ACTIVITY REPORTS - Peace

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Some of us Grannies (Sara, Corinne, Rosalie, Ria) went to the planning meeting the night before. People from Homes not Bombs had arrived from Hamilton, Oakville and Toronto, as well as a small group of protesters from Montreal. Decisions were made as to who were going to be involved in direct action and were taking the risk of being arrested. The four Grannies present decided  to have their own affinity group (plus Helina) and do their own action, play it by ear, but be willing to run the risk of arrest.

Among the 'out of towners' were a whole group of Grannies from Toronto, Oakville (and also from Kingston??), about 10 of them.  We had a great time. Next morning we met at St. Paul's University at 8 AM and we marched from there to the Congress Centre. Although we were with approximately 150 people, we took the whole street and sang all the way.

We Grannies were almost hoarse already by the time we arrived at the Congress Centre!! But it was wonderful to have such an enthusiastic bunch with us (and surely well appreciated by the organizers).  Different groups took up positions in front of the entrances. Result was that the people going  to the War Show (including reps from the War Industry) couldn't get into the building without passing through us noisy, but peaceful bunch, and some of the protesters peacefully dropped dead at the feet of the War Show participants, forcing them to step over or around their bodies.

At 10 AM some more Ottawa Grans joined in: Alma, Toby, Virginia. We missed Pat; she had mistakenly gone to the Conference Centre!! More singing of course, right in front of the entrances. The Grannies' plan to get inside and read a statement was -you can understand- not accepted. We felt it was useless to force arrest. Not this time.......We will send the statement to the exhibitors though. Anything to keep them on their toes and irritate them a bit is important!!!

 Some of the Grannies stayed on till 3 PM, mostly right in front of the entrances, handing out Peace Pops (lollipops) to the Weapons Fair participants, and asking them if they wouldn't rather be doing something else for a living. Some Grans would at times stand at the road side with signs, giving out pamphlets to people passing by, and singing some songs off and on.

A special Grannie, who was with us all day, was Doran Doyle from Vancouver Island. She is one of the Original Grans who had their first gig (and some arrests) at Nanoose Bay against the Nuclear Submarines. It was just wonderful to talk with her, and learn from her experiences, and she obviously enjoyed our Company immensely.

Since four young protesters had been arrested, some Grannies (including Doran) went to the Police Station after the demo to cheer them as they were released.  We waited quite a while, enjoying some good conversation, and then a police officer came out and told us that it could take a long time, so eventually we decided to go home.  As it turned out, the arrested persons were held for 26 hours. Their first Court hearing was April 22, and the Grannies were asked to be there for support.  Several Grans did attend, and will be attending as the court process continues.  Update: May 29, 2003 - all charges withdrawn!!  Read shocking report of jail conditions.

Student Lockdown of British Embassy
First Grannie Shift - Friday March 21 - 8:30 am - report by Grannie Alma
See Slideshow at Nowar-Paix website

This was a small but very effective action directed at the British High Commission about the British involvement in this war. I don't suppose there were 40 people involved.  At times it seemed the number of police and press equaled that of the protesters!  RCMP took loads of photos; we'll all be in their Rogue's Gallery ( including my portable  grannie who shall be nameless).

The goal was to block entrances so people couldn't get to work, and while that was not entirely successful - lots of police and RCMP were there to escort people through the "blockade" - the event attracted lots of media attention. They interviewed lots of us - those chained to the fence and those of us as witnesses - and I was most impressed with how knowledgeable and articulate all the interviewees were. There was no violence on either side ( police or protesters) and generally a pleasant rapport between the two sides.  The "inside" protesters were carried out the gates, but no one was arrested or roughed up.  Seems the police were content to just let the protest run its course.

There were no "official" Grannies, though my handheld Grannie, suitably draped in black did attract some favourable attention. It wasn't necessary for us to be there "as Grannies", just that someone be there representing us which I was able to do.  In these continuing protests what's important is that we help to keep up the numbers and hence public pressure - whether we do it as official   "Raging Grannies", or whether we do it as individual RAGING women.
By Alma, who is both.

Second Grannie shift - March 21 - 2:30 - 5 pm - by Grannie Corinne
By this time Alma had long gone home to rest, and a couple of us Grannies, who hadn't been there in the morning dropped by the embassy to see how things were going.  There were young people blocking all three entrances, with lots of RCMP to keep them company.  You could tell they were tired, and a bit out of steam, and they made it clear they needed a Grannie infusion.

They had been briefly cheered by a troop of high school students who had left school early and marched all the way over from a small town near Hull, screaming at the top of their lungs.  Just screaming, mostly, and wanting to bolster the people in the blockade.  I think we all felt like screaming.

After the high school troop had gone things seemed too quiet, so we hurriedly called in more Grannies, hauled out our songs, and proceeded to liven the place up. I had my drum with me, but a couple of my fingers were blistered and raw from using a broken drumstick the night before, so part of our getting into our Grannie gear routine included bandaiding my fingers.  One of the most wonderful things about every Grannie event is the way we all assist one another and watch out for one another's well-being.  I'm usually quite self-sufficient, but having the Grannies bandage my fingers was surprisingly comforting.

There were three groups of blockaders, each at a different entrance.  We chose to stay with the group who were blocking the south gate to the parking lot, because it gave us a great opportunity to confront the embassy officials directly as they left work.  Each time the gate was opened to allow a vehicle out, the police had to physically pick up the gate sitters and move them out of the way.  After each vehicle had passed, and the gate was closed, the blockers took up their positions again. I couldn't count the number of times they had to do this, just in the couple of hours we spent there.

Our gaggle tends to become a little wingy after it warms up a bit and, eventually, each time we spied embassy people making their way to the gate, we abruptly stopped singing and began to shout, "The British are coming, the British are coming" and then we screamed as if frightened out of our minds. Sometimes we received a stiff smile, but more often pained expressions in return.  But it got us laughing, and we needed that.

We had sung a couple of songs and shouted a couple of chants that made us almost too vividly imagine what the Iraqis were going through on this terrible day, and we could feel the emotions rising.  We kept ourselves intact by being more and more outrageous, although we did intersperse this with some quieter, gentler songs which we harmonize well.  The police seemed to enjoy the whole show, and one of the officers looked genuinely moved when we sang "Away in Iraq", and our version of "O Canada" that Alma wrote.

At 5 pm the organizers called it a day, and we were asked to sing the gate blockers down the street and up the steps to their counterparts at the front door to collect them, and then sing both groups over to the third group on the other side of the building, until we were all one large group.  The whole assembly sang with us on our final song, and we observed a moment of silence, before going our separate ways.  Passing cars honked and waved at us, and it seemed almost as if there was no-one anywhere who wanted war.  But of course we knew better.

The US and British have declared war on Iraq
Thursday, March 20, 5:30 to 8:30 pm
By Grannie Corinne

We were rained and rained and rained upon.  There was no choice but to just let it fall.  You could weep about the war and no one would know.  Umbrellas were a nuisance - and too dangerous in a crowd. A few of us began to wonder if the Man Upstairs wants to know if we really mean it when we hope for miracles.  We've been blizzarded at, frozen solid, or rained on almost every time we've been out protesting - except for one fine day that surely was meant just to tease us.

On Parliament Hill there were speeches, and then a very loud sound system was turned on that simulated the sounds of the bombers over Iraq, and the sirens, the shouts, the whistling of the bombs, the explosions.  It was very effective, and it's good they didn't play it too long or I think we all would have broken down. Some did as it was.

After a minute of silence we marched to the U.S. embassy, and kept marching around it, telling Bush off in no uncertain terms, until we ran out of steam.  I tied a black wreath with a red rose on it onto the metal protective blockade in front of the embassy.  A young boy with an upside down US flag on the back of his T-shirt climbed up onto the cement barricade and stood facing the embassy with both arms raised and fingers making the peace sign.  Later a lot of the kids stood with him, high up on the barricades, with their arms raised to heaven. The photographers loved it.

People lit candles, and shined flashlights at the embassy, and the crowd was noisier than ever.  There was, as usual, a wonderful group of drummers whose festive sound often induces people to pause and dance for a while. In spite of our sadness, even some Grannies took a turn at dancing in the circle, and it helped us to feel a little more positive.

Soaked to the skin, yet it seemed no one wanted to go home.  Eventually we just stood around and talked.  Finally, one of the young fellows from the organizing committee found us Grannies and asked us to sing "Gonna Lay Down My Sword and Shield", and we really let it out, and the crowd sang too, and the drummers drummed, and it was spectacular.  They asked for more, and then I remembered the song I had written that morning, to the tune of "When Johnnie Comes Marching Home Again, Hurrah, hurrah!" except that the first line is changed to "When nobody marches off to war, hurrah, hurrah" and it's all about peace instead of war.  I had made copies and shoved them into my bag,  just in case it was needed.

We passed it out and the whole crowd sang it, and in spite of the paper being quickly soaked with the rain and difficult to hold onto to without tearing, everyone got right into the song, and the crowd cheered wildly when it was over.   So the evening ended on a sodden, but hopeful note.

Ottawa Grans at DND Sit-in February 2003
(Temp was - 43C)  Read article, see slideshow

MARCHING FOR PEACE
by Grannie Alma

On Jan 18, 2003, thirteen members of the Mob marched for Peace with 3000 others through the streets of Ottawa. We wore our white NO WAR armbands and carried a large banner saying UNITED GRANNIES PEACEKEEPING TEAM . We’d also decided to take canes decorated with a large blue ribbon as "Peacekeeping" symbols. For some of us the canes were a bit awkward, but for others they were a boon. We thought they’d be a nice visible statement that we were elderly women, but we may rethink this and leave the canes for those who really want and need to use them.

We'd been asked to be part of an organized programme – to lead the march with a rousing WE GRANNIES WORK FOR PEACE ( tune: Farmer in the Dell); then to sing at the symbolic "Die-in" at the United States Embassy (song: Away in Iraq), and again as the Arrest Warrants were being served at the War Building (DND) ( song: Ta Ra Ra Boom De-ay). We were also asked to say a few words after the Die-in but as we couldn't get near where it happened, we didn't speak. Here’s what we would have said:

"We Raging Grannies are here because we’re RAGING at the thought that war is the way to solve problems; it never has been. We’re UNITED with everyone of any background or age or religion or race who seeks peaceful solutions; we believe in working together as a TEAM to find those solutions, and to keep working for PEACEKEEPING. Let’s remember that wonderful saying: "Let there be Peace on Earth. And let it begin with US."

None of this went as planned because the March was so HUGE that we just couldn’t always be in the right place at the right time. Well, actually, we WERE in the right place , just not at the right time for each action. So with typical Grannie ingenuity we just improvised and sang our planned songs and others whenever we saw a chance. In any case we weren’t there to sing, but just to BE part of this wonderfully diverse crowd of Canadians saying NO WAR.

Go here to see some wonderful photos of the event:
http://ottawa.indymedia.ca/2003/01/1763.shtml
http://ottawa.indymedia.ca/2003/01/1752.shtml