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No To War - Defend Irish Neutrality!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section One
Introduction
The Origins Of Irish Neutrality
Erosion
Section Two
Palestine And Ukraine
Is The EU Different?
The Triple Lock
Section Three
Does The Triple Lock Grant A Veto?
Should Ireland Increase Military Spending?
Section Four
A World On Fire
Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
Irish neutrality is in the crosshairs of the Irish government. They intend to ram through legislation removing the ‘Triple Lock’, which ensures that Irish troops can only be sent abroad to participate in UN authorised peacekeeping missions.
This move is a long-held ambition of large sections of the political establishment. Twenty five years ago, Fine Gael published a policy document entitled ‘Beyond Neutrality’ which described the Triple Lock as a “political straitjacket”.
It certainly has been a vital straitjacket preventing governments sending Irish soldiers to fight and die in US-led wars for oil and profit in the Middle East. It means they do not have a free hand to send troops where they want. No wonder they want to get rid of it.
The political establishment in Ireland seized the opportunity of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent clash between Russia and NATO to try to abolish what is left of neutrality.
At first, they openly declared that they wanted to get rid of neutrality. Faced with massive public opposition, they have since changed tack - incredibly suggesting that the Triple Lock has nothing to do with neutrality and they have no intention of scrapping neutrality. Their actions tell a different story.
Like in the period before World War I, we are in a world of rising tensions and conflicts between the major powers. The Irish government wants to abandon neutrality so we can join in on the western imperialist side. This is the side that is currently financing, arming and supporting the genocide of Palestinians by Israel.
We are living at a time of European and worldwide ‘rearmament’. Military budgets are already at an all-time high, but are set to be dramatically increased even further. And make no mistake about it- the EU leaders ARE preparing for war.
Donald Tusk has declared that we are in a ‘pre-war era’. Mark Rutte, the head of NATO, says Europe must ‘switch to a wartime mindset’. A senior UK general, Sir Patrick Sanders, has said that there is now a “prewar generation” that may have to prepare itself to enter combat. In Germany, defence minister Boris Pistorius caused shock by declaring the nation had to be “ready for war. Even the Irish Times ran the headline ‘As the EU prepares for war, Ireland sticks its head in the sand’. The Financial Times summed it up with ‘Europe must trim its welfare state to build a warfare state’
The Irish government has joined in these preparations. This is why it has drafted legislation to remove the Triple Lock and declared that military spending must double.
We must resist this attack on neutrality and rising militarism. This pamphlet is written to arm activists with the arguments in defence of neutrality and to make the socialist case for a principled opposition to war, imperialism and oppression.