IRSN: African Liberation Day Solidarity
31 May 2009
Comrades of the International Republican Socialist Network in the San Francisco Bay Area participated in commemorations of African Liberation Day hosted by the A-APRP for the 26th time since 1983, providing speakers to events in OaklandCalifornia on both Friday, May 29th and Saturday, May 30th.
At a symposium held at LaneyCollege on Friday evening, IRSN comrade Peter Urban presented a message of solidarity. After praising the A-APRP as a model for any organisation working for the liberation of its people, Comrade Urban drew lesson from the most recent defeat of the struggle for national liberation and socialism in Ireland. He reiterated the view that when ones enemy invites you to the negotiating table, it means you are winning and the last thing you should do is negotiate with them; saying, "A revolution is not something won through negotiations."
Urban than spoke to the corrupting influence of attaining a degree of respectability, noting that the INLA had not only struck fear into the hearts of Britain and the loyalist death squads, but had rendered the activists of the IRSM 'beyond the Pale of bourgeois respectability' and had thereby helped to maintain the movement on a revolutionary path. Since the cease-fire of August 1998, however, the IRSM had lost its clarity of revolutionary purpose, because of being forced to contend with the additional challenges brought about by becoming 'respectable' to any section of the ruling class.
Other speakers at the event included representatives of Nation of Islam, the International Indian Treaty Council, the chairperson of the Meritt College Department of Africana Studies, the Haitian Action Commmittee, and the Malcolm X Grassroots Alliance.
The following day, IRSN comrade Mary McIlroy delivered a message of solidarity at an outdoor rally in Little Bobby Hutton Park in Oakland. Comrade McIlroy drew attention to the recent murder of a member of the nationalist community by loyalist thugs 'celebrating' the Ranger's football victory to demonstrate the hollowness of the promises made concerning the GFA.
NcIlroy also addressed the theme of this years commemoration, honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Pan-Africanist, scientific socialist, Kwame Nkrumah. She noted that the comrades of the IRSN also study Nkrumah's works and especially his book, Neo-Colonialism, the Highest Stage of Imperialism, which we found highly relevant to analysis of events in Ireland.
The program on Saturday included many cultural performances and speakers from an array of revolutionary organisations, including the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania.
The IRSN also made a contribution of $250 towards the expense of the ALD events.
Comrades of the International Republican Socialist Network in the San Francisco Bay Area participated in commemorations of African Liberation Day hosted by the A-APRP for the 26th time since 1983, providing speakers to events in OaklandCalifornia on both Friday, May 29th and Saturday, May 30th.
At a symposium held at LaneyCollege on Friday evening, IRSN comrade Peter Urban presented a message of solidarity. After praising the A-APRP as a model for any organisation working for the liberation of its people, Comrade Urban drew lesson from the most recent defeat of the struggle for national liberation and socialism in Ireland. He reiterated the view that when ones enemy invites you to the negotiating table, it means you are winning and the last thing you should do is negotiate with them; saying, "A revolution is not something won through negotiations."
Urban than spoke to the corrupting influence of attaining a degree of respectability, noting that the INLA had not only struck fear into the hearts of Britain and the loyalist death squads, but had rendered the activists of the IRSM 'beyond the Pale of bourgeois respectability' and had thereby helped to maintain the movement on a revolutionary path. Since the cease-fire of August 1998, however, the IRSM had lost its clarity of revolutionary purpose, because of being forced to contend with the additional challenges brought about by becoming 'respectable' to any section of the ruling class.
Other speakers at the event included representatives of Nation of Islam, the International Indian Treaty Council, the chairperson of the Meritt College Department of Africana Studies, the Haitian Action Commmittee, and the Malcolm X Grassroots Alliance.
The following day, IRSN comrade Mary McIlroy delivered a message of solidarity at an outdoor rally in Little Bobby Hutton Park in Oakland. Comrade McIlroy drew attention to the recent murder of a member of the nationalist community by loyalist thugs 'celebrating' the Ranger's football victory to demonstrate the hollowness of the promises made concerning the GFA.
NcIlroy also addressed the theme of this years commemoration, honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Pan-Africanist, scientific socialist, Kwame Nkrumah. She noted that the comrades of the IRSN also study Nkrumah's works and especially his book, Neo-Colonialism, the Highest Stage of Imperialism, which we found highly relevant to analysis of events in Ireland.
The program on Saturday included many cultural performances and speakers from an array of revolutionary organisations, including the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania.
The IRSN also made a contribution of $250 towards the expense of the ALD events.