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Date Posted: Saturday, August 20, 21:51:06
Author: Danielle Ni Dhighe
Subject: IRSP: Speeches at Hunger Strike Commemoration

Irish Republican Socialist Party
http://www.irsm.org/irsm.html

Speeches at Hunger Strike Commemoration, Derry City Cemetery,
Republican Socialist Plot, 20 August 2005

*******

[Delivered by Martin McMonagle]

Friends and Comrades,

I am honoured and humbled to be asked to speak here today at this
commemoration marking the 24th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike.

Occasions such as today are for us to gather and pay a humble homage
to the valour shown by our comrades who paid the ultimate sacrifice
for their beliefs. We have a duty as republicans who honour all of the
dead hunger strikers, to use today's commemoration to motivate
ourselves for the challenges of today's struggle.

It can never be over emphasised what a difficult period the 1981
hunger strike was for republicans. What at times can seem a world
away, or a dark day that has just come to pass, the world in which we
now find ourselves in hasn't changed that much in the intervening 24
years. The primary cause of the conflict remains, the British rule of
our country.

Our people are still oppressed, divided, and partitioned, and no
amount of spin can alter that fact. When we say 'our people' let us be
totally clear we refer to all the people on the island of Ireland
­ Catholic, Protestant, dissenter, and migrant workers. Black
skinned, white skinned, brown skinned, gay or straight, they are all
our people.

Republican prisoners are still being mistreated in Maghaberry as the
British attempt to re-impose their failed policy of criminalisation.
From this platform today we salute the courage and determination of
those prisoners, who are fighting against injustice just as the hunger
strikers showed their resolve to defeat that same policy of
criminalisation.

There is a duty on all who honour the men of the '81 hunger strike and
who call themselves republican, especially if they are elected
representatives, to take up the case of the present day republicans in
jail. Let us hear not only about the Colombia Three or the Castlerea
republicans.

Let us also hear about the case of Dessie O'Hare and all the genuine
republicans in for political offences in Maghaberry. The Republican
Socialist Movement stands shoulder to shoulder with all prisoners. We
do not pick and choose.

The men of 1981 are a shining example to us all. Those were men who
selflessly laid down their lives for their comrades, true
revolutionaries motivated by feelings of true love for their class and
their country. They wanted nothing from the struggle except freedom
for their country and their class, for them there was no material gain
when they were lying with nothing but a dirty blanket in the hellhole
that was Long Kesh.

We in the Republican Socialist Movement salute their courage and
resolve in the face of massive oppression and brutality. They are the
people that our young people should be aspiring to emulate rather than
helping to demoralise their community through the ever increasing
anti-social behaviour. Joyriding, or more appropriately death driving,
as we've seen in Galliagh recently when a five year old child was
seriously injured by the criminal recklessness of these people. We can
tell these people that their communities have had enough and that
their activities are totally unacceptable. We cannot and will not
allow them to further demoralise the working class people.

I would also like to use this occasion to call for an end to all
sectarian attacks. These attacks in Ahoghill and the wider North
Antrim area are nothing more than ethnic cleansing and we call on all
political and community leaders to unequivocally condemn these attacks
and to do all they can to bring them to an end. Yesterday the RUC/PSNI
alluded to disputes between neighbours as the reasons why ordinary
Catholics were being targeted by UDA/UFF thugs. This clearly shows
that the RUC/PSNI are still the sectarian force that they always were
and again demonstrates that they can never be acceptable to
republicans.

I would equally condemn the sectarian attacks on people and property
in the Fountain Estate here in Derry. There can be no equivocation.

These attacks are wrong and anti-republican in nature. They go against
everything that the hunger strikers fought and died for. There should
be no hiding places within republican communities for sectarian bigots
and we demand that their activities cease immediately.

Let us state clearly that sectarian actions and words are the weapons
of the oppressor. Sectarianism is a tool to divide workers, spreads
hatred and fear, and plays into the hands of all who rob, steal, and
exploit the working class. What better way to keep wages down than by
pitting worker against worker using sectarian hatred. Sectarianism is
the weapon of the bosses. No republican worthy of the name can be
sectarian.

In honouring in particular our three dead hunger strikers, but also
honouring their seven dead IRA comrades, this movement at times like
this needs to reflect on what has been gained and what has been lost.
In the light of that it is clear that radical republicans need to
change tactics to stay relevant. Hence the turn by the Republican
Socialist Movement towards political action on the ground. There is
much to be done. Comrades and volunteers today need to turn to the
class. That's now the battlefield.

And in turning to the working class we maintain the core principles
upon which this movement was formed; the same core political values
laid by Connolly, forwarded by Seamus Costello and many others. We
stand by the same principles that Kevin Lynch, Michael Devine, and
Patsy O'Hara stood for in 1981.

It is our duty today to find ways to present these same principles in
a clear, relevant manner to the Irish people in as many spheres of
society as possible.

We must as a movement survey the tactics available in order to do this
and use those that serve our purposes best. Presently armed struggle
is not a viable means to achieve political goals. Having said, we do
not however see a necessity to disarm the working class. Today, we do
not see the necessity in handing in weapons as bargaining chips in
fruitless political negotiations.

For let us be totally clear the current peace process is going 90
miles an hour down a dead end street. We argued from the outset that
the Good Friday Agreement not only copper-fastened partition, itself a
crime against the Irish working class, but institutionalised
sectarianism. Those who argued about the progressive nature of the
Good Friday Agreement and who say it is a stepping stone to a Republic
could not be more wrong. Ahoghill, North Antrim, The Fountain, North
Belfast, the Lower Shankill - these and many more areas stand
testimony to the sectarian nature of the state. The GFA only
perpetuates, not destroys, sectarianism.

UVF thugs walk the streets with impunity in an arm-in-arm relationship
with the PSNI/RUC. Unionist leaders mutter softly about loyalist
attacks on Catholics and justify these attacks by roaring, shouting,
and blaming a republican march in a nationalist area of Ballymena. And
these are just the tip of the iceberg. In July alone there were over
60 incidents of loyalist murders, intimidation, petrol bombing, pipe
bombing, attacks on Catholic schools, churches, and brutal assaults on
individual nationalists.

Against such a background how can any republican accept that only our
enemies should be armed? We do not accept the monopoly of force being
granted to our enemies - British colonialism and Irish capitalism.
Such actions would mean us accepting a position of blame for the
recent period of armed struggle. The INLA, and for that matter the
different IRAs, were never a cause of the conflict here. The cause of
the conflict here was a direct result of 800 years of British
imperialism here in Ireland. Patsy O'Hara, Michael Devine and Kevin
Lynch as INLA volunteers were not a cause of the strife here. We
refuse to make them so with our actions today.

Our so-called government in the South mocks Irish neutrality by
allowing the USA war machine to use Shannon Airport as a stage post on
the way to crush, not so called "terrorists", but the Iraqi people.
From this platform we express full solidarity with the armed Iraqi
resistance.

The IRSP and the working class from across Ireland will not be
lectured and moralised at by either the British or US governments,
whose hands drip with the blood of innocent Iraqis. To Britain, to
America, our message is clear: Out of Ireland, Out of Iraq, No War but
the Class War!

In order to move from this period of setback that republicanism is now
in to one of progress we need to identify with the day-to-day
aspirations of our class. While the working class is divided you can
be sure that the supporters of capitalism in Ireland are not. North
and south of the border the dismantling of the public services
continues. Bin charges, water charges, medical charges, etc. etc. etc.
All of the main parties seem to have settled for the neo-liberal
economic model imposed by the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund. The trade union leadership has settled for a cosy
partnership with the bosses and the government. That is not our way.
We support all manifestations of class resistance against
exploitation. In particular we send our warmest greetings to the
Rossport Five who are jailed by Shell. This multi-national is using
Irish courts to crush resistance to their greed.

We believe that the destruction of the existing sectarian states on
the island and the creation of a socialist society is the only way to
overcome sectarian divisions, end poverty and discrimination, and
awaken the real human potential of all our citizens. Our task in the
Republican Socialist Movement is to radicalise the working class and
for that we need a strong working class revolutionary party. All of
you here today can contribute to that by getting involved in the daily
struggles of our class.

All socialists and republicans who seek a way out of the impasse that
the broad republican tradition is in have a choice before them. Repeat
the mistakes of the past and remain disillusioned or else throw your
weight into the struggle for class and national liberation like Patsy
O'Hara, Kevin Lynch, and Michael Devine. Take the class road with the
IRSP, ditch sterile nationalism, and put your energies and efforts
into the radicalisation of the Irish working class. It is the only
viable alternative for republicans and socialists and it is called
socialism.

On to the Socialist Republic!

*******

[Delivered by Margaret McNutt]

Friends,

Firstly I want to thanks the organisers of todays commemoration for
inviting me to speak at this commemoration to the 1981 hunger
strikers.

As some of you will be aware, my son Michael, who is five years old,
suffered serious burns when a car that was set alight by so-called
joyriders exploded near to where he was standing. Only the quick
thinking of his sister saved him from more serious injuries. Michael
was rushed to Altnagelvin Hospital and from there was taken to the
Royal Victoria in Belfast because his injuries were so bad. He stayed
there for several weeks. He had a lucky escape to say the least.

I wanted to speak here today to give people an understanding of just
how dangerous and reckless so-called joyriding actually is and to
appeal for this activity to be brought to an end. The people involved
in Michael's case were no more than 15 years old. Surely their parents
realise that their children are roaming the streets at all hours of
the day and night.

I would like to use this opportunity to get it into the heads of the
young people who are involved in this just how dangerous their actions
are. They could easily have killed Michael but luckily they didn't. I
believe that a strong and united response from the community is
essential in forcing home the message that stealing and burning cars
is not acceptable.

I would like to appeal to young people not to allow themselves to be
dragged down the road of going against their communities when those
very communities have suffered enough through lack of facilities and
opportunities.

To the car thieves I say that your actions, by attacking the
community, are cowardly and totally wrong. You are attacking ordinary
people who struggle day in and day out to pay for their car and then
you go and steal it. You then drive around working class estates
putting the general public in danger. You then set fire to that car
putting the lives of children in jeopardy who are drawn to the drama
of a burning car.

These young people, instead of getting into conflict with their
neighbours and friends, should be standing shoulder to shoulder with
the community and fighting against the real enemies of ordinary
people.

They should be following the example laid down for them by heroes such
as Micky Devine, Patsy O'Hara, Neil McMonagle, and Colm McNutt. By
that I mean positively supporting the community and rejecting crime.

Otherwise get out!

Leave us to live our lives in peace.

Thank you.

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