Richard Boyd Barrett: EU Rearmament and Profiting from Genocide

The jamboree of propaganda for the EU has started with the beginning of the Irish EU presidency and the bit that concerns me is confirmed in the Minister's speech. I quote, the Irish presidency will advance the measures set out in the white paper on the future of European defence. The associated defence readiness roadmap 2030 and vital new initiatives on joint defence procurement. That paper she's referring to is the paper Rearm Europe. Rearm Europe. So that's what this is about. That's what Zelensky's visit is about. That's what von der Leyen is about. It's about doubling arms expenditure in Europe from the current level of 400 billion to more than 800 billion euro. Just a little under a trillion euro. And just to put that into perspective, Russia, who are an aggressive imperialist power that have illegally and brutally attacked Ukraine, how much do they spend on military and weapons? 190 billion. 190. Europe is already spending twice that but it wants to get, it wants to double that again. NATO in total, NATO in total spends 53% of all global arms expenditure which is now above 3 trillion euro. In other words, one and a half trillion euro. Ten times what Russia spends. So spending lots on weapons doesn't stop war does it? Doesn't stop the killing. But I'll tell you what it does do. The European Union exports 800 million worth of armaments and weapons to the state of Israel while it is massacring and engaged in a genocide against the Palestinian people. Profiting from genocide. It gives the state that is committing genocide favoured trade status but it's not just about yeah we're looking for a suspension which we know we'll never get. And Ireland of course a major trading partner. The European Union as a whole 43 billion worth of trade with a state that is in the dock for genocide. Ireland is one of the biggest of those trading partners. 5 billion worth of trade and the government guts the bill to impose small minimal sanctions on the occupied territories bill and we discover that in the midst of the genocide 20 million in one year goes in dual use exports to the Israeli military. To the Israeli military while they're committing a massacre. And at the same time the government is going to get rid of the triple lock which removes some barriers to the government deploying troops in what Ursula von der Leyen spells out what they want. What she wants for the European military project. This is what she said about the Straits of Hormuz which the minister mentioned. She said we must open the Straits of Hormuz. Who closed them? Israel. Who were arming? Israel and the United States. And Donald Trump closed them by attacking Lebanon and attacking Iran. And this is what von der Leyen says recently in April. A threat to a merchant vessel in the Straits of Hormuz is a threat to a factory in Belgium. So today I propose that we move beyond reactive crisis management. She went on to say that the EU must consider expanding the scope of missions. Together we must build a region where peace is not merely the absence of war. Now to me peace is the absence of war. But that sounds like she thinks peace is war. Peace is European military action in the Straits of Hormuz. Not defensive action. Sending troops to the Straits of Hormuz to deal with the problems created by a war started by Israel and the United States who we are providing the weapons to conduct that war while they're slaughtering Palestinians. I appeal to people we've got to protest against this madness. Money that von der Leyen wants to put into weapons should be going into housing, health, education, into dealing with the cost-of-living crisis faced by working people. That should be our