Anti-imperialist Action Ireland sends its revolutionary greetings, solidarity and support to the hunger strikers – Sibel Balaç and Gökhan Yıldırım – currently on death fast in Turkish prison today.
Ireland has a long history of struggle by hunger strike, dating back to ancient times and re-kindled in the modern era during the Revolutionary Tan war against the british empire 1919-1921.
This struggle was renewed again by the next generation of Irish hunger strikers in the 1970s and again in the 1980s – which galvanised the Irish revolutionary movement and inspired similar struggles around the world.
The inspirational bravery of Turkish political prisoners in Death Fast in the 1990s and 2000s showed that resistance until death for a revolutionary and just struggle will forever be a tool in the arsenal of the oppressed.
The recent death fast resistance and political victory achieved by Grup Yorum and other Turkish revolutionary prisoners has shown the world that the people still hunger for justice.
The political prisoners of Turkey currently on hunger strike are a teacher and an anti-drug campaigner respectively.
In Ireland, there have been many famous revolutionary teachers – not least among them Padraig Pearse, who was executed this May week in 1916 along with his fellow teachers and signatories of the the proclamation of the Irish Republic.
Ireland has also struggled with drug addiction and the pushing of toxic poisons by mafia groups in collusion with the Free State and British administrations.
As such the Irish people can have a deep resonance with the political struggle of the revolutionaries in Turkey as well as their methods of resistance.
The people of Ireland can support the hunger strikers in Turkey in various ways:
By boycotting the Turkish state for holiday destination, by contacting by Turkish prison governors, the Turkish departments of health and of foreign affairs and other government departments on behalf of the prisoners and by contacting politicians, officials, celebrities and other notable figures in Ireland and asking them to speak out publicly and to contact Turkish officials themselves.
The people of Ireland and the people of Turkey face similar struggles. The reactionary regimes oppressing the peoples of both countries are united in their fascism and imperialism.
The peoples of these countries must therefore themselves be united in revolutionary struggle if they are to be successful. Showing solidarity with the revolutionary hunger strikers in Turkey is a strong step along that path for people in Ireland to take.
The martyrs are immortal!
Victory to the hunger strikers!
Tiocaigh ár lá
