Statement received from the Irish Republican Political Support Group

The Irish Comrades in London work very hard for the Political Prisoners and Irish Freedom

Statement by the Irish Republican Political Support Group

The IRPSG has been the chief mobiliser for Republican prisoners in the north of Ireland in London over the past few years. We can say without hesitation and we have always extended invitations to all other to participate in our mobilisations and some have responded well on occasion. We have always attempted to participate in the mobilisations of others Republicans. However cooperation has fallen off recently and it has just now come to our attention that vile and baseless rumours are being circulated in Republican circles in Britain that a leading members of our group is a police agent. At the London demonstration of 20 October 2012 an IRPSG supporter was approached by a well known Republican who told him, “Have nothing to do with the IRPSG because ** works for the security services”. He referred him to another well known Republican from a different group who he said had been inquiring about **. When our supporter approached him he then repeated the rumour.

This ‘cop baiting’ is lethal in all the movements of the oppressed and particularly in the republican movement where it has a long and ignoble history. We challenge these rumour mongers to have a meeting with us and present their proof. Who was betrayed, what information was passed on what payments in cash or kind was received? We assert without hesitation these stories are baseless and have their origins in past conflicts which were never properly investigated.

We are convinced that these attacks originate in political opposition. Those who mindlessly pass them on because they suit their current political needs may find themselves caught in a climate of such suspicion and distrust that all political mobilisations in London for the cause of Republican prisoners in the north of Ireland become impossible to organise. And who benefits from that? It is well known that the leading activists of the IRPSG are revolutionary socialists and leftists. We stand with James Connolly,

“If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organization of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain. England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.”

We are Trotskyists, Communists, Maoists, Marxist Leninists and Republicans who take our internationalist duty seriously to defend the rights of oppressed peoples to fight with whatever means they see necessary to throw off the yoke of British and every other Imperialist power. We defend the civil and democratic rights of all Republican political prisoners without favour because we recognise none of them would be in prison for the ‘crime’ of trying to liberate their land from British Imperialism if Ireland was not occupied by British Imperialism. We think that political differences after these principles are agreed are matters for debate in struggle but slanders and rumour mongering have no place in that struggle. If you have proof of wrongdoing please present it. If not apologise, withdraw and we can work together as comrades for the cause of the prisoners.

Gerry Downing Secretary Irish Republican Support Group 30 October 2012