Wombles not welcome here!

by Media watcher Tue May 04, 2004 13:14

What I'd love to know is, where were the 10,000 anarchists promised to us by the mainstream media? Now I would not be an expert on the anarchist movement, but surely any even half-intelligent journalist would be able to comprehend that that figure was a little far fetched, even for the entire European continent.
I look forward to seeing the scare stories for the Bush visit:
'20,000 anarchists threaten to steal Shannon runway'
- perhaps?Go on hacks, start working on the story. Make yourselves look like even bigger eejits.

by Zombie Tue May 04, 2004 13:16

Sorry to have to say this mate, but you are a fucking idiot.

Any confrontation on the day whether well organised or not allowed the gardai to sent in the riot squad, and it doesnt matter how well organised a bunch of treehuggers are, they simply will never beat the riot squad.

As it happened the scum present on the day looked like a monkey fucking a football.

Any decent irish person knows the difficult job a garda has trying to keep all the people happy all of the time. And any decent irish person knows, that when a water cannon and a riot squad are deployed on the streets of dublin to respond to a serious breach of peace, that any decent peaceful citizen will immediately leave and any person that remains is fair game for the men with big sticks!!

by Steve Tue May 04, 2004 13:22

The tabloid build-up to Bushie's little stop-over should be interesting as well as hilarious. A few possibilities:

ANARCHISTS WORKING WITH AL-QAEDA
EVIL PLOT TO NUKE AIRPORT
GENOA THUGS TO MAKE UP FOR MISSED MAYDAY
BUSH FEARS FOR LIFE
SADDAM ESCAPES TO SHANNON


Yep, far-fetched, that's the tabloids for ya.

by Zombie watch Tue May 04, 2004 13:35

This is all completely over-hyped.

Compare and contrast:
On Saturday in Dublin around 25 were arrested under the glare of the world's media. Thousands of guards diverted and RUC water cannons deployed.

Also on Saturday over 30 people were arrested in Killarney when gardai were pelted with missiles and bottles. Not the same amount of coverage or hype.

Of course the corporate media wouldn't be biased in their reporting of two similar outbreaks of law and disorder, would they?

by black blocker Tue May 04, 2004 14:02

Well 'Irish Republican' I'm guessing you're one of the twats who was waving irish flags/wearing celtic jerseys/shinner badges?

The wombles were invited over, they weren't hijacking anything. You were.

It was a march against nations and borders you fucking idiot. What the fuck were you doing there with your nationalist shite?

Breaking through the original line of cops would have left us seperated from the rest of the protestors and surrounded by riot cops. The same goes for heading down sidestreets. I know nationalists are stupid, but surely you noticed there were more cops in Dublin than protestors. Getting split up and surrounded by the scum is the stupidest thing you could do in such a situation.

You're the one who's not welcome. Fuck off back to the sixties when your republican shite might have meant something.

by Womble watcher Tue May 04, 2004 14:03

I agree their tactics were completely wrong.

It leaves a bad taste in the mouth but were there some agitators in the crowd who knew where the police wanted to confront the march on their own terms?

This protest asks more questions than it answers:
Why did the black bloc tell the guards they were about to attack on their megaphones five minutes before anything happened?
Who was this man who was filmed talking to the police afterwards
How come the media were able to be at the front of the demo when even the people on the march didnt know where it was going
Why werent there any diversionary tactics in town during the day?

These anarchist groups cannot be trusted until they make a full account for what they did on the day.

by op Tue May 04, 2004 14:14

Irish Republican do you not know how to use a search engine....... "who are these wombles"
type it in ya headbanger!

by Action not talk Tue May 04, 2004 14:58

I think 'black-blocker' has completely missed the point.
The point of the debate here is to get our tactics right next time.
I for one want Republicans at demonstrations like these - the few people from the North i saw there were giving helpful advice and first aid to people - I think it is wrong to be sectarian at this stage.

What I want to know why did we even bother to charge the police lines at this point. a crowd of 2000 attacking 3500 Guards backed up by God knows how many soldiers just seems like stupidity to me.

Are we now in the hands of people who enjoy meaningless sacrifice? Go over the top and who cares if we get destroyed as long as we are right to attack.

I think with the right planning and coordination we could have got into Pheonix Park - Have you never heard of splitting up into groups and taking the bus?

This debate needs to take place before we let wankers like black blocker take charge of the anti Bush demos - We will have more to worry about then than two half powered water cannons

by alternahippie Tue May 04, 2004 16:23 alternahippie213 at yahoo dot com

Did anyone ever think of just sitting down and keeping the entire group together, making the gardai with their water cannons and riot gear look like fools? Sit there and sing them a song or two? I know that is so sickingly idealistic, but what really did the wombles do for this protest? It looks good... a bunch of guys and girls marching up unafraid of the gardai in black and masks like death... it's good media ops as well but is that we want? I marched for a total of eleven hours on saturday, and threw nothing, did nothing out of the reach of peaceful protest, and so did 1800 other people. It is ridiculous that none of that was shown by the media. That is not our fault but we know how they work; next time don't give them a chance. Isn't it better to humiliate your enemy than to simply give them the finger when you know that have a knife that they can cut it off with? Doesn't that "explain" why the taxpayers payed so much for that "knife"? And if we are going to attack, I agree that we should have all stuck together. At least if we all agreed to be peaceful, we would have all been together. And two more things about the media I just want to see: I wonder where RTE was when the crowd was singing Bob Marley to calm everyone down after being chased by the cops? Where were they when people were singing and dancing? Or even why did I see nothing about the anarchist flag closing the AIB bank? Hmmm... The question is if we did nothing "interesting" would they be forced to put in such symbolic gestures?

by keet Tue May 04, 2004 16:29 kowboy at hotmail dot com

to further zombies post, i did also see in a sunday paper that these were the worst roits in the history of the state,..... 29 people arrested .... on the same nite 30 arested in a small town ...... and thats on top of the 15 that were also arrested of friday night, little mention in the media, and we know who these people are and they will be at the same ting at there next car rally...

by black blocker Tue May 04, 2004 17:21

and what action would that be?

what exactly have you done in preparation for the bush visit?

republicans and people from the north are two different things you twat

splitting into groups and taking the bus? what a great idea. i'm sure it'd be a lot safer to arrive into the middle of a few thousand cops in dribs and drabs instead of as a block. yea splitting into small groups and getting seperated is a REAL good idea.

You fuckwit, i agree we need to address tactics, i never said otherwise. However, 'IR' claiming to speak for the rest of us and tell the wombles they're not welcome isn't helpful. neither are your ridiculous suggestions.

and telling nationalists to fuck off isn't being sectarian. anarchists CAN'T work with nationalists: our principles are diametrically opposed. You don't see the stupidity of having irish flags on a 'no nations, no borders' march?

by Paul Mac, Tue May 04, 2004 21:27 pmac1_6 at msn dot com

These Brits (Wombles) are not welcome in Ireland North or South. Stay in the UK and do your own protesting. Bloody lot of ex para's.

by conor - sa Tue May 04, 2004 21:47

narrow minded cnuts the lot of em. stay at home, and do your own washing.

the sit eat eon is fine as it stands. wombles welcome here.

by Ciaron Tue May 04, 2004 22:48

The Womble couple who stayed with us were great guests....we had lots of differences as you can imagine, but a lot of animated respectful discussions over the daze. they are both involved in a lot of community organising back in London and hospitality to folks, so lots of common ground and lots of differences as well

The following is my subjective perspective on some of th3 evolution of the Wombles...............................................I was in London before May Day monopoly when a small crew came back from Italy keen to duplicate the nonviolent militancy of Ya Basta...the comical padded up, upbeat battering ram of the nonviolent movement. Where people dress in inner tubes etc and get between the crowd and cops and become an assertive buffer to break police lines. This experiment was the White Overall Movement for Better Libertarian Struggle (WOMBLES)...it was an unsuccessful english duplication of an italian tactic....they never recruited to a critical mass to duplicate this nonviolent militant tactic (I assume the WOMBATS Whiteoverall Big Assed something or other in Australia didn't fare too much better as they seem to have disapeared without a trace?)

What did happen is that the cops and media targetted the WOMBLES as the next threat to Western Civilisation (this was before S11NYC)....to justify their unjustifiable militarisation of a cop response to May Day in London (this wasn't the Wombles fault etc). The Met admitted after May Day monopoly their tactic (announcing snipers on the rof, armed raids of suppose Womble squats) was an attempt to scare off "legitimate protesters from May Day".

It seems somewhere along the line the Ya Basta tactics have been abandoned and folks more interested in Blac Bloc tactics (which is another story) stuck with the media brand name of Wombles (dunno why maybe it was free advertising in terms of recruitment...second only to Swampy in brand recognition!!!!).

I was looking forward to seeing some Ya Basta tactics on Saturday night but their wasn't the preparation or interest it seems.

The point is we have to move from protest to nonviolent resistance (symbolic and actual)...the unmasked, chilled out courageous Chinese guy standing in front of the tank at Tinamon Square..was confronting power. Action is both symbolic and actual...the actual part of it (disrupting the tank for some moments) relates to inanimate objects....the symbolic dimension of that guy's actions inspires us still as it relates to the hearts and minds of other wills and consciousnesses (is tat a word?)....so don't use symbolic as a swear word!

We were outnumbered, out resourced, infiltrated and acting in the limits of a "come one come all" confrontation with power (we didn't know who we were, the State knew who they were and who we were)...so let's not beat ourselves up too much.

It's time now to look after our casualties. Pick a name from the lsit in Monday's irish Times and support them (you don't have to agree with everything they do or did) through their long journey through the courts, parental harrassment, job sackings over the next few months.

And keep the serious reflection and discussions going

by no borders Wed May 05, 2004 09:40

your country. OUR planet. I've met too many of you hypocritical nazi tunnel-visioned scumbags. Talk about racism...

by mr adams - anti gardia Thu May 06, 2004 00:47 a a

the gardia ar feckin shites, if yu ejiots look confrontation on the day was enevitaable black bloc or not, the gardia would of used there hired toys on somebody, if you want to stand and peacefully chant fine. but what about if i'm not part of the black bloc and I get twated in the face with a police trunchen, non violence is not what i'm goin a be tinkin of. REPECT FOR AUTONOMY and Diversity peacefully or violently,