Democracy and Class Struggle salutes éirígi's struggle in Ireland in 2012 and calls for the emulation of éirígi's correct combination of social and national liberation by nations that are imprisoned in the British State.
We also call for the immediate release of Stephen Murney.
As
the hundredth anniversary year of the 1913 Lockout begins éirígí extends
solidarity greetings to its members, supporters and all of those who have
contributed to the struggle against imperialism and capitalism in Ireland over
the last twelve months.
We
look forward to 2013 with optimism, resolute in the belief that an all-Ireland
Socialist Republic continues to represent the only viable alternative to the
failed politics of partition, exploitation, deprivation and austerity. We enter
the New Year with a renewed determination to challenge both the British
occupation of our country and the exploitative economic system that currently
exists across Ireland.
The
popular fight back against the anti-working class policies of the Leinster House
and Stormont administrations gained considerable momentum in 2012. Hundreds of
thousands of families in the Twenty-Six Counties participated in the boycott of
the Dublin government’s home tax. éirígí commends them for this historic and
successful act of mass civil disobedience. 2013 will see the Dublin government
attempt to introduce a re-formatted home tax, with domestic water taxes set to
follow in 2014. These taxes will need to be met with mass collective action
similar to that which defeated the 2012 home tax.
In
the Six Counties ever greater numbers of people are coming to see Stormont as
the White Elephant it will always be. Far from the new beginning that it was
supposed to deliver, Stormont has produced nothing but the same old, tired,
failed politics of the past. Despite their hollow words of protest, the
coalition parties in Stormont have obediently implemented the cutbacks of their
Tory masters over the last twelve months; a fact which has not gone unnoticed by
communities across occupied Ireland.
éirígí
believes that the austerity programmes of both states can be defeated through a
sustained campaign of mass protest, industrial action, civil disobedience and
direct action. Over the coming year éirígí will continue to work within working
class communities to build such a campaign of resistance.
The
last twelve months have seen a marked increase in the harassment and
vilification of republican and socialist activists across Ireland. éirígí
members and supporters have found themselves repeatedly subjected to ‘stop and
searches’, attempts to recruit them as informers, house raids, arrests and imprisonment. In late November, this campaign of
political policing escalated with the charging of éirígí activist Stephen
Murney. As a result of these spurious charges Stephen has now spent more than a
month incarcerated in Maghaberry Jail.
It
is abundantly clear that Stephen has been targeted by the PSNI for no reason
other than his vocal and consistent criticism of the PSNI and the Stormont
regime. éirígí is calling on all republicans, socialists and others progressives
to familiarise themselves with Stephen’s case and actively campaign for his
immediate release.
This
escalation of state harassment and oppression against éirígí has come as no
surprise. All oppressive states respond in this way to effective opposition.
There is nothing the Irish ruling class fears more than a resurgent
revolutionary republican movement successfully mobilising the wider working
class. Our activists intend to spend the next twelve months working to realise
the worst fears of the ruling class. The attempts of their forces to intimidate
our activists and supporters will be as unsuccessful in 2013 as they were in
2012.
Towards
the end of 2012 éirígí welcomed the decision of the political prisoners in
Maghaberry to end their long-running protest in support of political status. We
are again calling on the British government and the prison authorities not to
squander the opportunity that this brave decision affords them. Irish
republicans will never accept the criminalisation of the struggle for Irish
freedom, within the jails or without.
2013
will mark the hundredth anniversary of a number of critically important events
including the Great Lockout, the foundation of the Irish Volunteers and the
foundation of the Irish Citizen Army. The parallels between the Ireland of 1913
and the Ireland of 2013 are many. Then, as now, Britain maintained an illegal
occupation of Ireland. Then, as now, workers and their families found themselves
being pushed into extreme poverty to satisfy the greed of a super-wealthy elite.
And then, as now, the private media and the forces of the state were mobilised
to vilify and attack those who dared to resist.
One
hundred years ago thousands of Irish women and men came to the conclusion that
the appetite of the rich and powerful was insatiable; that national, economic,
social and cultural rights have to be fought for and defended; that the key to
victory lies in the creation and development of revolutionary organisations
committed to the overthrow of the ancien régime.
As
we enter 2013 the people of Ireland would do well to follow the example of their
grandparents and great-grandparents, by taking a stand against those who would
drive them into poverty and despair. To those who are ready to take that stand
éirígí extends an invitation to join with us. Together we can act in the spirit
of 1913 and achieve the vision of 1916.
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