Irish Complicity In Imperialist Crimes Confronted In Derry
Éirígí supports and commends the courage of those Anti-War protesters who highlighted Irish complicity in imperialist crimes by their occupation of the Raytheon plant in Derry on Wednesday last. These actions served not only to disrupt operations at the Raytheon plant, but also succeeded in showing that the people of Ireland can play an active role in opposing the atrocities carried out against civilian populations across the Middle-East.
Irish collusion with the forces of state terror is not restricted to Derry, nor is it a new phenomenon. In 1996, the Links Report, commissioned by AFRI (Action from Ireland), identified over a dozen Irish companies that were involved in the arms manufacturing business. AFRI identified the arms trade as “a major cause of famine, food insecurity and human rights violations throughout the world”. Recently, Irish complicity in imperialist atrocities has taken on a more visible form. The use of Shannon airport by U.S. warplanes carrying troops en-route to the Middle-East, and transporting prisoners to the torture centre in Guantanamo Bay, reflects the attitude of the political establishment which has made a mockery of Irish neutrality.
The protest against the imperialist war machine needs to be echoed vociferously across the thirty-two counties of Ireland. In the Six Counties, Britain’s military apparatus maintains a force greater than that which has been deployed in Iraq. The demand for the dismantling of this malign presence in Ireland is as legitimate and relevant as the demand for an end to the oppressive actions of the U.S., Britain and Israel.
Éirígí asks that people the length and breadth of Ireland join those who took the initiative in Derry last Wednesday in opposing, and calling for an end to, the atrocities being carried out by the imperialist forces and their allies across the world. Éirígí also joins others in calling for an immediate end to the facilitation and aid, by the political establishment, of the imperial war machine both in Ireland and abroad.