IRSP Demand End To Collaboration

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday March 21, 2003 15:12 by Hebe - Republican Socialist Publicity Bureau irsp at netwizards dot net 392 Falls Road, Belfast, BT48 6DH, Ireland 028 90 321024

IRSP Call on Republican and Nationalist Parties to Suspend All Contact with British/US Governments Over 'Illegal' War

20 March 2003
Irish Republican Socialist Party

IRSP Call on Republican and Nationalist Parties to Suspend All
Contact with British/US Governments Over 'Illegal' War

The IRSP today called on all nationalist and republican parties and
politicians in Ireland to withdraw from contact with the governments
of Britain and the United States in protest against what they
described as "the illegal oil and land grab now going on in Iraq."

"Let me get one thing straight from the start, it is not because of
our opposition to the Good Friday Agreement, but rather despite it,
that we make this call. We, as a party and as individuals, are well
aware that these are critical days for the pro-Agreement parties, but
the issue of this war and Ireland's involvement in it supersedes
that," Terry Harkin, Co-Secretary of the party's International
Department, said today in London.

"No matter what we as a political party feel about the GFA, it has
brought the leadership of the pro-Agreement nationalists and
republicans to the very centre of the world stage. Indeed they see
themselves, with justification in some eyes, as statesmen on that
world stage. The IRSP believe that this status comes with a price."

"In minutes, certainly within hours, the combined might of England
(some of the Empire) and America will descend on the people of Iraq,
in what can only be described as an unashamed land and oil grab.
Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands will die in the first hours
and days, and for what?

"The UN, and most of the world, has refused to endorse this war and
the people of the world have cried 'NO' from the pavements of almost
every city, of every nation.

"It has always been the policy of every segment of the republican
community in Ireland, and almost all of the nationalist parties, that
Ireland's neutrality is sacrosanct. Fianna Fail, the party in power
in the Free State, styles itself 'The Republican Party', yet we see
the boots of hired US mercenaries on Irish soil as they stopped here,
before going on to attack Iraq."

"No matter who or what Saddam is, no matter what he has done in the
past, there is no justification, legal or moral, for the English and
America to commit this wanton act of genocide on the Iraqi people. It
is they who will die, as generations of the indigenous population of
our island have died at the hands of England and her allies.

"It is therefore inconceivable that the leadership, of what they
themselves describe as an oppressed people, should sit down with the
perpetrators of this act of nouveau imperialism.

"Rightly or wrongly, the GFA has brought our nation and the pro-
Agreement parties to the centre of the world stage. The IRSP believe
that this places them in a unique position to apply pressure on the
governments of Britain and America. By refusing to meet with these
governments, they could effectively add the voice of the Irish nation
to the voices of France, Russia and Germany in saying 'no' to this
aggression against the Iraqi people."

Mr Harkin concluded by saying, "This is not about what the IRSP
thinks about the GFA. This isn't even about what the pro-Agreement
parties think about the GFA. It's about power, and right now they
have the power to put pressure on Tony Blair and George W. Bush; the
power to deny them credibility; the power to make a statement that
Ireland says 'No' to war.

"It is not a time for party politics, it is a time for action, and
they can act.

"The IRSP is asking them to pay the price for their statesmen status.
We are asking them not to sit down with these people, while they
murder for oil. It's all fine and well participating in the marches
and issuing press statements, and we encourage them to continue to do
so, but the SDLP, Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail have an opportunity to
make a statement on the world stage right now; a statement on behalf
of the nationalist and republican people of Ireland. The IRSP is
asking them to make that statement."

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