IRSP: Annual May Day Message

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis

Saturday April 30, 2005 00:36

by IRSP - Irish Republican Socialist Party

dublinirsp at hotmail dot com

PO Box 10081, Dublin 1, IRELAND

0876 320 323

A statement issued by the Ard Comhairle, leadership of the Irish Republican Socialist Party.

IRISH REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST PARTY

28thth March 2005

IRSP: Annual May Day Message

In a statement issued by the leadership of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, a spokesperson for the Ard Comhairle said:

“The leadership of the Irish Republican Socialist Party sends May Day greetings to its friends and supporters worldwide. May Day itself is an opportunity for the working class to celebrate its strengths and the victories achieved by the working class. May day is also an opportunity every year for the world to be reminded that there is a continuous class struggle taking place worldwide.

Here in Ireland we have daily class battles taking place. There is the struggle for union recognition in Ryanair. There is the battle for fair wages for Turkish migrant workers. There are the campaigns against the education cuts in the North and against the privatisation of water and the imposition of water charges. Private interests own half the water supplies of the North’s population. Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in
Europe is owned by a British aristocrat.

Every day there are small class battles taking place in our country. These battles are waged in many cases by small groups of people isolated from the mainstream of trade unionism. The isolation and marginalisation of the workers is in the interests of the employers who exploit division within the class in order to keep wage costs down and profits up. The unity of the workers is hampered by racism, sexism and sectarianism. So long as there are divisions within the working class movement so long will exploitation continue.

But we can learn from the experiences of the working class worldwide. The success of the Cuban revolution and the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela give hope to the workers. The struggles of the poor in the Philippines, in Nepal, in Iraq and all around the world show that Imperialism is not getting its own way. The IRSP sends greeting to all those progressive forces in struggle against Imperialism.

But while we identify with international struggles we do not forget our own struggle against Imperialism. While involved in the day-to-day
struggles of the class the IRSP recognise that the major contradiction in Ireland is the unresolved National question. That is at the heart of the problems facing our class in Ireland. In solving the national question we create the conditions for the withering away of sectarian divisions.

Neither the current round of elections nor the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement will resolve the fundamental contradiction at the heart of Irish society. Only a socialist Ireland can begin to do that. Socialists need to take the leadership of both the class and national questions for neither gas and water socialism- as James Connolly described neither reformism- nor sterile nationalism can bring about a united country or a united working class.

Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains!!

STATEMENT ENDS