this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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A western colony primarily made of western settlers and completely aligned with imperial core countries is western.
It's a political term rather than geographic. Same reason why Australia isn't part of the Global South despite being in the south, because it's controlled by colonizers.
Is it Israel that is completely aligned with these "core" countries because I see them as a terrorist state and I sit firmly in the west.
The most significant western governments still finance Israel's existence, that doesn't mean every single western person or even country gets along with Israel
Israel, along with most western countries, have been bombing (or building bombs) the Middle east and North Africa for decades now.
Ireland is in the west and has recognised Palestine and condemned Israeli actions.
Ireland has some good foreign policy positions due to being a victim of british colonialism for hundreds of years, and feeling affinity with other victims of settler-colonialism, but after the civil war, they fully adopted the model of governance of their oppressors.
Ireland is now just like other western states, ruled by finance capital, and suffers all the same problems (a housing and rent crisis, production exported to low-wage countries, etc). A lot of US tech companies even use Ireland as an off-shore tax-haven.
BAE and Boeing (who manufacture weaponry used against Arab countries and in Palestine) have plants in Ireland. They also let the US use their bases in its war on Iraq, and had active troops in the war to break up Yugoslavia, and also had troops to fight against Syria.
Ireland is kind of a case-study in what not to do after an anti-colonialist revolution.
Is it fuck a case study of what not to do, in 100 years we went from not recognised as a state to the highest labour productivity in the world.
We absolutely did not allownfornour bases to be used by foreign military. We did however allow for refuelling by an ally. We also had caveats about what type of aircraft and cargo could land and refuel.
Oh yes we have heard the tax haven criticism before, butthurt people complaining about how we incentivise foreign investment. As a result ofnpolicies like these we created duty free and duty free industrial zones, which was the initial reason for the headquarters in Ireland given their logistical benefits from setting up here.
We also did not wholly adopt anything, we have a different type of government, we dont have a monarchy and our elections are not first past the post.
I would like to see some stats on the manufacturing being exported because we actually have a lot of foreign companies set up manufacturing here and have done for a long time.
Seems like you dont want us to be on the right side of this issue, for some unknown reason, so you threw out some nonsense.
Labor productivity is a neoliberal metric that uses GDP per capita, that in actuality measures value captured, not value added.. For example, the most "labor productive" countries in the world, are those tax havens in the caribbean. Considering the Irish economy's dominance by finance capital, that's completely unsurprising that it would rank so high:
Ireland is a bourgeois democracy / capitalist dictatorship just like GB, and it doesn't matter what form your elections take. The important point is that capital (specifically finance-capital) stands above your political system. Australia also doesn't use FPTP, yet its able to use that voting system to continue its colonization and theft of aboriginal land. These alternative voting systems have proven to be no obstacles in the slightest for capitalists.
The US racial state, which built its wealth on the graves of its indigenous inhabitants, and enslaved millions of captured Africans, is not a good military ally to have. If Ireland were actually anti-imperialist, there would not even be a debate on allowing the US military to use its bases, especially given the context of its wars on Iraq.
Here's another good article on Ireland's role in imperialism and its internal crises.
Do you just hear what you want? We are not a dictatorship. We didnt let anyone use our bases for the war in Iraq. We didnt invade anyone or steal any land. In less than 100 years we revolutionised our economy and lifted the people out of poverty. We are not a utopia, you will claim not everyone is out of poverty but for the most part everyone is, and while more work is needed, there are continued efforts to improve and continue lifting people up.
From the source above:
As is standard for uneducated neoliberals, you're equating dictatorship with autocracy, and not with what group of people dictates how your country functions.
and who's the one plugging their ears and ignoring the housing crisis and other systemic problems that comes when you let finance capital run the country?
Oh I see, you just make up shit to suit you... Shannon is a public airport not a military base.
Yes yes neoliberal this and that very good.
We are definitely not plugging our ears, it is a major issue over here. But whatever man, you are too hard up for misery and complaining to be bothered with. Walls of text do not make you correct.