Sweden’s membership of NATO which had been blocked by Turkey is now unobstructed and like another former neutral Finland it will join shortly. It leaves very few States in Europe now neutral, the only major ones being Ireland, Austria and Switzerland.
Madeleine Johansson, a People Before Profit councillor in Dublin who grew up in Sweden outlines that the move is more about stimulating the arms industry (Sweden has one of the largest and sophisticated arms sectors globally) than about European security. (Link):
https://www.rednetwork.ie/nato.html
This of course is spot on as the vastly expanded defence spending of NATO countries benefits the US/EU arms lobby and siphons essential funds away from social programmes.
Ireland, the one Celtic country that enjoys independence currently has a stance of neutrality. There is now a vocal lobby for Ireland to join NATO; it has already been sucked into the EU Partnership for Peace.
The Celtic League has opposed NATO since the cold war. In the 1990s I spoke about the negative side of the alliance at conferences in Switzerland, Rumania and Libya. Today NATO and its comparable CSTO bloc exacerbate global insecurity not enhance it. We believe in peacekeeping based on the principle of International law. Ireland contributes to that now and the very fact of its neutrality enhances the reputation of its peacekeepers who fight and sometimes die with the UN defending an ideal based on peace not power!
Related links:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1011844465821777&set=gm.10157549743658913
Conflict prevention – Rumania conference:
https://www.celticleague.net/…/Carn%2085%20Spring…
Opposing NATO and the EU conference report Carn 86:
https://www.celticleague.net/…/Carn%2086%20Summer…
The Euro-American political bloc Carn 92:
https://www.celticleague.net/…/Carn%2092%20Winter…
Bernard Moffatt
AGS Celtic League (15th July 2023)
