>b>We are the weapons of mass distruption

Here is something I wrote on the bus home from the protest in shannon

Dec 6th
Today is canadians viollence against womens day, remembering the Montreal Massacre in 89. Over here in Ireland the day passes withour much reference to violence against women, excpet for comments about a riot cop smashing his shield into a girls face. The violence at the protest was gender neutral and age nuetral - which was noted when a girl pointed pass the crowd to the line of riot cops to the exact man who has punched her twelve year old brother in the face. The protest in shannon seeme to have little to do with american troops continued occupation in Iraq an dthe Irish governements falce nutralisty in this imperialist war, minus a few speaches made by the irish anti war movement. The fight today was between the protestors aand the garda. The goal of the events was to block the roads to prevent cars from accessing the airport, this blockade was successful but was done by the garda themselves. Except for one round about blockacde where IAWM heads sat down on the street and blocked the one street not alreay covered my the copd, the shuttin down of shannon occured with out our assistnace. Precaution shut down the airport not direct action.

The action came with the head on head battle between the protestors and the cops. The cat and mouse game on deviance and control was seen when we wouldn't let a van full of cops through, when the protestors grabbed hold of someone getting arrested, when the black block got accross a bridge that was previous controled by the garda. When the black block and followers ran throught hte bush and the garda pushed us back into the desinated space. And finally at the standoff between the riot cops and protestors on our way home in a viollent game of red rover.

It was about space, it was about control it was about freedom. These things are all connectede ot the use of hte shannon warport. But it wan't these things that "stopped business as usual".

looking back now at the events of the day I have warm memories, yes its true that were not as effective as we might have been, and muc of our goals were done for us, but at the same time we got over 300 to travel all day to dublin to shannon and back, when nothing new has happened in terms of the war and the use of shannon warport. We were able to get the cops so scared to what we were doing that there were more of them then us and they did our work for us. We were able to demoralize the riotcops by laughing and pointing and getting our pictures taken with them as if we were in disney worlds remake of a protest. I got a great pic of ready and i smiling in front of the riot cops, I think it will make a great x-mas card!!Even children were not scared of these cops they went up and put stickers on the shiny new shields. There is something about a riot cop with a brand new shield that makes you feel more powerful then them, you know they have never used it before, you know you have more experience then them in these situations, and you can't help laughing at the pathitic looks on there faces as we dance around them.

I watched a video of the event, there is this one moment when the black black and others (including me) jumped over a fence and ran through the bushes towards an unblocked road, the regular cops ran after us and blocked us from all angles threatenign arrest if we didn't retreat. The riot cops altough near by were unable to get anywhere near us, they walk in slow motion as if they are robots, as if they were programed like the terminator to stay cool at all times, as if the threat of there slow steady progress would stop us from breaking down fences. The regular cops did more of the controling of our movement and behaviour then the riot cops coudl even dream to do.

I would have to say the highlights of the day in terms of my own personal entertainment were as followed:

-at the start of the event the grassroots crew and the IAWM crew seperated into two actions, the IAWM marched down the main street channing things like "US MILITARY OUT OF SHANNON" and "GEORGE BUS WE KNOW YOU, YOUR DADDY WAS A KILLER TOO", while the grassroots peps went a side road, we got to a point where the road a head was block by the riotcops. the black block did a count down at one there was a mad rush jump over the fence to the left of us into a swamp like bush, we ran and ran noting that no cops followed us . . .we stopped and had a look at the map, someone shouted that we went the wrong way . . . at that point as a I felt I was in some sort of scavenger hunt rather then a protest we decided in order to save face from the cops we would rather continue this mad journey into the swampish area, jumping over miny creeks and wandering throught the mud and thorn then go back and face the ridicule of the cops. WE ran adn ran giggling at the tiem, cian (a flat mate of ready's who is also 25 and been active for 10 year or so) had a perma smile on his face and kept repeating how this was a first for him . . . a library sleap over on wednesday and a scavenger hunt on saturday I say that was a first for many an activist.

the second moment that I took home with me was the moment food not bombs announched they had vegan brownies!!! I ran passed many an anarcist pushing my way through the crowd to secure a delisious vegan brownie, with that amount of force and energy I'm sure I could have got passed a full line of riot cops. if only th ewarport security had vegan brownies I could have been the firs one to make ito the the perimiter.