Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I will begin my contribution with a personal reminiscence. I remember a crowd of kids standing out on the sidewalk, as we used to say, on the street corner in Columbus, Ohio. I think the year was probably 1970, which would place me at age six or seven. There was a big conversation and it was all about the so-called crazy kid who lived around the corner. We were convinced this teenager was crazy because he had decided to go for a little walk right off the roof of his mother's garage. Inevitably, he broke his legs, so as far as we were concerned he was crazy. Of course he was not, because in doing so he escaped the draft, avoided Vietnam, possibly saved his own life and he probably saved the lives of others. It was only years later I realised what was going on and that maybe to be crazy in a crazy world makes a person one of the sanest of the sane.

Since then I have read many history books and I have studied a few wars, including that particular war in which 58,000 US soldiers died and in which 3 million Vietnamese people died. That reading, study and maybe a few childhood experiences such as that - it was not the only one - brings me to a point in this Dáil where I approach this discussion as a socialist opponent of imperialist war and militarism and as a person who casts a very sceptical eye on the pronouncements and propaganda of capitalist spokespersons on these issues.

The Irish State has never been a genuinely neutral State. It was neutral in the Second World War, and maybe more so than some other wars, but on the side of America and Britain. It was neutral in the Vietnam war on the side of Uncle Sam. It was so neutral in the Iraq war that Shannon Airport was given over as a refuelling pit stop for the American war machine.

This State came into being on the back of a counter-revolution that overpowered a revolution which had been driven by the working class and the poor for both national and social liberation. The revolutionary movement of 1917 to 1923 was so powerful that the leaders of the new State felt they had to tip the hat to its most dearly held sentiments. Clearly, a mass movement that had challenged the power of an empire had created a strong anti-imperialist sentiment in the country. Hence the official policy of the leaders of the new State was neutrality with no overt connections with imperialist power blocs, but unofficially it was to give as much political and, where possible, practical support to such blocs. Such has been the hypocrisy of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Irish capitalist class down through the decades that only now, with the Russian invasion, do they dare to lower the mask and reveal their real ambitions more fully.

Socialists are not neutral on issues of foreign policy either. In the battle between the black South African masses and apartheid capitalism, they were unequivocally on the side of those masses. In the struggle between the Iraqi people and the US invaders, who were gifted Shannon, our sympathies were on the side not of some of the factions but of the Iraqi people themselves. Similarly, in the struggle between the people of Ukraine and Putin's invading army we stand 100% on the side of the Ukrainian people, support their right to armed self-defence and resistance, and call for the immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops.

As a socialist I support this Bill because it seeks to tie the hands of capitalist governments in the State, to restrict their ability to make military alliances, and to restrict their ability to declare war, allowing this only in circumstances where the country has been invaded and only then by way of a decision of Dáil Éireann. I also support it because it asks for ratification of that position by way of referendum, placing the decision in the hands of the people rather than those who want to strengthen Ireland's military muscle whether they be in the Cabinet or the editorial rooms of the capitalist press.

What would a European army or rapid reaction force look like? You might get a glimpse of this if you looked at what is happening today in Africa. A leaked document from the European Union-African Union Summit earlier this year stated the EU wants to scale up its military presence in Africa. The document describes Europe's existing military deployments in Africa as stretching from the Sahel to the Gulf of Guinea, and from the Horn of Africa to the Mozambique canal, which echoes 19th century imperialist talk. The EUobserverstates the EU currently has 11 military and naval missions in Africa. Many of these missions are led by France in west Africa, which is where France was formerly the direct colonial power. All of them serve to prop up pro-EU governments as the EU battles for influence on the continent with the rival imperialisms of China and Russia. The aim of the exercise is not so much to protect democracy. It is to protect sources of cheap minerals and cheap labour. Many of the European capitalist states-----

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