talking to the media was like giving them a stick to beat you with. Now the general method of reporting on the WOMBLES is to abuse our openness and infiltrate the group: Tom Harding from the Daily Torygraph went all the way to Genoa with some of the crew and betrayed them in the middle of the battle, dissappearing to a plush hotel to file his exclusive story and earn his editor's praise while the others in the Genoa crew stayed in dangerous situations on the streets trying to find him.

A later example was Tasha Kosvina of the IoS stablemate London Evening Standard, who spent a month with the group before Mayday 2003.

Our general line with media enquiries is that we don't speak to them, and if they want a comment or to know anything about what we are doing they should look at our web site.

Also, with the London situation, we found that (especially for Mayday 2001) the Metropolitan police were holding daily briefings thgat were happily regurgitated by all the local and national media. The cops had decided the line to take on our group and the journalists - lazy buggers that they are - simply reproduced the misinformation.

There's no reason to assume things will be any different for Dublin. Watch out for identical stories, identical misspellings of web addresses or group names. It will become a police-co-ordinated smear campaign, something we should all be familiar with by now! The thing is to keep focussed on the action and the principles at hand, and not let the media get you down. Fuck them, basically.

by redjade Fri Feb 13, 2004 13:28

Why Media Justice?

Media Justice speaks to the need to go beyond creating greater access to the same rotten corporate media structure. We are interested in more than paternalistic conceptualizations of "access," more than paper rights, more than taking up space in a crowded boxcar along the corporate information highway. Media Justice takes into account history, culture, privilege, and power. We seek new relationships to media and a new vision and reality for its ownership, control, access, and structure. We understand that this will require new policies, systems, and structures that will treat our airwaves and our communities as more than markets for exploitation.

We believe that communities of color, indigenous communities, and other oppressed and underrepresented communities need to stake out a distinct space within and apart from the media democracy/reform movement -- similar to the environmental justice movement's relationship to the mainstream environmental movement. We believe this is necessary in order to meaningfully address differences in focus and approach to media organizing. At the heart of our work is a rigorous power analysis, with race, class, and gender at the center. We are not content to have these issues relegated to one segment of a "mainstream" discussion. We need a unique space so that our communities can move forward the visions and strategies for this work that are grounded in their own reality, which we believe will lead our society towards a truly free and democratic media.


more at link...

by R Isible Fri Feb 13, 2004 21:18

Be the media.

This whole episode seems to show that whether or not the journalist really was a malicious liar (and so far she hasn't bothered to have the courtesy to respond in public after causing all this so we're free to draw our own conclusions) or a weak person in an untenable position we should expect that the corporate media is going to lie and spin and distort.

Hence the need for www.indymedia.ie and www.anarchomedia.org and The Blanket and other web publications.

It's not perfect (lol!) but it removes the first of the filters mentioned by Chomsky&Herman.

by antrophe Wed Feb 18, 2004 01:36 antrophe at hotmail dot com

The tirade prone Ireland on Sunday recently pissed itself over a marauding 'global conspiracy' targeting the EU Summit, which has ‘in the past brought two major cities - Seattle and Genoa - to their knees when similar protests turned into bloodbaths with riot police battling armed thugs to protect property'. As one who attended the conspiratorial cabal that was the last publicly advertised anarchist ‘Bad Thoughts’ meeting ‘infiltrated’ by IoS, call me a cynic, but a grin broke across my face, reading the rehashed lies. Ironically, a previous meeting had discussed how the structures organising the media generated bias towards a conservative middle ground. Media control has all the subtlety and invisibility of the hand guiding the free market. Despite the passivity pervading society, its not as if some of us wouldn’t object if banner ads appeared in the press saying ‘anyone expressing dissenting opinions in our pages will be shot.’ Once credited as some unbiased fourth estate, a defender of democratic values and free expression what does the mass media now represent? Why has its role changed? And what the hell can be done about it?

There are a number of factors ensuring the mass media plays the role of propagandists, transmitting biased information which mobilises support for governing interests. The concentration of the ownership of the media is one. In the early 19th Century a free press emerged which reflected the interests and identities of working class communities. As the market for small papers grew and the technology of production developed, these papers died out or were consumed by larger entities. Breeching the mainstream has long been a problem for alternative print media reliant on direct sales. In the mainstream, advertisers provide the financial means by which news is produced. Outlets find themselves in constant competition with others to capture the attention of advertising interests. Mitigating against analysis and news stories which directly cut across the carefully cultivated image of brands and advertisers. Can anyone point to an article carrying details of Coca Cola’s campaign of harassment against workers in Colombia with a Coke ad sitting alongside it? A 1992 US study of 150 news editors found that 90 per cent said that advertisers tried to interfere with newspaper content. Recently, Eamonn Gilmore, Labour TD told an audience of UCD students how the Irish Independent refused to carry his party’s response to the housing crisis. Media interests are tied up in intricate knots of profit derived from ads, when news poses threats to this revenue then it is swiftly filtered out.

If advertisers interfere with content, then is it any surprise that owners might? Ireland on Sunday is part of Associated Newspapers Limited, taking in Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard, London Metro, and the advertising publication Loot. A glance at their board of directors reveals only 2/15 come from the world of journalism, the rest being representatives of illustrious companies like AIB, the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Euromoney Institutional Investor plc, Carphone Warehouse, shopping centre interests in US, UK and Australia, and the Reuters Group. Professor K Schwab, president of the World Economic Forum, a neo-liberal think tank (which according to some media reports was cancelled in Dublin due to potentially violent anarchist protest) and F P Balsemão, a former conservative Prime Minister of Portugal also pop up.

The media maintains a symbiotic relationship with structures of business and power. The press can’t afford to always have journalists at the frontline of a story instead concentrating them close to the geographic points of power; the White House, 10 Downing Street and so on. While political spin may be ridiculed and lambasted, the media still swallows information dripping from the lips of political elites. As a result journalism becomes unquestionably entangled in reflecting the bias of the points from which their stories derive. Embedded reporting during the invasion of Iraq saw journalists hounding after American military figures for news instead of seeking it themselves, reporters saw and reported what they were directed to see as the conflict was stage managed and directed to suit the interests of coalition forces. Scarily, this process was echoed amid the protests around the Free Trade Area of The America’s protests in Miami recently, where reporters were embedded in a police operation funded from the $87 billion allocated for Iraq. The national guard and police presence took on all the appearance of a force which occupied both the streets and in turn colonised the media. Journalists wore the same uniforms as cops, differentiated through one small detail; a small badge around their neck identifying them as reporters.

TV reports dominated by helicopters footage, suggested the danger of being on the streets. Like Iraq (think the bombing of Al-Jazeer and ‘friendly fire’) media operating outside the system of ‘embedding’ was too pushed outside acceptability, legitimising it as a target of attack. As Ana Nogueira, a reporter for the grassroots TV Network, Democracy Now! found. Filming as police attacked 30 hemmed in protesters, arresting her one shouted "She's not with us, she's not with us.’ Few reported the president of the United Steel Workers Union’s press statement that " the fundamental rights of thousands of Americans … were blatantly violated, sometimes violently, by the Miami police, who systematically repressed our Constitutional right to free assembly with massive force.” Accounts of police terror at the other side of lines of baton wielding riot cops snuck out only through eye-witness accounts published later through independent outlets.

Associated Newspapers has found itself in sharp conflict with the NUJ, defying legislation to set aside holiday rights at Xmas and refusing to recognise the union. Last December saw a wave of top journalists jumping ship, one described how "people are just tired of being asked to do hatchet jobs and things that go against their journalistic ethics - that's very hard for any professional journalist." Going through a crisis of consciousness for being sent to do a hatchet job at the Bad Thoughts discussion she had ‘infiltrated’, Deirdre Tynan of IoS was told by one activist to refer to NUJ ethical guidelines. ' The corporate media has no room for ‘fair and accurate’ journalism and now opts for ‘conjecture as established fact and falsification by distortion, selection or misrepresentation.' Journalistic ethic are flung out the window, alongside working conditions in the race for sales generating headlines which shock, titillate and seduce middle Ireland into opening their wallets.

Ireland on Sunday’s British sister papers have a history of ‘hatchet jobs’ distorting fact and misrepresenting political protest and opinions questioning more than the sex lives of celebrities and perhaps dare question the role of the corporate media. Lucy Morris of the Daily Mail in an article titled 'Armed Guard on Briton Who Led Rioters’ used her poisoned pen to viciously set up an Indymedia activist, Mick Covell, as being "in charge of computer systems used to co-ordinate attacks on the G8 summit by anarchist groups.’ Covell had been in the Diaz School which was being used as an independent media centre at the height of the Genoa G8 Summt. 51 were injured in a police raid, 31 faced hospital with three requiring surgery, Mick Covell was among the hospitalised. An activist from California recalled "there was blood at every sleeping spot, pools of it in some places, stuff thrown around, computers and equipment trashed." Mick 'Covell, described how he 'wanted to bring an Independent news viewpoint to what was happening in Genoa so that the world would not be lied to by corporate media. My argument was born and justified by what happened in Genoa and then what corporate media did to me as an example of how sick and twisted corporate media can be.' The International Federation of Journalists condemned the raid, while much of the mainstream media chose to remain oblivious, or simply lied.

The opinions of the mass media are an active partisan political force, reflecting the interests of the structures moulding it. It plays the role of transmitting and fostering the ideologies and belief systems of these structures. As we grow up watching TV and reading the corporate press, it socialises us into the hierarchical relationships we accept as our normalised daily environments and acts as a watchdog should any alternative arise to challenge the increasingly homogenised dead end of political sway. It Slanders and attacks movements fostering an alternative system of values. The recent IoS article which scare-mongered around the EU Summit epitomised the process. The documentary Chavez; Inside The Coup exposed the role the press played in rearranging the structure of events to bolster a military coup in Venezuela. Protecting the advertising revenue, sales and owners interest is the decisive factor deciding what avoids the chasm of un-newsworthiness, and delineates towards news biased to political and economic elites. No wonder many question the role of the corporate media. Tynan advised one activist in a private email, 'never talk to a mainstream print reporter, the individual reporter may be sympathetic but their editor will never be so.’ With debate in the media stultified , what are we to do?

When the tear-gas settled after the blockades which dogged the WTO talks in Seattle in 1999, the Indymedia phenomenon exploded as an alternative to the sensationalist manoeuvrings of a corporate media which to many seemed to display an witting refusal to carry fact. The network is reclaiming the media from Palestine to Dublin, linked to the political refrain of participatory direct democracy, providing the backbone to those movements which the mainstream media vilifies. As one of those involved in setting up Indymedia.org said at the time “Indymedia erodes the dividing line between reporters and reported, between active producers and passive audience." Finally it seems we can answer back to the mainstream. But then again, just how do you stumble across radical media outlets amid the vast anonymity of an increasingly commercialized cyberspace?

by Acton Bell - Anti-idiot activist Thu Feb 19, 2004 17:17 curer_bell1234 at indigo dot ie

The response to the article written in Ireland on Sunday was excessive and indicates just how far from any grasp of reality or even basic common sense many of the people who contribute are. In the first instance, it is very clear that many of the contributors did not even read the article. Fewer again have any interesting comment to make on the subject and make no proper defence of the criticism that they make other than to vilify all news journalists in certain instances, which only goes to show that you operate in a complete vacum of understanding or willingness to understand what is not presented to you in digestible single-discipline dogma. I know many of you well and some of you not at all, but I am realistic enough to accept that the activities proposed by many so called 'activists' (I say 'so-called' not because I believe you are anything more serious or covert, but becasue I believe you are, almost universally, incapable of the development required to initiate change rather than devote time for the moment to socialising with people who you think are seen by others as intelligent and as such make acceptable company for you at this time of your life)... Undoubtably it would be of solace to you to accept that, to paraphrase HH Munroe, the change you promulgate will never occur in your lifetime, if ever".

by Idiot-activist Thu Feb 19, 2004 17:37

What the hell are you talking about? Have you even read any of the responses? What is excessive about trying to point out the truth? The responses have mainly been very reasoned and have consisted of a bunch of people who were grossly lied about, trying to point out what actually happened. How dare they? But your strange rambling conclusions give you away. You're no activist, just another hack who wants to throw a bit more mud. Please point out the inaccuracies in what people have been written if you actually have bothered to read them - that's the big difference with the corporate media, you have a right to reply.

On a lighter note, type "Deirdre Tynan" into google and see what comes up in entries 1-4. A shame to have a journalistic career eclipsed so swiftly! Just goes to show you that our media isn't so bad at setting the record straight.

Big up Indymedia

by iosaf Thu Feb 19, 2004 23:48

I have as instructed typed Deirdre Tynan into the popular search engine Google, and have learnt that she has an association with Croatian grouplets, (so do I) and scientology!! (ooo I don't like that) and well the indymedia hits are top. But you'll get that, it reflects the weight of indymedia and not the hits to that particular part of cyberspace unfortuanately, if you type my name into Google you get an egunkaria reference (basque newspaper closed by Aznar) and something on Gardaí facing prosecution after RTS Mayday. And my comment on that wonderful report done by antoin on .ie domain registration. Though I know the hits to those bits of cyberspace are much much less than other pages I've been connected too. So google really doesn't give you an indication of how many people are reading.

so more "lighter note":-
does anyone know how Google proflies are established?

if you check the other meta search engines, Deirdre Tynan comes out as a East European specialist freelance journalist and her number one hit is her work for an English tabloid.

by Viva Che Mon Apr 19, 2004 20:17

This man knows nothing about anarchism and its ideals. But thats not the point. Your so called police who were in Genova trying to protect peoples property were responsible for murdering a young man by planting two bullets in his head and then running over him with a police truck. Its a great world we live in where a lifeless material object is worth more than a mans life. I'm not an anarchist but i see them as ideologists and your amazing police force who is there to protect those murderers is nothing more than a network of cold blooded killers, trained to protect the murderers of all big imperialist countries and organisations at any cost.

I will be in Dublin for the MAY DAY protest. If anything is to happen it will only be because the police started it. We are gonna be there to protest, not to murder. Thats the police's job.

Juliani R.I.P