Commemoration Speech 20 08 2000

Pairtí Poblachtach Sóisialach na h-Éireann

IRSP Derry

For National Liberation & Socialism!

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Welcome to the website of the

Irish Republican Socialist Party

in Derry City.

IRSP Hunger-Strike Commemoration

Derry

August 20th, 2000

Main Oration:

Comrades and friends

We are here today to remember the ultimate sacrifice paid by ten young republicans who died during the 1981 hunger strike. We especially remember two men from this City, Patsy O'Hara and Mickey Devine. We remember their personal sacrifice and their bravery in what were very difficult times for their families, their friends and their comrades.

We remember too the blanket men and their personal sacrifices that led to the hunger strike. We acknowledge the gains those ten deaths brought to the prisoners who remained in Long Kesh. We also acknowledge that the men who died in Long Kesh were not released under any agreement with Britain. Their freedom came with their deaths. Deaths that came about as a result of Britain's refusal to acknowledge that political prisoners even existed. It is ironic therefore, nineteen years later on the 28th of July the bulk of the remaining PoWs were released as part of a political agreement. I underline the term political agreement, for these prisoners were recognised as political prisoners by both London and Dublin. When it suits Britain's strategic needs then they are political.

Were we to believe the British establishment, between 1976 and 1998 there were no political prisoners in the six counties, but before 1976 and after 1998 there were political prisoners. As usual the British stand logic on its head.

However, one conclusion we can draw from this lesson of history is the hunger strikers need not have died. Britain has surely murdered them in the strategic interests of Britain at that time. It was part of their then policy of breaking Republicanism by force. Thatcher and her mandarins murdered those ten republicans in Long Kesh in 1981.

Mickey Devine, Patsy O'Hara and their eight comrades died for a better Ireland, a socialist Ireland. They perished as a direct result of Britain's dirty tricks and gimmicks. The Agreement of 1998 is just another gimmick. The hunger strike of 1980 was called off when Britain made empty promises to republican prisoners. No one died during that hunger strike. But when it became apparent that British officials had clearly lied in order to gain political expediency republicans in Long Kesh were left with no alternative but to begin a second hunger strike.

As a former Republican Socialist prisoner myself I have witnessed at first hand the benefits that the hunger strike has brought to the men in Long Kesh. I have heard the horror stories and I have read the books that relate to the time before 1981 when Britain tried with all her might to break the resolve of the blanket men. They failed.

The first Derry man to go on the blanket was a member of the IRSP. He was sentenced to six years and he served six years, all of it wearing only a blanket. It is individual stories like this that need to be remembered and spoken about.

We are at a situation today that is no better for some republicans. It is not widely reported that there are republicans in prison today who do not share the same standards that were gained as a result of the hunger strike. Prisoners from the INLA, Real IRA and Continuity IRA are denied their rights as political prisoners. They have been attacked time and again by loyalists in Maghaberry and the situation is very unstable.

The IRSP calls by for segregation between republicans and loyalists in Maghaberry. To deny that the conflict in Ireland does not produce political prisoners is to deny the whole of our history

Britain has made these same mistakes in the past. The British government should heed our voice because to ignore or belittle political prisoners will inevitably result in further conflict. It doesn't take a wild imagination to see what could develop from this situation.

So where are we now. Politically what have we achieved in the years since 1981? We have to face facts. The united socialist republic, for which the hunger strikers died, does not exist. All we have is a Good Friday Agreement which in reality is not a transition toward our objective.

The Good Friday Agreement is in essence an attempt to kill republicanism with kindness. It is the reverse side of Thatcher's treatment of the hunger strikers. Those of us gathered here today do not fall for the stepping-stone' theory, of a transition to a United Ireland. The IRSP has consistently politically opposed the Good Friday agreement as the entrenchment of sectarianism.

Let us deal with basic realities. There are two regimes in this island, neither of which are republican, never mind socialist. Let us not forget how Haughey and Fitzgerald bent over backwards to placate Thatcher during the hunger strike.

Neither of those two regimes will willingly give up what they now have. Observe the sons of Stormont stymieing the Patton Report. Ask who rules and there is a clear answer. It is the Civil servants and the military (stroke) security establishment based around Bangor. Observe those sons of Stormont holding back any meaningful progress.

A Chairde there will be no socialist Ireland unless we have the resolve to struggle on an all-Ireland basis, not just in Derry or Belfast, but also in every of the thirty-two counties of this island.

It has been said by people in high places that republicans are disillusioned. There may well be some who in disgust walk away from involvement. We who had no illusions know the road is long and hard ahead. But every road has a turning and there will be turning on the road for the working class in Ireland.

We have one purpose from this day forward and that is to smash the two capitalist, sectarian and exploitive regimes, which pass for good government in this country.

Let that be the definition of republican socialism in the years ahead.

In reality, there is too much work to be done for us to be disillusioned. We have to organise, to educate and to equip ourselves with the resources for the purpose of building a revolutionary movement capable of establishing an alternative government in this country.

What does the agreement change? Is there a real equality for the citizens of Derry? Is there a decent wage packet at the end of the week? Are you able to join a trade union and still be able to apply for one of the so-called great jobs? Jobs such as that which are on offer in Fruit of the Loom or the jobs manufacturing weapons systems in Raytheon that John Hume has promised us or in the modern 21st century sweat shops that they call "call centres".

So we are presented with the option to either work like slaves until the bosses can up and leave as was the experience with Fruit of the Loom up the road in Inishowen or with Coates Vyella in Trench Road. Or we can get a job helping build weapons systems to blast some poor souls to oblivion in Yugoslavia or Iraq. Is this progress, bringing the Tiger economy up north, with it's contract employment, non-recognition of trade union rights, sky-rocketing property prices and miserable wages?

For some though it's better to talk about flags. It helps confuse the ordinary person and diverts minds away from reality. For us politics is more than the ramblings of the DUP, the verbal semantics of John Hume or whether there should be a flag flying outside a British Government office. It is about real issues, and real freedoms. We recognise the need for an alternative north and south, and the only alternative worth talking about is a united socialist Ireland.

Let the fight go on!

Go Raibh Maith Agat.

INFORMATION ON IRELAND - NEW ZEALAND

Information on Ireland, the New Zealand Irish solidarity group, was formed in 1980 as the New Zealand H-Block/Armagh Committee, supporting the hunger strikes in Long Kesh and Armagh Women's Prison. So we're very pleased to be able to send these solidarity greetings to those saluting the sacrifice made by the hunger strikers of 1981. Our regular magazine SAOIRSE has just gone off to the printers with a page in it on Mickey Devine, taken from a speech by Eamonn McCann. In his speech, McCann talked about getting up to speak at a Civil Rights demonstration in 1968, and how some of the leaders of that demonstration were advising everyone to obey the police and disperse, and how Mickey Devine shouted out to remember the Mexican students, thousands of whom had stood firm against the police that year in Mexico city, hundreds of whom were to die. And McCann remembered thirteen years later, in August 1981, reading an item in a left-wing paper that students in Mexico University had gathered in their thousands and stood in a minute's silence for the Irish hunger striker, Mikey Devine.

We all fight for each other.

Dean Parker

Information on Ireland

Auckland, New Zealand

IRISH REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST COMMITTEES, NORTH AMERICA

IRSCNA: Hunger Strike Commemoration Statement

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1980 hunger strike, and we are all already mobilizing for commemorations of the 20th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike next year. For many of us in the North American support organisation of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement the struggle of the Republican Socialist Prisoners of War has particular significance. As in my own case, who was drawn to Irish political activism by the 1980 hunger strike and joined the IRSP at the end of the 1981 hunger strike, many of the movement's supporters in North America first awoke to the fight raging in Ireland through becoming aware of the heroic struggle waged by the prisoners.

It is for that reason that we are proud to lend our voices to those speaking today in commemoration of the 1981 hunger strike and the ten brave volunteers who gave their lives in defense of their principles. The fight they waged was grueling; their sacrifice severe; their cause just and noble.

Throughout the world, the Irish hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981 seized the imagination of all those engaged in conflict against capitalism, imperialism, and other forms of oppression. I recall hearing a woman representing the FMLN of El Salvador speak at a memorial mass for Bobby Sands. She called him "a modern Christ." The FMLN had a sense of immediate connection with those who suffered and died on hunger strike; recognising in their struggle the same essence of their own war for national liberation and social justice.

I recall posters printed and distributed by the People's Mojahedin of Iran, which drew upon the inspiration of the hunger strikers and made the connection between their fight and the fight against US imperialism in Iran. I recall how they joined us to march repeatedly in front of the British Consul's residence, until the insistence of Irish Northern Aid in carrying the American flag at these pickets forced them to politely advise us that they could not in good conscience continue to march behind the banner of the nation they were locked in combat with . . . and realised that neither could we.

I remember how German revolutionaries adopted the name of Patsy O Hara for their cell that year, and paid homage to our fallen martyr through their own fight. How the French and Breton Leftists working at the ferry departure ports stuffed informational literature expressing their solidarity with the hunger strikers into the luggage of those embarking for England or Ireland. Around the globe, the hunger strikers were a source of inspiration to all those in struggle.

These ten martyred volunteers, and for us, especially our comrades, INLA volunteers Patsy O Hara, Kevin Lynch, and Michael Devine, remain a profound source of inspiration to us. As we reflect on their sacrifice, however, we are deeply saddened by the recognition that today there remain Republican Socialist Prisoners of War in Maghaberry and Magilligan who have been stripped of the very things the hunger strikers of 1980 and 1981 fought and died to win. We are mindful that in the nearly empty confines of Long Kesh concentration camp, there remain three of our comrades, held still for being prepared to defend their community and their class from fascist attacks.

We cannot miss the bitter irony that as we commemorate the ultimate sacrifice of O Hara, Lynch, Devine and their seven IRA comrades, we do so amidst the hollow "peace" negotiated by self-appointed representatives of the nationalist people with the British Government who have no right to negotiate over the sovereignty of a nation that is not their own and the Irish Government which has since its inception acted as the surrogate of their colonial masters and the world's imperialists. A "peace" marked by rampant triumphalism displayed by the unionists who insist that the nationalist people demonstrate the surrender they believe they've won and by renewed attacks by loyalist thugs bent on ethnic cleansing.

With the Irish working class weary of war, however, we recognise that simple militarism cannot move the national liberation struggle forward at present. Rather we know that the only way forward to genuine national liberation --the liberation of the vast majority of the people of this island, the working class people of Ireland--is through a war of a different kind. Certainly it will not be won by denying 'term time' education workers in the six counties fair compensation for their labour. It is not through joining in the administration of the pathetic, gerrymandered six-county statelet created by imperialism. It is through the class war alone that the conditions for a just and lasting peace can be obtained.

Such a war requires something more than skill with a weapon; it requires the transformation of the consciousness of the workers of Ireland. It requires that they come to understand that they have interests, distinct and opposed to those of the foreign imperialists and native capitalists growing fat off their labour in the so called 'Celtic tiger' economy of the 26 counties; and that those interests can only be served by taking power into their own hands; by taking into their hands the means of production through which they are robbed of the value they produce and others are enriched. To accomplish that great task, it requires a revolutionary socialist party to show the way forward. In Ireland today, that party is the Irish Republican Socialist Party.

And so today, as we join you in memory of the hunger strikers' great sacrifice, we also join you in the struggle to awake the sleeping working class of Ireland. We pledge our continued support to you in the monumental fight ahead.

The movement erect these impressive monuments to the memory of our fallen comrades this past year, but we know that only one truly worthy monument can be built to those who have died in the ranks of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement. That monument will be the creation of a 32-County Irish Workers' Republic, the cause for which our comrades died and for which we continue to struggle. We will support you because we know you will not abandon that goal. Rather you and we will, in the words of Patsy O Hara,

Let the Fight Go On!

Peter Urban

North American Co-ordinator, IRSC/NA

THE ALL-AFRICAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY PARTY/ALL- AFRICAN WOMEN'S REVOLUTIONARY UNION

The All-African People's Revolutionary Party, and its women's wing, the All-African Women's Revolutionary Union, congratulates and salutes the Irish Republican Socialist Party on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Irish Prisoners of War's refusal to eat food provided by an illegal, immoral and fascist English colonial government that created and maintained a colonial/neo-colonial situation in Ireland for over 500 years.

This anniversary of the heroic position taken by the brave Irish Republican Socialist Prisoners of War and Martyrs, who exemplified the best of our revolutionary allies and comrades, must be celebrated by all.

Our relationships with Ireland and the Irish People are as old as our people and our principals, and pre-date us. As Africans, who unconditionally affirm the primacy of Africa, we principally understand that:

· Frederick Douglas, said after a visit to Ireland. 'They have been long oppressed; and the same heart that prompts me to plead the cause of the American bondsman, makes it impossible for me not to sympathize with the oppressed of all lands.'

· Marcus Garvey supported the Irish struggle for liberation. In 1921 his Universal Negro Improvement Association in New York City, resolved to send expressions of support to "Eamon de Valera, in his fight for Irish independence; and ... stating that nothing would please the Negro peoples more (except the freedom of Africa) than the emancipation of Ireland, India and Egypt'.

· Bernadette McAliskey (then Devlin) found out when she visited the US in the early 1970's that 'I was not very long there until, like water, I found my own level. 'My people' - the people who know about oppression, discrimination, prejudice, poverty and the frustration and despair that they produce - were not Irish Americans. They were black, Puerto Rican, Chicano. And those who were supposed to be 'my people', the Irish Americans who know about English mis-rule and the Famine and supported the civil-rights movement at home, and knew that Partition and England were the cause of the problem, looked and sounded to me like Orangemen. They said exactly the same things about blacks that the loyalists said about us at home. In New York, I was given the key to the city by the mayor, an honour not to be sneezed at. I gave it to the Black Panthers.

African People, and the A-APRP, have long supported the struggle of the Irish people, their movements, and organizations. In turn, the People of Ireland and their representative movements/ and organizations have supported the struggle, movements and organizations of the African people. There are too many examples of this fact to illustrate here.

Our support is also based on the principles of Nkrumahism-Tureism and its understanding of scientific socialism. We know that by supporting and strengthening the world socialist movement, we increase the potential for the victory of Pan-Africanism, Socialism and World Peace.

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