Dublin IRSP POW function

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Wednesday December 20, 2006 21:34

by reabhloid dearg

It was a great night had by all, and more importantly a lot of money was raised (over 2000 euro) for the Prisoners dependents. Former INLA POW and member of the Ard Comhairle Gerard Forward from the Short Strand in Belfast gave the main speech. Gerard gave a well received rousing speech as well as a standing ovation. Soon afterwards a representatives of Dublin Brigade INLA read out a speech which included the condeming of those criminal elements (who are not and never where members of the Republican Socialist Movement) who use the name of the INLA to line there pockets. The representative stated that Dublin INLA had a list of names of these parasites and that a number of them had been forcibly warned to desist from there activities or face serious concequences. He stated that members of Dublin INLA were not criminals and that they would not be detered by the "no proof media sensationalists, who operate to a securicrat agenda.

Dublin Brigade INLA.

Speech
Prisoner’s Christmas Function
Dublin, 16th December 2006

Gerard Forward
Ard Comhairle, IRSP

Comrades,

It is an honour to be here this evening to share in this event in aid of all our ex- and currently incarcerated prisoners in British and Irish gaols who have unselfishly given themselves for the Republican Socialist cause, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers for their tremendous effort in hosting this fitting tribute.

The current situation in Ireland has plunged the citizens of this island onto the world stage once again. The eyes of the world are fixed firmly on this tiny and otherwise insignificant island, watching with interest, awe, bewilderment and amusement at the fiasco that is piped onto their television screens day and daily. What is it about Ireland that it continues to make centre stage world wide?

The answer is very simple. It is because it has, and continues to suffer unnecessarily at the hands of the British!

They drove countless millions from this land during the forced starvation of our people in the mid 1800’s. Millions were also starved to death. They have raped our land and its resources, they have plundered our wealth, incarcerated our men and women. They have murdered our families and friends. They have imposed a unionist veto upon the rights of our people and have treated us as second class citizens for generation after generation. They continue to rule us with their monarch, their laws and their landlords. They continue to strangle our resources and our economy. They continue to imprison our comrades, our loved ones and our friends and they continue to hurl insult after insult by calling them criminals.

The struggle for Irish freedom, for the right to organise and establish a 32 county socialist workers republic of Ireland is not criminal. It never has been and it never will be. It is the human right of every Irish man and woman to resist, using whatever means necessary, the forced and illegal British occupation of this land. There can be no compromise to this goal.

Our prisoners are not criminals. They weren’t criminals during the illegal internment of the 40’s, and of the 70’s. They weren’t criminals during the Blanket protest, or the Dirty protest, or the Hunger Strikes of the 80’s. They aren’t criminals now. We will continue to resist every effort by the British to criminalise the struggle for Irish freedom and social independence.

There are some fellow Irishmen who do the bid of the Brits, some republicans who also try to criminalise the determination of the continued struggle of our people. We say to you, shame on you!
The British are not the answer to Ireland’s problem – they are the cause of it! And as long as they remain in our land, they will meet with the same cold determination of the working class people of Ireland that they have met since they first invaded our land.

The ongoing Good Friday Agreement has seen the changed position of the British in the eyes of some republicans. They have embraced the enemy and the Unionist as answers to this problem. They negate the future of the inhabitants of this island with those who created the mess in the first place. They unashamedly stand in their arrogance and claim to be the vanguard of Republicanism. They claim to be able to bring peace to this land, to be the champions of equality and justice – yet they discredit those republicans who choose not to accept their policies or strategies.
This is not republicanism – it is elitism!

Our people are being sold the British as being legitimate mediators between warring communities, Catholic against Protestant, Loyalist against Republican and Nationalist against Unionist. This is a lie. This is a deception of the British, and one that they sell well. To accept and endorse the Good Friday Agreement is to accept this lie and distortion of the truth. To accept the GFA is the surrender of Republicanism – not the way to a 32 County Socialist Republic. It has copper fastened partition, heightened sectarianism and splintered Republicanism. The moderate leadership within Unionism that was required by Sinn Fein to make the GFA a success in their eyes, that was evident within the UUP, was destroyed.

The DUP who were once finished, have been negotiated to the place of majority within Unionism. They have been unified and are now the strongest party within the GFA, countering the claims of some republicans that they have decimated Unionism and their veto. Rather, Paisley and his cohorts now extract concession after concession required from Sinn Fein. This is a far call from the position of strength that PSF propaganda would declare they are in.

The latest of these concessions and requirements of the DUP as a pre-condition is the acceptance of the PSNI by Sinn Fein.
Let us be very clear. The PSNI are there to implement British Parliamentarian law. They will continue to protect the interests of their masters, their property and their investments. They are the same the world over. They protect land and investment before the worker.

No Police Force who is biased against the working class in the conduct of their duties can ever be accepted by any Republican Socialist worth their salt. They are an extension of the State, the armed wing of the enemy, and must be treated as such.

Comrades, allow me to say this before I close;
We in the RSM do not accept the offers or the proposals of the British. We do not accept their police force, regardless of uniform, name or otherwise. To do so would be to recognise the right of the British to rule in part of this island.

Our demands are simple. They cannot be compromised.
We demand the complete withdrawal of the British from this land, both militarily and economically, and we warn you, until that day, if you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you!
We defy you!
Do your worst!