All the political intelligence in the 26 counties suggests that the free state administration will call an election in November 2024. In the aftermath of a giveaway budget and the clear lack of any real opposition within the electoral system, Simon Harris and his colleagues are keen to strengthen their grip on power and will use a November election to extend their grip of this artificial statelet for the next five years, bringing us to the end in of the decade.
For Revolutionary Republicans and Socialists, the only correct position in relation to the election is to boycott it. Leinster House is an illegal British created, semi colonial parliament that was established to usurp and repress the 32 county Irish Republic Proclaimed in 1916 and Established in 1919. The sole purpose of the administration in Leinster House is to ensure the exploitation of the Irish people by International Imperialism, particularly British, European and North American imperialism. The act of voting only serves to give a false sense of legitimacy to the puppet parliament, and extends the exploitation of our people.
As working class revolutionaries however, it is not enough to simply boycott Leinster House or elections for its administration and ignore the situation on the ground. We must ask ourselves what the free state election campaign means for our class and how we can use the period ahead to heighten class consciousness and build the Revolutionary Movement.
The forthcoming election offers no chance of change for the Irish Working Class. There is nothing to be gained for the working class casting a vote for their exploiters. Instead, it is our duty as revolutionaries to promote the Republican Alternative and build the active boycott of Leinster House and its elections at the community level.
As it’s lowest objective, the aim of the Republican Boycott Campaign should be to increase the numbers of working class people refusing to vote. The elections of recent years across Ireland have demonstrated a clear trend of a declining turnout of those who are registered to vote in working class communities. A low turnout of registered voters is a significant propaganda victory for the campaign and is a statement that highlights that the majority is f working class people in Ireland view the free state its institutions and administration as illegitimate.
But our boycott campaign should aim for much more than this. The forthcoming election provides us with the opportunity to build the active boycott in the community, presenting the people with an alternative and encouraging people instead to stop begging for crumbs from pro imperialist politicians and work instead to build community based alternative Republican institutions, Resistance Committees, Centres of Resistance and Popular Revolutionary Councils through which local communities get organised to face all issues that face them collectively and through being linked at a national level, these peoples institutions can become the Democratic expression of the 32 County Irish Republic built from the community up.
This Republican Alternative is realistic and achievable. It’s starts by getting working class communities organised themselves, through residents and tenants committees, committees for defence against anti social behaviour, local housing communities and going street to street, estate to estate and area to area to win the involvement of the local people in the alternative to the free state semi colony and imperialist exploitation by showing them only Revolutionary Irish Republicanism can be their engine for change and that Irish Republicans have the interests of our community and our class as the driving force.
The forcoming free state election gives us the opportunity to take this alternative forward in a number of areas across the country, making a start on the building up the revolutionary state within the country ld reactionary state which is the only road to effect a change to the power structures in Ireland and establish our People’s Republic under the democratic control of the working class.
Boycott the Free State Election
Boycott Leinster House
Build the Republican Alternative in Our Communities