The Blanket

The Blanket - A Journal of Protest & Dissent
Statement From The Leadership Of The Irish National Liberation Army
Delivered at the Unveiling of a Memorial to Neil McMonagle, in Derry on Sunday 9th November 2003

Friends and Comrades the leadership of the INLA wish to take this opportunity to once again pay tribute to Volunteer Neil McMonagle and to all our other volunteers who died in the struggle for national liberation and socialism. All our volunteers were of the working class and for the working class. They fought not for personal greed or personal advancement but for the liberation of the Irish working class from both foreign Imperialism and native capitalism. Like Neil they were heroes one and all. We salute them. May we also place on the public record and pay homage to, and express our admiration and respect for other republican volunteers no matter which organisation they came from, who over the past thirty years also sacrificed their lives in the struggle for the Republic.

They died during the recent armed conflict. Revolutionaries know that the one thing you can be sure of is change. Life changes, societies change and people change. Accordingly the tactics of revolutionaries have to adapt to these changes. This leadership knew that the phase of armed struggle had come to an end for this generation when the people of Ireland voted for the Good Friday Agreement. We acted accordingly, called a ceasefire and began the long process of readapting to the new situation by increasing the politicisation of the whole movement. We call on our friends, supporters and members to turn in the absence of armed struggle to political activity, to listen to the concerns of the people, to share their hardships and struggles and to continue to organise

Challenging times lie ahead for us all after the current elections are over. It is not the function of this army to tell people who to vote for or even to vote or not vote. People are intelligent and wise enough to make their own decisions. While we may not like their decisions the decisions should be respected. Too often in the past the people have been relegated to a sideline role, mere spectators while others decided their fate. No matter what political settlement is cobbled together we can say without fear of contradiction that it will not solve the fundamental contradictions within the Northern Statlet. Whether we face a new power sharing administration, direct rule or joint sovereignty the twin evils of sectarianism and poverty will remain. The national question and the class question are indissolubly linked.

To those who adhere to the beliefs of Connolly we say this is not the time for republican socialists to do nothing. There needs to be a realignment of those who are in opposition to an internal Stormont settlement, are for working class unity and oppose the neo-liberal economic agenda that the last power-sharing executive implemented. That has to be the major political tasks of the day.

For ourselves we wish to reiterate that this Army will remain true to the fundamental principles of our founder Seamus Costello and will play our part in the building of the Socialist Republic as an army of the people and for the people.


 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Blanket - A Journal of Protest & Dissent



 

 

All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships.
- George Bernard Shaw



Index: Current Articles



31 January 2004

 

Other Articles From This Issue:

 

Partitionists and Non Truth Tellers
George Young

 

Politically Correct: PC Orde
Anthony McIntyre

 

Statement of Liam O Comain to the Bloody Sunday Tribunal

Liam O Comain

 

An Aging Population
Liam O Ruairc

 

INLA Statement on unveiling of Neil McMonagle Monument

 

Inspiration at Budrus
Mary La Rosa

 

27 January 2004

 

A Land Fit for Heroes or a Party Suited to Peelers?
Tommy McKearney

 

Rest in Peace
Brendan Shannon

 

Shooting the Fenians

Anthony McIntyre

 

On the Theme of Forgiveness: An Open Letter to Victor Barker
Karen Elliott

 

A Response to Victor Barker

Liam O Ruairc

 

TV Times
Eamon Sweeney

 

Invitation
Eamonn McCann and Marion Baur

 

“All bureaucrats are equal but some are more equal than others”
Peter Hadden

 

Airport Workers Reply
Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta, and Chris Boyer

 

 

 

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