On this the 71st Anniversary of the Revolutionary Uprising of the Irish workers in alliance with other sections of the Irish people, the Easter Rising, we, the direct political descendants of James Connolly send greetings to our supporters world wide. We send greetings to our heroic comrades in Irish, British, French and American gaols and we pledge ourselves to continue that struggle initiated in 1916.

Easter Commemorations bring to mind comrades who have fallen in battle. This year is especially poignant, as we pay tribute to our recently deceased comrades, slain by fellow Irishmen claiming to be socialists. We recall John O'Reilly, Thomas (Ta) Power, Michael Kearney, Emmanuel Gargan, Barry Duffy, all volunteers in the Irish National Liberation Army and firm supporters of the political line of the Irish Republican Socialist Party. And we especially remember Mary McGlinchey, wife of our comrade Dominic McGlinchey, brutally murdered in front of her children by people carrying out Britain's foul bidding.

These past three months have been traumatic months for our movement. We stated all along we only wanted our right to exist, to be recognised. That we are here today shows that we do exist, that the Republican Socialist Movement, though severely damaged, is not dead, and that though comrades may be killed, the ideals and ideas that motivated them can never, never be wiped out.

Let us be frank. As befits followers of that great marxist and republican James Connolly, we freely acknowledge that grave errors and mistakes have been committed by our movement. Whilst this is not the place to air all our mistakes, we must here publicly state that in the past we have too often confused armed actions with revolutionary politics. Consequently militarism became a tendency in our movement that stultified our development.

Politics were neglected. Not, we hasten to add the politics of electioneering, of clientism, of the safe parliamentary road to socialism, but the politics of the working class.

This error, this underestimation of the revolutionary potential of the Irish working class, led to elitism and thence on to factionalism. There is nothing intrinsically revolutionary about having guns, nor is there anything intrinsically revolutionary in calling yourself a socialist. James Connolly himself heavily criticised the physical force only republicans of his day. He clearly recognised that the use of armed force was a tactic to be decided upon in the light of existing circumstances.

Hence his decision in the face of a world wide imperialist war to throw himself and his vanguard citizen army into an alliance with nationalists in rising up against imperialist Britain. That uprising was heavily condemned by many milk and water socialists. They could not see the crucial link between class struggle and national oppression. But marxists did. Lenin, the foremost revolutionary of the 20th century, applauded the Easter Uprising and recognised it as a valuable contribution, not only to the world anti-imperialist movement but to the world wide struggle for socialism.

We claim to be followers of Connolly. Just as Connolly tried to fuse republicanism and socialism in his day so we too try to fuse republicanism and marxism in our day to create a revolutionary ideology that is capable not merely of fighting, not merely of surviving, but of actually winning the struggle against imperialism.

But not everyone recognises that. Some say stick to Connolly, stick to Costello, stick to Lenin. Comrades, we respect great socialists, we honour them but do not turn them into gods. We do not turn any of their writings into dogmas, into fossillised bibles to be quoted at our political enemies. No. We learn from them, they are a guide to action; action which must be determined by us in the light of prevailing conditions and in the light of the class interest of the Irish working class. Many of our imprisoned comrades used their prison experiences to analyse not merely the state of our movement and its faults, but also the overall anti-imperialist struggle. Ta Power was one of these comrades and his writings point the way forward.

Therefore we, the leadership of the Republican Socialist Movement publically state that the main priority for all sections of our movement in the coming period will be to build the nucleus of a revolutionary party. All other tacks will be subordinate to that great historic task. For we recognise that the ultimate victory of socialism in Ireland will be dependent not only on a favourable international balance in our favour but the creation of a disciplined centralised revolutionary party and that alone will have both the political knowledge and will, to lead the majority of Irish people to their self-emancipation.

We know some of our comrades and supporters may see this as "betraying the armed struggle". That is nonsense. As revolutionaries we reject no form of struggle; we acknowledge the right of the Irish people to wage armed struggle against imperialism. For over twelve years, despite the repeated assassinations of our leaders, despite state frame-ups, despite informers and agent-provacateurs, and despite infiltration by ultra-left adventurers, our movement has stood firm on its broad principles of national liberation and socialism. We have through the political concept of the Broad Front tried to re-forge a unity of republican and socialist forces that could develop the struggle on to a higher plane. We have consistently upheld the right of armed resistance and have refused to publically condemn armed actions by anti-imperialist groups against imperialism. We have not, although we strongly disagree with other organisations, either called on them to dissolve, nor tried to wipe them out. Nor will we do so in the future.

But here and now we do state no republican socialist worthy of the name condones petty sectarian attacks, defends gangsterism or criminality nor tolerates ill-disciplined, uncordinated armed actions unrelated to the needs of the Republican Socialist Movement. Anyone guilty of such acts has no place in our movement.

No successful revolutionary movement has been built on ill-discipline, on cliques, on factionalism, nor on the cult of the personality. We therefore reaffirm our commitment to building the nucleus of the revolutionary Party and the forging of a collective leadership of such a nucleus.

Such a task will not be easy. Through the on-going process of the Anglo-Irish Agreement the British hope to do disarm the nationalists of the North through their agents in the SDLP. and the Catholic Church that their imposed solution will be successful. Combine the Anglo-Irish Agreement with the Single European Act and we can see a clear strategy to win over the nationalists of Ireland to a pro-NATO, pro-western defence position. Therefore we have no hesitation in calling for a no vote in the forth coming referendum in the 26 county State. In changing the constitution they, the Free State bourgeoise will be undermining Ireland's traditional neutrality. Having over the years sold off our assets, our natural resources, and encouraged millions of us to emigrate, having presided over the decline of our customs, language and culture, and having waxed fat on the profits, the Free State capitalists are now beginning the long task of turning Ireland into the 51st State of the U.S.A.

In the struggle between capitalism and socialism, between Reagan and Gorbachev, between the rich and poor, we stand on the side of the working class. We are socialist, we are internationalists and we send revolutionary greetings today to all who struggle against imperialism and injustice. We salute in particular the heroic struggle of the African National Congress in South Africa, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in occupied Palestine, and the revolutionary government in Nicaragua facing USA financed contra terrorists. Our struggle is inseparable, we rejoice in their victories, we share in their sorrows.

For the desire for liberation is not a peculiarly Irish feeling. It is common to all human kind. We in Ireland, and our comrades world wide struggle for a world freed from war, hunger and cruelty, for a world where human potentiality is unleased and we all can fully develop our personalities in a free world.. We take no pleasure in war. We Prefer peace. But peace with justice. And unfortunately those who control the world's wealth refuse to peacefully transfer resources to those most in need.

We know how the powerful act. We see everyday how they have used sectarian divisions to turn worker against worker; how they have discriminated; how they have built a bigoted sectarian local police force that ghoulishly for the past five years have viciously attacked republican funerals. We have seen the shoot-to-kill policies, we have witnessed the torture, endured the prisons, and buried our child victims of plastic bullet laws. We have been experim ented or by their military strategists; analysed by their sociologists; infiltrated by their master spies; we have walked the streets searching for jobs, been used as cheap labour in their enforced YTP (Youth Treasury Programme) schemes; encircled in our homes by their forts, degraded by their dole and watched by their social security snoopers. We have been vandalised, analysed and criticised. Dissected by their media and trivialised by their comics! We have been battered, bloodied and beaten. We have been ghettoised and we have been compromised and betrayed by politicians.

But friends and comrades, we have survived. The resilience and resistance of the nationalist working class has been magnificent. Despite all that has been done, the spark of liberty has not been extinguished.

But to turn that spark into a flame that will burn out all traces of imperialism in our country will take more than defensive resistance, nor occasional bravado acts. It needs first and foremost an understanding of how imperialism works in Ireland north and south; and only marxist theory gives any real understanding of the class enemy.

Lenin's famous quotation is doubly true both for the Republican Socialist Movement and the Irish working class: "Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement". Together; both our movement and our class need a revolutionary theory.

For it is in the direct interests of the whole of the Irish people that both the national and class divisions be ended. It is clear to those willing to see that practice without theory has failed us in the past. Now more than ever we need open ideological debate on where the struggle is going and on how best to give meaning not only to the sacrifices of the comrades of 1916 but to the latest sad tragic deaths within our own movement.

From such debate, from such analysis we will be able to develop the coherent revolutionary strategy our class need, and be able to forge the necessary revolutionary tools for ultimate victory.

In outlining such a perspective let no-one, least of all the imperialists be under any illusions. In submitting militarism to a socialist critique, we the IRSPS are not, repeat not, breaking with armed struggle. In embracing revolutionary theory the IRSPS are not forgoing revolutionary practice. In building the nucleus of a revolutionary party we do not abandon the development of a genuine national liberation army. In taking up the pen we do not put down the gun.

For we wish to make it clear. So long as Britain denies us sovereignty, so long will we be justified in using what ever weapons of resistances are available.

Finally let us thank all those of our friends and supporters who have stood by us in thick and thin. Your fortitude, courage, loyalty and discipline was both an example and a lesson for us all. Your sacrifices will not be in vain. Nor will the sacrifices of all our dead comrades. We will give meaning to their deaths by building an island fit for socialists.