Spirit of resistance and creativity
The 27th anti-internment march last Sunday started under darkened
skies but ended in the heady sunshine of a fitful summer as Gerry
Adams told republicans and supporters from across the world that
the day, coming as it did at the end of a week of festivals, was
proof of the significant strides forward taken by republicans and
the complete failure of internment, torture and British rule.
Internment, the imprisoning of thousands of young men and women
without trial, has left a black mark on the hearts of the
nationalist people that has remained undiminished through the
years of struggle. The impressive turn-out for the parade and
established city centre rally was proof enough of this.
Bands, banners, flags and organisations from across Ireland,
Europe and America; prams and wheelchairs; the young and not so
young; came, saw, talked and celebrated the resistance and
creativity.
At the rally, chaired by the SF Assembly member for Upper Bann,
Dara O'Hagan, representatives from the Basque independence
movement, the Troops Out Movement and Noraid expressed their
unwavering support for the republican movement. And the
delegation from Cuba that had delighted in being treated to the
whole gamut of festivities also sent revolutionary greetings.
Sinn Fein Youth's Matt McCarthy underlined the vibrant and
dynamic appeal of the youth movement and the growth it had
achieved in the past year.
A statement from the Maghaberry and Long Kesh POWs emphasised
that the paths to creating a peaceful settlement will always be
blocked by unionists and the pro-unionist elements within the
British establishment. To cheers and applause the statement also
stressed that as a people, we have not and will never be defeated
in the struggle for a 32 county democratic socialist republic.
Martin Meehan, Saoirse 6-county chairman, himself an ex-internee,
told the crowd to not underestimate the so-called forces of law
and order that tortured so many republicans in the past and had
now risen to high rank. Urging people to ``stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with POWs'' he asked that people not become
complacent and ``go for it'' in becoming involved in ``maximising
visible street protest''.
Taking up the phrase Dara O'Hagan said that the republican
community must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of the
Garvaghy Road, Lower Ormeau Road and Dunloy (to name a few) who
were at ``the cutting edge of the struggle for equality''.
Gerry Adams reiterated that no-one could tell the republican
movement what it should do and that as republicans ``we can not
solve David Trimble's problems for him''. He called for a ``a
radical and progressive unionism that was prepared to deal with
true republicanism''.
Adams said, ``the continuity of the current phase of the struggle
is down to the people. The British have been unable to break you,
the republican people.'' He said that the responsibility in
ensuring that Sinn Fein continue to move forward and pursue the
agenda of change, leading to the ``decommissioning of the
structures and issues of inequality'' is that you, ``the republican
people'' continue to be active.
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