2011 Easter Solidarity Message
Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America
23 April 2011
On this, the 95th anniversary of the Easter Rising, the Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America pay respect to the spirit of 1916, and in particular the contributions of the Irish Citizen Army and the distinct republican socialist tradition.
We celebrate the Easter Rising of 1916, when the Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers rose in arms against British imperialism. 95 years later, their task remains incomplete. The northern Six Counties remain colonized and occupied by the British state, while the southern Twenty-Six Counties are a lackey state for the imperialist world order. The historic task of republican socialism, to liberate Ireland from the shackles of both capitalism and imperialism, remains to be completed by a mass movement of class conscious workers.
Despite the constant lies and slander from the desperate lackeys of the bosses who have tried to convince the world that the Rising was sectarian or simply mad, the Easter Rising remains an inspiration to all freedom-loving exploited people. It is a fitting time to remember our comrades who gave their lives for a Workers' Republic.
We recognize the Irish Republican Socialist Party as the inheritor of the republican socialist tradition, Ireland's incorruptible tradition of anti-imperialism and class struggle. We are honored to continue representing the IRSP in North America. We salute the hard work of our comrades who daily build the party in the footsteps of James Connolly, Seamus Costello, Ta Power, and Gino Gallagher.
We also take this opportunity to send our greetings to republican socialist prisoners of war in British and Irish prisons. They, like our martyred fallen comrades, remain an ever-present inspiration to us in our efforts. We likewise send greetings to all those in Ireland and around the world imprisoned because of their participation in anti-imperialist and/or class struggles, including republican prisoners of war.
The IRSCNA would like to recognize the hard work and commitment of our friends in the Irish Freedom Committee, and we look forward to coming together with them again later this year to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike, in which three members of the Irish National Liberation Army gave their lives in struggle along with seven members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
We are living in a time of extended and unresolvable crises. A collapse in which the failure of the Good Friday Agreement and St. Andrews accords are obvious. No longer are the bosses' agreement serving to cover the divisions and fault lines in the occupied Six Counties. As long as Britain remains, there will be no peace in Ireland, and no genuinely democratic settlement is possible.
In Ireland, conditions are growing for a republican socialist alternative to fill the void in revolutionary politics. On May 5th, voters in the North of Ireland go to the polls for council elections. For the first time in three decades, five IRSP candidates in Belfast, Derry, and Strabane are on the ballot offering a republican socialist alternative. We urge working class voters to cast their votes for that alternative.
In North America, the IRSCNA can report that our organization and its activity level continue to grow each year, and we are proud to continue our representation of the IRSP and build support for republican socialism.
