International Republican Socialist Network
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  • Statements
    • Statements 2013>
      • Scottish Independence: The View from America
      • IRSN Arbroath Commemoration Statement
      • IRSN to Commemorate 100th Anniversary of the Irish Citizen Army
      • IRSN Solidarity Statement to Annual SRSM Glencoe Rally
      • Remembered Always With Honour and Pride: Gino Gallagher
      • Twenty-Six Years Since the Death of Ta Power
      • International Republican Socialism – 2013
    • Statements 2012>
      • Remembering Seamus Costello
      • Remembering John MacLean
      • African Liberation Day 2012
      • Occupy St. Patrick's Day!
    • Statements 2011>
      • Solidarity to our Sisters and Brothers in Kenya on African Liberation Day
      • IRSN Solidarity Statement to the May 8th John MacLean Rally
      • Defend Libya as it Confronts the Plots of the Imperialists
      • San Francisco St. Patrick's Day 2011 Parade Anti-Imperialist Contingent
      • Solidarity with the Working People of North African and the Arab Nation
      • IRSN Statement to the SRSM Ard Fheis
      • Commemoration of Scottish Revolutionary John MacLean
    • statements 2010>
      • On the Passing of Peace and Freedom Party activist Tom Conduit
      • Ireland and the British Left
      • San Francisco St. Patrtick's Day Parade Presence
      • Annual Book Drive for Republican Socialist Prisoners of War
      • AAWRU 30th Anniversary
      • IRSN 2010 Holiday Book Drive Success
      • IRSN Holiday Greetings
    • statements 2009>
      • Burns Night & Republican Socialist Convention Report
      • Burns Night Statement 2009
      • St. Patrick's Day Parade in San Francisco
      • Reflections on the Current Economic Crisis
      • May Day Statement
      • Whither the Irish National Liberation Army?
      • African Liberation Day Solidarity
      • Free The Cork 5
      • McIlroy for Congress
      • YOUTUBE: Candidate Mary McIlroy of the IRSN
      • Solidarity with the Libyan Revolution
      • Sponsor an IRSPoW
      • Solidarity Message for the Commemoration of the Century Anniversary
      • Solidarity with the Puerto Rican Struggle for National Liberation and Socialism
      • Update: IRSN Comrade on Peace & Freedom Ticket
      • IRSN Anti-War Action
      • IRSM Gives Up Armed Struggle
      • May Charles Made Her Transition to join the Ancestors
      • IRSN MacLean Commemoration Statement
    • statements 2008>
      • Burn’s Night Social
      • George Habash Remembered
      • Reform or Revolution? The Answer Remains Unchanged.
      • Preparing for the Iron Heel
      • Final Salute to Brendan Hughes and a Republican Socialist Martyr Remembered
      • Irish Republican Socialist Arrests
      • Statement in Support of the Interned IRSM Members
      • Cork Five RSPOWs Defended in San Francisco St. Patrick's Day Parade
      • Pacific Northwest Actions
      • THEY AREN’T “OURS,” BUT BRING THEM HOME ANYWAY
      • May Day 2008
      • IRSN Join March Demanding Open Borders in May Day Demonstrations
      • IRSN Comrade Guest Speaker at Sacramento Community College
      • IRSN Recognized for Linen Hall Library Support
      • IRSN Message to African Liberation Day Celebration in London
      • Christopher 'Crip" McWilliams Near Death
      • Reflections Without Borders - Who We Are
      • HOUSING IS RIGHT
      • Demanding Choices, Not Options
      • Release of Breton Comrades Hailed
      • Solidarity Message for Annual MacLean Rally
      • Salute Thirty-four Years of Republican Socialist Struggle
      • Long Live the PFLP After 41 Years of Struggle
      • Arrests of Alledged INLA Mambers
      • Fallen Martyrs of Irish Republican Socialist Struggle Honoured
  • Documents
    • I have come to preach revolution
    • The Ta Power Document Scandal
    • Remembering the Founding of the IRSCNA
    • Revolutionary Political Action
    • Lessons from 40 Years of War
    • PEADAR O’DONNELL: IRELAND’S NEGLECTED REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST
    • Armed Struggle and the Fight for a Scottish Workers’ Republic
    • 2008 CRISIS OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM
    • 30 YEARS WITHOUT SEAMUS COSTELLO
  • Formation of IRSN
    • Creation of the International Republican Socialist Network
    • A Tradition Winds Towards It's End
    • What Happened and Where Do We Go From Here
    • Wither the IRSCNA? Wither the IRSP?
    • New Group Formed From Split in the Irish Republican Socialist Movement
    • The Way Forward
  • Workers Republic
    • EDITORIAL2
    • The Republican Socialist Tradition and the Pursuit of Armed Struggle
    • Reclaiming Marxism for the Working Class, Historical Materialism
    • Drugs and the Revolutionary
    • Revolutionary Political Education in a time of ‘Peace’:
    • New Quebecois Left Party
    • Editorial 1
    • CYMRU: republican socialist re-groupment in wales
    • MANNIN: A Look Back On Manx Republican Socialism
    • BREIZH: Emgann Leads Breton Republican Socialist Struggle
    • ALBA: The RCN, Crown Powers and an Anti-Imperialist Agenda
    • ALBA: RCN Statement on the Split in the Scottish Socialist Party
    • PUERTO RICO: Socialism & the National Vindication of Puerto Rico
    • IRELAND: Irish republican socialism stumbles on its way
    • CATALUNYA: A rich revolutionary heritage
    • EUZKADI HERRIA: New Hope Found Amidst Recent Errors
    • News in Brief
  • Connolly Forum
    • Introduction - CF Issue 1
    • Connolly: A Biography
    • James Connolly and the IWW
    • James Connolly and Working Class Culture
    • JC: To Irish Wage Workers
    • JC: Old Wine In New Bottles
    • JC: We Only Want the Earth
    • James Connollys Contribution to International Socialism
    • Editorial CF 2
    • JC: Physical Force in Irish Politics
    • James Connolly: An Appreciation
    • JC: What Is A Free Nation?
    • Connolly’s Strategy for the Easter Rising: Should the Irish Working Class Have Stood Alone?
    • JC: What Is Our Programme?
    • The Irish Citizen Army After 1916
    • JC: We Will Rise Again
  • Contact

Editorial


This is the first issue of what we hope will be a quarterly periodical of news and analysis concerning past and present world events from a revolutionary republican socialist perspective. That raises the question, what is republican socialism? The International Republican Socialist Network believes that it is a distinct tendency of revolutionary Marxism, which arose historically in response to the specific contradictions found when capitalist development has created a working class majority of the populace and a material base capable of supporting the development of a revolutionary class consciousness within that class, but where national liberation remains an unachieved aspect of capitalist development as well.


 The phrase republican socialist (or socialist republican) has been used to describe this tendency for at least a century. Pioneered by two, Scottish-born giants of the international socialist movement, James Connolly and John MacLean; republican socialism has been a well-established tradition in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and contemporary republican socialist political groups continue to exist in all three. Elsewhere, however, such as in Catalonia, Euzkadi, Brittany and Puerto Rico, there are active revolutionary organizations for national liberation, which have socialist currents within them; but distinctly republican socialist organizations have not yet arise in these nations.
 
The founders of the International Republican Socialist Network came from the ranks of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, where some had been activists for more than two decades. One of the IRSN’s founders served as the International Secretary of the Irish Republican Socialist Party for over five years and wrote many public statements and articles in the IRSP’s newspaper. So, it should be no surprise when we acknowledge that the analysis which informs the IRSN derives from the revolutionary tradition embodied in the IRSP and INLA during the first quarter century of its existence, including the contributions made by leading members Seamus Costello, Ta Power, Gino Gallagher, and Kevin McQuillen. In fact, the impetus to found the IRSN arose directly from the departure of its founding members from the IRSM, in a protest over what they believed to be a retreat from the IRSM’s unbending revolutionary traditions.

 The founders of the IRSN also draw upon decades of involvement in support of republican socialist groups in Scotland and Wales and contributed to their development through articles in Scottish Workers’ Republic and Y Faner Goch, as well as bonds of solidarity and friendship maintained with leading activists of the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement, the John Maclean Society, the Welsh Socialist Republican Movement, and Cymru Goch. One IRSN founder has even been elected honorary Vice President of the SRSP. Thus the analysis of the IRSN, and thereby of The Workers’ Republic, draws upon these revolutionary traditions as well.

The IRSN was founded to ensure that the revolutionary expression of the republican socialist tendency continues to find representation within the broad international socialist movement and to aid in facilitating greater awareness of both the history of republican socialism and its present manifestation in various nations of the world. The IRSN is also intended to provide a means to encourage the crystallization of clearly defined and independently organized republican socialist bodies in all nations where its analysis is best suited to the current tasks confronting the revolutionary movements there. It is also hoped that the IRSN can help republican socialist organizations and activists to engage in dialogue with their counterparts in other nations, to further the development of a revolutionary republican socialist analysis and promote ongoing and meaningful solidarity amongst the various national tendencies, especially in circumstances where they confront a shared enemy in the course of their struggles.
 
Towards these objectives, The Workers’ Republic will focus on building awareness of and support for contemporary republican socialist struggles being waged; providing a forum for preserving the revolutionary traditions of republican socialism and encouraging the continued development of a specific republican socialist analysis; and critiquing contemporary movements struggling under the banner of republican socialism. For our first issue, we have solicited articles on the struggles where a republican socialist analysis provides the most effective basis for struggle: Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, the BasqueLands, Catalonia, and Puerto Rico, exploring the state of the republican socialist tendency within these nations. Most of the articles were contributed by republican socialist activists in the revolutionary struggle of their respective nations. They range from a light-hearted remembrance of the Manx Republican Socialist Party to a somewhat dark critique of the contemporary republican left in Wales; from a spirited, debate on Scottish republican socialism to a scholarly exploration of the Puerto Rican struggle for national liberation and socialism; from a look at an emerging republican socialist entity in Euzkadi to an analysis of where republican socialism has faltered in Ireland.
 
We hope you will find Workers’ Republic informative and a source of greater understanding of the republican socialist tendency within the international revolutionary movement and a growing appreciation of the unique and profound contribution that has been made to international socialism by the leading theorists and activist comrades of our tendency.

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