London Catholic Worker protest outside Northwood military base (From Watford Observer)
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London Catholic Worker protest outside Northwood military base
4:27pm Thursday 30th December 2010 in News
Protesters descended on Northwood yesterday to demonstrate against the war in Afghanistan.
The group, from the London Catholic Worker, carried placards with anti-war slogans and demanded peace outside the military base, in Sandy Lane.
Scott Albrecht, from the group explained: “The protest was organised to highlight the unjust war and atrocities that are being carried out in Afghanistan – we want an end to it all.
“It was arranged on the same day of the Feast of the Holy Innocents - fitting really -and we read out a list of military and civilian casualties.
“We also took the time to demand the release of political prisoners, who have been unjustly arrested for exposing war crimes – that is Julian Assange and PC Bradley Manning.”
The London Catholic Worker, a non-violent community, focuses their resistance on the “war on terror”, British nuclear weapons and the arms trade.
Police officers were out in force yesterday morning, outside the base, from where British operations in Afghanistan are coordinated.
Ciaron O’Reilly, who climbed over the fence and infiltrated the base, said: “Last year we took part in a protest alongside Justice Not Vengeance.
“We wore bloody wedding clothes as we wanted to simulate the bombing of a wedding party in Haji Nabu, Aghanistan, which took place two years before.
“Our protests are peaceful but they are about raising awareness. As someone who has family who has fought and knows people who have fought, it is important that our voices are heard.
“We don’t want war, we don’t want to be part of it.
"The base in Northwood has played a central role in some of the major conflicts – Afghanistan, the Falklands, Bosnia, Iraq.
“Some of the police where sympathetic to our cause, and the soldier, who I believe had served, and caught me after I infiltrated the base seemed understanding.
“We were treated well, there were no problems – I had thought I would be arrested by police after climbing over the fence, but I wasn’t.”
Sarah Spence, from Hertfordshire Constabulary, confirmed that police had been made aware prior to the demonstration that a peaceful protest was set to take place.
Comments(21)
BigDawg
says...
9:02pm Thu 30 Dec 10
'We don’t want war, we don’t want to be part of it.' - a very noble statement sonny and believe me I don't want anyone innocent to be killed any more than you do, however if you want to have the right to tie up the police for a few hours to exercise your right to free speech you must also accept that sometimes armed conflict is the most expedient way to protect that right (please refer to World War 2 1939-1945 for further clarification)
smalon
says...
9:05pm Thu 30 Dec 10
Who are the UAF John as I've never heard of them?
Roy Stockdill
says...
10:49pm Thu 30 Dec 10
What on earth do these nutters think they are achieving by climbing the odd fence here and there and waving placards and reading out nonsense? Do they seriously think they are going to have any effect whatsoever on the authorities?
Wars, battles and confrontation have existed throughout the entire history of the Earth and mankind and always will do - it's called human nature and what human beings are programmed to do from birth, not to mention animals whose entire existence is geared to fighting one another to ensure survival.
These well-meaning little souls who protest about everything are probably brave but exceptionally stupid, doomed to be dismissed as failures and crackpots.
LSC
says...
1:59am Fri 31 Dec 10
But you can only join in if you are from London, a catholic and have a job. Otherwise, go elsewhere, thank you.
Oooh, the Irony....
Roy Stockdill
says...
12:20pm Fri 31 Dec 10
A classic example of the warped and demented thinking of these Loony Lefties!
Julian Assange has NOT been arrested for exposing war crimes in WikiLeaks. He is charged with serious sexual offences against women in Sweden. However, his supporters choose to ignore this fact and have turned him into some kind of hero. In their deranged view of the world, it's all a plot by the Americans to fit him up.
Ironically, the Far Left is in turmoil because the feminist Sisterhood, who normally regard all men as potential rapists, don't know which way to turn (so to speak!). Even The Guardian did a sudden U-turn and published details of previously unseen documents from the Swedish police citing details of the claims by the women who say Assange raped them. How very embarrassing for one who claims to be such an outstanding supporter of free speech and a whistle blower to have the Guardianistas turning on him!
Of course, the rape case has still to be heard and we mustn't pre-judge it. However, the possibility is there that Julian Assange is both a hero and a sex criminal.
The issue of whether or not the WikiLeaks disclosures are in the wider public interest, or whether they have put lives at risk, is a debate that has no simple black-and-white answer. But I can't help thinking that had people like Assange, and those who support him, been around during the Second World War they would probably have approved of revealing all the Allies' military plans to Hitler and the Nazis in the spurious pursuit of "free speech"!
bomber18
says...
12:32pm Fri 31 Dec 10
Roy Stockdill wrote:And there was I believing Roy Stockdill had just a little common sense!
Well-meaning but naive loonies, all of them! What on earth do these nutters think they are achieving by climbing the odd fence here and there and waving placards and reading out nonsense? Do they seriously think they are going to have any effect whatsoever on the authorities? Wars, battles and confrontation have existed throughout the entire history of the Earth and mankind and always will do - it's called human nature and what human beings are programmed to do from birth, not to mention animals whose entire existence is geared to fighting one another to ensure survival. These well-meaning little souls who protest about everything are probably brave but exceptionally stupid, doomed to be dismissed as failures and crackpots.
Roy Stockdill
says...
12:52pm Fri 31 Dec 10
I'm afraid I am not clear as to which part of my post you object to or what point you are making.
bomber18
says...
12:59pm Fri 31 Dec 10
Roy Stockdill wrote:Unfortunately you come over as a latent member of the British National Party.As a student of history you should know that "us ordinary" people never acieved anything without demonstrations.
>And there was I believing Roy Stockdill had just a little common sense!< I'm afraid I am not clear as to which part of my post you object to or what point you are making.
Roy Stockdill
says...
1:16pm Fri 31 Dec 10
Actually, I had ancestors in Bradford who were desperately poor wool combers and who, therefore, were almost certainly part of the Chartist movement of the 1830s and 1840s, since Bradford was a hotbed and flashpoint of Chartism. As a genealogist, I can point to an ancestry and background that is virtually 100 per cent working class.
However, in those times of enormous inequality there were causes worth fighting for. Today's rent-a-mob protesters and rioters appear to be largely a motley crew of disaffected failures filled with hatred, who seek to lay the blame for their own inadequacies at the door of others.
Personally, I happen to think we should pull out of Afghanistan - but only because I don't want to see any more brave British soldiers killed trying to change a country that is still living in the Middle Ages and clearly doesn't want to join the rest of us in the 21st century.
Climbing walls, breaking into military bases and reading out nonsensical and naive statements isn't going to achieve this end.
LSC
says...
1:32pm Fri 31 Dec 10
bomber18 wrote:Help me out here; can you please name a demonstration that changed things? the two that people usually cite are poll tax and suffragettes. But the poll tax was changed by the ballot box, and women got the vote because of a war. India was given independance not because of Ghandi's protests, but because it became too expensive to run. Anti Vietnam war marchers didn't change history. Perhaps the Civil Rights roits did change laws, but bigotry is still rife.
Roy Stockdill wrote: >And there was I believing Roy Stockdill had just a little common sense!< I'm afraid I am not clear as to which part of my post you object to or what point you are making.Unfortunately you come over as a latent member of the British National Party.As a student of history you should know that "us ordinary" people never acieved anything without demonstrations.
I'd just like an example of a demo that worked.
xcllr
says...
6:53pm Fri 31 Dec 10
Roy Stockdill
says...
7:43pm Fri 31 Dec 10
Both are stated to be "Third Order Franciscans (whatever that means), while the wife Maria has a Diploma in Compassionate Ministry from Chicago and he has an MA in Peace Studies.
They live on a farm at West Hyde that is working towards a self sustaining lifestyle with "permaculture gardening" - whatever that is. As I originally commented, a bunch of probably well-meaning loonies who have difficulty in growing up.
This lot would probably have been against WWII and have refused to fight against Hitler and Nazism in 1939.
John Dowdle
says...
2:35am Sat 1 Jan 11
The Chartist movement did not immediately achieve the goal of a universal franchise but over time it did lead to a progressive widening of the franchise in Britain.
The demonstrations calling for women to be given the right to vote – supported by some men – did eventually lead to women getting the vote, though I agree with LSC that the role of women in munitions’ production and their overall work in World War One did demonstrate beyond further question that they were equally capable of making rational judgments as men when it came to deciding who to vote for.
This particular group at Northwood seem to be a small bunch of attention-seekers.
I do not agree that war is an inevitable aspect of human nature. I side with Winston Churchill, who said “Jaw, jaw – not war, war”, i.e. it is always better to seek diplomatic and political alternatives to military conflict. Indeed, most military people I have ever known have supported this position too.
Our predecessors fought against Nazism and other forms of totalitarianism to secure for us the right to express political dissent – and this includes having the right to demonstrate peacefully.
I therefore support the right of these religious crackpots to express their dissent, even if their actions are irrational and stupid.
If we curtail their rights then we may end up curtailing our own.
My key security word is girl-food. Is this purely coincidental?
Roy Stockdill
says...
12:55pm Sat 1 Jan 11
Re-reading the above comments, John, I don't see any that actually suggested this bunch ought to be stopped from carrying out their activities. More, the consensus appears to be that they are, as you describe them, religious crackpots and attention-seekers who will undoubtedly fail to achieve much, if anything. I note from their website that they work with drug addicts and the homeless, which is something they should stick with as being more worthy than breaking into military bases trying to get themselves arrested. You note they failed even to get arrested? How galling that must have been for a bunch of self-styled martyrs!
On the wider issue, of course there have been protests that have achieved social change - however, these were MASS protests supported by millions (the Chartists, Suffragettes, poll tax, etc). What we are talking about here is a tiny group of naive little souls who probably wake up every morning desperately thinking "Now, what can I go out and protest about today?"
Protesting about this, demonstrating about that, is a way of life for them, as they are clearly professional agitators unable to cope with life unless they have something to whinge about!
CallowlandChris
says...
2:52pm Sat 1 Jan 11
Andyb wrote:Reading a rant like that begs the question: who would employ someone who can't spell or understand basic english grammar?
The great unwashed are playing again i see, ok they may have a point but why are they not at work and paying taxes to pay for the policeing of such stupid events, ok i maybe generlising but when you see the pic on tele and in papers, who would employ such a type.. tossers x
CallowlandChris
says...
3:12pm Sat 1 Jan 11
I'm struggling to see what this article has to do with the UAF? Regardless, I can't see the point in trying to argue rationally with someone who thinks that a protest group like the UAF 'are being employed by the Government to protest'. I have heard some nutty conspiracy theories over the years, but that one is a certainly up there! Fortunately the UAF are becoming increasingly irrelevant as the forces they campaign against self-implode. The BNP are virtually bankrupt after getting wiped out at the last general election and are being destroyed from within by internal fighting. The EDL are in slightly ruder health, but a bunch of skinhead football hooligans are unlikely to ever become a meaningful political force. The police now know how to deal with them: surround them in a space away from other people and they start battering each other instead. A journalist friend of mine saw it a while back in the midlands and said it was like watching evolution in reverse...
Incidentally, isn't it a bit rich for you to criticise the catholic church for being Nazi collaborators when you support the BNP?!
CallowlandChris
says...
3:28pm Sat 1 Jan 11
As John Dowdle has said, protests can change things. Although they would need to be bigger than this one! There are countless examples I can think of where grass routes campaigning has changed things. The Jubilee Debt campaign and fairtade stuff are just two recent examples where big change occurred. While the protests against the Iraq war did not stop it happening, you can see how it ultimately led to the Labour party being thrown out of government – as they alienated voters.
Regarding the various comments by Roy Stockdill: I haven't got time to critique the rantings. All that I will say is that a decent historian would never write politicised twaddle like that.
john o'gravy
says...
6:38pm Sat 1 Jan 11
CallowlandChris wrote:How dare you suggest that I support such a 'political' party.
Regarding comments by John O'gravy:
I'm struggling to see what this article has to do with the UAF? Regardless, I can't see the point in trying to argue rationally with someone who thinks that a protest group like the UAF 'are being employed by the Government to protest'. I have heard some nutty conspiracy theories over the years, but that one is a certainly up there! Fortunately the UAF are becoming increasingly irrelevant as the forces they campaign against self-implode. The BNP are virtually bankrupt after getting wiped out at the last general election and are being destroyed from within by internal fighting. The EDL are in slightly ruder health, but a bunch of skinhead football hooligans are unlikely to ever become a meaningful political force. The police now know how to deal with them: surround them in a space away from other people and they start battering each other instead. A journalist friend of mine saw it a while back in the midlands and said it was like watching evolution in reverse...
Incidentally, isn't it a bit rich for you to criticise the catholic church for being Nazi collaborators when you support the BNP?!
The UAF are sponsored by government, whether idiots like you want to acknowledge it or not.
Whether the EDL or BNP or any other group hold a rally to voice their dissent at the way in which the political elite,(mostly public school educated millionaires), are selling our heritage and traditions down the swanny for the benefit of the invading masses, this unwashed rent-a-mob turn up.
Coincidence?.... Definitely not.
Wake up and smell the coffee, chump.
Roy Stockdill
says...
9:06am Sun 2 Jan 11
I do not "rant". If you would only spare a few moments to re-read and analyse my comments (assuming you possess the intellect, which is debateable) you will find that I make cogent, logical points in straight-forward, classical English, employing correct grammar, spelling and puncation - rather more than can be said for many on this forum.
I particularly refer you to my comments on Julian Assange and the fact that the London Catholic Worker oddballs appear to conveniently ignore the fact that he was arrested on rape charges.
I do not claim to be a professional historian in general terms, though I am probably one of the better-known genealogists and family historians in the UK, as a simple search with Google will establish. However, yes, I love history and always have done. But I think you will find that virtually all historical events and attitudes have their political aspects, since everyone's perspective is inevitably different.
Watford_Chick
says...
9:40am Sun 2 Jan 11
Everyone is entiled there there own opions, so try being mature (if that is possible!!) and only make your comment on your own feelings not B1tch about someone else's!!
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4:58pm Thu 30 Dec 10