IRSCNA: Costello Commemoration Statement -- Stormont Watch

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Date Posted: Fri, Oct 15 2010, 10:16:39 PDT
Author: Danielle Ni Dhighe
Subject: IRSCNA: Costello Commemoration Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

10 October 2010
Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America

Costello Commemoration Statement

The Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America send
revolutionary greetings to our comrades in Ireland on the occasion
of the annual commemoration of the life of Seamus Costello.

As the founder of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and the Irish
National Liberation Army in 1974, Costello was a determined and
forward thinking revolutionary. His goal was a 32 County Socialist
Republic, a Republic of and for the working class, a class undivided
by religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.

Costello stood in the same tradition as James Connolly, the leader of
the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rising of 1916. Like
Connolly, he didn't live to see his vision achieved, but also like
Connolly, he continues to inspire those who carry on the fight to
achieve that vision.

Almost thirty-six years after its founding, the IRSP continues to
uphold Costello's belief that the national liberation struggle and
the class liberation struggle are the same struggle.

The INLA engaged in nearly a quarter century of political armed
struggle before it declared a ceasefire in 1998, and then
decommissioned earlier this year. Setting aside the tactic of armed
struggle based on a sound analysis of current conditions in no way
means that the war for national and class liberation is over. It merely
will take a different form, with the IRSP carrying the struggle forward
through organizing, agitating, and educating.

The Irish Republican Socialist Movement continues to believe that
there is no parliamentary road to socialism, because socialism cannot
be forged by seizing the bourgeois state apparatus; nor is there a
guerrilla road to socialism, because a social revolution requires the
active participation of the masses; and therefore a socialist
republic can only be established through the mass revolutionary
action of the working class in the political, economic, and social
spheres.

After Costello's death, comrades like Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
were moved to say that they felt smaller after his loss. Costello
made an incredible impression on so many activists who were
themselves internationally known partisans for the working class
cause. Thirty-three years after Costello was taken from us by a
counter-revolutionary's bullet, we still feel his loss.

While many things have changed since his death, just as many things
have remained the same. The exploitation and oppression he tried to
overthrow is as pronounced as ever. Capitalism continues to provide
grinding exploitation and misery as its contradictions produce
turmoil for working people.

The form of British rule in Ireland has changed, but not the content.
Britain remains in Ireland to do the bidding of the capitalist class,
suppressing the working class for the rich and privileged. Beneath
the appearance of wealth is the reality of families deprived of homes
and stability. Scarcity is artificially maintained both for profits
and for dividing people along sectarian and ethnic lines.

The Movement that Costello founded as a vehicle for revolutionary
change is his legacy. We are grateful to lend our continued support
as the North American section of the Movement. Let us carry forward
his legacy until we have achieved his dream of a 32 County Socialist
Republic on the island of Ireland.

###

Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America
PO Box 5174
Champaign IL 61825
USA
irscna@irsm.org
http://www.irscna.org/
http://www.irsp.ie/irscna.html

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