IRSP New Year Statement

We thank our membership and supporters for trusting us with the responsibility of delivering the republican socialist political programme over the last decade. 

We have been moulded by our successes and take responsibility for our failures, yet your support means we can confidently and collectively continue our struggle for national liberation and socialism into the 2020s and beyond.

We send solidarity greetings to all incarcerated political prisoners on the island of Ireland and to those imprisoned internationally for their participation in socialist and anti-imperialist struggles. Campaigning for the rights of political prisoners in Ireland is a key priority. 

Ireland is in need of a radical transformation, real change that puts people at the centre of society. The current toll booth economy, which only allows those who can pay the most access to the benefits of society is exploitative, oppressive and designed to perpetuate division. 

Ireland needs a system of organisation which strives for equality, empowers workers, designs public services that are accessible to all, builds a secular society that combats racism, all forms of discrimination, inequality and annihilates privatisation. This is our future. 

The journey towards a new and united Ireland, a country to be built upon basic socialist principles, begins with the process of addressing the national question and class question simultaneously. Capitalism is the host, imperialism is its parasite socialism is the cure. 

A review of health services for the entire island must be undertaken as a matter of urgency. Emphasis must be put on one single nationalised health service for the entire island, with a programme of publicly funded upgrading of hospitals, provision for children and elderly. 

An all-Ireland approach to the housing crisis is needed. We call for the establishment of a housing commission based on need not profit, with representatives of the construction industry and trade unions, North and South, to deliver social housing solutions for all. 

A publicly funded council consisting of all representatives of the organised working class, including the academic community, to examine ways and means of establishing a secular all Ireland education system. We view the current system of academic selection as fundamentally flawed.

Policing and judiciary systems, in both corrupt states on this island, are inherently anti-working class, created to protect the interests of capitalism and partitionist regimes. A radical overhaul of policing structures and a democratically elected judiciary are essential for a policing system that protects, not prosecutes. 

We need a progressive, grassroots, pragmatic and humanist approach to the scourge of suicides, prescription and illegal drug abuse in working class communities. This problem needs to be viewed as a symptom of exploitative capitalist society and treated as a healthcare issue. 

Climate change is spiralling out of control, global resources are being monopolised by corporations, leaving billions of the most vulnerable people facing shortages of basic means to survive. A global economy which produces for need not profit can address the climate emergency. 

The means of production, distribution, exchange and natural resources should immediately be under the  collective ownership of our class, for the maintenance of its entire people, to cherish and enrich each individual as part of the collective society. 

An independent internationally recognised monitoring body is needed to oversee the process of delivering an Irish Unity referendum. We must ensure a peaceful transition into a 32 county framework that can be used as a platform to build a socialist republic. 

We support the rights to national self-determination of other working class people living under colonialism. Furthermore, we will engage with other socialist anti-imperialist forces to build networks of political opposition in the interests of working-class people everywhere.

We congratulate the efforts of those organising against populist christian corporatism. Republican Socialists will engage enthusiastically with collective anti-Fascist initiatives. We must not allow one hierarchy to be replaced by another exploitative class based system. 

Punitive persecution of ex-political prisoners by the British government must end. This includes discrimination in jobs, criminalisation in the media and rewriting the history of the conflict here to suit the establishment narrative. 

Our commitment to broad front politics has remained a central plank in our strategic thinking. We reiterate this stance and hope to use the time ahead to build closer cooperation and organise collective actions with those who share our basic principals. 

We must place ourselves shoulder to shoulder with workers, the most oppressed and exploited. Our radical ideology is a tool for interpreting the world and shaping our praxis in an ever changing environment, not a pursuit doctrine. 

Wherever and whenever possible we must seek to engage with Unionist workers to convince them to turn away from conservative, racist, misogynistic and sectarian ideologies. They can potentially be our brothers and sisters in the struggle to create an All-Ireland society. 

The IRSP will strive to become a people-powered vibrant political party in the decade ahead. We must bring people together and use our collective skills and socialism to build a new and a united Ireland. We send solidarity to the Republican Socialist Youth Movement and to the broad based Irish Unity campaign YES For Unity.

Ends

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