People Before Profit to host anti-war solidarity meeting

People Before Profit Carlow/Kilkenny has organised an online public meeting next Wednesday (March 9) at 7pm.

The meeting will focus on how Ireland can build solidarity with Ukraine and how to develop a stronger anti-war movement.

John Molyneux from the Irish Anti-War Movement will be speaking alongside PBP Cllr Adrienne Wallace. The link can be found on facebook ‘@WallacePBP’.

Cllr Wallace condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an “outrageous, inexcusable and dangerous act of aggression, that harks back to the darkest days of great Russian chauvinism and Stalinism. We stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian community in Carlow and those in Ukraine.”

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She added that:

“More violence will not help anyone especially with Russia’s easy access to Nuclear weapons. We need tactics that will deescalate and help save lives. NATO militarism and expansionism and the hypocrisy of the western powers, including the US and the EU must also be condemned and rejected.

“Just as Putin is using war, militarism and nationalism to bolster his despotic and authoritarian rule, NATO and the western powers are using the Ukrainian crisis, to militarise the European Union, expand NATO eastward and more closely align Europe with US militarism.

“This war is not the “East vs West” but rather macho imperialist men vs ordinary people. Those who call these wars will never see the front line while more ordinary people will die.”

Anti-war activist John Molyneux condemned the Irish government for its “refusal to criticise NATO’s role in escalating military and political tensions in central and eastern Europe and for using the current crisis to further erode Irish military neutrality and align Ireland with the EU/NATO project of European militarisation.”

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He also called out the “double standards of the US, the EU and the Irish government”, who call for the expulsion of Russian diplomats but “trenchantly refuse to expel Israel ambassadors, despite repeated atrocities, invasions, land annexations and breaches of international law perpetrated against the long-suffering Palestinian people, we need to oppose war and violence in every form.”

“Just as Putin has a bloody record of war and militarism, let’s not forget NATO was responsible for a bloody and disastrous invasion and war in Afghanistan. The powers that dominate NATO continue to arm and support Israel, continue to arm and support a brutal dictatorship in Saudi Arabia conducting a murderous war in Yemen, and those same powers led an invasion and war in Iraq that claimed the lives of over one million people.”

He concluded “We will not defeat war and militarism by siding with warmongers and militarists on either side but by mobilising opposition and protests to war and warmongers whether they are in Russia, the US or Europe.”