Bloody Sunday 50th Anniversary March for Justice
The Bloody Sunday 50th Anniversary March for Justice wound its way through the streets of Free Derry yesterday as thousands gathered to continue the demand for justice for those innocent unarmed civilians so brutally mown down by Britain’s notorious Parachute Regiment.
Speaking from the thousands strong march, Lasair Dhearg’s Alannagh Doherty said, “Today marks the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, one of the worst atrocities of British colonialism in Ireland in recent history. Yet despite occurring five decades ago, the reasons why civil rights marchers took to the streets that day continue to exist, and the issues that created the Civil Rights Movement appear larger than ever.”
“Over 10,000 people marched in Derry that day to demand an end to the mass internment-without-trial that was being enacted upon the Catholic and Republican community of the occupied Six Counties. A draconian system that the history books record ended in 1975, but for Republicans today internment still exists in an evolved form, no-longer en masse, but instead guided by a stronger and more informed British intelligence force.”
“Under the rebranded RUC, the PSNI have forcibly stopped and searched over 374,000 people in the past ten years – the equivalent of approximately one fifth of the total population of the Six Counties. It is a ‘policing force’ that is still disproportionately targeting the Catholic population of the north, arresting and charging twice as many Catholics as Protestants.”
“The Civil Rights Movement won many advancements, in housing, employment, and voting status. But it would be an insult to those who marched to pretend that many of the issues that caused them to take to the streets don’t exist today. Over 300,000 people live in poverty in the Six Counties, with unemployment and insecure employment rife. Homelessness is at record breaking levels, whilst thousands of homes lie empty – property developers are given priority over social housing. So as we march today, we march not only to remember the 14 killed by British Paratroopers, but to remember the reasons why they marched, and we carry that banner on today.”
“Yesterday was the time for civil rights. Now is the time for a Socialist Republic.”
