Easter Statement from Irish Republican Leadership Mon, 24 Apr 2000 06:24:27 -0400 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Easter Statement from the Leadership of the Republican Movement April 22, 2000 On the 84th anniversary of the historic Easter Rising of 1916, the Leadership of the Republican Movement sends greetings to all who are gathered in commemoration at the graves of our Republican dead, or at monuments to their memory, and to everyone who assembles in Ireland or in exile faithful to and in support of the ideals of 1916. People the world over have been shown clearly in recent times that it is the British government which is in charge in Ireland. What the Irish people want counts for nothing as Westminster once more upholds the Unionist Veto, rebuffs the Dublin Administration and Stormont collapses for the fifth time. The Stormont Agreement of two years ago has not worked nor indeed has any artificial means succeeded in stabilising British rule in an artificial area of Six Counties carved out of Ireland. The shameful surrender of arms agreed to in 1998 has not taken place to date only because people on the ground so far reject such a treacherous course of action. The alternative lies in rejecting British rule and the Unionist Veto. People must be mobilised and organised, not to bring back Stormont, but to end English colonisation and imperialism in Ireland. A new four-province Federal Ireland with a nine-county Ulster is the answer, with Republican, democratic socialist, environmental and self-reliance policies. The recent action by Republican Sinn Fiin in opening a political office on the Falls Road in the heart of west Belfast is a significant move forward and is to be commended. Funds are, of course, urgently needed to finance such a development. We note that during the past year the Continuity IRA has maintained resistance to British occupation. Its press statements indicate clearly that it stands on its own feet and rejects allegations of alliances with other bodies not fully committed to the revolutionary road forward. The Continuity IRA asserts that it is the true inheritor of Irish Republicanism – directly from Easter Week 1916. For its part, the Irish Freedom Committee/Cumann na Saoirse in the United States has reorganised itself. Its tasks are to support the prisoners for which CABHAIR (the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Dependants Fund) is responsible and to generate publicity in support of Irish national independence. We send greetings to Irish political prisoners in Portlaoise and elsewhere who stand by the All-Ireland Republic. For them there will be no conditional release on British licence this summer and their need for support will be ongoing. In particular we salute the Republican prisoners in Maghaberry, Co Antrim and Josephine Hayden -- the only woman political prisoner in Ireland -- who are enduring the grim ordeal of being denied political status. In conclusion we call for support for our analysis and our solutions to the ongoing struggle for Irish freedom. In keeping with the position of the men and women of Easter 1916 there is no middle ground between British aggression and Irish resistance. A stark choice must be made between revolutionary Republicanism and constitutional nationalism. The latter inevitable results in absorption into the British system and collaboration with foreign rule. At the dawn of the new millennium true Irish Republicans adhere to the ideals of 1916 and on that basis renew their appeal to the idealism and generosity of spirit of the youth. Your place is in the Republican Movement which is in direct line of succession to 1916. Forward then with the struggle for Irish freedom as part of the liberation of all humankind! Issued by the Leadership of the Republican Movement, Easter 2000 Republican Sinn Fein: http://come.to/RepublicanSF SAOIRSE Online: http://saoirse.rr.nu Head Office: 223 Parnell St, Dublin 1, Ireland Tel: 872 9747 Fax: 872 9757 e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-04.24.00-06:24:26-21699