Gaza, Ukraine, Taiwan: the drive to global war
After almost a year of slaughter in Palestine the mass sympathy among tens of thousands of Irish people remains consistent. But we must also realistically say that the campaign of protest has been ineffective.
One reason for our failure is that our understanding of the world today is very blinkered. A tunnelled vision prevents us from connecting the various theatres of war in one overarching scheme.
In the case of Gaza, there is mass sympathy. Many recognise the open genocide. The Israelis are responsible and the US and Western powers are deeply complicit.
A completely different view is taken of the proxy war in Ukraine. The violence is seen as a direct result of Russian imperialism. Ukraine is defending democracy and the US and Western powers are pouring in arms and billions in funds in the cause of freedom.
Yet again a different view is taken of Taiwan. The US and their allies are acting aggressively, but then China is an aggressive imperialist power. Likely one side is as bad as the other.
Yet a step back will tell us very quickly that the central process in all these struggles is easily identified as a declining US imperialism, attempting to defend its role and its control of the world economy, by military force.
China is to be contained, not because of military expansion, but simply because of its economic success.
Palestine is to be cleansed through genocide to secure the absolute and ruthless dominance of Isreal and the US over East Asia and to deter local opponents.
In the case of Ukraine, the alternative to hundreds of thousands of dead was the Minsk Accords, focused on demanding that Ukraine not join NATO and extending democratic rights to the ethic Russian population. Instead, we had ongoing escalation towards European war and the growing threat of a US first strike nuclear attack.
Once we accept the overriding role of US imperialism, we can join the dots and see that opposition to genocide and global war is a protection of our rights.
The drive to war also means a drive to tear up democratic and legal rights and criminalise opposition. As the war budget ramps up, austerity will become more intense and censorship more pervasive. All the US dependencies are complicit. The Irish government does a song and dance on Palestine, but takes no action. In the meantime, it quietly signs up to silent membership of NATO and participates in the war against Russia.
This complicity involves most of Irish society. That's illustrated by the Sinn Féin St Patrick’s Day capitulation to Biden and by an ongoing silence from the trade unions and political parties around the use of Shannon Airport by the US military.
And that should tell us who are targets are. Our best aim is close to home, with the pressure on local governments and complicit social organisations. In the medium term we will have to bring down fake leaders and build a new movement of workers. In the meantime, for the sake of humanity, let’s remove the blinkers!