The Workers’ Party of Ireland condemns last night’s missile attacks on Syria as an escalation of imperialist aggression in the region under the pretext of an unproven allegation concerning chemical weapons in eastern Ghouta. France and Britain at the behest of the US, and with the connivance of NATO, the EU and their member states, have embarked on a further dangerous intervention which increases instability in the region and brings us closer to the threat of a generalised war.
These attacks, involving a massive use of force, bring further misery and destruction to the people of Syria and constitute an attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and an attempt to reverse the Syrian government’s gains and impending victory against terrorists funded and supported by imperialism and reactionary states and forces in the region.
Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established. It is not simply an instrument of exploitation and aggrandisement, it is an essential device for preserving the interests of capital and the monopolies in their competition for the control of resources, markets and spheres of influence.
The sustained development of military processes, the maintenance of multi-million strong armies and huge munitions industries are a permanent feature of life under capitalism. The latest scientific and technological achievements are used on an unprecedented scale for the development and creation of awesome weapons of mass destruction. The expansion of the military industrial complexes, the partnerships between government and huge corporations and the deep penetration of militarism into the state apparatus has led to increased bellicosity on the part of capitalist states and unprecedented profits for private capital through military production and war.
The Workers’ Party of Ireland expresses its internationalist solidarity to the people of Syria and the other peoples of the region and calls upon workers to strengthen the struggle against imperialist interventions and wars. The people of Syria and elsewhere have the right to live peacefully in a society free from the arms race, threats of intervention, wars, crises, poverty and exploitation.