On the 8th of March Irish Republican Socialist Party Women reflect upon the ongoing struggle for women’s liberation. International Women’s Day is one day in the year when battles for equality fought by women in the home, work place, streets and in the prisons are remembered and their sacrifices acknowledged.
Rosa Luxemburg once famously said “Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters” as Irish Republican Socialist women we, more than most, can emphasis with this sentiment as dissent against oppression is a corner stone of our ideology for freedom, equality and peace. Republican Socialist women like Comrade Miriam Daly Comrade Rose Campbell and Comrade Mary McGlinchey along with many other women who played senior roles in the struggle for National Liberation and Socialism within the Republican Socialist Movement suffered greatly for their dissent. On days like today we reaffirm ourselves to the struggle they sacrificed so much for.
As women’s battles for gender equality and liberation in the home, work place and streets continue daily it is worth remembering that the women’s prison struggle also continues each day. Irish Republican women continue to be held inhumanely and in isolation in British prisons. Irish Republican Socialist Party Women take this opportunity on International Women’s Day to send its solidarity to Marian Price and Sharon Rafferty. Marian and Sharon have sacrificed for their political aspirations, isolated and alone they remain unbroken they epitomise everything International Women’s Day represents and we vow never to forget their contribution to the struggle.
