20th anniversary of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior: Paris: 500 Rainbow Warriors

Paris: 500 Rainbow Warriors

About 40 of us took a loooooooooooong bus ride from Amsterdam to Paris to help mark the anniversary of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. We were a bit late in arriving, and the briefings for how we were going to turn a crowd of people and a bunch of T-shirts into a message of peace had already begun. I walked into this massive warehouse on a farm outside of Paris and my jaw dropped. There were more than 500 people there, and it was chocker block. They were young, old, all races all colours. There were rasta dreads and crew cuts, high heels and Doc Martens. And they were all there to say something to the world about peace. What a bunch of naive hippies. I nearly wept with pride to count myself among them.

And who should come bounding out of the crowd for a hug but Grace. Grace O´Sullivan, who was a deckhand on the Warrior in 1985. Grace who lost everything she had when the ship went down. Grace whose family pleaded with her to return to Ireland immediately and give up this dangerous Greenpeace stuff. Grace who was back in a boat within six weeks, charging towards the home of the French Nuclear bomb with all the passion and righteous strength of a Green and Peaceful Fury that would not be deterred.

When I think of the spirit of Greenpeace, I usually think of the strong women who have inspired this organisation. (I think the diminshed testosterone makes the "Warrior" bit less suspect). Bunny McDiarmid, Monika Griefahn, Cornelia Durrant, Elaine Lawrence, Kelly Rigg, Kay Treakle. Grace. Grace is always a reminder of the spirit that keeps us going. She´s so totally fuelled by it.

The 500 were being briefed on how they were going to make this human message. Everybody was to get a T-shirt, a solid print of one of the rainbow´s colours. Wear a jacket over it. And at the pre-arranged signal everybody was to take off their jacket, find their mark, and position themselves to make a perfect peace symbol that would be visible form a terrace high above the Esplanade Trocadéro.

More easily said then done.

The practice session involved an awful lot of false starts and barely controlled chaos. Fortunately, some very cool cookies wrenched the chaos into enough order that there was a sort of a semblance of a wishful hope that it maybe might with a lot of luck kind of possibly work out ok.

Now for anyone who has been involved in Greenpeace events, they´ll recognise the "oh my GOD what are we doing?" moment that always -- and I mean ALWAYS -- hits before the big day. Some karmic force ensures that a piece of equipment is missing or a presumption turns out to be wrong or somebody key gets sick and the whole enterprise appears ready to go very, very pear-shaped. You feel stupid. You start to think the action-killing thoughts. It won´t work. We´ll look like idiots. We´ll all get hurt.

But seasoned activists know it´s part of the package. Like the theatre mantra, `It´ll be allright on the night´ it always is.

As, in fact, it was.

Mike Townsley, our coordinator, just called live from the terrace to say the Peace symbol got put together in less than 30 seconds. He´s never seen anyone with so little practice pull off anything so complicated off so quickly. Here´s an audio grab of his phone call live from the scene.

And when you´ve listened to that, have a listen to this: Grace O´Sullivan´s speech the night before the commemoration about what it takes to fight for peace.

(Searched "Greenpeace" in the podcast directory of your iTunes 4.9 yet? We're podcasting this and other stuff)

On the bus over from Amsterdam, I´d spent some time recording a podcast with a group of American students who are Clean Energy activists on US campuses. They were great. Smart, inspiring, clued-up kids, keeping the time-honored tradition of student activism alive. They´ve convinced a number of schools to convert, and they´ve got plans to go after the rest. They´ve also been active in trying to force Kimberly-Clark (of Kleenex fame) to stop destroying the thousands of years of evolved biodiversity which is an Ancient Forest, to make throw-away tissues. ("It takes 90 years to grow a box of Kleenex" says Britney, and Josh raps out a stirring reminder that consumers have more power than elected officials, and that every purchase of a product is a vote for a product. Yowser! Signs of intelligent life emerging from the American political landscape!)

We were talking about the challenges of getting people from the point where they care to the point where they care enough to do something, and Allison from Georgia said something that reminded me of Grace, the spirit of the Rainbow Warrior, and the continuity of that spirit that I´ve seen across more than two decades of working for this organisation.

She said `It doesn´t take much to be an activist -- it just takes a whole lot of heart.´

When I hear stuff like that out of the mouths of the generation that´s going to have the toughest fight for the future, I know there´s hope. I know the same spirit that keeps Grace and the rest of us aging hippies going is alive and well.

--Brian Fitzgerald
____________________________________________________________

Here´s some snaps from the Great Human Peace Symbol And Rainbow Training Camp.

Alain Connacht, Former ship´s captain and the only man who was willing to run Greenpeace France in the aftermath of the bombing.
©Greenpeace/Fitzgerald

Grace O´Sullivan speaks.
©Greenpeace/Fitzgerald

Mike Townsley: "I´ve never seen a bunch of hippies sit that still for that long."
©Greenpeace/Fitzgerald

Omer oversees the practice session.
©Greenpeace/Fitzgerald

The Quality Control Team.
©Greenpeace/Fitzgerald

Yup. We can do this in the middle of a busy plaza with cops and cameras all around and that jittery feeling you get when you might be arrested any moment. No problemo!
©Greenpeace/Fitzgerald

©Greenpeace/Gleizes
É Voila! The real thing.

Grace O´Sullivan speaks truth to power.
©Greenpeace/Holden

©Greenpeace/Gleizes

Comments

Posted by: Frauke Godat , September 12, 2005 10:16 PM

2 months down the road: Would love to hear from people who were involved with the action but also from everyone reading this:
How did this Greenpeace Action inspire you to take further personal action(s)? Did you become active on peace issues in your community? Are you volunteering for a local organization on peace issues? How do you strive for peace in your daily life? Have you shared your RW20 action experience with friends and ecouraged them to take action for peace? What was their reaction?
Lets keep this blog for PEACE alive...
FRAUKE

Posted by: HENRY , September 6, 2005 7:48 AM

What a tragedy !!! This case must be solved... Greenpeace...Justice will come to U & to all of us (esp.Greenpeace activists). GREENPEACE FOREVER !!!

Posted by: Lisa , August 27, 2005 1:41 PM

Well aint that just the coolest peace symbol I ever saw!

Nice blog Brian ;-)
Well done to everyone who went to Paris.

L.

Posted by: Troy , August 17, 2005 8:51 AM

They way I remember this trajedy is by the Song Little fighter by the band White Lion

It is rock with a message and one that shall never be forgotten

Troy

Posted by: Hassan Shami , July 15, 2005 11:29 PM

Omar Elnaeim, we are all very proud of you! well done Greenpeace.

Posted by: Jon Hinck , July 14, 2005 4:54 AM

Heartwarming to hear Grace and see the peace symbol in Paris. The summer of 1985 was intense everywhere in the Greenpeace world. Our crew on vessel Fri was moored near a discharge pipe from Dow Chemical in Michigan USA. The news from New Zealand hit hard. Fernando had friends among our crew and we had all known the RW. (I had put in sweat equity needlegunning under the vessel's bow as we got the ship ready in Oakland, CA for its fateful Pacific voyage...bottom paint is still in my scalp) Someone painted a message on Fri the night after the RW news broke: "You're next!" it said. I suspect it was scrawled by someone concerned about jobs at the chemical plant and not a defender of dioxin pollution. Dioxin was why we had come to Dow with a custom-built plug for its pipe. The plug fit nicely, thank you. Sadly, some people "just doing a job" keep producing such things as more deadly weaponry, coal-burning power plants and mutant life forms. Twenty years ago, French security forces sent a team on a mission to blow up a peace boat. They did their job as ordered. I still believe that we need to go to the places where the bad decisions of politicians, bureaucrats and CEOs play out. We need to get in the way. That is what the Rainbow Warrior did for one remarkable decade. Good people do important, courageous work every day. Go with peace all of you. Jon Hinck

Posted by: Frauke Godat , July 14, 2005 2:46 AM

My first time What drives me to Act
I have been part of the whole thing last Sunday in Paris as well and I am still overwhelmed by the amazing feeling of a first-time experience. Let me try to sort my thoughts and reflect a little bit on my experience.

I have joint Greenpeace 16 months ago in Amsterdam in a very administrative being-fixed-to-the-computer-screen-all-day job. I have worked and volunteered for the global student organisation AIESEC during and after my studies. That has provided me with a strong sense for a personal vision that a more peaceful world is possible. Coming from working towards the vision of peace and fulfilment of humankinds potential and developing young peoples potential for a positive impact on society, I had been looking for an organisation that has a similar purpose and vision. Greenpeace crossed my path by coincidence through my personal network while travelling in India.

After a couple of months in Greenpeace, I wanted to get a different perspective and to learn more about the Core Work of Greenpeace: non-violent direct actions. Being a rather introvert person and the opposite of a rebellious hippie as a teenager, I took part in the Basic Action Training of Greenpeace Netherlands. This week-end was full of challenges and personal conflicts: how can I get comfortable with the possibility of being arrested by the police during an action (Again, with my education of having been a very responsible child not doing anything else than what being told by authorities) or how to steer an inflatable not being comfortable to have the responsibility for the 5 other people in the boat? Actually, it is pretty much the willingness to learn by doing, leave ones own comfort zone, realise and overcome personal fear and challenge yourself. Then you find out it is more possible than you think.

Telling my parents about joining the Action Team got me into a huge fight with my father. In essence he thought that I would be too old (approaching the third 0 soon) to start being rebellious and that I as a single person could not change anything anyways. Well, my own experience proved him wrong on the latter one but it still made me thinkhesitate

It took me some more months to finally volunteer for an action. The action in Paris last Sunday was a perfect opportunity to promote a peaceful world through a non-violent action. And like any other experience that has a strong personal impact it is impossible to describe it to others who have not experienced it. You just have to experience it yourself!

To put a long story short what is driving me in Greenpeace and everyday life:

I have learned in the past years that I have to be the change that I want to see in the world! This is hard work on myself and I have to make an extra effort to leave my comfort zone and get into personal conflicts once in a while to inspire others! I will kick myself into the a that Paris was not my last action!

Peace,
FRAUKE

Posted by: AlexD , July 13, 2005 2:47 AM

This looks beautiful -

Brian - I am pleased that you and the gang heading off from Amsterdam with the chorus dawn got there in one piece. This has put a smile on my face - and hope in my heart - which I needed specially after last week. What can I say Greenpeace at its best.

Alex xx

Posted by: Francois , July 12, 2005 12:25 AM

I was there at Place Trocadero - just one green Tshirt amidst 500 coloured ones - but so proud to contribute. When the bell of the old RW called for a two minutes silent standing-up, this was a magical momentum. Let's hope that our human peace-symbol will reach the minds of those in power who can make the good choices for us, for our children, and for the children of my children.
On ne peut pas couler un Arc-en-Ciel .....

Posted by: Diane Wilson , July 11, 2005 11:47 AM

I just want to say that it looks beautiful from the photos and I bet it looked better for those who saw it happen. I would like to say thank-you to all those involved, and if all those involved are supposed to be naive hippies, then I'm also glad to be a proud naive hippy! For anyone who was there who knows me, and to those who do not- Congrats and Cheers! It is amazing to think what a combined force can achieve, from street campaigning and stall work to climbing up buildings and infiltrating places. Everyone plays a vital role. To end it, I have to say, THREE CHEERS FOR THE RAINBOW WORRIOR- BOTH OLD AND NEW!

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