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End the British occupation of Ireland!
Issued by: CPGB-ML
Issued on: 15 February 2010
End the British occupation of Ireland!The CPGB-ML urges all British workers to give full support to the campaign to reunite the Irish nation.

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels repeatedly taught that the British working class must support the Irish not only as a matter of justice for Ireland but above all in their own class interest.

It absolutely remains the case that the British proletariat will remain slaves to capital unless and until they stand on the side of the Irish people.

It is the brave and disciplined struggle of the Irish themselves which has translated a united Ireland from a lofty ambition into an impending reality, not the good offices of any Thatcher, Blair or Mo Mowlam.

As Comrade Gerry Adams noted in a speech at Westminster launching the Irish unity campaign in Britain, Irish republicans are experienced in dealing with British governments of whatever party as what they all have in common is that they have all been unionists.

The Labour party continues to uphold the colonial occupation of the six counties and the denial of the Irish people’s right to self-determination.

Whilst some, like former Labour defence secretary John Reid, had floated ideas of changing the union, a new type of union was “not possible”.

Rather, said Comrade Adams, “No conditions should be put on a people’s struggle for freedom.”

It was the Irish themselves, through a masterful combination of political and armed struggle, who forced the incomparably stronger forces of British imperialism into a state of strategic stalemate.

Since then, Sinn Fein has skilfully built on the gains of the previous period of struggle to advance a political process aimed at reconciling the historic antagonisms fostered between Irish people by British imperialism through its strategy of ‘divide-and-rule’, so as to realise the vision of Theobald Wolfe Tone, founder of the United Irishmen, to supplant the different names of catholic, protestant and dissenter with the common name of Irishmen.

Sinn Fein has no illusions about the size of the task that still remains.

Comrade Adams underlined the fact that whilst the armed conflict in Ireland is over, the root causes of that conflict still remain to be addressed, adding:

“The peace process has delivered an end to conflict and that is to be welcomed and applauded. But the underlying cause of conflict persists – the British government’s claim of jurisdiction over a part of Ireland.

“It is this denial of the Irish people’s right to self-determination, freedom and independence that is the core outstanding issue that must be resolved.”

Let us join with our comrades in Ireland in demanding at long last the full implementation of all the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement as a step towards full British withdrawal from Ireland and the affairs of the Irish people, national reunification and independence.

Stop the foot dragging!
Implement the Good Friday Agreement!
Forward to a united Ireland!
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