Resistance is Not Terrorism

Over the past few years various phrases and terms have been used to describe Irish Republicans. Many of these terms have been conjured up by the media and British establishment in an attempt to demonise and criminalise Republicans. Some of them have also been used by former Republicans who have short memories.

Republicans have been labelled "Terrorists","Criminals","gangs","Micro-groups", and more recently "traitors", "neanderthals" and "conflict junkies".

This is nothing new, anti-Republicans have always sought to demonise and criminalise the liberation struggle and those who participate in it. The only difference is that some of those who were once on the receiving end of such vilification have now joined with the various anti-Republicans in their attacking rants.

We have the media who will do anything to damage Republicanism. Indeed in a recent article in a local paper they described fallen IRA volunteers as a "gang", thankfully éirígí corrected them on that in an excellent letter in the following edition. Then we have the SDLP,they have been collaborating and endorsing the Crown Forces long before anyone else, indeed they even congratulated the RUC/PSNI when they executed a local IRA volunteer in a shoot to kill operation. Then we have their constitutional chums in Sinn Féin they were once on the receiving end but are now dishing it out more than anyone. Who can forget the image of Martin McGuinness standing alongside the Chief of the British police and call Republican insurgents "Traitors". Recently he labelled them as "conflict junkies" from the comfort of the Tory conference. It's a recurring theme that any time an act of resistance is launched they wheel out McGuinness and he starts foaming at the mouth. I'd say they're actually worse than the SDLP, we're all used to the SDLP being anti-Republican. But it's a new thing for the, once proud, Provisional Movement. They should know better than anyone what happens when people inform yet they endorse it and tell people to pass information to the Crown Forces, even if the end result means imprisonment or even death for Republicans including those who had once proudly served in the ranks of the Provisionals but unlike them they remained on the Republican path. How long will it be before former comrades start congratulating the RUC/PSNI on their "successful operations"?

A new derogatory phrase has been unveiled in recent times. The term"Residual Terrorist Groups" has been created by the NIO to describe Republican revolutionaries, though it doesn't seem to have caught on.

Resistance is not terrorism and those who carry out acts of resistance are not terrorists

Do the British establishment and their lackey's not realise after all these years that their feeble attempts to vilify and criminalise the liberation struggle has failed and always will?

This isn't confined to the Irish struggle for liberation, revolutionary resistance movements across the world are on the receiving end of similar derogatory attacks from their opponents, from the Popular Front for the Liberation  of Palestine (PFLP) to Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) have all suffered the same vilification. They have been portrayed as psychopathic terrorists, yet revolutionary groups across the world use the age old phrase that "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"


I'll end by quoting on of Ireland's best known revolutionaries who sacrificed his life so the Irish struggle for liberation would not be criminalised or demonised

They call us cons to right the wrongs

They do it with a pen

They call us crims to suit their whims of politics my friend

But they can call us all they want

For the people call us men

-Bobby Sands