|
CounterPunch
October
14, 2002
Letter from
Dublin
Ireland: 'No to War, No to Nice,
No to American Terrorism'
by HARRY BROWNE
After I wrote in Counterpunch
last week about the referendum campaign against the EU's
Nice Treaty in Ireland, I had a few emails from people shocked
that Irish leftists should be trying to stall the development
of a potential global counterweight to US power.
Some nostalgia for a bipolar world is
not surprising among progressive people--it's certainly arguable
that the existence of the Soviet Union not only put brakes on
US adventurism, but also offered options and bargaining power
to states with some choice about their "sphere of influence".
My correspondents may turn out to be prescient in suggesting
that the EU could revive such a role. However, on this side of
the water, people familiar with the foreign policies of particular
EU states--and the policies, such as they are, of the EU as a
whole--are less inclined to believe that it can become a geopolitical
force for benign social democracy. Look at how tied in to NATO
its nascent "security and defense policy" is. Look
at its arms merchants; its trade negotiators; its immigration
barriers. It just ain't that kind of institution. (Click here
for Action Ireland's arguments against the treaty. http://www.afri.buz.org/)
Here in Ireland, the political tendencies
that are most enthusiastic about US power also tend to be the
most effusively "pro-European", and are certainly pushing
for a Yes vote in the October 19 referendum. (This is now also
the case in Britain, where the Blairites combine Euro-zeal with
lapdog devotion to the "special relationship".) In
Ireland there are of course some Yes-voting left-liberals who
combine criticism of the US with support for an EU-led alternative
to the American imperium; these arguments tend to be made quietly,
however; they are more prominent in the academic literature than
in newspaper opinion columns. They certainly don't fit on any
of the billboards and posters now papering the Republic. (The
latest spending estimate suggests that the Yes side--which includes
the government, the two largest opposition parties, the employers'
organization and the main trade unions--is outpapering the combined
No campaign by a margin of roughly five to one.)
The giant banner that went up on a Liffeyside
building site this week illustrates something of the politics
of the situation, which are probably baffling to outsiders. "No
to War, No to Nice, No to American Terrorism", it reads.
The man responsible is Mick Wallace, described in the tabloids
as a "millionaire builder". Now, millionaire builders
are as common as gulls along Dublin's quays, home of the Celtic
Tiger--a beast fed throughout the 1990s on a diet of US corporate
investment and EU funding for infrastructure. Wallace, a long-haired,
jeans-clad bit of rough who could definitely help turn-out the
No vote among women of my acquaintance, is prepared to bite the
hands that feed the Tiger. (His client on the site, Dublin City
Council, doesn't share his enthusiasm, but Wallace will fight
them on free-speech grounds long enough to make his point loud
and clear.)
Then, on the other hand, there's the
Labour party. Its latest Yes poster proclaims: "After all
We're Europeans." This sentiment is embodied in the accompanying
photograph, which shows a gleaming dinner setting, spread out
on a stylish table; no diners or food has yet arrived, and if
you look real close you can see that the placecards consist of
tiny national flags. The point may be something along the lines
of "Keep our place at the table", but it can only remind
voters of Labour's longstanding asssociations with champagne
and smoked salmon. The logo at the bottom reads "Party of
European Socialists", but "Party of European Socialites"
is more like it.
In a state where we've got used to bosses
and trade unions standing side-by-side in support of national
wage agreements and such like, it's the No side that contains
the strangest bedfellows. Or so you might say, but the right
and left wing No campaigns are completely separate and not even
speaking to each other, let alone sharing the sheets. The "No
to Nice Campaign" is led by an anti-abortion activist, Justin
Barrett. He and his comrades see the EU as a threat to national
sovereignty and traditional Irish-Catholic values. (Many liberals
agree with him on the latter point and back European integration
and institutions for that very reason.)
The "Alliance Against Nice"
is a broadly left grouping containing the nominally Trot Socialist
and Socialist Workers parties, but also the two big-growth parties
from last May's general election, Sinn Fein and the Greens. These
parties, along with a number of left-leaning independent politicians,
have considerable credibility with the electorate, even if the
Greens risk alienating some of their more "cosmopolitan"
middle-class voters with their anti-Nice stance--one not necessarily
shared by Greens across Europe.
Sinn Fein's troubles in the North, where
party workers are accused of filching documents from the Northern
Ireland Office, may have hastened the collapse of the Northern
Executive, but it hasn't damaged the party's standing in the
Republic. Folks here are inclined to skepticism about "dirty
tricks" up yonder; Gerry Adams tells Irish radio and TV
that the "Spy vs Spy" atmosphere is so bad there that
when the British Secretary of State wants to talk seriously,
he takes Adams out of his office. We lap it up.
The right wing's No campaign--which on
the face of it is a complaint about the transfer of power to
the larger European states, but which also contains some scaremongering
about immigration has little new to say after last year's first
referendum, and probably at most a quarter of the electorate
to say it to. The outcome of the referendum depends heavily on
whether left arguments about the EU's possible attitudes and
directives on privatising State assets are heard, and whether
the debate on military neutrality--so far neutralised by the
clever government maneuver I described here last week--can be
reopened by the 19th. I wouldn't bet on it, but Irish politics
change far too quickly to make predictions with any confidence.
Harry Browne
is a lecturer in journalism at Dublin Institute of Technology
and a columnist with The Irish Times. He can be reached at: harrybrowne@eircom.net
Yesterday's
Features
Alexander Cockburn
Vindication
Through Violence:
Jimmy Carter and the DC Sniper
Robert Jensen
The American
Political Paradox:
More Freedom, Less Democracy
Ben Tripp
Congratulations! It's a War!
Susan Davis
Proverbial
Wisdom:
Red!
David Krieger
A Bleak Day for America
Anis Shivani
George W. in Therapy
Ken Paff
Where Do Hoffa's Tactics Belong in a Mob-Free Teamsters?
Carol Norris
The Politics of Fear
Elaine Cassel
The Lynne Stewart Case:
When Representing an Accused Terrorist Can Land a Lawyer in Jail
Musa AlShaer
Scenes
from an Occupied Wedding
Anthony Gancarski
Concerned Citizen: a serialized
novel (Episode 3)
M. Shahid Alam
I Will Fight Your Enemies
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- How to Change the Subject: Corporate Scandal and Pension
Reform as Weapons Against Warmongering;
- Padilla's Predecessor: Court Ruling Cites 1904 War
Against Mining Union;
- Adios Hitchens: the Dorian Gray of Our Time;
- Object of Suspicion: How the FBI Watched Janis Ian
From Birth;
- First Carter, Then Clinton,
Now Sen. John Edwards:
Another "New South" Slimeball;
- Corporate Crooks: Nature or Nurture?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
October 9,
2002
Hesham Hassaballa
Here
We Go Again:
Rev. Falwell's Slurs
Ann Pettifer
Brainwashing
in America
Anita Ramasatry
Airline Security Run Amok
Josh Frank
Iraq: It's
About Globalization
Rep. Cynthia
McKinney
Iraq:
the Double Standard
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Illogical War Speech
David Vest
Dylan in
Eugene
October 4,
2002
Ahmad Faruqui
The Anvil
of War and the Ailing American Economy
Norman Madarasz
The
Truth and Violence
of a Symbolic Act
William Hughes
Political
Show Trial for
Marwan Barghouti
Ron Jacobs
The Struggle
Against
Another Oil War
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Bush War
Plan:
Blind and Improvident
Michael Schwalbe
The
Costs of American Privilege
Ralph Nader
Holding
Politicians' Feet to the Fire on Corporate Crime
Robert Buzzanco
Pacifica
Caves in to Zionist Smear Campaign
October 3,
2002
Gary Leupp
Talking
to Your Kids About Fascism
Will Youmans
The New
Anti-Apartheid Movement: The Campaign to Divest from Israel
Deb Reich
Report from a Mad World
Todd Chretien & Sue Sandlin
"It's All About Power on the
Docks"
Kurt Nimmo
Poetry
as Treason
Amiri Baraka
Somebody
Blew Up America
Alexander
Cockburn
October Surprises
October 2,
2002
Carol Wolman,
MD
Is the
President Nuts?
Diagnosing Dubya
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Something
Rotten in Klamath
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|