11 April 2004
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) Easter Commemoration Speech
2) Statement on Behalf of Republican Socialist POWs
3) FIRSCA Easter Message
4) James Connolly -- Irish Socialist
5) Letters
6) What's On?
*******
Easter Commemoration Speech on Behalf of the Republican Socialist
Movement, Milltown Cemetery, Belfast -- 11 April 2004
Once more we gather to pay homage to those who died in the struggle
for an Irish Republic. We honour all those who, since the emergence
of Irish Republicanism at the end of the 18th century, fought and
died in the struggle for national independence and freedom. We
remember also with pride the many thousands, nay hundreds of
thousands of people, who contributed in many small ways to aid the
struggle.
We also remember that this Easter is the 88th since the 1916 Easter
uprising, an uprising for national independence against an
imperialist power fighting an imperialist war. The failure of that
uprising and the subsequent failure of the war of independence to
achieve liberation led to, in the words of James Connolly,
republican, socialist, Marxist, and a leader of the 1916 uprising, "a
carnival of reaction."
Still today despite a heroic struggle over the past 35 years by
republicans we have still failed to realise the vision of Connolly --
the socialist republic. And like in Connolly's time we have an
imperialist war being waged by the USA/Brit coalition forces, in
Iraq. Imperialism is still the enemy.
Today as we stand here by the graves of those of our comrades from
both the IRSP and the INLA who fell in the struggle we remember them
not as heroes or martyrs but as ordinary men and women who lived in
extraordinary times and rose to the challenge of those times.
Let us be clear about what the armed struggle was about from the
perspective of this movement -- it was neither to achieve
equality nor to achieve civil rights. The INLA took up arms, and all
the comrades who died on hunger strike, in action, or by
assassination, took up arms to achieve a Republic that cherished all
the children of the nation equally. We rejected living under British
and unionist rule for that rule was unjust, discriminatory,
arbitrary, despotic, and imperialistic.
But times change and the strategy and tactics of republicans have to
change as well. We in the Republican Socialist Movement have accepted
the need to modify our tactics to meet the changed times we live in.
We have embarked on a process of politicisation both internally and
externally to encourage people to take responsibility for their own
community. We see that as part of the process of empowering the
working class to begin to take control of the state and begin the
task of building a socialist society.
Here is the challenge facing us. As political activists we must re-
think strategically, debate strategically, and decide what is best
for our party, for the cause we represent, and most importantly for
the people we represent. We recognise that members of our movement
have made mistakes and our organisation has made mistakes in the
past. No doubt we will make mistakes in the future.
But our analysis of the peace process, or as some prefer to call it
the pacification programme, and the Good Friday Agreement, has been
and continues to be spot on. Every thing that has happened since 1998
has justified our position. Six years on from the GFA, British
soldiers are on the streets, the British intelligence services
continue to cover up past killings, street clashes continue,
loyalists continue to target Catholics, and justice is denied. Dessie
O'Hare is still a political prisoner as the Free Staters renege on
their own Good Friday Agreement. Republican prisoners in Maghaberry
are denied recognition of their political status. Something which was
won by the deaths of the ten republican hunger strikers was
negotiated away by other republicans for the price of seats in an
internal Stormont Executive.
The gap between rich and poor widens. Working class communities
disintegrate, besieged by poor health, anti-social behaviour, debt,
and despair. Homelessness has reached crisis point. The education
system is failing large sections of our youth. Attacks on minorities
are on the increase. Did our comrades buried here today die for this?
Everyday around us we see the inequality, the poverty, the wrecked
lives, the disintegration of whole working class communities. Where
there once was solidarity, collectivism, co-operation, and community
support now there is individualism, selfishness, greed, and a
widespread drug dependency culture. Consumerism is the new god and we
now have a generation growing up inculcated with the worst values of
capitalism.
The one hundred wealthiest Irish people's combined fortune is worth
23 billion Euros. The ten richest people in Ireland are each sitting
on an average fortune of 800 million Euros. For most of us here it
would take us at least 30,000 years to save that if we banked our
complete wages every week.
The Flood and Moriarty Tribunals have shown the extent of the
corruption of political life in the 26 counties. Not a week passes
without some new revelation about the corrupting influence of money
in Irish political life. Leinster House is, in the words of Karl
Marx, "nothing but a committee for managing the common affairs of the
whole bourgeoisie."
In Britain, New Labour grovels to big business. Blair and Brown no
longer make any pretence to be socialist and rarely mention
inequality while they socialise with the business classes. Lobbyists
and pressure groups push their cases for reduced taxation,
regulation, or planning restrictions, while multinational firms
hardly need to make the point that if they are not granted special
terms they can take their money out of Britain and Ireland. Even our
little local farce of a Stormont had its lobbyists cajoling
influencing and corrupting our Assembly members when they had their
little bit of power. The rich may not govern, but they still reign
both in Ireland and Britain. The capitalist class owes its allegiance
only to its money and self-interest.
Community workers and activists in working class communities north
and south are doing heroic work to try and empower local people to
resist the worst ravages of capitalism, but in order for the working
class to be mobilised into struggle in support of its own class
interests, class-consciousness must be raised and the shackles
imposed by capitalists must be cast off.
It is our primary concern to mobilise the working class towards the
revolutionary transformation of society and the sooner every one of
us here today takes on responsibility to make a difference to our
society the better. No one should stand idly by while racism,
injustice, poverty, exploitation, and sectarianism predominate.
The Brits have lied, prevaricated, and twisted and turned every which
way but loose. Does anyone here today seriously believe one word of
Blair's or indeed of Paul Murphy, his local governor? Trimble has by
his appalling comments on Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson bared
naked the racist sectarian hatred of the unionist middle classes for
nationalists. Attempts to reform the Northern state that are based on
the continuation of British sovereignty are doomed to failure.
It always was and still is a failed political entity and we believe
that the smashing of the Northern state will be in the interests of
all of the Northern people whether they describe themselves as
unionist, nationalist, or other. The conflict here was not one
between two mutually hostile sectarian communities as the Brits like
the world to think.
Those who would seek to challenge the continuation of sectarianism in
the six counties need to challenge those guilty of sectarianism, not
those of us in the republican socialist tradition who recognise the
existence of a British working class within Ireland with a distinct
history and culture. We welcome with open arms members of any ethnic
community who share our perspective that the class struggle and
national liberation struggle are inseparable within the Irish
context. And can we say to the ethnic minorities in Ireland that we
utterly condemn and oppose the proposed referendum in the South of
Ireland as a cynical racist ploy by unscrupulous politicians playing
the race card.
Sometimes there is confusion of what constitutes "the national
liberation struggle." Our struggle for socialism is part of an
international struggle. We support all those struggling against
imperialism worldwide. We salute the freedom fighters of Iraq and
call for the defeat of the British and American forces.
However unlike some of the so-called socialists gathered around the
Eamonn McCann European Election Machine, we are consistently anti-
imperialists. We believe that there is an imperialist presence in
Ireland and as republicans our comrades, whom we honour here today,
fought and died opposing that imperialism. They did not die for a
nationalist Ireland. They died for the liberation of all the working
class from reactionary ideologies and for the establishment of a
Workers' Republic.
It is within the context of the nation-state that the socialist
revolution will start. To achieve that revolution we must win the
support of the mass of the population. We as the Republican Socialist
Movement cannot on our own create the Republic. It can only be done
by the support, participation, and enthusiasm of the majority of
people on the island. That, comrades, is what the national struggle
is about.
Last year in a statement the leadership of the INLA said, "We have
encouraged our membership and supporters to become actively involved
in the day-to-day struggles of ordinary people. Such political
involvement is following the example of our founder Seamus Costello.
A revolutionary army without a clear base of political understanding
and activity is no longer a revolutionary army."
Note that last sentence, comrades. No revolutionary movement can last
without clear politics and based on a correct appreciation of the
needs of the people. Ta Power used the phrase "the primacy of
politics." That must be our watchword today, the primacy of politics.
Our function as a movement is to give leadership and to empower the
working class to achieve its own liberation. If that is not what we
are about then we may as well pack up and support the Good Friday
Agreement, join Sinn Fein or the Labour Party or some other party
that accepts and works for the status quo.
It is easy to be critical of others. But there is a responsibility on
us to make ourselves relevant both to the short term and long term
needs of the working class in Ireland. It is not enough to turn up
once a year at a commemoration, salute dead comrades, and think that
is enough. It is not, nor is turning up for demonstrations, chanting
a few slogans, shaking clenched fists at the police, and retiring to
the pub thinking you have struck a blow for the revolution. That,
comrades, is frankly bullshit.
If that is what any of you gathered here today are about then walk
away from the struggle now. You do neither yourselves nor the working
class any good.
Serious followers of Connolly, Costello, Power, and Gallagher are in
this struggle for the long haul. They will be there on the picket
lines, in the community halls, at trade union meetings, wherever
there is a struggle for the rights of the ordinary man and women then
that is where the serious followers of our founders will be. They
will be at the barricade, they will be behind the word processor,
they will like today commemorating but then the next day will be
agitating, educating, leafleting, and liberating. Comrades, there is
no finer calling in this world than to stand shoulder to shoulder
with the victims of oppression, with the marginalised, and with the
poor.
On to the Republic -- On to Socialism!!
*******
Statement on Behalf of Republican Socialist POWs
Today we remember with honour and pride our fallen comrades who made
the ultimate sacrifice in giving their lives for Irish liberation and
the cause of socialism. Our thoughts are with them and their families
and loved ones. We take the opportunity to send solidarity greetings
to all our supporters, comrades and friends on the outside,
especially to the POW Department, TNF, and to the IRSP for the
tireless work and steadfast commitment you have shown in support of
the Republican Socialist prisoners in Portlaoise and Castlerea.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere
gratitude to Mr Eddie McGarrigle TNF for your unselfish commitment,
tireless work, and devotion to the cause you serve with distinction,
we salute and applaud you, for you are an inspiration to us all. To
our support groups in Britain, Europe, and North America, your work
makes Ireland's revolutionary struggle possible. To the working class
communities from where we draw our support among the unemployed,
marginalised, and disenfranchised, we salute you for your pain is our
pain, your anger is our anger, your struggle is our struggle, and
your freedom will be our freedom.
We salute the leadership of the Republican Socialist Movement in its
endeavours not only to raise the profile of the IRSP, which it has
done with relative success, but to show that we have a distinct brand
of politics. We welcome the programme of politicisation of the
membership of the IRSM both internally and externally.
We as Republican Socialist Prisoners due to the close proximity to
other Republican Prisoners within the confines of our imprisonment
enjoy a fraternal relationship built on mutual respect and
understanding for one another, we engage in political debate and
dialogue in a climate of comradeship and appreciation of one's
political affiliation. For years the IRSP has called for broad based
forums that are representative of all shades of republicanism. We
call on the IRSP to redouble their efforts to break down barriers for
it is amazing how open dialogue based on an equal footing can
dissolve any ill founded perceptions of one another.
Our movement has made many advances over the past few years due to
the discipline and unity of purpose displayed by all comrades. We
have moved into a new era. The primacy of politics prevails and our
movement is becoming stronger. The attempts to marginalise our
movement have been resisted. As Republican Socialists we can look to
the future with confidence in the knowledge that our politics are
correct and the confidence that comes from belonging to a dynamic,
growing movement is evident.
Remember the words of the 1916 leader James Connolly when he
said, "If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green
flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the
Socialist Republic, your efforts would be in vain. England would
still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through
her landlords, through her financiers, through her array of
commercial and industrial institutions she has planted in this
country..."
Comrades, friends, relatives of our martyred dead, as we walk away
from this graveyard ponder not on the dead but on the living. No one
can predict the future. But if everyone here played just a small role
in fighting injustice and oppression then the dawning of a new day in
political life in Ireland would be that much closer.
Onward to Victory!
*******
Federation of Irish Republican Socialist Committees Abroad
Easter Message
Comrades and friends:
The members of the Federation of Irish Republican Socialist Committees
Abroad send greetings of solidarity to the comrades of the Irish
Republican Socialist Party, the volunteers of the Irish National
Liberation Army, and the prisoners of war of the Irish Republican
Socialist Movement.
At Easter we are mindful of the martyrs who have fallen in pursuit of
national liberation and socialism in Ireland, and so we cannot avoid
sadness in reflecting on the loss suffered by our struggle through
their deaths and the sorrow of their comrades, families, friends, and
loved ones. However, we choose not to dwell on this loss, but instead
to take renewed inspiration from their example.
These are exciting times to be an Irish Republican Socialist. Our
movement has grown in size, strength, and influence. This growth is
reflected in the expanded support for the IRSM internationally, with
new chapters established in North America and Europe and new
supporters continuously being gathered in Australia, New Zealand,
Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It has also been reflected in the
IRSP's participation in the Anti-Imperialist Camp, a republican
socialist event in Wales, African Liberation Day events, and the
Black Cross political prisoners conference in the United States last
year; as well as providing a speaker at an event associated with the
recent conference of the Scottish Socialist Party just last month. It
has also been reflected in the IRSP's increased participation in
events opposing the use of Shannon Airport by US military aircraft,
the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and through the expanding of
international relations with revolutionary socialist and anti-
imperialist organisations throughout the world.
We applaud the IRSP's preparation for a series of new and vigorous
campaigns that will provide a model for revolutionary struggle for the
whole of the Irish working class. We are proud that the IRSP has
reasserted its commitment to a revolutionary course and rejected the
siren song of reformism that has caused the downfall of so many
revolutionary organisations in Ireland in the past. The members of
FIRSCA, your comrades abroad, renew our own commitment to supporting
the IRSP in upholding a revolutionary tradition in its struggle for
national liberation and socialism in Ireland.
Nothing less than a 32-county Irish workers' republic will serve as a
fitting tribute to the sacrifice of our movement's martyrs and to all
those who have died, suffered incarceration, and endured repression
and abuse in pursuit of the self-liberation of the working people of
Ireland. It is our pledge to continue our own efforts to make
attaining this goal a reality.
It is the working class that has plowed the soil, built the cities,
dug the mines, erected the factories, laid the roads, navigated the
seas, in short created all of the wealth of society today. It is
we, the working class, who enable every wheel to turn, every obstacle
to be surmounted, every advance to be made. It is long past due that
we should claim for our own these things we ourselves have created.
It is long past time that we should be the authors of our own destiny.
Forward to the Workers' Republic, comrades!
*******
James Connolly -- Irish Socialist
The following taken from the web site "Arguments for a Workers'
Republic"
amid all the commemorations of the Easter Rising it is sometimes
forgotten just what a towering figure James Connolly was. The
following gives a flavour of the man.
[From Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, "The Rebel Girl," International
Publishers NY, 1979]
In 1907, During the campaign to free Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone, I
was invited to speak at a meeting, in Newark, New Jersey, arranged by
the Socialist Labor Party. There was protest against my acceptance by
the New Jersey Socialist Party, which had either not been invited to
participate or had refused. I felt I should go anywhere to speak for
this purpose. Our rostrum was an old wagon, set up in Washington
Park. The horse was inclined to run when there was loud applause, so
he was taken out of the wagon shafts. This meeting is an
unforgettable event in my life because it was here I first met James
Connolly, the Irish Socialist speaker, writer and labor organizer who
gave his life for Irish freedom nine years later in the Easter Week
Uprising of 1916 in Dublin.
At the time I refer to he worked for the Singer Sewing Machine
Company of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and had a hard struggle to support
his wife and six small children. He lost his job when he tried to
organize a union in the plant. He was short, rather stout, a plain-
looking man with a large black moustache, a very high forehead and
dark sad eyes, a man who rarely smiled. A scholar and an excellent
writer, his speech was marred for American audiences by his thick,
North of Ireland accent, with a Scotch burr from his long residence
in Glasgow. On the Washington Park occasion someone spilled a bottle
of water in his hat, the only one he possessed undoubtedly, and with
a wry expression on his face he shook it out and dried it, but made
no complaint.
Connolly and I spoke again in 1907 at an Italian Socialist meeting
early one Sunday morning. I wondered then why they arranged their
meetings at such an odd hour but discovered it was a substitute for
church among these rabid anticlericals, and happily did not interfere
with their sacred ritual of the big spaghetti and vino dinner later
on. I asked Connolly: 'Who will speak in Italian?' He smiled his rare
smile and replied, 'We'll see. Someone, surely.' After we had both
spoken, they took a recess and gave us coffee and cake behind the
scenes, a novel but welcome experience for us. Stale water was the
most we got elsewhere! Then we returned to the platform and Connolly
arose. He spoke beautifully in Italian to my amazement and the
delight of the audience who 'viva'd' loudly.
Later he moved his family to Elton Avenue in the Bronx and the
younger children of our families played together. Once, Patrick Quin-
lan, a family friend who had left a bookcase with a glass door at
Connolly's house, was horrified to find all the books on the floor
and the Flynn-Connolly children playing funeral, with one child
beautifully laid out in the bookcase. 'Who's dead?' Connolly
asked. 'Quinlan,' they replied serenely. Needless to say, the
children did not like Quinlan.
Connolly worked for the IWW and had an office at Cooper Square. He
was a splendid organizer, as his later work for the Irish Transport
Workers, with James Larkin, demonstrated. Although the Socialist
Labor Party had invited him here in 1902 on a lecture tour and he was
elected a member of their National Executive Committee, there was
obvious jealousy displayed against him by their leader, Daniel De
Leon, who could brook no opposition. Connolly had been one of the
founders in 1896 of the Irish Socialist Republican Party in Dublin
and editor of its organ. Connolly's position that the Irish Socialist
Party represented a separate nation from Britain was recognised by
the International Socialist Congress in 1900, and the Irish delegates
were allowed to take their seats as such.
When membership in the SLP became impossible for him here, he joined
the Socialist Party and toured the country under its auspices.
Connolly was the first person I ever heard use the
expression, 'Workers' Republic'; in fact, he is called by one
biographer, 'the Irish apostle of the Soviet idea,' though none of us
ever heard the word in those days. (Only later did I learn that
Soviets first arose in the Russian Revolution of 1905.)
He felt keenly that not enough understanding and sympathy was shown
by American Socialists for the cause of Ireland's national
liberation, that the Irish workers here were too readily abandoned by
the Socialists as 'reactionaries' and that there was not sufficient
effort made to bring the message of socialism to the Irish-American
workers. In 1907 George B. McClellan, Mayor of New York City, made a
speech in which he said: 'There are Russian Socialists and Jewish
Socialists and German Socialists! But, thank God! there are no Irish
Socialists!' This was a challenge to Connolly, my father and a host
of others with good Irish names, members of both the Socialist
parties. They banded together as the Irish Socialist Club, later
known as the Irish Socialist Federation. James Connolly was chairman
and my sister Katherine was secretary. She was then 15 years old.
Connolly was strong for encouraging 'the young people.'
The Irish Socialist Federation caused great protest among the other
existing federations. The others insisted we didn't need a federation
because we weren't foreign-speaking. We wanted a banner we could
fight under. The Unity Club required us to be too placating, too
peaceful. The Federation was born one Sunday afternoon at our house
in the Bronx. Connolly, Quinlan, O'Shaughnessy, Cooke, Cody, Daly,
Ray, all the Flynns, were there; also our faithful Jewish friend, Sam
Stodel, who was sympathetic to our proposal. But we excluded him as
we feared ridicule if we included a Jew.
He went into the kitchen and said to my mother: 'Have you any-thing
for this bunch to eat?' She confessed she had not, so he went around
the corner and bought ham, cheese, corned beef, beer, crackers, etc.,
to feed the doughty Irish when their session was over. Nourished by
Sam, we went forth to battle. The Federation arranged street meetings
to show that Mayor McClellan was an ignoramus and a liar, especially
in Irish neighbourhoods where such meetings had never been held. It
had a large green and white banner, announcing who and what it was,
with the Gaelic slogan, Faugh-a-Balach (Clear the Way) in big letters
surrounded by harps and shamrocks. The meetings were stormy but
finally accepted at many corners. A German blacksmith comrade built
the Federation a sturdy platform that could not easily be upset, with
iron detachable legs that could be used as 'shillelaghs' in an
emergency. These helped to establish order at the meetings, and won a
wholesome respect for the Federation.
The Federation issued a statement of its purposes (written by James
Connolly): 'To assist the revolutionary working class movement in
Ireland by a dissemination of its literature; to educate the working
class Irish of this country into a knowledge of Socialist principles
and to prepare them to cooperate with the workers of all other races,
colours, and nationalities in the emancipation of labor.' James
Connolly wrote one book, Labour in Irish History, one play and many
pamphlets. His extensive writings were spread out over many years in
various workers' papers and magazines.
He published a monthly magazine, The Harp. Many poems from his own
pen appeared. It was a pathetic sight to see him standing, poorly
clad, at the door of Cooper Union or some other East Side hall,
selling his little paper. None of the prosperous professional Irish,
who shouted their admiration for him after his death, lent him a
helping hand at that time. Jim Connolly was anathema to them because
he was a 'Socialist.'
He had no false pride and encouraged others to do these Jimmy Higgins
tasks by setting an example. At the street meetings he persuaded
those who had no experience in speaking to 'chair the meeting' as a
method of training them. Connolly had a rare skill, born of vast
knowledge, in approaching the Irish workers. He spoke the truth
sharply and forcefully when necessary, as in the following from The
Harp of November 1900:
'To the average non-Socialist Irishman the idea of belonging to an
international political party is unthinkable, is obnoxious, and he
feels that if he did, all the roots of his Irish nature would be dug
up. Of course, he generally belongs to a church -- the Roman
Catholic Church -- which is the most international institution in
existence. That does not occur to him as atrocious, in fact he is
rather proud than otherwise that the Church is spread throughout the
entire world, that it overleaps the barriers of civilisation,
penetrating into the depths of savagedom, and ignores all
considerations of race, colour or nationality. . . . But although he
would lay down his life for a Church which he boasts of as 'Catholic'
or universal, he turns with a shudder from an economic or political
movement which has the same characteristics.'
Connolly published The Harp here as the official organ of the Irish
Socialist Federation, and moved it to Dublin in 1910.
*******
Letters
The Irish News of Friday March 26th in its "Platform series carried
an article by the deputy leader of the Social and Democratic Labour
Party, Alisdair McDonnell. If this is what passes for leadership,
well then, God help us all!!! Obviously Alisdair has been trained in
the George Bush/Tony Blair school of politics -- don't let the facts
get in the way of a good spin.
Twice the Deputy leader of the SDLP got his facts clearly wrong.
Quote 1- "The events in Ardoyne since the new year where more than a
dozen despairing teenagers have committed suicide"
Quote 2-"When the world outside got the message it was already too
late with 13 suicides in six weeks. And as the bodies of teenage
suicide victims stacked up, local Provos blamed everyone but
themselves"
I am emphatically no apologist for the Provos but it certainly sticks
in one's throat to see a so-called respectable politician using the
tragic deaths of two young Ardoyne men as a stick to beat his
political opponents.
The fact is that there were only two suicides in the Ardoyne for the
period mentioned by McDonnell. There were 13 suicides in the wider
North Belfast area. North Belfast covers a huge area and has about 10
times the population of Ardoyne. It would be interesting to see
comparable figures of suicides for other areas in the same period.
Only recently in one week there were three suicides in one area of
Belfast but thankfully no one has tried to make political capital out
of them.
Gerry Ruddy
*******
What's On?
Mayday No Borders
Dublin Grassroots Network - Mayday No Borders weekend line-up of
events
For more information, downloadable flyers, and contact details please
visit the website at http://www.geocities.com/eufortress/
Friday April 30th
CRITICAL MASS began in San Francisco in 1992 and has since spread
around the world. Join us for this celebration of non-motorised
transport, as we take a leisurely tour of the city streets, on bikes,
skateboards, pogo sticks, or just on foot.
Saturday May 1st (daytime)
BORDER CONTROLS STREET THEATRE: Welcome to the official day of the
new Fortress Europe. Warning: You may be subject to stops by one of
the Dublin Grassroots Police Network who will be patrolling the city
in the morning. Experience the full reality of Fortress Europe with
ID & background checks, verbal harassment, intimidation, and possible
imprisonment without trial if you do not measure up to the strict
criteria.
BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS: During the war on Iraq, many private and state
businesses supported the transport of murderous arms and US troops
through Shannon Airport in Ireland. This action will make the public
aware of who they are by painting the streets and footpaths around
their premises in blood red colour. No war should ever be supported
for profit.
WELCOME THE BOAT PEOPLE: Many asylum seekers and refugees attempting
to breach the Fortress Europe barrier do so in boats and ships. Upon
detection, they are often sent back to their country of origin. This
time however, the people arriving by boat will be welcomed. No human
being is illegal - everyone should be free to travel and live where
they want without fear of persecution.
HOMES NOT JAILS: Dublin expands, swallowing up the countryside. Rents
skyrocket and house prices are beyond the reach of many with average
incomes. The number of homeless people sleeping on the streets rises
every year without any action by the State. Yet all around the city
are derelict buildings, crumbling into the ground. This action aims
to highlight this appalling situation by occupying one of these
buildings and transforming it into a living space.
PUBLIC BEATINGS STREET THEATRE: Europe is reverting to old-style
policing and jailing policies. Rather than look at what causes crime
and dealing with problems in society, the State increasingly utilises
prisons (often in terrible unsanitary condition) as a way of sweeping
the issues under the carpet. How long before the stocks and gallows
make a return? Today's the day. Come along and watch true medieval
punishment methods.
THE POLLUTER PAYS: The message during the recent anti bin tax
campaign was to tax the polluter. Is the public responsible for waste
when companies release their products in layers of unnecessary
packaging? How much waste is produced by heavy industry that is not
recycled? These actions will be encouraging everyone to bring their
recyclable packaging back to the businesses that produce it.
RECLAIM THE CITY: The idea of the "common or public space is rapidly
disappearing from the city, as rich and powerful individuals claim it
for private personal use. This action will temporarily reclaim a part
of private land, and open it to the public for a picnic and games in
the May sunshine.
Saturday May 1st (evening)
BRING THE NOISE! The EU Ministers dine in the opulence of Farmleigh
House on Saturday evening at the expense of the Irish taxpayer. We
intend to march to their doorstep and disrupt their dinner, to show
them that we do not agree with their vision of Fortress Europe! Bring
pots and pans, bells and whistles, horns and drums to generate the
biggest noise possible. May 1st is historically a day for the
ordinary people's wishes to be heard. They have chosen to ignore us
but they cannot keep it up if we scream and shout.
Sunday May 2nd
NO BORDERS, NO NATIONS - NO BORDER CAMP: Join us as we set up a No
Border camp on the 2nd day of the new Fortress Europe. We are not
against the new ascension states citizens coming to Ireland - we
think all refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants should be allowed
to travel here, regardless of origin, ethnicity, or background. The
No Border camp will be open to everyone. Activities will include
workshops, discussions, teach-ins, planning for the future, as well
as music and food.
Monday May 3rd
NO BORDERS RECLAIM THE STREETS: The only party worth joining in town!
Reclaim The Streets happens again on the May bank holiday to wind
down the weekend. Unlike the State's street party, everyone from
around the world is welcome to come to Dublin for this, not just
those that satisfy the demands of Fortress Europe. Expect music and
dancing, drinking and face painting, a day for all to come and enjoy
a vision of the Europe that we really want.
*******
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