Are Mick Wallace and Clare Daly Irelands greatest shame?

Any reference for that statement - that they banned "any left-wing" opposition parties?

Read her words that I quoted. There was no qualification to her condemnation.

Read her words that you quoted; “one of the contributing factors”.

Where did I say 'restrict'?

"So while forthrightly condemning the Russian illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the voting record shows that we voted for those parts of the resolution, what we opposed was the increasing of arms into Ukraine, the accelaration of NATO involvement and the accelleration of military, militarism, military expenditure inside the EU, which is something that ..."

She can't finish a sentence without getting something in about 'western imperialism/militarism'.

She qualifies everything that could be construed as criticism of the invasion with excuses, such as 'Russia was provoked by NATO's imperialism' (Russia apparently is never guilty of 'imperialism'). She also said the Ukrainians should stop fighting and 'enter negotiations with Russia'. She's the very epitome of the privileged western leftie handing out advice to the 'less-enlightened'.

On the wider issue of the approach of Clare Daly and Mick Wallace - I was a member of the Socialist Party for the 25 years she was in the party. Her politics have drifted substantially from her previous political approach over the past 10 years.

In association with Wallace (who is not and never was on the 'left') her politics and that of Wallace are now largely devoid of any left basis. They tend to engage in political stunts and to make decisions in relation their public statements out of context and devoid of any plan to organise action or political representation. Effectively they are both operating as maverick independents that bounce from issue to issue.

The valid criticisms that Daly makes on this issue are not related to the reality on the ground and the pleas for a 'diplomatic solution' are fanciful.

The war in Ukraine cannot be viewed in isolation - it is the culmination of more than a decade of competing imperial interests involving the four main global power blocs - USA, China, EU and Russia (who are a relatively minor player in the wider geo-political developments that are taking place). In Eastern Europe it is a legacy of Stalinism and is related to the unresolved issue of the national question. It is also related to the efforts of the different blocs to increase their political, economic and military influence - the US and NATO (and EU) in expanding into Eastern Europe - Russia's intervention into various sourthern former Stalinist republics (most recently in Kazakhstan) - and China's expanding influence in Africa. The old Cold War kept the drive for imperialist expansion in check - but now 30 years after the collapse of Stalinism there isn't any ideological imperative keeping the conflict in check.

The conflict in Ukraine is not the first (and so far, not the most serious) military conflict that has been part of these developments. Yemen has seen more than 500K people killed as a result of military action (backed by the US) of the Saudi dictatorship over the past 7 years. Syria has been utterly devastated by imperialist intervention from the USA, Russia and Turkey - and that doesn't even address the utter shambles of the legacy of the imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. On the day Russia invaded Ukraine - the Saudis launched 37 airstrikes against targets in Yemen - Israle launched airstrikes on Damascus and the USA launched airstrikes in Somalia.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine must be condemned and the demand must be made on Russia to immediately and unconditionally withdraw from Ukraine. The masses in Ukraine have a right to self-determination and to self-defence. They also have a right to arm themselves - but any supply of arms must be with no strings attached and under the democratic control of the Ukrainian masses (the EU and NATO supplies are going to result in the rifling of Ukraines natural resources after the conflict as pay-back).

The key to ending this conflict is the building of a mass anti-war movement - particularly in Russia. The war is not popular in Russia and huge numbers have taken to the streets to oppose Putin and his regime. More than 18,000 people have been arrested for anti-war activities and the regime has had to respond by ramping up repression. However, the economic war that the US and EU are now engaged in, is detrimentally impacting on the Russian masses (and the mass of the population in the West) and undermining the potential of the anti-war movement in Russia. These measures have the potential to precipitate a worldwide economic collapse that will cause misery on a global basis while the elites continue to rake in massive profits from the war.

On a more local note - we have seen the rmaping up of propaganda in this country attacking the long-standing 'neutrality' in Ireland - demands for a massive increase in military spending in the country (yet money cannot be found to solve the ongoing housing crisis) - and demands for Ireland to participate in miliarty alliances and imperialist military actions as the EU engages in a drive for finite and dimising natural resources (not to talk about the environmental impact of all of this).

I see that Daly and Wallace have been joined by other useful fools. (See above).

To-day on RTE there is a moving piece from Zamosc in Poland: our comfortable lefties should pay a visit.

See here: https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/0315/1286428-zamosc-poland-refugees/

However there is one jarring note when Emma O'Kelly (the author of the RTE piece) refers to a group of U.S military personnel having a meal in a local restaurant. She says: "It is unsettling to see their presence". I should have thought that is was re-assuring. Typical Irish media sly leftie anti-American attitude.

Having NATO troops and missiles in Eastern European countries hasn't made those countries one iota safer - indeed it has made everyone on the planet more at risk from a nuclear war.

There are no land based nuclear weapons any further east than there were in 1991.

The armies of the eastern European NATO states are as entitled to operate any conventional weapons, including missiles as any nation, including Russia.

Those same eastern NATO members spent centuries as pawns between empires and unions and Reichs. They were as entitled to seek to secure their independence for the foreseeable future by joining NATO as any decision of any independent State.

NATO was only ever a defensive alliance. Post-soviet Russia knows that as well as anyone else, indeed they partnered with NATO in regional security operations for many years.

What we are seeing now is just one man's absolute lunacy, a delusion that Russia is somehow entitled to a sphere of influence and control outside its own borders, to be secured by aggression, corruption, bribery, information manipulation or whatever other improper means he can think of.

All he has done by this act of war and violation of international law is delay any chance Russia had of being an influential power by decades.

If the World is closer to an existential conflict today its only because of one side, one man and his flunkeys.

The biggest mistake NATO and the global community has made, is ever to have appeased him in the first place, all the way back to the Russian aggression in Georgia in 2008. And if that contributes to prolonged Russian aggression and global destabilisation now, then the West will bear that part of the blame.

IMO Wallace and Daly better make the most of the time they have left as MEPs. They will be forever painted as opposing helping Ukraine in their time of need against Russian invasion.

whether Wallace and Daly want to position themselves as pacifists, very few of the electorate are against supplying Ukraine with what it needs to defend against Russian aggression.

I wouldn't go out of my way to find him, but if I did see him on the street, I'd leather him. And happily accept any consequences.

Just to pull you up on a few of your "Facts":

"Fact 52 of 195 is over 1/4 and that is the government not the citizens as in ireland ALL the citizens support the governments narrative."

I assume that this figure of 52 refers to the number of UN delegations that either opposed the motion condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine (5) or else abstained or otherwise refrained from voting altogether. A 73% overall vote, or to paraphrase a famous TV commercial, a 97% vote of "those who expressed a preference" in favour of a resolution is still a fairly overwhelming endorsement.

"Fact "usa and eu combined is popuklation over just over 300 million whilst russia with "Abstain" india and china is population of near 3 billion humans."

Actually it takes about 30 seconds to find out that the combined population of the USA and EU is about 780m humans, or 0.78bn if you prefer.

As for all the "lies" that you say we are being told by our governments and press: I have no doubt that there is propaganda in play and that exaggerations are being made and that there is a lot of hyperbole flying about. But the FACT remains, Russia has invaded a sovereign state for no reason other than it is a sovereign state and a POTENTIAL strategic liability to themselves, especially if it allies with some of Russia's traditional enemies.

We get that.

Most of us here are Irish.

Our own country's history has been bedeviled by its geographical proximity to a much larger power who wanted to do its own thing and when we wouldn't go along with it, chose to invade, oppress, demonise and starve our population, suppress any native industry apart from that whose workers could be entrusted with loyalty (divide and rule) and denounce any objectors as savages, traitors and fanatics.

Russians call Ukrainians "Fascists! Neo-Nazis!"

The English said: "Scum condensed of irish bog, Ruffian! Coward! Demagogue!" And that was about someone who DIDN'T advocate physical force.

Also, sadly for Russian apologists, when they rant and rave that those of us not intimately involved with the conflict "Don't know what we're talking about" and that because some Ukrainians are neo Nazis, the whole nation is damned and so the Russians are only involved in self-defence as they fire missiles at residential areas, then they just sound awfully like Israeli apologists for that state's repression in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and other places. That argument doesn't go down well with many people here. No matter how often we hear it and we're hearing it again now.

It is deeply ironic to hear it being made by such stalwart defenders of the Palestinians as George Galloway as well as Mad Mick and his Manky Mott.

The Russians are the bad guys in this scenario.

And THAT'S a fact.

Wallace went on local radio this morning and as usual, seems to have spent all his time blaming everyone but Russia

• The Ukrainians have no agency of their own (The Americans are using them to fight the Russians)
• The West are hypocrites (for continuing to buy Russian gas)
• The West are racists (for treating Ukrainian refugees differently)

Not sure if he gave the token one line criticism of Russia's invasion but safe to say he didn't spend too much time criticising Putin.

Its more than being a Quisling tbh. I think its pure desperation, and 'doubling down(ing)' on his position. He needs to stay relevant. And he had a few choices.

• Back track and acknowledge the reality of the situation (Russia In the wrong, Ukraine victim of unprovoked war, NATO hands tied to intervene)
• Avoid discussing the conflict at all, and concentrate on other relevant topics - and hope that people forget his stances
• Double down, and hope that his echo-chamber fans/voters stick with him

Like Daly, Wallace probably considers himself a 'rebel', and therefore the above options presented no choice at all. Naturally he lacks the courage to back track, and admit that his initial 'NATO-IMPERIALISM/EU-AGGRESSION' stance, was unjustifiable nonsense.

At the end of the day, all that we can do is remember this. Bare in mind this behavior when he next asks for your vote.

I will not have the privilege of 'NOT VOTING' for Mick Wallace at the next European Election. If you will have this supreme privilege - Value it. And please use it.

I've noticed that the anti-establishment types on Twitter have really been floundering when it comes to how to react to this invasion. Their knee-jerk reaction has always been to simply oppose whatever US foreign policy is.

• Initially this meant that they blamed NATO and their expansion into Eastern Europe for this invasion.
• Then there was the mad scramble to lay some of the blame at the feet of the Ukrainians themselves because of their tolerance of the Azov Battalion - I have lost count of how many times I have seen the same Guardian article, from 2014, being referenced by people trying to "both-sides" this conflict.
• Then there was the focus on the cases of the African migrants who had trouble early on fleeing the country.
• I have seen people refer to Zelensky as a "war-monger" because he has asked for a no-fly zone
• The last one I saw was someone telling about Roma being tied to trees and beaten by Ukrainians (I hadn't seen this myself but a lot of people pointed out that this has been happening to thieves (of all ethnicities) in areas where the police services are no longer functioning). He responded to those replies saying that the responders had been "NATO-brained"!!

It's like they're jumping from rock to rock on a crumbling cliff-face of morality, each one more precarious than the last. As Putin dials up the brutality this bleating of theirs becomes more and more farcical and pathetic as they try and focus on anything, ANYTHING apart from the elephant in the room.

I think it's breaking their brains.