Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland

2 August 2012

The Communist Party of Ireland views with concern the announcement of the re-forming of an “Irish Republican Army,” which could have a detrimental effect on the peace process that the majority of Irish people have endorsed. This has nothing positive to offer in the present political situation. 
     In a statement today, Lynda Walker, national chairperson of the Communist Party of Ireland, said: “The CPI is quite explicit when we say that, given the current conditions in the North, we once again reject paramilitary violence, from whatever quarter it comes. There is a clear need to remove the threat of the gun and bombs from the political scene and to develop class action and political dialogue. Paramilitary violence can only hold back the struggle for democracy and an economic and social policy alternative to the austerity being offered by governments North and South of the border.” 
     The peace process is an ongoing process that demands critical support and active participation to make the most of the opportunities it provides to oppose sectarianism and create unity of the working class. 
     There is a renewed interest in republican politics and the search for the way forward against anti-people policies, in the tactics and strategy and the winning of all sections of the Irish working class for a united movement and a united Ireland. If the new IRA succeeds in getting rid of the “Brits” and the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the North, how do they intend to win the rest of the people of Ireland. North and South. “for a free and independent Ireland” and for an anti-imperialist agenda? 
     Any continuing violence by republican paramilitary organisations does not advance the political goals that these various strands of republicanism claim to champion, any more than did the Provisional IRA before them. Their actions give the British government continuing cover for the maintenance and use of repressive and undemocratic measures; they fan the flames of sectarianism and narrow the concept of republicanism, rejecting the class basis of the national question. The Communist Party of Ireland calls upon those involved to reconsider their action.