This video from Ireland shows
Anti-War protest at Shannon Airport, Ireland 6/12/2003 against the ongoing United States military and CIA use of Shannon Airport. The Irish government has made itself complicit in the ongoing US led occupation of Iraq and its military adventures worldwide in addition to its illegal carriage and torture of detainees. At the time this was filmed Dr. Fintan Lane was spending 45 days in Limerick Prison for his part in another legitimate protest at Shannon Airport.By Steve James:
Green parties worldwide are already synonymous with spectacular renunciations of principle. Policies advocated, perhaps for decades, are dropped within hours of entering government. In return for some minor adjustments of environmental policy, Greens have assumed responsibility for aggressively advancing the interests of their own capitalists.Archaeologists working on excavations on the controversial M3 motorway near Tara (co. Meath, Ireland) feared they would be ’sacked, blacklisted or bullied out of their profession’ for not supporting the building of the chosen route, it was claimed.Still, the political duplicity displayed by the Irish Green Party in entering government with [conservative] Fianna Fail and the [Thatcherite ultra conservative] Progressive Democrats is extraordinary. It is also a sharp indicator of tensions and instabilities in Irish society that can only deepen following the third re-election of Taoiseach (prime minister) Bertie Ahern, and his Fianna Fail party. …
Shortly before the elections, Green Party leader Trevor Sargent was asked about a coalition with Fianna Fail. He rubbished the suggestion. “If pigs could fly, I’m sure that would also make news,” he said.
The Green vote largely held up, not least because of their perceived opposition to planning corruption and to the war in Iraq. Sargent made his name as an anti-corruption campaigner on Dublin County Council and was once assaulted in the council chambers for his pains. …
Even after the elections, Green Party Housing spokesman Ciaran Cuffe said, “Let’s be clear. A deal with Fianna Fail would be a deal with the devil. We would be spat out after five years and decimated as a party.”
Although the Green manifesto was as devoted as Fianna Fail’s to defending Ireland as an investment base, it contained a commitment to end the use of Shannon Airport on the west coast for US military flights related to the war in Iraq, and insisted that all flights “suspected of illegal movement of prisoners must be searched.”
The Greens also opposed so-called hospital co-location, a scheme devised by Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats to allow private hospitals to be built on land owned by the state-run Health Services Executive.
All this, reflecting the views of significant numbers of Irish voters, counted for nothing once coalition negotiations started. …
But in the end, a deal was done in which the Greens accepted that:
* Iraq-bound US flights would continue.
* Progressive Democrat leader Mary Harney would remain in charge of the Department of Health and Children with a remit to pursue hospital co-location.
* A deeply unpopular motorway route near the Hill of Tara—an important archaeological site containing many structures covering thousands of years—would go ahead.
* The Greens-proposed ban on corporate donations would be ignored. …
The Green conference to ratify the agreement, held in private, was picketed by anti-war protestors. Anti-War Ireland noted that “the Greens will have blood on their hands” if they refused to oppose the coalition. Inside the conference, one delegate accused the party of winning “Mercs and perks” and little else, while another warned they would be complicit in deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
British troops in Northern Ireland: here.
Aer Lingus on strike: here.
The ‘Green Right’ in politics: here.
