Ireland Neutrality Gerry Adams The people of Northern Ireland live in a State dominated by a foreign power, Britain, occupied by British troops, who are also NATO troops. We have had many years of first hand experience of how NATO troops behave, of how NATO turns a blind eye to the military excesses of one of its member states, and even how NATO seeks to use our situation as a testing ground of new weapons and surveillance technology, counter-insurgency techniques and crowd control methods. South Armagh is the most militarized region in Western Europe, and for three decades a testing ground for NATO technology.
Before the Irish government takes the grave step of joining "Partnership for Peace" and abandons Irish neutrality, it should listen to those who have direct, daily experience of one of the NATO military powers.
Neutrality is not a mere antiBritish reflex. It reflects the democratic and internationalist ethos of radical Irish republicanism from Wolfe Tone to James Connolly. It has a world view as well as a distinctly Irish view.
As a people who have been fighting against colonialism for centuries, we should work with other nations to develop a bridge within Europe, between those emerging nations in eastern and southern Europe which are disadvantaged through years of repression and poverty, and between Europe and the peoples of "the South'- who are crippled by a foreign debt which keeps them permanently impoverished.
We cannot do this through the creation of a European Superstate with a military arm. Sinn Fein believes there is no role for the European Union in military and defence matters. International peacekeeping should be under the auspices of the United Nations.
It is amazing how tons of bombs dropped on civilians in Serbia are morally and politically acceptable to the British government and the jingoistic media, while the silent guns of the IRA, we are told, are a threat to peace here in Ireland.* Excerpt from a recent address to the Peace And Neutrality Alliance Conference on Irish Neutrality Information http://irlnet.com/rmlist/ © KM Distribution, Irish Republican News and 10 International Viewpoint #312 June 1999
EL SCAR
The communist-inspired newspaper Il Manifesto has played a very positive role in building the impressive Rome demonstrations. Leading columnist Rosanna Rossanda has incited Italian soldiers to disobey any orders to participate in a ground war.
Spain's United Left (IU) has opposed the war in parliament and in the streets. But one wing of the movement supports Milosevic, while the other demands respect for Kosovar democratic rights.
When the conflict started, IU leader Julio Anguita took a pro-Milosevic line. he met with the Yugoslav ambassador in the CP offices in Madrid, and disputed media reports of "alleged" massacres of Kosovar civilians. In one El Pais interview, Anguita called Milosevic "a man of the left."
The practical consequence of this pro-Milosevic line was an unsuccessful attempt to organise a separate I (PC) anti-war demonstration, so as to split a broader anti-bombing, pro-Kosovo demonstration being organised for the same dates.
IU federations in Madrid, Catalonia and Valencia are among those who make the double demand of "stop the bombing!" and "self-determination for
Kosovo!"
On 26 April, the Anguita leadership abruptly modified its position to satisfy these growing protests. But PC leader
Frutos and other prominent CPers refused to support the new policy.
Pressure on IU is also coming from the broad left "Manifesto for a just peace in the Balkans," which has been signed by a wide range of intellectuals and leaders of social and political movements, including the prominent IU philosopher Francesco Fernandez Buey, and left trade union leader Augustine
Moreno.
Germany's PDS opposes the war and
Ko
NATO, criticises Milosevic's antidemocratic regime within Serbia and in
D its expulsion of Kosovo Albanians. But party leader Gregor Gysi rushed to
Belgrade for talks with Milosevic. He also visited Kosovo, but his handshake
This with the Serbian leader was very badly received by the PDS base.
the
The PDS has said nothing in defence the of the democratic rights of the Kosovars.
At the European level, the PDS is proposing a "peace plan," inviting left
The parties in both halves of Europe to
Sitate support a United Nations intervention, the g and a ceasefire by both Serbian and the le
Kosovar forces. The plan says nothing about a right of return for those Kosovars who have been expelled from their homes.
At the same time, the PDS is active in the anti-war movement. Member of
Parliament Winfried Wolf persuaded the party to publish a war diary, which is and in now in its third edition (100,000, 300,000 and 500,000 copies.)
Scandinavia
Most members of Norway's Socialist
What
Left party (Sosialistisk Venstreparti)
W2S 1 seem to oppose Party Leader Kristin
Halvorsen's pro-NATO statements.
Bosn
The ex-Maoist Red Electoral Alliance
(RV) has supported the Kosovo
Destr
Liberation Army (UCK) in their "just
T in th war against national oppression, though we disagree with their attachment to whic
NATO, and their unclear politics."
рори
Norway's daily revolutionary news-
Milo paper Klassekampen (Class Struggle)
and initially wanted to collect money for the final
UCK, until that organisation's internal allia
'coup' against Adem Demaci and recent survi pro-NATO statements.
West
The Danish Red Green Alliance and i
(Enhedslisten) has used its parliamentary the k presence to denounce NATO interven-
The tion, and support Kosovo self-determination. *
T the r
• The website version of this article is burni constantly updated. Check it out!
ble ri
U.S. socialists, oppose intervention, support
Kosova self-determination