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|
Shannon Election Pledge Published
 national |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report
 Tuesday May 22, 2007 16:14 by Kieran O'Sullivan - IAWM
The pledge was drawn up in the context of the recognition that there was huge opposition to Ireland’s involvement in the occupation of Iraq. Over 100,000 marched against the war and over half the population feel that the use of Shannon by US troops is wrong. The pledge was drawn up in the context of the recognition that there was huge opposition to Ireland’s involvement in the occupation of Iraq. Over 100,000 marched against the war and over half the population feel that the use of Shannon by US troops is wrong. Yet the election is giving no coverage to this and political leaders are increasingly distancing themselves from taking any position that would be different to that of the present government. The Irish Anti-War Movement and PANA wanted to reveal exactly where candidates stood on Shannon so that people could vote accordingly in the general election.
1. 72 candidates for this election have signed the pledge.
We have focussed on the Dublin constituencies but also some others
– Galway, Cork and Kerry - where local anti-war groups strong. The
IAWM would like to thank all those that have signed and congratulate them on their unequivocal stand on this core issue (see full list on IAWM website)
2. Fianna Fail
Dermot Ahern responded for the Taoiseach (Dublin Central) putting
forward two main arguments in his letter to us in April 2007.
The first was that the international community was “attempting to improve the situation in Iraq” and he laid emphasis on “ Multinational Force in Iraq authorised by UN security council resolution 1511 of 16 Oct 2003” (and others more recently by resolution 1723 adopted by Security Council on 28 Nov 2006). In relation to this we would like to make a number of points:
* Resolution 1511 was passed seven months after the invasion of Iraq–
* the Multinational Force reference seems a strange emphasis given
the reality of the occupation of Iraq . It is a “U.S.-led coalition” not
multinational force”and the term is more accurate since nearly 92%
of the troops are from the US
* Apart from UK , the EU dimension almost non existent – especially
now as those EU countries that were there have withdrawn – Italy,
Spain - Norway, Hungary, Portugal,
* this is a war involving private armies and mercenaries who operate
outside international law ( there are 20,000 private military
contractors and 158,902 regular troops)
His second justification was that Ireland has been making overflight and landing facilites available to the US over a period of 50 years. The fact that there is a war on does not seem to impinge on our Minster for Foreign Affairs’ consciousness.
Other FF candidates seem to want to both assert their anti-war credentials and allow Shannon to be used by US troops on their way to the occupation of Iraq. Jim OCallaghan, for example, Dub South East has said that they would not be signing but assured us that their party is anti-war “ a stance which has informed Irish neutrality since the foundation of the state”.
3. Fine Gael
Fine Gael feels little need to even justify its support for US troops through Shannon. Sean Barratt (Dun Laoghaire) sees no difficulty in extending facilities to “friendly powers”. Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central) is against the war but reserves the right to assess whether Shannon being used “for relief of human suffering or the protection of human rights”. Only the Progressive Democrats are as unperturbed as Fine Gael by the use of Shannon as a military stopover: Keith Redmond(Dublin North East) and Ben Doyle (Dublin South Central) responded that they see no problem with Shannon being used.
5.. Labour Party
Three of Labour’s outgoing TD’s - Joe Costello, Tommy Broughan,
Michael DHiggins have all signed the pledge. Yet this is not their Leaders position.
Pat Rabitte on Thursday 17th May on Today on Pat Kenny “Would not stop
military stop-overs at Shannon because they were happening on the
basis of UN mandate”. When questioned why Labour Youth seemed to
have a different position Pat Rabitte invoked his authority as the party
leader and that that this was the party position.
But on 20th March 2003 in the debate in Dail, the same Pat Rabitte
accused the Taoiseach of “creative interpretation of UN resolutions” to
justify US facilites at Shannon. Now he is adopting the same stance that
he was so critical of then.
It has to be said that the Labour Manifesto is somewhat more robust in its
opposition to the use of Shannon as a military stop-over and Brendan Ryan
(Dublin North) referred us to this when we asked him to sign. Indeed the
Labour Manifesto as it appears on the party website states:
Labour believes that the international community should learn from the recent illegally declared war in Iraq. We believe that positive compliance with international law and the policy principles of positive neutrality require us to not allow our airspace or facilities to be used for such purposes as facilitating such a war, or preparing for such a conflict……… Furthermore, in government we will not allow Shannon Airport or other Irish facilities to be used for the prosecution of any war, or military preparation for such, outside of international law, international humanitarian law, or in breach of the Charter of the United Nations.
7. Green Party
Trevor Sargent (Dublin North) has not signed claiming that the GP had “no pre-
conditions” in negotiations for government, including the use of Shannon.
Ciaran Cuffe (Dun Laoghaire) referred us to Section 13 of the Green Party 2007
manifesto which commits the party to ending the use of of Shannon Airport
by US forces, but did not sign the pledge. However six Green Party candidates
did sign: Patricia McKenna (DC), David Healy(DNE), Bronwen Maher (DNC)
Niall O Brolchain (Gal West) David Grey (Kerry N) and John Hickey (Kerry S)
8. Sinn Fein, Socialist Party and Independents..
All Sinn Fein candidates have signed. All Socialist Party and People before Profit candidates have signed. Tony Gregory and Finian McGrath independent outgoing TDs have signed.
Our seeking pledges on Shannon has showed that political accountability is difficult to pin down amongst the parties in this election. The electorate is being given very mixed messages from the candidates. Some candidates feel strongly against the use of Shannon in this illegal war and have come forward to commit themselves to stopping Shannon being used in this war. Party leaders and candidates - from those same parties of those that have signed - have either shifted their positions or refused to be held to any commitments.
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Comments (20 of 20)
Jump To Comment: 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Dear m.
You're right on the bullseye stating that lots of energy has been spent.....you're slightly off centre when you only mention RBB (as usual - if only Richard had as much brand recognition in the larger public as he has within 'certain' circles) and you omit Joan Collins', Rory Hearn's, Patricia McKenna's, Finian McGrath's, Claire Daly's, Browyn Maher's, Catherine Connolly's campaigns.....further, you're completely off the point when you disregard the effect of that energy being spent on the thousands upon thousands of good people who had an opportunity to meet face-to-face, discuss, argue with, read leaflets from, shake hands with ordinary anti-war activists working door-to-door, canvassing, leafletting, postering....yes, masses of energy spent but with a clear objective: trying to (re) build a mass movement....to use SP language 'working on the ground'. Because it's only such a movement that would have enough energy to topple the criminal cabal that's been running this gig for the last 10 years. As it happened in Italy, and Spain.....and destroyed Blair! That mass movement that is pushing Bush to the ropes in the heart of the Empire itself.
Finally, I wouldn't mind being enlightened by you dear friend of where exactly you, and your mates, spent your energy during the last few weeks. Please tell. In plain language so that all of us energy wasters could understand and learn from.
PS In case you're wondering we will all be cheering for Milan and Kaka and Nesta tonight. What about you?
Hardly a waste of energy, I'd say. It's there now in writing, so if the Greens or Labour TDs who signed the pledge do end up a Govt that will almost certainly continue the current policy, they'll have some explaining to do.
Who knows? Maybe the likes of Michael D. will have to walk out of the coalition and the party? Breaking the new coalition before it even has a chance to start, as almost happened in Italy over the NATO base a few months ago....
Alright, maybe I'm getting a bit carried away with that...
but this documentary on thursday night (21:00 bbc2) may be of interest regarding rendition flights. Might be more interesting than watching election bollocks too!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/668198...3.stm
This was a waste of energy. All the people you'd expect to sign, signed; those that were never going to sign, didn't. A tremendous waste of energy, all designed to focus anti-war activists on the election and RBB's campaign in particular. MichaelY thinks this pledge caused waves - spare us! The media never noticed it and the politicians ignored it. Lobbying politicians is a complete waste of time.
I think its been obvious for some time that there is a difference between LY and the the LP on a few issues. Its been pointed out before re Shannon, I wouldn't be so keen to keep repeating the same thing, LY members have a good record in a whole list of campaigns. People have to find things out for themselves to some extent.
Anyway, what chance of Mick Murphy being elected?
Also are there any circumstances in which the SP would vote for Enda Kenny as Taoiseach?
I remember Patrick Mc Nulty (who I think is the chair of Labour Youth) saying at a debate at the Socialist Youth Summer Festival that the Labour Party would stop flights by the US military in Shannon Airport and it was a democratic organisation (unlike the evil Leninists in the Socialist Party!). I think the above quote from PR on Pat Kenny and the motion which I got from the Labour Youth website (which has now being completely ignored by the LP leadership) shows how he was hopelessly wrong on both counts.
I would be very interested to hear the response of LY members to this u-turn and how they plan to decisively challenge the LP leadership on it.
(http://www.labour.ie/youth/campaigns/index/200608241321....html)
''Making Shannon a priority issue for LabourLabour Youth proposed and got passed unanimously the following motion at Labour Party conference in 2005:
Shannon Airport
Conference notes the ongoing use of Shannon Airport as a U.S. military refueling base thus facilitating the continued maiming and murder of innocent human beings, particularly in Iraq.
Conference mandates the Labour Party negotiators and the National Executive after the next General Election to demand an immediate withdrawal of the U.S. military from Shannon Airport as an essential part of any Programme for Government that they would negotiate.
Proposing Branch : Labour Youth -
Addendum :
Conference further mandates the Labour Party when in government to safeguard the employment conditions of workers at Shannon Airport and ensure the future viability of the Airport.
Proposing Branch : Ennis, Clare (Clare)''
Just for clarification the Socialist Party has ruled out supporting either of the main coalition blocks due to the fact that they all represent the interests of big business and property developers. The fact that they will continue to allow the use of Shannon Airport is simply an expression of this fact.
Dear Groucho,
72 prospective candidates, including members and standing TDs of the Labour Party signed the pledge, which, I repeat, was not just an IAWM but a PANA/NGO Alliance/Workers Party/anti-Bush Campaign pledge - of which Labour Youth is an affiliated organisation among others..
Secondly, in my message I said absolutely nothing about Gilmore's personal stance on the war and Shannon - pls read my statement above carefully. Only Eamonn himself, and perhaps his leader, know where they stand on these issues. Assumptions here are pointless. Political reality will tell us soon.
As to our 'behaviour' in organising a meeting with Cindy Sheehan and Ruhel Ahmed in Dunlaoghaire, over 180 people turned up and packed the hall. We started on time at 19.30 and at 22.00 the discussion was still continuing. Eleven people told us they had never been to an anti-war meeting before - who knows how many more did not own up - a whole number put their names down for further info, we distributed 300 (free) copies of our new Factfile and the collection was massive.
Had comrade Gilmore, or you, bothered to turn up you would have learnt a couple of things from Cindy and Ruhel and the meeting would have benefitted....you were obviously carrying out more important work last night. Pity.
I support the pledge and if I was a candidate I would sign it, in the abscence of an AWI pledge. But you cant imply that people are pro-war because they wont sign the IAWM pledge.
Some people have serious issues with the IAWM. Its not the Anti War Movement in Ireland. Its just the SWP and a handful of others. Some are independent, some are puppets of the SWP.
Given the way the iAWM have behaved in Dun Laoire, organising an election rally for RBB, I'm not suprised that Gilmore refused to sign.
Gilmore referred us to the Labour manifesto - and ignored the pledge.
Did Gilmore definitely refuse outright, or just ignore the pledge? It's not clear from the spreadsheet...
Ah well, since I don't trust the Shinners one bit with this (or with anything else), I'll only be voting for Boyd Barrett in DL.
Hi Paul
Re: your query - Both Finian McGrath (Ind) and Bronwen Maher (Green Party) in Dublin North Central signed the pledge. As you state, Mr Cowley did not!.
We asked the Taoiseach, we pestered him, and his office, finally, they asked us to talk to Dermot Ahern....in early April we got a letter from Ciaran Madden, Dermot Ahern's Private Secretary who wrote and I'm quoting verbatim and with no commentary:
".....The current situation in Iraq is indeed very difficult. Ireland is working with the international community, via the United Nations, to improve the situation. The presence of the Multinational Force in Iraq was authorised by UN SC Resolution 1511 of 16 October 2003 (and then a series of resolutions till Nov 28 2006).
With respect to the use by the US military of Shannon Airport, Ireland has been making overflight and landing facilities available to the US over a period of fifty years. Ireland has never withdrawn or suspended those facilities at any stage during that perioid."
And the letter concludes by stating that "Minister Ahern has supplied the European Parliamentary Committee with a detailed and thorough statement on the issue of extraordinary rendion".
Note the date of the UN resolution 1511 - 6 months after the invasion started. Note the 'multinationality' of the invading force. And most importantly please note that we facilitated the Empire during the Vietnam war too!! So, apparently, what excuse would we have not to facilitate them now!! As for rendition, the position is that Bush and Rice tolds us there were no prisoners transported and right do we have not to believe them?
At least they're not hiding the truth....
No, Cowardly Cowley-ff, hasnt signed his name to the list, even though he said he is against the war, in case you were interested MAYO MAN.
In Dublin N/central there is Finian McGrath-ind, and Bronwen Owens-gp. Who have Signed it
Did anyone ask Bartholomew Aherne for his name???, Does anyone remember his statement when the death toll only stood at 27,000.......eh....ahem.......eeer......I, I, I, I,......a, a, a, mm, ...aaaamm,...am d, d, dead , dead, dead against de, de, de, de, wo , wo, wo, wor...
The PANA/NGO Alliance/Anti- Bush Campaign/IAWM pledge, for that's what it is, has generated quite a lot of heat. All parties that have a notional anti-war/anti-use of Shannon position, both at the leadership but also membership level, had to grapple with the issue and a set of very interesting positions emerged - these will continue to set the tone in the days after Thursday when the jockeying for power will unfold:
In turn:
The discussion within the Green Party is very intense...during the IAWM Press Conference on Tuesday morning, over and above Patricia McKenna's unequivocal statement of an anti-war position, we were presented with a statement by John Gormley TD, who reiterated his party's straight anti-war position anf referred people to the Green Party Manifesto and Conference decisions. As far as the IAWM is concerned, this is a step forward, a slight differentiation from Trevor's position and something that will inevitably come up in the post-election discussions if the Greens are anywhere near governmental power. While we share most sentiments echoing a certain cynicism about politicians and their pre-election promises [see the parallel Indymedia thread on the Greens] , I believe that the situation in the Greens must be followed with utmost care and the 5 candidates who signed the pledge supported.
Within Sinn Fein, while the situation is much clearer, at least in apperance, the Party leadership and all its TDs and prospective candidates are professing an unambiguous anti-war/anti use of Shannon position. This, as some have argued, it may very well be an easy option for SF as they're unlikely to be involved in any power negotiations - at least not in the beginning. However, as SF is arguing consistently, as for example Mary Lou in Q&A last Monday night, that whatever Government emerges in the 26 Counties, would have to deal with SF IN GOVERNMENT in the 6 Counties, it was brought to our attention last night, in a packed meeting in DunLaoghaire, by one of the Raytheon 9 defendents (ex-member of Sinn Fein) that the party in Derry is refusing to take a stand against the Raytheon factory!! Another instance of saying one thing and doing another?
The Labour Party is in a big mess on this one -it was comical if not tragic watching Alex White, one of its most 'intellectual' proponents, pressed by Vincent Browne, trying to wiggle out of a clear statement of intent in the case of Rabbitte pulling the plug on the Shannon issue. MichaelD, Joe Costello and Broughan have signed the pledge - Gilmore and Upton refused - the situation is unclear from there on.
The Socialist Party and most of the progressive indepdendent are with us on this one......
To continue - watch this space
The list is available at http://irishantiwar.org just look at the center of the page and you will see links to the spreadsheet.
Or just click this http://irishantiwar.org/home2/election_2007_signatories...5.xls
A very useful exercise. I had thought that only Brid Smith, Joan Collins and Andrew McGuiness would sign in my constituency. However, it's great to see Aengus O'Snodaigh's name on the list as well.
There does however appear to be a typo on your spreadsheet under Dublin South Central. The WP candidate Andrew McGuiness is mentioned as having signed and not having signed the pledge. Perhaps the person who didn't sign is Green Party councillor Tony McDermott whose name is not on the list?
Very disappointing to note the lack of political conviction displayed by Labour's Mary Upton and Eric Byrne. I have never given SF a higher preference than either Labour or the Greens but will certainly do so this time around. Needless to say I shall not be voting for FF/FG/PD or the independent doctor who claims to care for children yet does not seem too bothered about children in Iraq.
Well done IAWM.
did cowley refuse to sign or what?
If these individual politicians adhere to their pledge and they get elected, they promiste not to go into government, that would be interesting enough, but if they stay out of govermment they wont be voting for their taoiseach and taniste.
If they hold their ground things should get interesting over th next few days.
Either way, the Irish constitution was violated, International law was violated and the UN was sidestepped.
Bertie said ......'I did all I could throughout to hold and uphold the UN position'.....
Blix said...we need more time, weeks not months.
Someday these people will be held accountable for their genocide.
Is the full list of signers available anywhere online?
If a candidate does not sign a clear pledge of 100% opposition to Shannon then that candidate should not be backed. I'd even go as far as to say unless ALL in party sign pledge then don't back rest of 'anti-war' candidates in that party. For example, why vote for Michael D. Higgins when his vote will be used to elect Kenny as Taoiseach and Rabbitte as tánaiste? It would be interesting to get a list of all the indidividual candidates nonetheless so that we know more about who support what.
thanks fior this kieran. Good work.