“What The Proclamation
Means To Me”
Republican Socialist Youth Movement Contribution
"Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment
of a permanent National Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional
Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military
affairs of the Republic in trust for the people"
The Proclamation of the Irish Republic represents a fundamental for our
organisation, a guiding principle that is an absolute. The Socialist
ethos of the Proclamation is evident for all to see, perhaps we owe that
to the influence of Ireland's most prominent Marxist at the time, James
Connolly.
The aspirations of the signatories have yet to be brought to fruition.
Far from all the children of the nation being cherished equally,
sectarianism and poverty is rampant. Inner-city areas especially in
Dublin suffer greatly from under-funding and feelings of abandonment.
Garda harassment is levelled against working class families and
Republicans while meanwhile drug and gun crime has increased dramatically
under successive freestate governments.
The Proclamation belongs not to those that sit in Leinster House that
occasionally may pay lip service to the men of Easter week but it
belongs to the Irish people as a whole. It represents hope for the
future. It represents a prospect for unity and peace.
But it doesn't stop there – the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil
Éireann represents another milestone. The Democratic Programme, coupled
with the Proclamation fuses together the two major issues which faced
Ireland then and which continue to face Ireland – namely, the national
question and the class question.
We still don't have that government "representative of the whole people
of Ireland", former Republicans now serve as a comprador party which is
in open collaboration with the freestate and British rule. That is their
agenda, not that of the revolutionary. They have done and will continue
to solidify Britain's hold on the six counties.
An alternative must be found if the ideals of 1916 are to be attained.
The tribal politics embodied by Stormont and partition offer no solution
to the Irish working class. There is one solution – revolution. |