The bill to scrap the Triple Lock – the mechanism which requires approval from the Irish government, Dáil, and United Nations Security Council before more than 12 Irish troops can be sent abroad – is set to come before the Dáil this Autumn. In particular the role of the UN Security Council is coming under the axe, which would in effect give the government free-reign to send however many troops they can muster wherever they so choose.
To many this is seen as a desertion from the state’s traditional posing as a ‘neutral’ nation. Taoiseach Micheál Martin recently denounced all such concerns as “wild misrepresentations and demagoguery”.
Rather than taking his word on the matter we should take a look at the facts.
The instructive case of ‘Operation IRINI’
‘Operation IRINI’ will be a valuable example to shine some light on the question. The mission’s UN mandate was not renewed in May which Minister for Defence Helen McEntee called a “matter of deep regret” adding:
“This situation and the necessity to withdraw Defence Forces personnel from this mission illustrates clearly the constraints in which we have to operate because of the requirements of the Triple Lock.”
IRINI was nominally established by the European Union to enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya. With the non-renewal of the UN mandate the Irish forces involved were withdrawn.
What has since become of IRINI? The EU has decided to continue the mission and has now expanded its scope to include the regular targeting of Russia’s so-called ‘shadow fleet’ – that is, Russian ships attempting to avoid Western sanctions. On 20 July IRINI boarded one of these vessels, with European Foreign Affairs Commissioner, Kaja Kallas, taking to Twitter to brag of “turning up the pressure on Russia’s shadow fleet”. Such stunts are the kind of ‘peacekeeping’ Martin, McEntee, and co. want to drag us into.
Of course, far from keeping the peace, these boardings accomplish precious little except drumming up fears about Russia to justify austerity and militarisation. The government is completely on board with this programme, hence their deep regret that the Triple Lock prevented them from taking part.
Fortunately for them, the increased disruption to the ‘shadow fleet’ over the past year has caused a part of it to divert into Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone. What a gift to our Irish military propagandists: ‘The Russians are coming! Now we must spend billions on French radars and armoured cars, sign “defence” treaties with Britain, speed through legislation granting the Irish navy new powers to board shadow fleet vessels, and of course scrap the Triple Lock!’
None of this was lost on the Russian ambassador, who accurately wrote on the new boarding powers: “This is a demonstration by Dublin that they are prepared for such actions and, in theory, could join the pirate actions of their senior partners”.
Is this not all perfectly clear? The Irish government, under constant pressure from their warmongering masters, are doing exactly as instructed. And, as a matter of fact, were it not for the Triple Lock Ireland would still be involved in IRINI’s pirate adventures.
We turn to the Taoiseach and ask who exactly is engaged in “wild misrepresentations and demagoguery”?
The role of the Triple Lock
Given that the likes of Micheál Martin and those who wish to see an end to the Triple Lock have no scruples about dragging us into the reckless adventures of European imperialism, it is obvious to understand why its proposed removal has caused such a strong reaction among many workers and youth who want nothing to do with imperialism.
But if we want to smash imperialism then we must also have a full appraisal of the part Ireland plays in the imperialist machine and the role that the Triple Lock (used) to play in it.
As it stands, the Triple Lock hinges on the UN Security Council as the arbiter of where Irish troops can or cannot be deployed. The Security Council has five permanent members: the US, China, Russia, France and Britain. Each of these imperialists may veto any decision of the Security Council. Insofar as they can agree on anything – which nowadays is not very far – it has nothing to do with humanitarian values, but only entails that their cynical interests have temporarily overlapped.
True – as was the case with IRINI – this has at times succeeded in tying the government’s hands. But trusting them on this question would be like trying to stop crime by asking rival mafia families to first approve every act of robbery, extortion or murder!
In general, the various imperialist powers prefer to pursue their interests within the bounds of so-called ‘international law’ to give them a thin veneer of democratic legitimacy. Where this is not possible they discard them like yesterday’s newspaper.
The point is that in the past the UN was dominated by American imperialism, and its allies, and so they could wax on thick this hypocritical talk about ‘international law’, ‘democracy’, ‘human rights’, and so forth. Under this hypocritical guise, the Irish ruling class has been able to partially cloak their subservience to western imperialism for a whole historic epoch.
But the rise of Russia and China as powerful rivals in recent years has made this no longer the case, hence why the Western powers are more and more operating outside the boundaries of the UN – and why the Irish government wants the Triple Lock gone.
Again take IRINI. When this mission did have a UN mandate it was still directed to the ends of European imperialism in the Libyan Civil War, including creating the Libyan Coast Guard – the brutal enforcers of the EU’s lethal migration policy in the Mediterranean. Ireland was involved in this imperialist crime, and the Triple Lock did nothing to stop it. On the contrary, the Triple Lock was used as a legal sop to appease the anti-imperialist mood of the Irish workers while the government acquiesced to the demands of the imperialists.
Of course, revolutionary communists must fight tooth and nail against the militarist agenda of this government, and denounce the move to remove the Triple Lock for what it is: a ploy to free the government’s hands to support any military adventure of Western imperialism they like.
But at the same time we must explain that we cannot fight imperialism by fostering illusions in a ‘nicer’ one, dolled up by the UN and international law. Only through class warfare – the struggle of the workers and youth to smash this state and replace it with a workers’ republic – can we end Ireland’s complicity in imperialist wars.
