IRSP Withdraw from International Workers Day Celebrations in Occupied Ireland.

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

The Irish Republican Socialist Party communicates to our members and supporters, at this late hour, that we will not be having any official presence at any International Workers Day celebrations in imperialist occupied Ireland over the May Day weekend or bank holiday. We have instructed all Cumman not to carry official party banners or flags.

This extraordinary position has been taken, after much debate, by the entire leadership, at this late time…, due to the reality that our party, the party of Connolly, would have to march shoulder to shoulder with those we believe are complacent in the implementation of right wing socio-economic austerity in British occupied Ireland.

In this the year of the 1916 Rising Centenary the Irish Republican Socialist Party refuses to march beside reformist political parties, pseudo-socialists, implementing austerity, and those within the trade union movement who work against their own class interests. We will not encourage our members or supporters to share a platform with those who either use the workers movement for their own selfish ends or to politically implement British austerity programmes under the guise of “the lesser of two evils”.

We respectfully acknowledge that individual members of the IRSP, who choose to attend the International Workers Day celebrations as part of their own trade union, will do so. The IRSP views this as a matter of conscious and supports our own member’s right to exercise their own judgement.

The Irish Republican Socialist Party takes this opportunity to offer its solidarity with all those who remain principled, who stand against austerity and who fight for national liberation and socialism in Ireland.