Commemoration of the Irish Hunger Strikers of 1981

('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is)

IN COMMEMORATION OF BOBBY SANDS
film and discussion
on Sunday, May 6, 18.30
Vorstadtzentrum 15
Meiselstrasse 46/4, 1150 Wien


TEN BRAVE MEN

Twenty years ago, on 5 May 1981, Bobby Sands died on the 66th day of his hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. Over 217 days, from March till October 1981, another 22 prisoners took part in the hunger strike of the republican prisoners to gain recognition as prisoners of war. Ten comrades of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Irish Liberation Army (INLA) died of  hunger before the end of the protest was announced  on 3 October 1981.

Although the British government had not met the demands of the republican prisoners by October 1981, their struggle was not in vain. Within the next few years the prisoners were granted the rights as prisoners of war and their desire for justice, their courage and undiluted determination were echoed in the struggle of the oppressed republican minority in the North of Ireland. The republican movement gained momentum, hundreds of thousands attended the funerals of the hunger strikers and expressed their anger and hatred of  British rule in the streets . The increasing support for the IRA and the INLA in those fateful weeks in 1981 was decisive for the struggle in the years to come. Ten men, who were killed  by British politics under Margaret Thatcher , were replaced by hundreds of revolutionaries in the armed struggle for the independence of Ireland. In the war against oppression, exploitation and imperialist domination and for the complete withdrawal of the British troops, for !
!
a united Ireland and a socialist Republic, Bobby Sands and his comrades have played their part. The legacy they have left us is the call upon us to play ours.

In the last few weeks dozens of comrades died of hunger in Turkish prisons in the same struggle and for the same rights. Today it is our duty to support the hunger strikers and prisoners in Turkey, to stop the massacre in Turkish prisons. The Turkish comrades must be granted political status as it was granted to republican prisoners in a long and painful process.  The deaths in Turkish prisons must not be drowned in an indifferent public opinion in the imperialist countries, which are allies of the Turkish regime.

On the 12th day of his hunger strike Bobby Sands wrote :“ I am making my last response to the whole vicious inhuman atrocity they call H-Block. But, unlike their laughs and jibes, our laughter will be the joy of victory and the joy of the people, our revenge will be the liberation of all and the final defeat of the oppressors of our aged nation.“

Remembering and honouring  Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McIlwee and Micky Devine today should  remind us that their deaths were not in vain. They are a powerful encouragement in the worldwide fight against imperialist oppression and for the liberation of the peoples.

5  May 2001
Anti-imperialist Coordination  



************************************
Antiimperialist Camp
PF 23, A-1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel&Fax +43 1 504 00 10
camp@antiimperialista.com
www.antiimperialista.com/en
************************************




To unsubscribe from: Antiimperialist Camp News, just follow this link:
http://www.antiimperialista.com/cgi-bin/mojo/mojo.cgi?flavor=unsubscribe&list=Antiimperialist_Camp_News&email=wai-wcag-editor@w3.org&pin=32452
Click the link, or copy and paste the address into your browser.