WITH the election campaigns now in full swing in the South, the key issues of housing,
health, cost of living and economic development have rightfully been the main focus.
The government parties, of course, want to limit as much as possible any discussion of their
abject failures in these areas, and are raising the spectre of economic instability after the
victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election and the possibility that his trade
policies will have a deeply negative impact on Ireland.
The Left is by contrast homing in on these very issues, but poor opinion figures in recent
polls give little optimism that the Left parties can carry the day. IF, and it’s a big IF, they are
actually Left.
Sinn Féin, of course is the lead party, but its ambivalence on the EU and on the type of
economic model needed to redress decades of policies favouring the rich, has seriously
undermined the trust that voters were beginning to place in them.
Labour remains seriously discredited because of its consistent record of actively promoting
capitalist austerity when in government, the Greens have exposed themselves as being
capitalists first and environmentalists second, while the Social Democrats and the Trotskyists
remain vague on too many issues.
At the same time, while it is early in the campaign and there is little solid data to go on there
is a strong impression that the immigration issues, which the racists and far right fringe
groups exploited to the full in summer’s local elections, are fading in impact.
It is now abundantly clear that the real target of the far right is not the government which
ahs failed on housing and the cost of living as well as on the management of immigration, but
the Left parties and their alternatives to the present system.
One major issue, however, has drawn little attention. Only People Before Profit (PbP) has
raised the question of neutrality, even though that will have a major impact on the Irish
people in the future.
For some time, the existing government has been working, firstly to abandon neutrality
completely, but, failing that, secondly to redefine neutrality in such a way that it isn’t
neutrality at all.
So, despite the overwhelming support for neutrality among the Irish public, the government
has involved itself in NATO’s Partnership for Peace and in the EU’s PESCO military
cooperation policy. It is hell bent on taking a full part in the forthcoming EU defence policy
including the European Army.
A first step is the government’s determination to end the so-called Triple Lock. The Triple
Lock is a policy position which forbids the involvement of more than 12 Irish soldiers abroad
except in missions approved by the government, by a vote in the Dáil, and by a decision of
the United Nations.
It is the United Nations which is in the government’s sights as it attempts to do away with
the Triple Lock.
So, instead of working for international peace and to strengthen the UN, the government is
determined to ally Ireland more and more closely in the Atlantic alliance, both economically
and militarily. It has no plans for Ireland to play an independent role for peace outside that
alliance.
If the government gets away with this it will mean young Irish men and women laying their
lives on the line for the wart aims of NATO and the militarists in the EU. As part of conditioning the people to accept this is the creation of a mythical threat from Russia to Ireland. The latest is a fake story planted by MI6 of Russian naval ships behaving “suspiciously” in Irish waters near vital underwater cables.
We are told that we rely on the “kindness” – yes, that’s the word – of Britain and the US to
save us from this horror. The fact is that the only country with a track record of breaching Irish security is Britain,
but the government ignores that.
There is a real threat, however, if the present government is returned – with or without the
Greens – that they will proceed apace with their plans to dismantle our neutrality policy.
It is vital they are not let get away with this. It behoves the Left to make this issue central
stage in the weeks ahead and to build as broad a consensus as possible to defend neutrality
and reject Irish involvement in NATO’s or the EU’s wars.