Houthi attacks on Red Sea cargo ships have highlighted the fragility of a world economy based on long supply chains. About 12 percent of all global trade passes through the strait of Bab al-Mandab, a 20-mile (32km) wide channel that splits northeast Africa from Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula. Avoidance of this route will add 4,000 kilometres to cargo journeys and yet another rise in prices which will be passed on to consumers.
It should, however, be noted that the development of global supply chains was driven by corporate greed for higher rates of profit. Many shut down production facilities in higher-wage countries to scour the world for the cheapest labour they could find. As in Covid, we now see the danger behind such a strategy.
The Houthis initially decided to attack Israeli ships to demand that they stop their murderous campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people. Their decision paralleled that of the US who moved an aircraft carrier to the Middle East and supplied Israel with bunker-buster bombs. If the US thought it could act in support of its allies, the Houthis reasoned that they had a right to intervene on the side of theirs.
The response of the US and the UK to these attacks, however, reflected a colonial mindset that pervades the elite in these countries. They assume the role of the world’s policemen, carrying out military attacks wherever they decide. By launching missile attacks on the Houthis, they show that their aim is to aid Israel’s war effort. In doing so, they risked escalating the conflict to the wider region.
When we hear, therefore, that the Houthis are to blame for rising prices, we are only getting half the story. The decisions of the US and UK to escalate the war – rather than confront their ally Israel and demand that it stop its murderous campaign – is the primary reason.
In recent days, the conflict has, predictably, escalated further. The Houthis have now declared that US and UK ships are targets and the US has now designated the Houthis as terrorists. The Western powers think that their military muscle will intimidate the Houthis into stopping their attacks.
We doubt it. From 2014 to 2022, the US and UK supplied arms to Saudi Arabia to launch a war on the Houthis. Over 150,000 people were killed and 227,000 died as a result of famine. Knowing these facts, we can only appreciate the depth of anger that will fuel Houthi’s response to the bullyboy tactics of the US and UK.
People Before Profit therefore demands that the Irish government calls publicly on the US and UK to stop their attacks on the Houthis. The days of the colonial overlord are coming to an end. Ireland, because of our own history, must be to the fore in challenging their arrogance.
