{"id":1246,"date":"2025-03-02T20:17:37","date_gmt":"2025-03-02T20:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2025-03-02T20:17:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T20:17:37","slug":"editorials-picking-the-lock-violence-and-nonviolence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/2025\/03\/02\/editorials-picking-the-lock-violence-and-nonviolence\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorials: Picking the Lock, Violence and nonviolence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picking the Lock<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The term \u2018to pick a lock\u2019 means to open it without a key using a device to open it without breaking or cutting the lock. It is usually for underhand or nefarious purposes. This aptly describes what the Fianna F\u00e1il government is doing to the Triple Lock in working to remove it and open the Irish army up to the service of EU and NATO militarism. Fianna F\u00e1il were not even honest in their election manifesto when they promised \u2018sensible reform\u2019 of the Triple Lock since the only reform they will bring is its complete destruction.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Miche\u00e1l Martin and Fianna F\u00e1il have been the frontrunners on this for some years now and the whole purpose of the Consultative Forum on International Security Policy in 2023 was to provide an excuse to proceed. The fact that this \u2018Forum\u2019 did not work in the way it was intended was no deterrence to proceeding. It looked like the move might have happened before the election but now that Martin is ensconced again as Taoiseach means that a move is imminent. It is included in business for the spring session of the D\u00e1il https:\/\/www.gov.ie\/pdf\/?file=https:\/\/assets.gov.ie\/319531\/3760a815-ee4f-49ea-ba3b-e42244711ea4.pdf#page=null<\/span><\/a><\/u><\/span> (see page 4)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Triple Lock https:\/\/swordstoploughsharesireland.org\/triple-lock\/<\/span><\/a> entails UN, government\/cabinet and D\u00e1il approval for deploying more than 12 members of the Irish military abroad – but the Irish establishment want to fully integrate with, and have the army fighting with, the EU army. And since the EU, which began as an economic-led peace project, is increasingly a military project and the European wing of NATO, not joining NATO \u2013 which the bulk of Irish citizens oppose \u2013 is immaterial. In any case the Irish army is already cooperating with NATO through membership of the misnamed NATO \u2018Partnership for Peace\u2019. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Removing the United Nations support as an obligatory part of the Irish army being sent overseas means the government \u2013 which by definition has D\u00e1il support \u2013 has no hoops to go through in committing the Irish army to armed action anywhere and any time. As the western world gears up increasingly for war through increased spending on arms and armies this is a sickening thought. And the EU is shaping up to become yet another military power on the world stage; as everywhere, the rhetoric may be benign but the reality is different.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is almost beyond irony that Fianna F\u00e1il, the party of Eamonn de Valera and Frank Aiken, should be in the forefront of ditching Irish neutrality. It is also fundamentally dishonest since the Triple Lock was introduced to get the Nice and Lisbon treaties agreed by the citizens of Ireland in referendums. Because, also dishonestly, this was not done as a formal protocol, no referendum is required to undo it. The honest course of action would be to hold a referendum on the issue but that will not happen since, Irish neutrality being popular with citizens, a proposal to radically alter it would be defeated. An Irish Times<\/i>\/ARINS survey (Irish Times<\/i> 8\/2\/25) showed that even in the event of Irish unification only 19% of citizens in the Republic felt Ireland should join NATO (7% definitely join, 12% join) whereas 24% said it shouldn\u2019t join and 25% definitely not join. But the leaders are taking their own path to militarisation.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The move to abolish the Triple Lock is a negation of democracy and may help get Ireland fully integrated with European war machines but it will do nothing for peace, in fact the exact opposite. Peace and democracy activists have been mobilising to defend the Triple Lock but it has been hard to get the issue the attention it deserves, not least because of mass media apathy or active support for militarisation and a clever game by Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael in denying anything is happening. The government should hang it head in shame at abandoning Irish neutrality and refusing to consider how it, neutrality, could be developed as a real and active force for peace in the world.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Violence and nonviolence in an age of uncertainty<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Change may be the only certainty in life but we, as a human species, are not always good at dealing within it. And our \u2018common sense\u2019 response to it may not be sensible at all. Thus with Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine and President Trump\u2019s bull-in-a-china-shop act in his second incumbency, we may react in ways which are not only unhelpful but actually detrimental to the cause of peace and justice.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Western world is currently heading, in general, to the right and to increased militarism. More than one commentator has likened the situation to the lead up to First World War; then clashing imperialisms came to fight on the battlefield, and we already have the trench warfare in Ukraine, albeit with drones being a crucial weapon this time around.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The forces for peace can feel totally powerless when confronted with such massive pro-militarist action and propaganda. And such belligerence is backed by the mass media and some social media as well.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Powerlessness can be totally debilitating and push us into apathy. Instead we need to hold firm in our convictions and our work and be prepared so we can use any opportunities which present themselves to get or views across and to build the movement we need, in an alliance with other progressive forces, to bring transformation. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The forces of peace and nonviolence are not powerless, we should know that from Gene Sharp, Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, among many othersi<\/sup><\/a>. But while we can make an impact with small numbers, to be successful we need to mobilise on a broad base and that requires cooperation across different sectors (trade unions, human rights, ecological, left of centre and so on), lots of preparatory work, a good tailwind, and seizing the moment when it comes. Awareness of the stages successful movements pass through (as with Bill Moyer’s Movement Action Plan) can help us plan and be prepared as well as perhaps avoiding depression when the going gets tough.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Picking the Lock The term \u2018to pick a lock\u2019 means to open it without a key using a device to open it without breaking or cutting the lock. It is usually for underhand or nefarious purposes. This aptly describes what the Fianna F\u00e1il government is doing to the Triple Lock in working to remove it … Continue reading Editorials: Picking the Lock, Violence and nonviolence<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[33,32,300,525],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorials","category-nonviolent-news","tag-ireland","tag-irish-neutrality","tag-triple-lock","tag-violence-and-nonviolence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1247,"href":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions\/1247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innatenonviolence.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}