The Irish Republican Socialist Party sends New Year greetings to members, supporters, imprisoned comrades and international allies and saluté them for their continued commitment to the cause of National liberation and socialism in Ireland and beyond. We look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with you all again in 2016 as we continue with our important work.
The O’Hara and McGlinchey families have a special place in our hearts at this time of year we take this opportunity to humbly let them know they are still in our thoughts.
2015 delivered many challenges for the IRSP and the wider working class movement. Questions were asked of our political position and our activists yet the entire Republican Socialist Movement can hold its head up as all decisions taken kept us on the correct side of the barricades. Every action taken over the last 12 months was carried out in the best interests of our country and our class.
Merging Republican Socialism into the everyday struggles of our class, and becoming ideological ambassadors within our communities is the most transparent and honest way we can continue to grow. If we are to exist in the spirit of James Connolly and the Citizen Army we must be accountable to our class and protectors of our communities. As leaders we should hold ourselves to higher standards, the class war is our lifelong vocation.
Watching our class being crushed under the weight of the neo-liberalist agenda has been a bitter experience for us all. The collective suffering of our communities due to the deliberate corrosion of; education, health, social care, arts, public transport, public and private employment, housing, water, social welfare and infrastructure provision all over the 32 counties has left scars that will never be healed.
Watching our national assets, natural resources, fisheries and all those things guaranteed to us within the 1916 Proclamation, being sold to the highest corporate bidder has cast a stain on the soul of the Irish nation. London and Brussels are not content to strip our material wealth they will not stop until they have stripped us of our hope. This is the sobering reality of contemporary Ireland.
While acknowledging this uncomfortable reality, however, it is undeniable that the political landscape in Ireland is slowly changing, an organically led culture of resistance against austerity is emerging in opposition to years of ideologically driven cultural and economic oppression, we salute all those behind them and encourage them to nurture the discontent they have successfully tapped into.
As regards the occupied Six Counties, again we declare that any involvement in the institutions of Stormont can only shore up the occupation and legitimise partition. The IRSP hold that there is no strategic merit in administering our own occupation nor in implementing neo-liberalism on behalf of the Tory government in Britain. At present, we view elections to the Dáil in the same manner, a diversion at very least. Change must come from below.
We refuse to implement our own poverty, whether it’s source lies in London or Brussels, we declare again our utter rejection of foreign interference in the affairs of the Irish working class.
There remains no parliamentary road to Socialism in Ireland or Europe and we caution those on the left who would lead working class into the cul-de-sac of constitutionalism alone.
Capitalism cannot be reformed. Those who have vested interests in the continuation of the capitalist system will use all in their power to destroy the Working Class agenda should we limit our methods to parliamentary politics. Our class enemies will destroy the fabric of society before relinquishing any real power, they must be made to feel the impact of grassroots resistance.
The means must be seized by the working class themselves.
2016 is a historic year in our countries struggle against Imperialism and it’s baneful manifestations.
The IRSP will not be party to the chorus of empty waffle which will emanate from Free State and counter-revolutionary corners.
We view the centenary as an opportunity to celebrate the proud culture of Irish resistance as a time to evaluate the past hundred years and reorganise with a view to finishing the task.
Our itinerary of events to mark the 1916 Rising will reflect this. We will celebrate a centenary of struggle marking the continuity of our unfinished revolution. From the Citizens Army to the Republican Congress, the Left Republican tendency that developed within the united Republican Movement, the formation of the Officials to the Irish Republican Socialist Party and Irish National Liberation Army’s later emergence in 1974 and on to the present day.
Since the summer, the entire Irish Republican Socialist Movement has absorbed attacks from both the British and Free State regimes, in punishment for our decisions in how best to commemorate our fallen. We have seen dozens of our party activists arrested, homes raided, IRSP offices ransacked, our supporters harassed and attempts to turn some of our members into state agents.
The IRSP never asked for any quarter during the armed conflict, as we afforded none, and that position remains the same. We caution those who would seek to suppress us or the Irish working class. Beware the thing that is risen.
We look forward into 2016 with renewed enthusiasm we send solidarity greetings to all other principled Republicans and Socialists preparing for struggle and facing the important year of 2016.
Saoirse go Deo!
