Éirígí New Years Statement 2014
Éirígí extends New Year greetings to our members and supporters in Ireland and overseas. We also take the opportunity to offer ongoing solidarity to all who stand against the exploitation and domination of capitalism and imperialism across the Earth.
During the course of 2013 our party members and supporters continued to be targeted by the forces of both the Six and Twenty Six County states. Éirígí offers particular solidarity to all those who were harassed, assaulted, arrested and jailed in pursuit of the struggle for a Democratic Socialist Republic during 2013. As has been the case for centuries past the determination and courage of the individual republican activist remains the greatest strength of our struggle, a human bulwark which has defended the integrity of the Irish Republican movement since the time of Wolfe Tone.
Our comrade Stephen Murney has now been interned in Maghaberry Jail for over a year. He and others have been targeted by the British state because of their political beliefs and their political activism. Éirígí repeats it’s demand for the immediate release of Stephen Murney and all other internees, and again calls for the abolition of the legislation that facilitates the internment of political activists on both sides of the border.
2013 was another challenging year for the Irish working class as the austerity programme of the Leinster House and Stormont regimes heaped further misery upon communities the length and breadth of the country. Unemployment and enforced emigration remained the tools of choice for a ruling class intent on driving down the living and working conditions of workers and their families. As has been the case since 2008 the ruling class have continued to use the current crisis as a pretext to erode benefits and public services that were hard fought for by previous generations of Irish citizens.
In recent months the political establishment has made a concerted effort to convince the nation that the economic situation is improving. The state and corporate media have been used to propagate the fantasy that ‘we have turned the corner’, when in fact the conditions of the working class continue to degrade in both states. And those conditions will continue to deteriorate into the future if the right wing economic hegemony is not effectively challenged by the forces of the left.
In reviewing 2013 Éirígí acknowledges the relative weakness of progressive forces in Ireland and the reality that the ruling class have been able to implement a half decade long programme of austerity with relative ease. The last twelve months have again confirmed that those who were best placed to lead effective resistance to austerity have failed the Irish working class. Instead of building resistance in the workplace and on the streets, the leaderships of the trade unions, the Labour Party and Sinn Féin have instead chosen to accept the diktats of the Troika, Westminster and the international capitalist markets.
In acknowledging the relative weakness of progressive forces in Ireland Éirígí also recognises the very real potential that exists for new political forces and organisations to emerge over the coming years. Despite the shortcomings of the leadership of the trade union movement and the established political parties, grassroots resistance to austerity continues to grow apace. Growing numbers of people across Ireland are coming to the realisation that capitalism is a fundamentally amoral system which inherently favours the interests of the rich and powerful over the rest of the population.
Éirígí’s activists enter 2014 as determined as they have ever been. Fifteen years after the signing of the Good Friday Treaty it is evident that it is no more a stepping stone to a free Ireland than the 1922 Treaty that preceded it. More than five years after the collapse of the private banking system, and all of the promises of change that followed that momentous event, it is clear that the socio-economic status quo remains unchanged. The need for radical change in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres of Irish life grows more pressing with every day.
2014 will see Éirígí continue to build its political campaigns of opposition to British rule in Ireland and to the anti-worker and anti-community policies of the Leinster House and Stormont regimes. We will also continue to engage with other progressive individuals and organisations with a view to identifying areas of common interest and co-operation.
In line with recent internal discussions Éirígí intends to dramatically increase its promotion of the Irish language during 2014. It is our intention to fully integrate the Irish language into the wider struggle for a Democratic Socialist Republic over the coming years.
2014 will also see Éirígí contest the local elections in both the Six and Twenty Six Counties. For the first time in a generation citizens from Antrim to Wexford will have the opportunity to vote for a genuinely revolutionary socialist republican political party. These elections will mark another important milestone in the building of a vibrant twenty-first century Irish socialist republican movement.
Éirígí takes the opportunity of this New Year’s statement to encourage people to take the decision to become politically active in 2014, to join with Éirígí in challenging the British occupation and the corrupt political systems that exist in the Six and Twenty Six Counties. Together we can advance the cause of a new all-Ireland Republic – a Republic which will encourage co-operation not competition between its citizens; a Republic that will genuinely re-establish the sovereignty of the Irish nation; a Republic that will bring the wealth of the nation under the control of the nation; a Republic which will truly cherish all the children of the nation equally.