The Irish Government’s response to the US attack on Venezuela is hypocritical and exposes the extent to which the 26 county State’s membership of the EU and dependence on foreign, mostly US, capital has undermined Irish neutrality.

Micheál Martin, while refusing to condemn the illegal US actions in kidnapping President Nicolas Moduro and Cilla Aleda Flores de Maduro, said while on a delegation to China that international disputes should be resolved through the United Nations. 

Unfortunately, the Taoiseach’s words are not matched by deeds. The Irish political and military establishment are currently attempting to remove the guarantee given to to Irish people by previous Fianna Fail governments that Irish troops cannot be deployed overseas without a United Nations Security Council mandate. By seeking to remove this guarantee, the Irish government are themselves undermining the authority of the United Nations regarding conflict resolution. The Communist Party of Ireland calls on the government to reverse its decision to remove the Triple Lock, a policy for which it did not seek nor get public approval.

It is increasingly clear that the government and political commentators are and will use international events like the US kidnapping to argue that neutrality and The Triple Lock no longer serves the interests of the Irish people and that only greater economic, political and military cooperation and integration into the structure of the EU will provide the best security for our people. That small nations should seek cooperation with bigger formations. Thereby dismissing the UN as the vehicle to secure world peace.

In its statement on the US attack on Venezuela, the Irish government said it had to confer with the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy. This bears out the words of former Taoiseach Sean Lemass, who in January 1962 said that membership of the then “Common Market” would mean that Ireland would no longer be free to play an independent role in the United Nations. We can now see exactly where that lead as the Irish government is now unable to condemn an attack on a small country by a more powerful neighbour. 

Membership of the EU has severely restricted the capacity of the Irish working people to secure any real sovereign political and economic decisions, with the new EU fisheries policy and its endorsement of the Mercosur threatening the sustainability of Irish coastal and farming communities. The EU has put the interests of its monopoly capitalist class ahead of the needs of Irish society and the Irish economy.

We call upon all those concerned with the defence of Irish neutrality and the retention of the Triple Lock to mobilise and intensify our efforts to block the removal of the Triple Lock and to advance the demand that neutrality be enshrined in the constitution.

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James Corcoran

General Secretary

Communist Party of Ireland

http://www.communistpartyofireland.ie/

https://socialistvoice.ie/

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James Corcoran

General Secretary

Communist Party of Ireland

http://www.communistpartyofireland.ie/

https://socialistvoice.ie/