IRSP on African Liberation Day Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - IRSP Irish Republican Socialist Party Statement for African Liberation Day 2002 Sisters and Brothers, Africans: It is my great honor to bring you greetings of solidarity from the Irish Republican Socialist Party for this celebration of African Liberation Day. We would like to give thanks to the indigenous people of this land for its use to bring you these remarks, for providing us with a resting place in our diaspora. We also thank the All-African People's Revolutionary Party for having invited us here today. They have long been a dependable ally of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement and we are proud to express our solidarity with them and to stand with them in opposition to our shared enemies. We would be remiss, if we did not seize this opportunity to also express our profound solidarity with the struggling people of Palestine, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who continue to provide the best leadership available to the Palestinians. We applaud the PFLP having suspended their participation with the remainder of the PLO in the face of the latter's commitment to the failed Olso Accords and the cooperation of Yasser Arafat's Fatah with the Zionists by arresting members of the PFLP's leadership for participating in the just struggle against Zionist occupation and terror. The themes of this year's celebrations of African Liberation Day stress the need for organisation and opposition to the combined oppression brought about through capitalism, imperialism, Zionism, and Neo-Colonialism. Ireland has had long experience with these forms of oppression. Ireland, in fact, has been the testing ground for each development in the history of colonialism and imperialism, going back to the 12th century. Before the settler colonial experiments were carried out by European colonial powers in Jamestown or Capetown, Ireland was subjected to the Plantation of Ulster, with the mass relocation of the indigenous Irish people off their lands, displaced by British colonists, to test the viability of this tactic. Before Britain brought millions of women and men from Africa in the shackles of slavery, to labour under the lash in the plantations of the Western Hemisphere, the people of Irelandfollowing the Cromwellian invasionwere enslaved by the tens of thousands, shipped in chains to Barbados, and used as chattel slaves to work in the cane fields, at times, side-by-side with the daughters and sons of Africa, up until near the end 17th century. Before the close of the 18th century, Britain had seized upon the idea of fostering religious sectarianism and racism as means of dividing the colonised people of Ireland. They sought to create and exploit divisions within the masses of the people. This gave them an effective weapon against these forces unifying on the basis of their shared concerns. This is a tactic which they continue to exploit effectively, shattering unity among those who have the most in common. Before religious sectarianism was used to divide the peoples of India and Pakistan, Palestine, and Lebanon, it was used to drive a wedge between sections of the workers and peasants of Ireland. Before the partitioning of Palestine, Cyprus, or Yemen, Ireland was divided into two partsone of which was designed to ensure the descendants of the original settler colonialists would be an artificial majority, but with sufficient numbers to leverage the greatest amount of Ireland's territory for Britain. The people of Ireland were driven into a diaspora much like the people of Africa or Palestine, and like those peoples, the Irish were subjected to racist oppression. It may surprise many of you here todayand it will certainly come as a surprise to those Irish Americans who have abandoned their native culture for the corned beef-eating, green beer-swilling stereotypes seen too often todaythat it was only a few decades ago that the Irish in America were not considered 'white'. It may be hard to believe, when one thinks of racist Irish American cops that abound today that even in a city such as Boston, with its huge Irish population, that less than a century ago it was common to see signs hung on shop doors reading "No Dogs Or Irish," but it remains true. Yes, tiny Ireland, nestled in the imperialist breeding ground of Europe, has been the testing ground for every form of exploitation and oppression that were later used against the other nations of this planet. And in response to these new forms of exploitation, the Irish people have organised and risen in struggle. It is that commitment to struggle, that insistence on national liberation and social justice, that brings us here today to express our solidarity with African people. Your struggle is our struggle and our freedom cannot be won while you remain oppressed. Our enemies are the same and they long ago learned to collaborate in exploiting us for their mutual benefit. We too must learn that only through mutual supportthrough the bonds of solidaritycan we achieve a final victory over the forces of capitalism and imperialism. We the people who create all of the wealth in the world and who share in virtually none of it; we the working people of the world, must support oneanother, because only we can be trusted to share each other's vision and interests. Africans, who's got your back? The Irish do! In closing, I would like to draw upon the words of the great Irish republican socialist leader, James Connolly, to express what it is we are seeking, for ourselves and for all those around the world like us, be they Africans, Arabs, Maori or Mohawk. In a poem entitled "We Only Want the Earth," Connolly declared: "Be moderate," the trimmers cry Who dread the tyrants' thunder. "You ask too much and people fly From you aghast in wonder." 'Tis passing strange, for I declare Such statements give me mirth, For our demands most moderate are, We only want the earth. We built it, sisters and brothers; comrades and friends, it is ours to take... we're just being reasonable. Long live the solidarity between the Irish and African peoples! Victory to our struggles for national liberation and socialism! The IRSP and its supporters are proud to celebrate African Liberation Day in London, England; as well as Washington, DC; Dallas, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California; and Sacramento, California in the United States in 2002. Irish Republican Socialist Party, International Department Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America ================================================================= 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-05.24.02-23:58:06-17886