Notes by an attendee from Caoimhe Butterly’s public meeting today (20th Jan 07 in Dublin) for those who couldn’t make it:

Caoimhe, who has spent the past five months in Lebanon and who experienced the results of Israel's offensive, is back in Ireland briefly. During her visit she will speak about her experiences in Lebanon (in both Beirut and the South) and will be highlighting projects that she is currently involved with (including a film project about life in the wake of the Israeli bombardment and invasion). She has today succesfully spoken in Dublin, and is due to speak in Cork, Belfast, Limerick, Derry, Galway and Nenagh.

A great general Lebanese public coalition group are protesting in Lebanon with mobilisations of up to 2 million people gathering in public spaces, only a few weeks ago there were two million people gathered in Martyrs’ Square, but with very little or no media coverage – very inspiring humanitarian event but as usual it was not well covered by the western media.
The national unity government really is those people and coalition groups who are camping out and debating and discussing the real issues of the people around bonfires. There is growing commonality and empowerment of the people as a whole now, resulting from the participation of the masses of common people with the coalition, which is such a postitive force present in Lebanon. Any old sectarian groupings are being dismantled as a result of the common humanitarian exchange and spirit of the mobilisations.
Groups have been attempting to undermine this people power, this powerful unity, by assasinations and so on. The current unity has resulted through Lebanese of all religious and social groupings opening up their homes to refugees during and after the Israeli invasion and by supporting communal refugee centre activities and so on. The Lebanese pride and resilience is beautiful to experience, we must tune in to what’s happening there and educate ourselves.
The people are not victims – they are survivors! and Caoimhe wanted to show their pride intact, their sense of pride and victory, which is not shown in the mass media. She succeeded very well in doing so to the public today, by showing a most beautiful range of photographs of the people and their environment, while telling the intimate stories that convey such truth.
With respect to Hizbollah and the many western myths about them - their training is not just military but they are generally very well educated and they have decided to participate, despite the illegalisation of their force, as well educated individuals.
For the massive ‘Sunday Demonstrations’ that have resulted in millions gathering, many Lebanese walk from far countryside locations to attend, which shows their dedication to the cause and to participatory effort of the common people (which is so lacking in so many western populations).
Two million demonstated a few weeks ago in Martyrs’ Square and the ‘Tent City’ is a great example of reclamation of the people of their public spaces. Transforming these everyday common spaces into places of sharing, support and of nurturing their spiritual wealth in spite of their unwanted enemies. Day and night, these spaces host rallies, concerts, poetry, art and speeches. There is a good exchange among people of the UN camp outside the UN centre and the peoples’ camp Tent City.
There is an ambivalent position in relation to the ‘new’ Unifil troops among the Lebanese - the troops who currently form about 5,000 troops (out of a suggested 15,000) who are mainly French, German, Italian, and Spanish, Irish.....
Some recent activities by the troops have been offesnisve, like searches of Mosques, some soldiers peeing in the street and other things, but so far it hasn’t reached a crisis, however there is no watchdog on these new troops which is a big problem. The new troops are seen as aggressive and arrogant, as opposed to the ‘old’ UN troop relationship with the people which was mutually respectful. Some people fear the new Unifil are intelligence gathering and passing things on to the Israelis. There is a move in the Beirut solidarity camp to get an accountability watchdog for the new Unifil troops.
The greatest threat to the neo – cons in the Mid East and in Lebanon now is ‘unity’ and the neo-cons (US, UK, Israel...) always try to work against unity and increase sectarianism. We have all seen what has happened in Iraq.
In relation the the main stream press, Caoimhe feels she’s considered too partial to be embraced by the mass media here, to get here positive message across to the general public (she is indeed partial to the truth!).
Here in Ireland, at the very beginning of the Israeli invasion, the media were very slow to get going, it was almost a week before the general Irish media were covering the invasion in any way properly, during which time there was only the odd sound bite on the radio, so people concerned only had internet sources of news about it, which meant a great loss of public outcry at the very start of the invasion, when PR might have impacted that build up and military offensive.
At the meeting there were plenty of audience comments re politicians and independents going forward, and things to do before the next elections, and ‘the Irish People this’ and ‘the Irish must’ do that.... which, let’s face it is a pseudo identity that so many anti-war activists still cannot leave behind, instead of thinking and discussing things more in terms of the real identities that we share aside from the hopeless political system.
The reality of the current Irish government system is that it is just a carbon-copy of the UK imperialist system that will have to change before any individuals elected can make any difference and control the powers that be, so let’s be real about that and look at the alternatives such as that demonstrated by the coalitions and people power demonstrations in Lebanon. How can we act with them in solidarity if we can’t learn to act like them.
A Lebanese guy spoke about his fears that the constant bad press that’s demonising Iran, as it did with the west’s other built-up monsters, fuelled by the Imperialist powers, would result in a greater catastrophe than we have ever imagined in the Mid East. He stated very matter of factly, that it is the US and UK who are causing the civil war in Iraq - no hesistation in calling it a civil war or laying the blame with them, and that’s the truth. He was also worried along with others that the same kind of sectarianism may be nurtured in Lebanon and Palestine by the US and UK if they are allowed to get away with it, so that we must watch them very closely and point out what they are playing at.
There is huge responsibility lying with the mass media to make these observations clearly instead of acting like parrots for the western powers and hiding behind the sacred ‘impartiality’ which translates as careless, lazy or biased journalism. Journalism by Irish journalists who generally are lazy, lack multi-lingual ability, hang out in safe guided areas; which translates as such a big problem for the general Irish media audience.
The mass media are up to their usual tricks too, blaming Lebanese people for being scared about elections, instead of debating and listening to their actual concerns, which is their con trick to hide their lack of interest and usual bias towards the superpowers. An alternative news source is New TV, which is a good network that has covered things on the ground very well and maybe will produce an English language station in the future.
The huge Lebanese meetings around public squares are as much about the fact that there has been no general consensus there since the 1930’s, as much as being about everything else, it’s a modern people power movement. We owe it to them to tune in and know what’s going on, even if that means spending time online sources news networks that cover their current activities.
Caoimhe doesn’t have all the answers to the question of how the likes of her and the people she is involved with, can fuse their emotive solidarity and activities with the main stream powers of media and politics to result in a force that can motivate the general public here in Ireland who are so dependant on those sources. We need solutions to this problem fast, because their stories and messages and calls for support are so critical and positively full of humanity, that they need to be embraced by the general public. We need to participate in establishing how their efforts and needs can be communicated.
Three cooperative organisations in Ireland, hosted and paid for Caoimhes public address today which is to be commended; it was jointly organised by Anti-War Ireland (AWI), Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) and the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC).
The recent resignation of the man responsible for the Israeli’s invasion of Lebanon – the Israeli chief of staff – leaves an interesting position to monitor to see who fills his place with respect to the fears the Lebanese have about being invaded again. Logistically it would be most likely for Israel to re-invade in the coming several months while such disruption has been caused to Hizbollah and the Lebanese, and it will also be determined by how the Western war games play out in general in the region with respect to Syria, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Caoimhe ended her address today by saying, ‘It is a joy to be on the ground in these places with people who humble you by their spirit of survival and continued dignity, which should continue to inspire our support and solidarity’. Amen! and thank you Caoimhe, may the road rise to meet you always!