We
would like to thank the organisers of the fourth
international symposium against isolation for inviting
the Irish Republican Socialist Party to contribute
its analysis at this conference.
What
is the political function of isolation? Isolation
is a weapon used by the prison system and the repressive
apparatus of the state to weaken political militants
psychologically and physically, thus politically.
It is used to prevent the emergence of any collective
organisation attempts by the prisoners, to destroy
in advance the struggle for the collective power
of those in prison; as well as their struggle for
political and human rights. For the prison system,
it is imperative to isolate those who are not afraid
to speak out, the incarcerated political cadres,
those who politically and organisationally are prepared
to work for the revolutionary movement inside the
prisons. The state's policy of isolation is not
simply to destroy the prisoners, but more importantly
to destroy the politics of their struggle. It is
part of a strategy to portray any resistance against
the state as criminal. The state believes that if
it can break the resistance of the prisoners, it
will demoralise and weaken the revolutionary forces
on the outside.
In
1976 the British government removed the right to
political status for Irish prisoners. This was an
attempt to criminalize the struggle for national
liberation and socialism, both inside and outside
the prisons. The prisoners resisted this criminalization
through a series of protests, starting with their
refusal to wear prison uniforms, the no wash protest;
and culminated in the hunger strikes of 1980/1981
which resulted in ten prisoners -three of whom were
affiliated to our movement- giving their lives.
Far from breaking the prisoners, the 1981 hunger
strikes showed that they remained resolute and eventually
met most of their demand at the price of their own
lives. Paradoxically, if in 1976 the British government
attempted to criminalize the Republican struggle,
by 1981 the Republicans succeeded in criminalizing
the British government. However, the gains of the
1980/1981 hunger strikes were lost with the signing
of the 1998 Belfast Agreement. The 1998 treaty effectively
criminalizes political resistance, as political
prisoners will not be segregated from either ordinary
criminals or reactionary loyalists. The struggle
of the prisoners is thus back to square one. The
Provisional movement (loyal to the leadership of
Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness) supports the 1998
treaty and states that there are no more political
prisoners in jail. The truth is that there are currently
dozens of political prisoners in Ireland, including
four affiliated to our movement. One of them is
Dessie O Hare, who has been in jail for more than
twenty years and who should have been released years
ago. The Provisional movement celebrates the struggle
of the 1980/1981 hunger strikers, and yet is silent
about the present struggle of Irish political prisoners.
It is thus complicit with the media black out regarding
the prison issue. Our movement is totally committed
to the struggle of all those prisoners, irrespective
of their affiliation. You have to remember that
our prisoners have suffered from a double isolation
attempt: first that of the British state, and secondly
that of the Provisional movement inside the prisons,
which in the past attempted to destroy any collective
organisation of our prisoners by denying them their
own wing and official recognition as a group.
We
regret and reject the narrow and sectarian approach
of some people and organisations and call for a
united front on the prison issue. The Irish Republican
Socialist Movement argues not simply for better
prison conditions, but for the collective self-organisation
of the prisoners, for the recognition of their political
and human rights, for the construction of an effective
counter power within the prisons. What is fundamentally
at stake is a political, not a humanitarian issue.
This is not just a matter of more humane conditions
of detention but of developing a revolutionary movement
inside the jails that questions the prison system.
The function of politically advanced prisoners is
similar to that of advanced workers. Advanced workers
do not simply fight for higher wages or better working
conditions, but for the abolition of capitalism,
similarly politically conscious prisoners do not
fight just for better prison conditions, but for
the collective self-organisation of imprisoned working
class militants and the creation of a counter-power
within the prisons.
British imperialism, either in the prisons or on
our streets will not succeed in breaking us, instead
it will have an adverse effect, strengthening our
resolve to resist domination is all its forms. In
the words of Terence MacSwiney, the Republican Mayor
of Cork who died on hunger strike in 1920: "We
have not survived the centuries to be conquered
now."
Thank
you.
