The Consultative Forum on International Security Policy is a pro-NATO stitch-up designed to undermine Irish neutrality, according to the Workers’ Party.

Speaking at a protest outside Dublin Castle as the forum took place, Workers’ Party representative David Gardiner said:
“It is clear to see that successive governments have been attempting to push Ireland closer and closer to NATO despite the will of the Irish people who, as demonstrated consistently in opinion polling, don’t want to join the military alliance. This forum is yet another attempt by the Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green government to continue pushing that pro-NATO agenda.”

“The forum is dominated by senior active or retired military personnel, pro-NATO apologists from academia and so-called experts from selective think-tanks. It is far from the honest and open debate that the government would like to pretend it is.”

“Hitching our wagon to NATO means doing the dirty work of the United States, a country which has intervened in countless other nations since the end of World War II. It means abandoning neutrality and sending our soldiers to fight and die in wars for the American capitalist class. If anything, we should be looking to move away from our complicity in American crimes abroad, such as by ending U.S. military use of Shannon Airport.”

“Ireland, in military terms, is known internationally for peacekeeping through the United Nations. The UN, not NATO, is the only body with a mandate from all UN members members to carry out this kind of work. It is there that our military focus should remain, rather than on backing up the U.S. in its imperialist adventures through NATO.”