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Arms dealers in Ireland challenged

01/04/08

The news that the Pensions Reserve Fund in the Twenty-Six Counties (NPRF) is to withdraw investments from some of the world’s most notorious arms manufacturers is to be welcomed, especially considering the immoral role these organisations have played in the world.

Two of the most infamous examples of the immorality of the arms industry are Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Raytheon, which has a branch in Derry City, are the makers of ‘Buster Bunker’ bombs, as well as Tomahawk and Patriot missiles. After the USA and Britain commenced their war on Iraq in 2003 a Raytheon made missile smashed into the Baghdad market of Shu’ale, killing over 60 civilians.

For their part, Lockheed Martin are the world’s biggest arms manufacturer and maker of the F-16 fighter jet. In 2005 Lockheed secured military contracts worth $19.4 billion (12 billion euro/ £10 billion).

Any industry which relies upon the mass murder of civilians by imperialist powers for success and profit making should not be seen as a viable investment opportunity by the insitiutions of a supposedly neutral state.

The US bombardment of Iraq (both before and after the 2003 invasion) and the Zionist attacks on southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip precipitated a 54 per cent rise in Raytheon’s quarterly profits.

While welcome, it is important to note that the reasons behind the decision of the Pensions Reserve Fund have to do, not with the actual, illegal, injustices inflicted by the imperialist powers on other nations, but rather on the means by which such wars are waged.

Thus, the Twenty-Six County minister for Foreign Affairs Dermott Ahern can state with a clear conscience, “my objective was to try and ensure that no public funds are involved in or associated with the production of cluster munitions…I saw at first hand on my visit to Lebanon last year the havoc that cluster bombs can cause.”.

So, the problem with the invasion of Lebanon was not that it violated Lebanese national sovereignty and brought pain and death to over a thousand Palestinian and Lebanese civilians and fighters, but rather that cluster bombs were used to effect such carnage. Would it have been better if the missiles landing on a wedding party in Qana were the “smart” missiles that have brought death to many thousands in Iraq?

Indeed, as further proof of Mr Ahern’s hypocrisy, cluster bombs have been widely used in Iraq by the US armed forces who regularly use Shannon airport as a base from which to attack Iraq. Will he then call for an immediate halt to the use of Shannon by the US until a complete ban on cluster munitions is effected by their government and until they have found a more “humane” way to impose their brutal imperial will on the Iraqi people?

Perhaps Mr Ahern will now publicly support the Raytheon 9 who, in a principled action during the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon and Gaza in 2006, occupied the Raytheon offices in Derry. They did so to show their disgust at the support local authorities were showing to such a morally repugnant industry?

Not only should any role be denied to arms manufacturers in Ireland but that prohibition should, both logically and morally, be extended to those who carry and use those arms to the benefit of imperialist nations. At present, it is Britain and the US who are using this island to further their imperialist adventures abroad. An Ireland, which stands in solidarity with all the oppressed peoples of the world can give no succour to these enemies of humanity.