On the 8th-10th November, the Connolly Youth Movement joined comrades from Communist Youth Organisations across Europe for the 18th Meeting of European Communist Youth Organisations (MECYO) in Rome. The following was our address to the meeting:
On behalf of the Connolly Youth Movement, I would like to thank our Italian comrades in the FGC for overseeing the organisation of the 18th Meeting of European Communist Youth Organisations. We would also like to thank each group for attending and providing the opportunity to engage and discuss at such a crucial moment when all of Europe is faced with the growth of fascism, militarism and imperialist war.
Ireland has not escaped these trends, though the struggles we face manifest themselves uniquely due to the ongoing partition of our country. The occupied six counties are directly integrated into NATO courtesy of British occupation, and the war profiteers openly boast of their gains from their missile plants in Belfast. RAF bases in the north are also used by US war planes to transport missiles and other weaponry to the Zionist occupation. Our universities in the north are partners with the likes of Thales, BAE and openly collaborate with the British army’s recruitment efforts. The CYM has been active in disrupting recruitment efforts, and raising awareness among the students of their institution’s financial and direct complicity in imperialist war and genocide. Furthermore, the British state continues to use its position in Ireland to put pressure on the whole island to “shoulder the burden” of “collective defence”. This same British state, which refused to prosecute British soldiers who murdered Irish civilians, which continues to imprison Irish political activists, which continues to occupy the six counties, has the hall to say that it is “protecting Ireland from war”
In the 26 counties (officially known as ROI), the bourgeoisie continue their push for militarisation and the dismantling of military neutrality, whilst encouraging the growth of “dual-use” weapons industry. The 26 country state has now been a member of PESCO for 7 years, and continues its engagement with NATOs so called partnership for peace, but has continued to push for entering NATO against the wishes of the Irish people. The CYM’s main focus for this past year has been exposing Ireland’s hidden military industry and these attempts at militarisation. We have disrupted and exposed government attempts at joining NATO, and have been active in escalating the actions against the use of Shannon Airport to transport American munitions to be used to further the genocide against the Palestinian people.
The growth of militarism cannot be separated from the growth of the far-right either l, nor can this be separated from Britain’s continued occupation of the north. Refugees fleeing war have become scapegoats for Irish fascists, and are blaming these refugees for the landlord and speculator-caused housing crisis we face. It is of course no surprise that many of these fascist agitators are landlords or members of the Bourgeois class themselves. We saw last year anti-migrant riots in Dublin and an atmosphere of fear and toxicity grow as migrants are subject to violence. In Belfast this year, these same fascist elements marched with members of British backed death squash, and led a pogrom against migrants. It is this connection between. Irish fascist elements and armed colonial gangs that makes for an incredibly dangerous combination for our working class. As communists, it is our duty to understand fascism as the most vicious and brutal assault on the working class in the aid of capitalist exploitation.
Against the backdrop of all this, the CYM has continued to be active in supporting our comrades in Palestine as they resist the Zionist war machine. The Irish people as a whole support the Palestinian cause, and the CYM have been energetic and active in our solidarity efforts. From university encampments, blockading ports, disrupting imperialist media, enforcing the boycott of Zionist products and challenging our two-faced bourgeois politicians who support Palestine only in veiled words, while they continue to endorse companies endorsed in genocide and most importantly, allows US weapons to pass through our airspace to the Zionist occupation. The youth of Ireland see the Palestinian struggle as fraternal and akin to our own, and know that there can never be a lasting peace or justice in a land partitioned by imperialists, no matter how many fake peace agreements are signed.
Fight the capitalists, not their wars!
Victory to the Palestinian resistance!
Long live internationalism!