first thoughts: irish independence
WORKERS, NOVEMBER 2002 ISSUE
BRITISH IMPERIALISM has a legendary role in conquering and dividing nations overseas and Blair continues this tradition recklessly. While he wants the US to run our foreign policy and the European Central Bank to run our government, he also wants the dying embers of Britain’s divisive interference in the affairs of Ireland to be fanned once more.
In a world in which national independence is being destroyed and petty chauvinisms and terrorism fostered, the move by Britain to suspend Stormont and thereby set back the process of peace and reconciliation in the north of Ireland is dangerous.
Ireland’s business is Ireland’s business. Britain should have no dominion there. Nor should the European Union. Ireland’s proud national traditions are thwarted by unelected bankers from the European Central Bank controlling the Dail and British Ministers dictating events in the six counties.
Ireland, like every other nation in the world, needs its own independent, secular government. Britain’s aspirations for the same will be delayed for as long as it remains within the European Union and at the beck and call of the US and also for as long as it tries to meddle in the affairs of Ireland.
The concept of national independence as the basis for secular government remains the key for workers’ progress in this period of history. The idea of national independence, so clearly expressed by the Irish in the first attempted revolution of the twentieth century, is central to the struggle for democracy across the globe at the start of the 21st.ering and dividing nations overseas and Blair continues this tradition recklessly. While he wants the US to run our foreign policy and the European Central Bank to run our government, he also wants the dying embers of Britain's divisive interference in the affairs of Ireland to be fanned once more.
In a world in which national independence is being destroyed and petty chauvinisms and terrorism fostered, the move by Britain to suspend Stormont and thereby set back the process of peace and reconciliation in the north of Ireland is dangerous.
Ireland's business is Ireland's business. Britain should have no dominion there. Nor should the European Union. Ireland’s proud national traditions are thwarted by unelected bankers from the European Central Bank controlling the Dail and British Ministers dictating events in the six counties.
Ireland, like every other nation in the world, needs its own independent, secular government. Britain’s aspirations for the same will be delayed for as long as it remains within the European Union and at the beck and call of the US and also for as long as it tries to meddle in the affairs of Ireland.
The concept of national independence as the basis for secular government remains the key for workers’ progress in this period of history. The idea of national independence, so clearly expressed by the Irish in the first attempted revolution of the twentieth century, is central to the struggle for democracy across the globe at the start of the 21st.