Five pacifists prepare for trial
Norman Aisbett wrote a terrific profile of Australian-Irish pacifist Ciaron O’Reilly in the ‘Weekend Extra’ section of The West Australian newspaper on 20 May 2006 (which unfortunately is not available online, but I quote it below). He describes how in 2003 O’Reilly and four fellow activists broke into a hangar at Shannon Airport near Limerick and ‘disarmed’ a US navy warplane. This act of nonviolence consisted of damaging the plane with hammers and a mattock, as well as other symbolic and commemorative acts such as painting a slogan on the hangar ("Pitstop of Death"), pouring their own blood on the runway and constructing a shrine to the huge numbers of Iraqi children who died as a result of the UN-imposed sanctions and those endangered by the then-looming war.
Ireland is supposed to be neutral in the war on Iraq, but allows this airport to be used by the US as a pit-stop for refuelling warplanes that carry troops and munitions to Iraq and prisoners of war to places such as Guantanamo Bay. The plane disarmed by the ‘Pitstop Ploughshares’ activists did not proceed to Iraq, but was returned to Texas. Three private troop transport companies also pulled out of Ireland, allegedly in response to the pacifists’ action.
Why Ploughshares? A ploughshare is the part of a plough which breaks up the earth in preparation for planting crops. Ploughshares activists take inspiration from the Hebrew prophecy that nations "shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and . . . study war no more". They are also members of the Catholic Worker movement, whose founder, Dorothy Day (1897-1980), encouraged people to "fill the jails with nonviolent resistance to war."
O’Reilly, 45, has served jail terms for his activism before, and faces up to ten years inside this time, if convicted. Far from evading responsibility for their actions, Ploughshares activists sit down and pray while awaiting arrest, and encourage security guards and police to join them. This ‘Pitstop’ action in Ireland is one of perhaps 100 similar acts of resistance by Ploughshares members worldwide.
O’Reilly is critical of ‘mainstream’ pacifist activity, such as brought an unprecedented number of people to the streets worldwide to protest the outbreak of the Iraq war. He questions where that groundswell of public opinion went and what it achieved:
"A lot of the political groups who organise when there’s a war just see it as a marketing opportunity . . . They’re not really serious about resisting the war. . . Three years ago there were literally three million people on the streets and [yet] the war is grinding on. It hasn’t ended and there’s very little evidence of any civilian anti-war movement at the moment. . . All they need is our silence."
During a recent speaking tour of Australia while on bail, Brisbane-born O’Reilly suggested that if even one per cent of the people who marched against the war on 15 February 2003 undertook nonviolent resistance and, crucially, if the other 99 per cent of them supported those courageous activists, there might be some hope of stopping this (and other) war.
One way you can support them is to help fund the forthcoming trial of the Pitstop Ploughshares Five. This is not the first but the third time these five have faced trial for their part of the action at Shannon Airport. They have endured two mistrials owing to apparent bias on the part of the presiding judge. (The second of whom was a personal friend, it emerged, of George W. Bush.) They need your support to fly in witnesses critical to their defence. In the second aborted trial, for instance, they produced a former US Marine Sergeant who admitted in the witness box to complicity in breaching the Geneva Conventions. His platoon had shot dead thirty Iraqi civilians. The Pitstop Five argued that they acted to prevent such crimes.
The third trial is due to commence in Dublin on 5 July. You can follow the action at www.peaceontrial.com Australian readers may be interested to hear Ciaron O’Reilly interviewed by Andrew Denton on Enough Rope tomorrow night at 9:35 on ABC-TV. A transcript of the interview should be available shortly thereafter.
[…] The 5 Catholic Worker pacifists who in February 2003 disarmed a US Navy warplane at Shannon airport in the ‘neutral’ Republic of Ireland have just endure their third trial for 10 counts of criminal damage and were today acquitted on all counts. Their principle defence was that they had ‘lawful excuse’ to damage the plane, namely that by doing so they were saving life and property in Iraq – the ultimate destination of the plane and its deadly cargo. The plane was indeed returned to the USA for repair and, as an expert witness testified in the trial, they could reasonably expect to succeeded in their aim. […]
[…] As many as 100 similar nonviolent actions intended to disrupt the war have been undertaken by people willing to serve time in gaol in the hope of saving lives and property protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention. […]
[…] Zelda Jeffers and Fr. Martin Newell (pictured with Ciaron O’Reilly) are members of the London Catholic Worker, inspired by nonviolence icons Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King and the US founder of this international movement, Dorothy Day. Jeffers and Newell live in a community that offers hospitality to the "poor and homeless, refugees and other migrants." […]
[…] acts of nonviolent resistance to war share the 'Ploughshares' name and the Biblical vision of Isaiah 2:4, that nations "shall beat their swords into […]
[…] days later, 5 other nonviolent war resisters calling themselves the 'Pitstop Ploughshares' would further disabled the same aircraft, which would then be taken out of service and […]
[…] days later, 5 other nonviolent war resisters calling themselves the 'Pitstop Ploughshares' would further disabled the same aircraft, which would then be taken out of service and […]