On International Workers Day the Irish Republican Socialist Party sends its fraternal greetings and solidarity to all our revolutionary comrades both nationally and internationally who are currently engaged in struggle for national liberation and socialism in Ireland and across the world.
We send our solidarity and support to those struggling against oppression and occupation in Palestine and commend the continuing efforts towards the national reconciliation of the Palestinian people. In Venezuela we condemn the US imperialist puppets currently trying to destroy the social gains brought by the Bolivarian revolution. We support a Venezuelan working class mobilisation against this US led counter revolution.
We send solidarity to all other peoples currently under imperialist occupation, our Basque and Catalan comrades deserve a special mention, and to all those workers who suffer and endure under the exploitation of global capitalism. As internationalists and anti imperialists your struggle is our struggle. Acknowledging and taking strength from the struggles of our brothers and sisters internationally we must also take time to reflect on our own efforts for national liberation and on building the Irish socialist republic.
This year marks 40 years since the formation of the Irish Republican Socialist Party. Since 1974 we have witnessed some of the darkest days of conflict. We endured a bloody baptism of fire at the hands of the counter revolutionaries in the Official Republican Movement. We endured the assassinations of our political leadership on several occasions over the last 40 years.
We witnessed volunteers from our national liberation army die on hunger strike in Long Kesh concentration camp, refusing to be criminalised by a foreign occupying imperialist power. We lost many national liberation army volunteers in armed actions against the establishment and in British state sponsored “shoot to kill” assassinations.
We proudly remember all those national liberation army volunteers and political activists from the republican socialist party who died fighting imperialism in Ireland. Their sacrifice was not just for the workers of Ireland but for all workers of the world as our Marxist identity makes our struggle part of the international class war.
Remembering our darkest hours and analysing our failures as a revolutionary movement is important. It allows us to critique failed strategies and tactics to explore new arenas of struggle and to build new lines of communication between other individuals and organisations of the wider revolutionary workers movement in Ireland.
The continued existence of the IRSP as a revolutionary party, with a republican and socialist political agenda unchanged for four decades, is an achievement in itself. The IRSP continue to uphold the analysis that the national struggle against British and European imperialist occupation and the class struggle against capitalism in Ireland are one in the same. They cannot be separated as both the physical and financial occupation of this island serves the same masters.
Every republican activist with a class analysis of the struggle in Ireland must use days like May Day to rededicate yourselves to workers struggles. Our revolutionary political agenda of workers empowerment and collective control must be articulated in every arena. From within your community groups, trade unions, residents associations to the picket lines and eventual barricades revolutionary republican socialist ideas must be made relevant to our class. This is no easy task comrades but it’s a task we all must undertake none the less.
In the spirit of May Day we also send our solidarity to the LGBT community in Ireland we stand shoulder to shoulder with you in your struggle for equal marriage rights. At the 1975 IRSP convention we became the first political party in Ireland to support equal rights and equal opportunities for our brothers and sisters in the LGBT community. This is a position we still hold to this day.
The tactics of the Republican Socialist Movement may have adapted to changes in the political landscape of this island but our message of national liberation and socialism remains. Our revolutionary ideology has always been and will continue to be the main weapon we use to confront the oppressors of the Irish working class.
We are calling on all republicans and socialists across the island to take this opportunity to get involved in your local international workers day events over the coming days. Mayday belongs to those who have fought for it, its time the republican left claimed it back from the forces of reform.
