So you're a modern-day Northern Irish socialist, lazing around the commune, when you hear that the Zionists have invaded Lebanon and are driving back the heroic Hezbollah charity who wants nothing more than to be left in peace so they can distribute rockets food to the Israelis poor people of Lebanon.
This is absolutely the last straw; now you've just GOT to stick it to The Man. Remembering the axiom "Think Globally, Act Locally," you recall the local instantiation of the Imperialist Capitalist Running Pig-Dog Military/Industrial Complex just over the hill in Derry. Your mates have been protesting this Raytheon building on and off ever since it came to Derry, but just kid stuff, really - a brief sit-in and a bit of street theater. No, it's now time to show the Zionists and their warmongering enablers some Direct Action:
Anti-war protesters today stormed American arms manufacturer Raytheon's Londonderry base, with nine people barricading themselves into the building and wrecking equipment.
The protesters were soon locked in a tense stand-off with upwards of 50 police officers, after some of them inflicted considerable damage, especially to computers.
According to the protesters, the computer system was "completely disabled".
Amid chaotic scenes at the Buncrana Road site, thousands of documents and dozens of computers were burned and thrown from windows by members of a group that entered the building at 8am today.
That the building is a software development center writing Air Traffic Control systems software is irrelevant; it's all about the symbolism:
Fellow anti-war protester and member of Socialist Environmental Alliance Goretti Horgan, who was one of those protesting outside the building at the Ulster Science and Technology Park on Buncrana Road, said: "There is a bit of property damage but that is as nothing compared to the thousands of people dying.
"We had to do the damage in order to get a chance to put Raytheon in the dock. We want to try and stop or slow down Raytheon production even for a short while because any kind of delay to getting bombs to Israel to drop on innocent Lebanese and Palestinian people has to be welcomed."
And your stunt must have worked really really well - so well, in fact, that Bu$hCo was forced to trump up a pretend terrorist crisis in order to keep you off the front page! Brilliant!
I, for my part, will help you take your message to the next level: if you really want to 'stop or slow down Raytheon production,' I'll start a collection for plane fare to fly you to Tucson where the missiles are actually built.
You'll have to bring your own body bags, though.
Posted by Chris at August 11, 2006 05:18 PMI just keep getting this image of someone storming my brother's cubicle, trying to smash up the place. I'm sure hilarity (or however you spell it) would ensue!
Posted by: goguy at August 11, 2006 07:16 PMTerrorism is the targeting of civillians to pressure political change.
By any objective standard, Israel and Hamas are guilty.
Posted by: Nicolai Brown at August 11, 2006 07:30 PMNicolai:
By leaving any mention of violence out of your definition, it seems to me that it then also includes most American news corporations. :)
Posted by: Jim of St. Grimblefig's Monastery at August 14, 2006 10:12 AMNicolai:
Except that the IDF grieves when they hit innocent civilians, and Hezb'allah grieves when they miss them.
Posted by: Chris of Dangerous Logic at August 15, 2006 04:33 PM