The war on war

Richard Boyd Barrett is clearly a tired man. You can tell it in his voice, which is starting to show the strain of continuous meetings, interviews and canvassing. Yet, if the physical is starting to flag, his spirit is still clearly strong as the huge Anti-War concert at the Point in Dublin approaches. Timed to trail George W. Bush’s less than popular visit to this country, the event has a number of aims.

“The concert,” he explains “first and foremost will be about rallying people but it will also intersperse the music with speeches about why we’re protesting and to highlight the atrocities that have arisen due to the US occupation of Iraq, the lies that were told to justify that invasion and the terrible consequences that have ensued. The fairly obvious desire of the Bush administration is to grab Iraqi oil and take control of the region so we want to educate people about that. We also want to raise money to fund the protests, which will be a very expensive business.”
Richard admits that support for the campaign has risen and fallen in response to events in Iraq, reaching a crescendo when people thought that they might still have a chance to halt the military action before dropping a little despondently once the invasion had actually taken place. Recent events, however, have seen support re-emerge.
“There was a sense that, even if Bush fought the war for the wrong reasons, the situation would eventually stabilise and things would improve,” he reflects. “Now it’s become clear that the war was an unmitigated disaster for the Iraqi people and this is again fuelling anti-war sentiment across the world.
“We saw that most dramatically in Spain. When that terrible attack happened in Madrid, the Spanish people quite rightly blamed the government who had led them into a war that they had never wanted to be a part of. That victory for the anti-war movement has started to rattle the coalition. Blair is in deep trouble and possibly facing the end of his leadership. Bush is also in political trouble, and for that matter so is Bertie Ahern.”
Talking of our own leader, Barrett is less than impressed by his actions.
“The government have been dishonest throughout,” he claims. “At times they have suggested that they have agreed with those protesting against the war, even claiming that it was in support of government policy, but in reality they have given 100% support to the war. Most obviously, one in four US troops serving through Iraq travelled through Shannon. Also, it’s clear that Ahern’s government have supported Bush privately. They co-hosted the Hillsborough summit which was a propaganda meeting to justify the action.
“Whatever is occasionally said to the Irish people, in reality the government have clearly given both political and material support to the war and are collaborating with it. I think there’s a longer term strategy to jump on the coattails of US power globally and to become a junior partner in the domination of the world economy.”
While all concerned are at pains to point out that the protests are in no way anti-American, they have focussed almost entirely on the person of George W. Bush. But does anyone really think that he is the sole driving force behind all this?
“Bush does not pull all the strings,” Boyd Barrett concedes, “and is quite possibly a puppet for more sinister forces, probably the project for A New American Century, who are ideologically extreme right wingers who believe that the US must move its military might to dominate the world. But I do think it is politically justified to target Bush because he is the spokesperson for this agenda. If he is driven out of power that will set the agenda back.”
Richard also argues that responsibility for the degrading treatment of Iraqi prisoners must go right up the chain of command.
“I think what we saw was disgusting and outrageous and has nailed the lie that the occupation had anything to do with bringing civilisation to Iraq but I don’t blame the rank and file soldiers,” he says. “I blame Bush and the people who started the war. It’s becoming more apparent that what was going on in that prison wasn’t an aberration but was a policy that came from the top and was a culture that impressionable, young, ill educated soldiers became immersed in.”
“It’s been extremely hard work. We’d been discussing doing something in the run up to the Bush visit but the fact that Christy Moore has agreed to do it has made it a lot bigger event than it might have been. Getting a venue was a huge problem. Initially we wanted an outdoor venue but there are all sorts of planning legislations that made that impossible. We eventually got the Point but then we had to get money but thankfully SIPTU stepped in and offered to sponsor us. It’s on a par with the huge demonstrations we had last year.”
How has the music industry at large responded?
“I think it’s been mixed,” admits Richard. “A lot of the industry are in it just to make money and there are elements that might be worried that the issue is a bit too controversial and don’t want to get involved. Also, there’s no money to be made. On the other hand, we’ve got a terrific response from a lot of musicians and also a lot of technical people have offered their support.”
Perhaps it’s no mere coincidence that the majority of artists appearing are on their own independent labels.
“What I do know is that they are all people who are very committed to the issue and that was very important to us,” Richard observes. “Their music reflects that they are the sort of people who care about what’s going on in the world. They’re clearly independently minded people who put principles before other considerations and we’re extremely grateful that they’ve agreed to get involved.”
With the government, many politicians and much of the media unwilling to make a stand, does Richard see it as inevitable that it comes down to the artistic community to give expression to anti-war sentiment?
“The strength of the anti-war movement globally is that it’s been a very broad and diverse coalition of all sorts of people,” he says. “Certainly musicians have played a very important part in that, not just in this country but people like Manu Chao, who really is an icon across Europe, Coldplay, Ms Dynamite, Paul Weller. They’ve played a fantastic role in broadening out the movement beyond just a small number of activists to being a genuine mass movement and taking the message to a large number of people.
“And it does often prompt politicians when they see a movement prompted by people who are not politicians as such, but who care about what’s going on in the world.” b