The Irish Republican Socialist Party since its foundation has never been an abstentionist party. Similarly we do not see ourselves as a constitutionalist party. We do not believe that our ultimate political goals can be reached via constitutional politics. We have always said that all elections would be looked at on their merits and whether we believed taking part in certain elections would benefit in particular the party and in a wider context, the working class. This is a position first adopted by Seamus Costello when the party was formed in 1974 and we still stand by this position today.
After analysing the current political situation the Ard Comhairle and membership of the IRSP have decided not to contest the upcoming local government elections in the six counties. We have democratically taken this decision after a period of internal discussion. Standing candidates at this time would go against the wishes of our membership.
Constitutionalism has and will continue to fail the working class and our allegiance has always been to the working class and to building a fair and equal society on the island of Ireland. In fact some may believe that the IRSP have been led up the path of constitutional politics. Nothing could be further from the truth. The IRSP remains a committed revolutionary party, our ultimate goals remain and that is the establishment of an Irish 32 county Socialist Republic.
