The
INLA POWs give our continued support to the leadership
of both the INLA and IRSP. We send Easter greetings
to all our comrades within the Republican Socialist
Movement, to friends and supporters at home, and
throughout the world. We extend our support and
solidarity to our fellow political prisoners. To
the Basque and Catalan prisoners, to the Turkish
and Kurdish death fasters, to the Palestinian prisoners,
and to all political prisoners in Chile, Puerto
Rico, and the USA and throughout the world. We stand
resolutely with, and pay tribute to, all those fighting
imperialism worldwide. We support the freedom fighters
of Iraq.
Comrades,
on this, the 89th anniversary of the Easter Rising,
we gather once more to pay homage and to remember
all those who gave their lives for a democratic
Socialist Republic. We pay respect to, and honour
the republican dead, no matter what organisation
they belonged to. While today we in the Republican
Socialist Movement remember in particular our own
martyred dead and our fallen comrades, we do not
forget or ignore those other republicans who sacrificed
their lives so that this country could be free.
We remember them all with pride.
At
noon on that Easter Monday in 1916, members of the
Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers occupied
the GPO and strategic buildings around the centre
of Dublin. From the steps of the GPO, Padraig Pearse
read aloud the proclamation of the Irish Republic,
announcing that they were setting up a Provisional
Government replacing Britain's. These were extraordinary
events involving ordinary men and women who lived
in extraordinary times.
Today
let us pause for a moment and reflect on what all
those who died for the Republic think they were
doing. Irish men and women bravely fought and died
for the rights of all of us, for all the people
of this island to live in political, economic, and
social freedom in a Republic that cherishes all
the children of the nation equally.
Ask
yourself, "who today stands by that concept
of the Republic?" The fat cats of Irish business
life, the politicians who feed on corruption, greed
and bribery, these very same politicians who have
labelled republicans and republican socialists as
criminals? The full force of the establishment have
united to try and denigrate the sacrifices of all
those we honour here today by there continuance
in making unsubstantiated allegations of criminality
against our movement.
The
facts speak for themselves, imprisoned INLA members
were all convicted of political offences, there
are no members of the INLA awaiting trial for criminal
offences, no member of the INLA or indeed the IRSP
is involved in any type of criminality. However
there are those out side of the Republican Socialist
Movement who use the name of the INLA for there
own ends, some with the approval and encouragement
of the security agencies both north and south. These
parasites who have descended into this type of activity
besmirch the name of republicanism and not only
is there no place for them in our movement, there
is no place for them in society, for like the capitalist
system they are piranha who feed off the working
class. There will never be a place in our movement
for anyone who believes they can use it for personal
advancement or financial gain.
Unlike
Fianna Fail, which has seen high ranking members
of their party involved in criminal activities such
as money laundering with the Guinness, Mahon, Cayman
Trust, C. J. Haughey was rather partial to the odd
bribe or two, and ex-Fianna Fail minister Ray Burke
is in jail on bribery and corruption convictions.
The hypocrisy of the establishent is breathtaking.
None of these stand for the Republic, for they have
allowed the poor of this country to slip into further
debt and misery, with the gap between the rich and
poor growing wider.
Nor
do the racists who preach hatred and enflame sectarianism,
or the trade union leaders who have sold out the
workers, nor those who wish to maintain oppression
and inequality. None of these stand for the Republic
we want to see.
We
as republican socialists cannot and will not live
under British colonial or unionist rule, for that
rule is unjust, cruel, discriminatory, and imperialistic.
Seven years on since the signing of the GFA, what
has changed? Westminister maintains direct rule.
The British Army still patrol our streets, their
intelligence service still operates clandestine
operations, they continue to maintain and update
their military installations. Sectarian clashes
have increased and there is still no real justice
or equality for the republican/nationalist community.
Dessie O'Hare continues to be held as a political
hostage by the Free State government who has reneged
on its commitments under the GFA and republican
prisoners in Maghaberry are denied recognition of
their political status which was won because of
the sacrifice of the hunger strikers in '81.
Comrades,
it is time for us in the Republican Socialist Movement
to take stock of where we are and where we are going,
and how best to prepare politically and organisationally
for the next phase, which will be our struggle,
i.e. the class struggle. There is a danger at the
moment of republican socialists ending up simply
reacting to events. We encourage and fully support
the Ard-Chomhairle of the IRSP, who are actively
involved in preparing a long-term overview of a
strategic and political understanding of what has
to be done to achieve our aims and objectives.
Now
that there is an acceptance of the primacy of politics,
as outlined in the Ta Power Document, the development
of the party is critical if we are to prepare the
Irish working class for the struggles ahead. Political
leadership comes from a political party that fully
understands the situation and who possess the necessary
tactics, strategies, and policies that enables the
working class struggle to move forward.
Our
role should be to act as a catalyst to the struggle
of the people, north and south, Protestant and Catholic,
so as to give them a cohesive programme of direction
whilst raising their level of political consciousness.
Our movement has this potential if we are prepared
to take the political responsibility that goes with
it, and one of those responsibilities is to give
voice to the people. There is a duty on each and
every comrade to identify with, and participate
in, the everyday struggles of the people. Educate,
agitate, and organise, comrades. It was the way
of James Connolly, it was the way of Costello. Onward
to victory!
