Post by Papa C. on Feb 15, 2006 14:35:37 GMT
24 May 2003
Irish Republican Socialist Party
African Liberation Day 2003
Statement from the Irish Republican Socialist Party's International Department
This is the 19th year that representatives of the Irish Republican Socialist Party have joined with the sisters and brothers of the All- African People's Revolutionary Party to commemorate African Liberation Day. The relationship that has been developed between our two organisations has broadened over the years so that in recent times we have joined in celebrating the struggle to liberate Africa with the AAPRP from Sacramento, California to Washington, DC; from Chicago, Illinois to Houston, Texas; and from London, England to Los Angeles, California. Over the years we have built strong ties of solidarity and we have formed personal friendships. We have offered our support when it has been needed and we have received support when we needed it. It is both an honour and a pleasure for us to share our solidarity once again with the revolutionary movements of African people throughout the world.
Many times when we have spoken at African Liberation Day some individuals have been confused by our presence. They note that we are undeniably European and in many minds European and imperialist are synonymous. That leading light of the contemporary struggle for the liberation of the masses of the people of Africa, Kwame Ture, however, was never confused on this subject. The various times that I had the pleasure of hearing Brother Kwame Ture speak, he not once failed to mention the inspiration he drew from the liberation struggle of the Irish people. Kwame recognised that before Europeans attempted settler colonialism in North America or Southern Africa, they first tried out the tactic in Ireland. Kwame knew that before Europeans carried out the kidnapping and forced bondage of millions of Africans in the Western Hemisphere, they first abducted and transported the Irish to work as slaves in the sugar fields of Barbados. He recognised that before the partition of Palestine came the partition of Ireland. He understood that before the apartheid legislation was framed in Azania or the Zionists in Palestine adopted the repressive legislation, they looked to the model of Ireland's Six Counties and the Special Powers Act adopted there. He saw that before neo-colonial regimes sprang like mushrooms on the African continent, a neo-colonial regime in Dublin was selling Ireland's sovereignty even more effectively than had their colonial predecessors.
Ireland has been the testing ground for colonialism and imperialism for almost 850 years. We know a thing or two about oppression and exploitation. It is for that reason that the world's third republican revolution, after the American colonies and France and just before Haiti, took place in Ireland. It is for that reason that Lenin had cause to refer to the Irish Citizen Army of James Connolly and Jim Larkin as "the first Red Army in Europe". It is for that reason that the Irish have given to the vocabularies of the world the word "boycott", why the Irish have given to the world the tactic of the hunger strike and the weapon of the car bomb. We know a thing or two about struggle.
Because we know something about oppression and about liberation struggle, we recognise the struggles being waged for the liberation of Africa as a kindred struggle. Because we are familiar with invasion and occupation as well as resistance and the fight for freedom, we embrace the revolutionaries of Palestine, such as the PFLP, as comrades. Because we have experienced exploitation as well as revolutionary upsurge, in the redistribution of land ongoing in Zimbabwe we recognise justice.
Nomalanga Dalili of the All-African Women's Revolutionary Party Union speaking at the Washington, DC, Irish Hungerstrike Solidarity Commemoration, 2001.
Sisters and brothers, comrades and friends, the Irish Republican Socialist Party applauds the sacrifice and heroism of the African people striving for their own liberation. We offer our sincere and profound solidarity to all those engaged in just struggle for national liberation and socialism in Africa and in the Arab Nation.
We in the Irish Republican Socialist Movement have had our comrades see action side-by-side with revolutionaries in Palestine. Members of our movement fought along side the MPLA in the struggle in Angola. Members of our movement have visited the Libyan Jamahiriya to demonstrate our solidarity with the revolutionary accomplishments there. We are confident in the victory of the many struggles being waged against imperialism and for socialism, just as we are confident that we too shall see victory. No one need wonder why the Irish Republican Socialist Party is represented here today; we are at home here. It is where we belong.
In closing, given the difficult and frightening times in which we presently find ourselves, I would like to offer a quote which gave heart to the great Irish socialist leader James Connolly and was often repeated by him, so that it might strengthen us as we face the challenges of our present struggle.
THE GREAT ONLY APPEAR GREAT BECAUSE WE ARE ON OUR KNEES...LET US ARISE!
Republican Socialist Publicity Bureau 392 Falls Road, Belfast, BT48 6DH, Ireland Tel: 028 90 321024 Fax: 028 90 330786 www.irsm.org/irsm.html
Irish Republican Socialist Party
African Liberation Day 2003
Statement from the Irish Republican Socialist Party's International Department
This is the 19th year that representatives of the Irish Republican Socialist Party have joined with the sisters and brothers of the All- African People's Revolutionary Party to commemorate African Liberation Day. The relationship that has been developed between our two organisations has broadened over the years so that in recent times we have joined in celebrating the struggle to liberate Africa with the AAPRP from Sacramento, California to Washington, DC; from Chicago, Illinois to Houston, Texas; and from London, England to Los Angeles, California. Over the years we have built strong ties of solidarity and we have formed personal friendships. We have offered our support when it has been needed and we have received support when we needed it. It is both an honour and a pleasure for us to share our solidarity once again with the revolutionary movements of African people throughout the world.
Many times when we have spoken at African Liberation Day some individuals have been confused by our presence. They note that we are undeniably European and in many minds European and imperialist are synonymous. That leading light of the contemporary struggle for the liberation of the masses of the people of Africa, Kwame Ture, however, was never confused on this subject. The various times that I had the pleasure of hearing Brother Kwame Ture speak, he not once failed to mention the inspiration he drew from the liberation struggle of the Irish people. Kwame recognised that before Europeans attempted settler colonialism in North America or Southern Africa, they first tried out the tactic in Ireland. Kwame knew that before Europeans carried out the kidnapping and forced bondage of millions of Africans in the Western Hemisphere, they first abducted and transported the Irish to work as slaves in the sugar fields of Barbados. He recognised that before the partition of Palestine came the partition of Ireland. He understood that before the apartheid legislation was framed in Azania or the Zionists in Palestine adopted the repressive legislation, they looked to the model of Ireland's Six Counties and the Special Powers Act adopted there. He saw that before neo-colonial regimes sprang like mushrooms on the African continent, a neo-colonial regime in Dublin was selling Ireland's sovereignty even more effectively than had their colonial predecessors.
Ireland has been the testing ground for colonialism and imperialism for almost 850 years. We know a thing or two about oppression and exploitation. It is for that reason that the world's third republican revolution, after the American colonies and France and just before Haiti, took place in Ireland. It is for that reason that Lenin had cause to refer to the Irish Citizen Army of James Connolly and Jim Larkin as "the first Red Army in Europe". It is for that reason that the Irish have given to the vocabularies of the world the word "boycott", why the Irish have given to the world the tactic of the hunger strike and the weapon of the car bomb. We know a thing or two about struggle.
Because we know something about oppression and about liberation struggle, we recognise the struggles being waged for the liberation of Africa as a kindred struggle. Because we are familiar with invasion and occupation as well as resistance and the fight for freedom, we embrace the revolutionaries of Palestine, such as the PFLP, as comrades. Because we have experienced exploitation as well as revolutionary upsurge, in the redistribution of land ongoing in Zimbabwe we recognise justice.
Nomalanga Dalili of the All-African Women's Revolutionary Party Union speaking at the Washington, DC, Irish Hungerstrike Solidarity Commemoration, 2001.
Sisters and brothers, comrades and friends, the Irish Republican Socialist Party applauds the sacrifice and heroism of the African people striving for their own liberation. We offer our sincere and profound solidarity to all those engaged in just struggle for national liberation and socialism in Africa and in the Arab Nation.
We in the Irish Republican Socialist Movement have had our comrades see action side-by-side with revolutionaries in Palestine. Members of our movement fought along side the MPLA in the struggle in Angola. Members of our movement have visited the Libyan Jamahiriya to demonstrate our solidarity with the revolutionary accomplishments there. We are confident in the victory of the many struggles being waged against imperialism and for socialism, just as we are confident that we too shall see victory. No one need wonder why the Irish Republican Socialist Party is represented here today; we are at home here. It is where we belong.
In closing, given the difficult and frightening times in which we presently find ourselves, I would like to offer a quote which gave heart to the great Irish socialist leader James Connolly and was often repeated by him, so that it might strengthen us as we face the challenges of our present struggle.
THE GREAT ONLY APPEAR GREAT BECAUSE WE ARE ON OUR KNEES...LET US ARISE!
Republican Socialist Publicity Bureau 392 Falls Road, Belfast, BT48 6DH, Ireland Tel: 028 90 321024 Fax: 028 90 330786 www.irsm.org/irsm.html
