We document the Waster Statement by the Irish Socialist Republicans which was published here. We hope it will we be available in German soon.
Easter Statement from Irish Socialist Republicans
The Leadership of Irish Socialist Republicans extends revolutionary greetings to our members, friends and supporters at home and abroad. In particular we send greetings to our mass organisations Anti Imperialist Action and Macradh- Irish Socialist Republican Youth. We salute your ongoing efforts to rebuild the struggle for National Liberation and Socialist Revolution across Ireland. Irish Socialist Republicans extends revolutionary greetings to the Anti Fascist Activists currently before the courts on political charges and salutes your efforts to ensure no platform is ever provided to Fascists in Ireland.
This year marks another milestone in the development of Anti Imperialist Action. For the first time since its foundation in 2017, the Socialist Republican Mass Organisation will hold 1916 Commemorative events in all four provinces of our country. This is a testament to the hard work carried out by our activists on a daily basis to strengthen the Revolutionary Movement across the 32 counties.
At Easter 2020, we extend our solidarity to All Republican Prisoners held in Free State or British Occupation Gaols and to all Prisoners around the world held captive as a result of fighting for socialism to defeat imperialism. We salute the memory of Helin Bölek of Grup Yorum and we support those who remain on Hungerstrike Against Turkish Fascism for the right to sing the People’s Songs of Revolution. We call for the immediate release of all Grup Yorum Prisoners and for the release of our Comrades, Ahmad Sa’adat and Khaledia Jarrar of the PFLP, of Georges Abdalladh and of Chairman Gonzalo of the Communist Party of Peru.
We send our greetings and admiration to the frontline workers, risking their lives to save others. Health care and retail workers, cleaners and delivery drivers, have all demonstrated that it is the Working Class that hold real power in this world.
On the 104th Anniversary of the 1916 Rising, Irish Socialist Republicans remember the men and women of every generation that have fought and died for National Liberation and Socialist Revolution. 104 years ago, Irish Revolutionaries from the Irish Citizen Army, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Irish Volunteers, Cumann na mBan and Na Fianna Éireann established the Irish Republican Army as a broad front for National Liberation, Proclaimed the Irish Republic in Arms in Dublin and took the offensive against the dominant imperialist power of that time to secure Freedom. For a glorious week the men and women of 1916 held out against the British Empire and relit the spark of revolution in Ireland. That spark turned into a flame and led to the establishment of Our People’s Republic in 1919, and though violently suppressed by Imperialism and Counter Revolution, Irish Socialist Republicans continue to give our allegiance to the All Ireland Republic Proclaimed in 1916 and to the Irish Working Class. The spark lit by the Rising will not fade until the reestablishment of our People’s Republic, the seizure of Power by the Working Class and the Victory of Socialist Revolution.
104 years on from the 1916 Rising, Ireland again finds itself in a revolutionary situation. Ireland remains a colony and semi colony of imperialism, oppressed and exploited by partition and illegal occupation. The current economic collapse of the capitalist system due to overproduction and the resulting crisis of Imperialism, sharpened by the the Coronavirus public health pandemic, means that the forces of reaction can no longer rule in the old way and the material conditions are changing rapidly. Imperialism is in crisis and it will break at the peripheries. The conditions for Revolution in Ireland are ripe.
In such historic times, it is the duty of revolutionary organisitions to organise the Working Class and mobilise them in the struggle for National Liberation and Socialist Revolution. Through the implementation of the Mass Line Irish Revolutionaries can play the leading role in the defeat of all Class enemies. Since the beginning of the current crisis, our organisations have been to the fore combatting and resisting parasitic landlords and exploitative employers, and at the same time continuing to organise against British Imperialism and Free State Counter Revolution. Our members will continue to agitate educate and organise with workers and tenants to fight all parasites that would exploit them, and in doing so win their support for National Liberation and Socialist Revolution. The fight of the Irish Citizen Army from 1913 is the fight of Socialist Republicans today.
The Irish Working Class now face a protracted struggle to end exploitation and oppression and need a revolutionary organisation of the new type to lead them in that fight. Imperialism and the Garrison Class have successfully used the People’s genuine fear and panic created by the Coronavirus pandemic to grab new and coercive powers to be used against the people to maintain their strangle hold on Ireland. These powers will not be given up with the passing of the pandemic and the Working Class must not attempt to fight the forces of reaction on their terms. We will fight to win on our own terms, outside the lines and grooves set by our enemies.
The pandemic has shown that imperialism and the Garrison Class are in decay. It is time to confine partition, occupation and capitalism in Ireland to the dustbin of history through National Liberation and Socialist Revolution. We can starve imperialism and the Garrison Class of legitimacy and power through an All Ireland Boycott of capitalist and imperialist elections. Through a Boycott along with the development of Revolutionary Struggle we can build the People’s Committees across Ireland as the functioning institutions of our All Ireland Socialist Republic. The Revolution in Ireland remains a life and death struggle between imperialism and Counter Revolution and the Socialist Republic. Fight for the victory of the Republic through the establishment of Resistance Committees, Centers of Resistance and Revolutionary People’s Councils across the 32 Counties. The old way is done. There is no going back and our future is the building Working Class Republican Power across Ireland.
104 years ago, in his statement to an illegal British Imperialist Court Martial in Dublin Castle, Commadant General James Connolly of the Irish Citizen Army stated, ‘that the British Government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, and never can have any right in Ireland’. This remains our position today and we extend that position to all Imperialist and Counter Revolutionary forces in Ireland. This generation will continue the work of the Irish Citizen Army and finish the business of 1916 to build the Ireland of Connolly, Mellows and Costello through a victorious National Liberation and Socialist Revolution.
The option facing the Irish Working Class today is to fight for the Republic or face crippling exploitation and oppression. There is no choice- we aim to fight. In the words of the First President of the All Ireland Republic Padraig Pearse, ‘Ireland Unfree Shall Never be at Peace!’.
For a 32 County Socialist Republic:
•Combat and Resist Imperialism and Counter Revolution
• Mobilise the masses for National Liberation and Socialist Revolution
•Rebuild the All Ireland Republic through the establishment of Resistance Committees, Centers of Resistance and Revolutionary People’s Councils.
•Build the Anti Imperialist Broad Front.
Beir Bua,
Tiocfaidh Ár Lá!
An Lár Choiste,
Irish Socialist Republicans.
