The following article by John Molloy was first published in Unity, the weekly paper of the Irish Communist Party.
THIS week sees the start of a new television series on Sky TV. It is called "The Wargame" and immodestly describes itself as "unmissable event television [that] will prompt us all to engage with our new geopolitical reality." While there is no shortage of dire programmes that could be cited as examples of cultural hegemony what is unusual is to find one, without the daily news output, that is so crude in its proposed content and telling in its participants. The stated premise of the programme outlines its aim to take "viewers into a realistic scenario and into the top-secret world of a COBRA-style crisis room. Part constructed documentary, part propulsive drama, real-world senior politicians, military leaders and intelligence from across the globe will come together into the room to take on a simulated national emergency. Set six months in the future, the simulation will have those involved react and respond to a scenario where there's been a Russian attack on UK soil."
In terms of an imaginary Cabinet the programme includes a fictional Prime Minster "played" by Michael Gove and also features members of the (real) secret society (the Privy Council) that a recent issue of the Socialist Correspondent described as "the main instrument of the state in the management of empire." The programme's shameless cast includes familiar Cold Warriors from New Labour such as ex-leader of Scottish labour Jim Murphy and George Robertson (ex-Secretary General of Nato). The participation of other Privy Councillors such as Harriet Harman and Nicola Sturgeon brings to mind a comment on the Establishment from the late American satirist George Carlin – "it's a big club and you aint in it."
Most dangerously of all the "new geopolitical reality" that we are being force-fed by such propaganda is that our "enemies" are the citizens of Russia or China and not much closer to home – the ruling class that, domestically, has delivered such a devastating war on public provision that Food Banks have become a necessary substitute for the state failing in its duty to its people and, abroad, facilitates and normalises the slaughter in Gaza. Furthermore, it is now being suggested the new "permanent war" footing will necessarily mean things are unavoidably going to get worse.
In this way the Financial Times reports that the UK Government is working on a "war book – a manual for the defence of the nation against external threats" and encouraging households to stockpile essential goods in preparation for events including "hostile state action." All of this perpetual background noise underlies the British parliament debating the need to "cut welfare to fund defence" and continually sanitises the grotesque ever-expanding war machine that NATO represents.
On this island this demands a recognition of the ongoing threat to Irish neutrality posed by imperial alliances dressed up as mutual support. Most explicitly this requires the rejection of the delusional view of the European Union as a benign actor. For example, the EU's white paper on defence, Readiness 2030 frames recognition of Ireland's neutrality in the context of "taking into consideration the security and defence interests of all Member States." The need to resist this gravitational pull is not helped by glibly surrendering the establishment of genuine sovereignty and independence to the European Union – an approach outlined as recently as this month's Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the leaders of the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Féin. The MOU had stated as fact that "Westminster's time is coming to an end" and that the signatories "reject Whitehall's broken economic model and will instead build economies which deliver social justice and reduce inequality across our nations." However, to simultaneously affirm that "we believe the future of our nations belongs in the European Union" is to embrace the negation of this ambition.
That is, it accepts the dominance of profit driven market speculation as the key economic driver at home and the neo-imperialism of NATO expansionism abroad. A real declaration of independence must demand the opposite.