Anti-War Movement Campaign For ‘No’ Vote Over Treaty

The Irish Anti-War movement has launched a campaign for a 'No' vote on the Lisbon treaty over concerns of even greater European armament.

The campaign will begin with a conference in Dublin this weekend in the Royal Dublin Hotel, O’Connell Street, and will include a number of international speakers opposed to the treaty.

Open to the public, the conference will see speakers such as John Rose, Jewish anti-Zionist academic and author of the "Myths of Zionism", Leftist politician Esko Seppanen, who is an MEP from Finland, as well as speakers from Ireland including Richard Boyd Barrett, chairperson of the Irish Anti-War Movement and Roger Cole, chairperson of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance.

The conference will seek to recent claims from the Government and supporters of the Lisbon treaty suggesting the treaty does not promote greater EU militarisation or impact on Ireland’s military neutrality.

Richard Boyd Barrett, Chairperson of the Irish Anti-War Movement and one of the conference organisers said: "Again and again, over recent weeks supporters of the Lisbon treaty and even supposedly 'objective' guides to the treaty have claimed that it does not promote greater militarisation or affect Ireland’s neutrality.

"The anti-war movement in this country and across Europe believe that this is patent nonsense. As we hope to show at this conference, the treaty explicitly advances the project of a more militarised Europe, the creation of a European army and a foreign policy that mirrors the disastrous US-led 'war on terror', which has produced so much bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan."

(DW)