Danielle Ni Dhighe
1st May 2012, 08:26
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1 May 2012
Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America
International Workers' Day 2012 Statement
The Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America send
solidarity greetings to our fellow workers and comrades in the class
struggle around the world on the working class holiday of
International Workers' Day, also known as May Day.
As the North American section of the Irish Republican Socialist
Movement, we extend our greetings to our comrades and fellow members
of the IRSM in the Irish Republican Socialist Party, Irish National
Liberation Army, Republican Socialist Youth Movement, IRSP Alba, and
Teach na Failte, along with all republican socialist prisoners of
war. Our commitment to the struggle for national and working class
liberation in Ireland, and working class liberation worldwide, is
unbroken.
Capitalism remains in the midst of its deepest crisis in decades.
Millions of workers have lost their jobs, while millions more live in
fear of losing theirs. The bosses use this crisis as an excuse to
roll back wages and benefits, while their lackeys in government use
it as an excuse to enact a neo-liberal agenda of austerity. These are
acts of aggression against the working class, and the working class
must respond in kind. As Karl Marx once wrote, "The working class is
revolutionary or it is nothing."
We urge all workers to join the struggle against capitalism and the
capitalist class, and to refuse to be divided by the capitalists, the
promises of the capitalists' hired politicians (no matter what
political party they belong to), or the capitalists' favorite
divisive tools of racism, ethnic conflict, sexism, homophobia,
transphobia, religious sectarianism, and jingoism.
The IRSCNA will continue to actively support all working class
struggles, including immigrant and amnesty movements. Indeed, any
other position for Irish-Americans and supporters of Irish
republicanism would be hypocritical. The IRSCNA will always be found
on the front lines of the class struggle, as our members were during
the Battle of Seattle in 1999, or in Wisconsin and Michigan in 2011.
The only path forward is to begin organizing, educating, and
agitating to create fundamental, revolutionary change. The solution
lies in our hands as workers, and our hands alone. To end the
exploitation of the class system, and meet the needs of our species
and the planet we share, only socialism can achieve those goals.
There must be no war but the class war, until we, the workers of the
world, stand victorious and capitalism has been abolished. We must
reject both planks of ruling class ideology, conservatism and
liberalism, in favor of the freedom, equality, and fraternity that
only socialism can provide. Our vision is a revolution of a class, a
revolution from below, and a revolution that must be global.
In the words of Paul Mattick, "The liberation of the working class
from capitalist domination can only be achieved through the workers'
own initiative."
We have seen the Occupy Movement grow since its beginnings in 2011.
While this movement isn't strictly a revolutionary one, it
demonstrates that many people are frustrated by the status quo and
are looking for alternatives. The greatest danger to the Occupy
Movement is being co-opted by reformists who want to tie it to the
election campaigns of reformist politicians, when what is needed is a
deepening of class consciousness and an understanding that only
revolutionary change can build a better world.
In Ireland, conditions exist for a republican socialist alternative
to fill the void in revolutionary politics. It is obvious that
neither the Good Friday Agreement nor any other imperialist brokered
settlement can resolve the fundamental contradictions at the heart of
Irish society. Only a socialist Ireland can do that, and a socialist
Ireland is impossible to sustain unless capitalism is defeated on a
wider scale.
The struggle of labor versus capital is by necessity a global
struggle. The class war knows no national boundaries, as Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels recognized when they ended their Communist
Manifesto with the slogan, "Workers of all countries, unite!"
On behalf of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, we extend
solidarity greetings to our allies and comrades in the global class
struggle. We once again recognize our long-standing solidarity with
the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine, and the Scottish Republican Socialist
Movement.
As a political movement of class conscious workers, our only
allegiance is to the working class. The struggle of any group of
workers is the struggle of all workers.
One class, one struggle, one victory!
###
Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America
PO Box 5174
Champaign IL 61825
USA
[email protected]
http://www.irscna.org/
http://www.irsp.ie/irscna.html
1 May 2012
Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America
International Workers' Day 2012 Statement
The Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America send
solidarity greetings to our fellow workers and comrades in the class
struggle around the world on the working class holiday of
International Workers' Day, also known as May Day.
As the North American section of the Irish Republican Socialist
Movement, we extend our greetings to our comrades and fellow members
of the IRSM in the Irish Republican Socialist Party, Irish National
Liberation Army, Republican Socialist Youth Movement, IRSP Alba, and
Teach na Failte, along with all republican socialist prisoners of
war. Our commitment to the struggle for national and working class
liberation in Ireland, and working class liberation worldwide, is
unbroken.
Capitalism remains in the midst of its deepest crisis in decades.
Millions of workers have lost their jobs, while millions more live in
fear of losing theirs. The bosses use this crisis as an excuse to
roll back wages and benefits, while their lackeys in government use
it as an excuse to enact a neo-liberal agenda of austerity. These are
acts of aggression against the working class, and the working class
must respond in kind. As Karl Marx once wrote, "The working class is
revolutionary or it is nothing."
We urge all workers to join the struggle against capitalism and the
capitalist class, and to refuse to be divided by the capitalists, the
promises of the capitalists' hired politicians (no matter what
political party they belong to), or the capitalists' favorite
divisive tools of racism, ethnic conflict, sexism, homophobia,
transphobia, religious sectarianism, and jingoism.
The IRSCNA will continue to actively support all working class
struggles, including immigrant and amnesty movements. Indeed, any
other position for Irish-Americans and supporters of Irish
republicanism would be hypocritical. The IRSCNA will always be found
on the front lines of the class struggle, as our members were during
the Battle of Seattle in 1999, or in Wisconsin and Michigan in 2011.
The only path forward is to begin organizing, educating, and
agitating to create fundamental, revolutionary change. The solution
lies in our hands as workers, and our hands alone. To end the
exploitation of the class system, and meet the needs of our species
and the planet we share, only socialism can achieve those goals.
There must be no war but the class war, until we, the workers of the
world, stand victorious and capitalism has been abolished. We must
reject both planks of ruling class ideology, conservatism and
liberalism, in favor of the freedom, equality, and fraternity that
only socialism can provide. Our vision is a revolution of a class, a
revolution from below, and a revolution that must be global.
In the words of Paul Mattick, "The liberation of the working class
from capitalist domination can only be achieved through the workers'
own initiative."
We have seen the Occupy Movement grow since its beginnings in 2011.
While this movement isn't strictly a revolutionary one, it
demonstrates that many people are frustrated by the status quo and
are looking for alternatives. The greatest danger to the Occupy
Movement is being co-opted by reformists who want to tie it to the
election campaigns of reformist politicians, when what is needed is a
deepening of class consciousness and an understanding that only
revolutionary change can build a better world.
In Ireland, conditions exist for a republican socialist alternative
to fill the void in revolutionary politics. It is obvious that
neither the Good Friday Agreement nor any other imperialist brokered
settlement can resolve the fundamental contradictions at the heart of
Irish society. Only a socialist Ireland can do that, and a socialist
Ireland is impossible to sustain unless capitalism is defeated on a
wider scale.
The struggle of labor versus capital is by necessity a global
struggle. The class war knows no national boundaries, as Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels recognized when they ended their Communist
Manifesto with the slogan, "Workers of all countries, unite!"
On behalf of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, we extend
solidarity greetings to our allies and comrades in the global class
struggle. We once again recognize our long-standing solidarity with
the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine, and the Scottish Republican Socialist
Movement.
As a political movement of class conscious workers, our only
allegiance is to the working class. The struggle of any group of
workers is the struggle of all workers.
One class, one struggle, one victory!
###
Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America
PO Box 5174
Champaign IL 61825
USA
[email protected]
http://www.irscna.org/
http://www.irsp.ie/irscna.html