Catherine Connolly Is Right - The USA Is Imperialist!

Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly is getting hammered by the mainstream media for statements she made about German rearmament and the militarism of the USA. At a public meeting she said: “Seems to me, there are some parallels with the ’30s. I don’t wish to depress you. There is hope. And we have voices. And we can use them.”

She also explained that the USA is an imperialist power: “We have imperial powers. America is one of those imperial powers. As a neutral country we have a duty [to] use our neutrality to call out the abuse of power, no matter where that is.”

There is nothing controversial or shocking in what she said. The USA has invaded dozens of countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti. They’ve sponsored fascist paramilitaries and launched coups against left wing governments.

The Cost of War Project at Brown University estimated that at least 4.5 million people were killed by US wars since 2001 alone. The US is also Apartheid Israel’s main sponsor providing them with cash, guns all while shielding them from criticism and defending them at the UN.

War is no accident of personality, it’s deeply rooted in the capitalist system. Giant corporations are so big and so integral to the economic interests of their home state that the state will take military action to defend those economic interests.

That’s why the US has been murdering people all over the world under Democrats and Republicans, because corporations call the shots. And their sights are now set on China.

But Connolly was right about Germany too. There are half a million people homeless in Germany and workers suffer low wages yet the German establishment is willing to spend hundreds of billions on arms, cash that will go straight into the fat coffers of big arms companies.

The EU is a dysfunctional imperial power because the key players, like France and Germany, can pull in different directions when it comes to policy. But they both agree that they want to come out from under the wing of the Whitehouse and assert themselves more aggressively on the world stage.

The political direction of all the major states from the USA to Germany is dominated by the interests of giant corporations. The Irish ruling class are junior partners of these imperialist nations and so want to destroy Irish neutrality and offer us up as cannon fodder in future wars.

This is what really explains the attacks on Catherine Connolly. She’s hardly a revolutionary. Standing for the Presidency, to be a powerless figurehead that wines and dines with all manner of political ghouls and goblins, shows you’re willing to play the game.

It’s still not enough for the D4 media. They don’t want her talking about the housing crisis or defending neutrality. They demand compliance.

Disgracefully Ged Nash from the Labour Party went on RTÉ’s “The Week in Politics” where he condemned Connolly’s remarks about imperialism. He said the Germans were arming themselves because of Russia. But you could just as easily say Russia was arming itself in response to NATO expansion.

The main enemy of the Irish working class is at home. The main threat to us sits in the Dáil and Stormont. And the death of neutrality would offer us up to the EU and NATO.

The Irish Labour Party was always willing to get on their knees in front of the establishment and beg forgiveness for any implied radicalism - they want Catherine Connolly to do the same. They’re cooperating with the media to discipline a voice they can’t be sure is controlled.

We in the Red Network want to see a working class revolution smash the rotten Irish state and replace it with democratic assemblies where workers are in the driving seat. We won’t compromise on that vision.

But we have to understand the attacks on Catherine Connolly are an attack on Irish neutrality, an attack on the working class. Let’s vote for Catherine Connolly and then get ready to fight to defend neutrality on the streets.