Lasair Dhearg sends solidarity greetings to all anti-imperialist activists across Ireland and beyond who continue to organise against the forces of occupation and capitalism, and we stand in support of our fellow workers as they continue to toil within and organise against the unjust system forced upon us by capitalist governments.
The struggle for workers rights is inextricably linked to the ongoing struggle for national liberation. Partition exists as the foremost bulwark to a 32-county organised labour movement capable of evicting the greatest illness Britain ever exported to Ireland: capitalism. The fight for socialism alongside national liberation has always been integral to the ongoing struggle for Ireland’s freedom. Like James Connolly, we believe the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, with the working-class being the sole arbiters of that cause.
Across both failed states we see the violence inherent within the capitalist economic order which brutalises our class through privatisation, welfare cuts, and taxation – allowing the rich to get richer whilst they plunder our nation of its resources, and sell our communities to the highest bidder. Our homes, our healthcare and education systems, our natural resources and fisheries – every facet necessary to the creation of a happy, healthy and fulfilling life is commodified for profit. Ireland is an island united in its oppression, but divided in its struggle against it.
The ruling class fears a united labour movement – this is why they seek to divide us.
Indeed, a growing divide is taking place across our country. Many of the issues faced by the working class that Socialist Republicans have been active in highlighting for many decades are being exploited by more reactionary elements in our midst; from the demand for housing to the most recent fuel protests.
Small but growing fascist & far-right organisations have sought to infiltrate working-class causes and foment fear and hate around migrants and refugees in a bid to hijack our struggle to meet their own ends. They utilise the tactics of their British far-right allies, and cloak themselves under a brand of pseudo patriotism and ‘Irish Nationalism’ in effort to embed themselves within our nation and class’ proud revolutionary lineage. In reality, these agents are no comrades to the working-class, as they only do the goal of the state itself: to pit worker against worker.
Fascism is but capitalism in decay. It tries to distract blame from the landlords and capitalists who sit in rooms of power, and punch down upon those with none in the rooms of hotels and social housing. It is therefore the duty of every socialist and republican to root out these elements from our movements, and aid the decay of capitalism – for the benefit of all workers.
It was the might of the international working-class that defeated fascism before, and it shall be the workers of the world that will defeat it again, and on their ashes we shall build a better world – wherein labour no longer becomes a necessity, but a joy, wherein production exists not for profit, but provision, and wealth accumulation is for the nation and not the corporation. A Socialist Republic is possible, but only if we organise and fight for it.
The old world is dying, the new struggles to be born – join us in that struggle.
Ar aghaidh linn le chéile.
