150 people gathered in the rain on O’Connell Street to chant ‘US TROOPS OUT OF SHANNON’ and ‘FREE, FREE PALESTINE’ under flags and behind banners bearing anti-imperialist and pro-Palestinian and anti-war slogans.
Participants signed a petition demanding we the Irish government Stand up against Biden’s Double Standards; support Irish Neutrality; oppose American imperialism, and; end American exportation of weapons worldwide. Speakers addressed NATO, Israel, the US Military in Shannon, the US arms industry and the military-industrial complex, the ongoing Saudi attack on Yemen and the US’s legacy in Ireland.
Biden claimed on his departure from the US that he was going ‘to Ireland to keep the peace’ implying it was the US who created conditions for peace and that their presence is needed to maintain it.
One speaker at the demo refute this: ‘When we hear the media say “It was Americans who us brought peace in Ireland,” let us not forget that it was thousands of working class people in the Shankill Road and the Falls Road that came out and put the pressure on for peace. What we got instead was institutionalised sectarianism.’
‘We say to Joe Biden, go home, look after the poor in your own country. Look after the children who are dying too young. And don’t think you’re going to get away with dragging our country into NATO.’
