Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Any reading of the communiqué that followed the meeting of the Prime Ministers of the European Council and other Heads of State on 19 and 20 December 2013 indicates that it resembled in large part a meeting of militarists and armament industry executives. It is quite extraordinary that half of the communiqué is about the intensification of militarisation in the European Union and the promotion of the creation of weapons of mass destruction by the arms industry. One should note the language of the communiqué: "Fragmented European defence markets jeopardise the sustainability and competitiveness of Europe's defence and security industry". It states, "The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) will continue to develop in full complementarity with NATO [a military alliance armed with nuclear weapons]". It further states, "The European Council calls on the Member States to deepen defence cooperation by improving the capacity to conduct missions and operations and by making full use of synergies in order to improve the development and availability of the required civilian and military capabilities, supported by a more integrated, sustainable, innovative and competitive European Defence Technological and Industrial Base". Reference is made to "increasing the effectiveness, visibility and impact of CSDP; enhancing the development of capabilities and strengthening Europe's defence industry". Later it refers to a "well-functioning defence market".

What does all of this mean in reality? It means a major push to strengthen the armaments industry in the European Union. What is the armaments industry? It is an industry in which, obscenely, at least hundreds of scientists, engineers and designers do nothing but sit at desks designing weapons that can kill greater numbers of people over greater distances and inflict greater suffering on the intended targets. Tens of thousands of industrial workers are obliged for their livelihoods to put their plans into effect, or create these monstrous weapons which will visit death and destruction on society, very often outside the European Union. Despite all the fine talk in the treaties of the European Union and by its bureaucracy and political and economic elites about the Union being a zone of democracy, peace, solidarity and human rights, many of the biggest armaments merchants in the world are prominently located within the Union and assisted by governments and the bureaucracy of the Union in the same way as the US, Chinese and Russian weapons industries are supported by their ruling elites.

Further, what do we find? We find that what are called "remotely piloted aircraft systems" are to be designed. They should be called by their more commonly used name, drones. In view of the horror inflicted on innocent civilians in Pakistan, where thousands have died as a result of the great democrat, Obama, sending unmanned or unpiloted drones to wreak havoc on them, does the Minister of State think that perhaps this is not an appropriate peace-loving strategy to adopt? Remember what has happened in Pakistan, with civilians killed at wedding parties, funerals and so forth and with drones coming out of the sky and inflicting savage retribution and horror on innocent people - women, children and men. One would have to ask, then, are these the actions of a peace- and solidarity-loving establishment? The answer is "No". What we have here is the building of an imperial power, and particularly since the enlargement of the European Union, this has been going on apace. It is quite clear that the aim of the corporate elites and their political representatives, which are the major parties within the European Union, is to build a new capitalist bloc. They think that with a population of 500 million they will have an industrial powerhouse and they want a military wing to go onto the world stage and vie with the other major capitalist blocs of the United States, Russia, India and China for markets, goods, services and raw materials. That is really the agenda here. The Taoiseach of a supposedly neutral State sits at an assembly where all of this is thrashed out and then comes in here and declares his allegiance to neutrality. Meanwhile, Margaretta D'Arcy, who is 79 years old and very ill, languishes in a jail in the Republic of Ireland, a supposedly neutral country, for what? For trying to oppose the use of one of our major airports for military purposes by a major power. It is quite incredible.

It is capitalist competition and militarisation that has the world where it is, causing huge suffering to innocent people. If we wanted to create a society in which the economy was for people's welfare and not profit, this is not the way we would go. We would use the economy for the benefit of our people, not to create weapons of mass destruction; we would release the €3 trillion of accumulated profits that are locked up by major corporations in banks to create employment for the 25 million unemployed and to create an entirely different society within the European Union. That is how we would change the world. That is how the world could be changed. European capitalism will never do it but a socialist Europe could.

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