Be a spanner in the works, not a cog in the machine
Shannon refuelling reveals Seville declaration to be worthless
Today's poll in the Irish Times shows Irish people are against war on Iraq by a margin of 2 to 1. So why are US warplanes being refuelled at Shannon airport and allowed to use Irish airspace? Libertarians Against Nice, which will take part in the protests at Shannon airport on 12th October, point out that this is an example of why the Seville declaration on Irish neutrality is not worth the paper it is written on.
Speaking for LAN Andrew Flood said
"Nearly 60% of Irish people do not want a US war against Iraq. Yet our government is allowing US military planes to refuel and train at Shannon airport and to use Irish airspace. US military planes are already involved in bombing attacks on Iraq. Planes of the same type landing and training out of Shannon (the Hercules C130) were used in Afghanistan to drop 15,000lb 'Daisy Cutter' bombs. During the Afghan war protesters at Shannon saw planes full of US marines in desert combat uniforms land at Shannon.
Libertarians Against Nice will be taking part in the October 12th protest at Shannon because we believe the refuelling that is going on there exposes the fiction of Irish neutrality. The Irish government have tried to remove the issue of militarisation from the Nice referendum by way of the Seville declaration on "military neutrality". But Irish refuelling of over 500 war planes since the start of the Afghan war reveals just how meaningless this declaration is. This is not a neutral act, if we were refuelling Iraqi war planes on a daily basis no one would pretend it was."
Speaking for LAN Chekov Feeney said
"Just as the internal policy of the European Union is geared towards satisfying the interests of Big Business irrespective of social cost, so too are its global actions. The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP - a common front on world affairs from all EU governments) and the Rapid Reaction Force (the European Army) are the EU's tools to promote the interests of European Multinationals across the world. The Nice Treaty will bring Ireland into Europe's major military alliance, since the EU will directly take over responsibility for European military matters from the WEU (NATO's alliance of EU states of which Ireland is not a member).
"If Nice passes, the EU will become responsible for 'crisis-management'. Columbia is an example of what this is likely to mean. The Columbian Government has liberalised it's economy, reduced trade taxes, sold off state owned companies, made contracts especially beneficial to foreign investment. British Petroleum, the Smurfit Group, and French supermarket chain Casino all have extensive interests there, to name but three. To push these plans through, the government has waged a civil war against the rural poor. Meanwhile, through the CFSP, E.U. governments contributed 200 million U.S. dollars to the Columbian Government's war funds.
"According to the Columbian police's own figures, over 80% of all the massacres there have been carried out by right wing paramilitaries, closely linked to state forces. The CFSP has nothing to do with humanitarianism. It is designed to ensure the flow of profits to EU multinationals like BP and Smurfit.
--- ends --
More information on Ireland, the EU and militarism at
http://struggle.ws/ireland/nice/analysis/militarism.html