Ex-US President Barack Obama should receive “no welcome” in Ireland, People Before Profit have said, claiming that “his failures lead to the rise of Donald Trump and the American far-right.”
In a statement this week, PBP said that Obama’s legacy had been “dangerous,” and criticised a plan to award him the Freedom of Dublin City at a Mansion House ceremony in September. They have now called on the Lord Mayor to withdraw the invitation.
“In the eight years since Barack Obama was first granted this symbolic honour, the world has become a far more dangerous place,” said Councillor Conor Reddy.
“All of these changes can be traced back to foreign policy decisions made by the Obama administration,” he added.
The councillor, who is PBP’s group leader on Dublin City Council, argued that many global conflicts could be linked back to Obama-era decisions.
“Israel’s current Genocide in Gaza and their wars on Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen were all made possible by Obama’s decision to double down on support for the Zionist state,” Reddy said.
“In 2016 Obama signed off on an historic $38 billion military aid package for Israel, with this aid coming on top of hundreds of millions worth of aid and arms delivered by the US to Israel under the same administration.
“This aid was delivered despite escalating apartheid, occupation and land seizures from 2008 to 2016 and came after the devastating prolonged assaults on Gaza in 2008 (Operation Cast Lead) and 2014 (Operation Protective Edge). Obama is just as complicit in the Genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as his successors – Biden and Trump. For this reason alone, he should receive no welcome in Ireland.”
He also criticised Obama’s broader military policy during his two terms as president.
“Obama radically expanded U.S. drone warfare throughout his Presidency,” he continued.
“[He] ordered hundreds of strikes across Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia that killed civilians at weddings and in family gatherings. He backed the 2009 coup in Honduras, recognising a de facto government installed by force, keeping with the long American tradition of denying democracy in Latin America.”
Dublin South Central councillor Hazel De Nortúin said that the problems extended beyond foreign affairs.
“It’s not just wars and crimes overseas, Obama failed at home too and in many ways, his failures lead to the rise of Donald Trump and the American Far Right,” she said.
“Despite offering Black Americans hope, Obama completely failed to dismantle the ‘new Jim Crow’ of mass incarceration and racialised poverty. He chose to support wall street over ordinary Americans and presided over historic increases in economic inequality in the US.”
The councillors said they had written to the Lord Mayor requesting that the invite be withdrawn, and pledged to bring an emergency motion to Dublin City Council in September if it is not.
“We have requested that the Lord Mayor reverses his decision to invite the Obamas to the Mansion House,” De Nortúin said.
“If the Lord Mayor decides to proceed, Cllr Reddy and I will bring an emergency motion to the first full meeting of the City Council at the start of September, calling for the revocation of Obama’s Freedom of the City.”
The Freedom of Dublin City is the highest civic honour the council can bestow. It was voted upon in 2017, but the Obamas have not yet officially accepted it, and have been invited to do so in September.