But first we send revolutionary greetings to all our comrades who have stood beside us the last twelve months. Their courage, comradeship and commitment is an inspiration to all revolutionaries worldwide.

To our prisoners in gaols in Ireland, North and South, we send our warmest support and our profound thanks for your sacrifices for our movement. We on the outside will not desert or forget you, the conscience of our movement.

To the relatives of our dead volunteers and comrades, we realise that Easter is a particularly sad time for you, and we share your sense of loss and sorrow that anyone has had to die.

It is the stated position of the leadership of this movement to try to ensure that no one else will die defending the right of our movement to exist. But defend our right, nay our duty, to exist, this we will do. We cannot be held responsible for the machinations of pseudo-British agents, nor twisted personalities.

It is a cold fact that every time talented individual socialists have organised this movement along the path of revolutionary socialism, they are brutally cut down, in what the media refer to as "feuds." They are no such things. They are the response of State-sponsored terrorism to a radical working class movement, and are conscious attempts to prevent the growing of a revolutionary socialist movement. It was for such a movement that Gino Gallagher lived and died. We profoundly mourn, both for personal and political reasons, his death.

Gino personified all that was revolutionary about our movement. In times of war he had no hesitation in using the weapons of war to take the fight to the heart of the enemy, but he did so not in any mindless militaristic fashion, but as a logical extension of his politics.

In the aftermath of the IRA cease fire, Gino espoused the political road and almost single-handedly brought this movement to a clear political understanding of the weakness of the "peace strategy." He was an implacable opponent of that strategy and after assuming the leadership of our movement, began to clearly both democratise and re-politicise this movement. He was prepared to travel anywhere, meet with anyone, and debate everywhere in an effort to build up a political opposition to the nationalist consensus that depended on the goodwill of the world's superpower.

Gino as a socialist had no truck with imperialism. He was prepared to engage in dialogue with everyone but the representatives of the British Government, in order to hammer home the message of the Republican Socialist Movement, that the peace process was fatally flawed, and that only the power of the working class in Ireland was capable of liberating that class itself.

Gino's death was a tragedy for all of us, but it has steeled us to go on and organise in an open and principled fashion, and to forge a mighty weapon of a democratic, open, and revolutionary party.

Let us now spell out clearly our attitude to the current political process. We do not advocate or encourage a return to war. However, it is our view that the decision by the INLA leadership to place its volunteers on standby, ready to respond to attacks both on our movement and on the northern nationalist working class, was fundamentally correct. Defence and retaliation at this moment is the only position a revolutionary body can adopt. This position poses no threat to the Protestant working class. Whilst we are in total political opposition to loyalism, we recognise that our main enemy is imperialism, and we will not be side-tracked into the nasty sectarian war that elements of the British establishment are so eager to see. This movement will only respond to attacks. It will not, nor has it in the past twenty months, initiated offensive actions. It has adhered to a no first strike strategy.

As Republicans we abhor sectarianism and as Socialists we are searching for ways by which the working classes on the island of Ireland can live without animosity to each other. We believe that that ,ultimately, will be best achieved by the establishment of a Socialist Republic. We are, as a united movement, however, prepared to discuss our aims and objectives with others in a frank, open, and honest fashion. It is our belief that in the current fluid political situation, unless there is open dialogue involving all the elements involved in the conflict, then catastrophe faces the working class. To the political leadership of those who claim to speak for the Protestant working classes, we repeat what we have said since last June, sit down and talk with us. Only dialogue can prevent the almost relentless drift back to a nightmare sectarian scenario. The ball is in your court.

As to the farcical talks/electoral process, let us say what we have repeated all along. We don't trust the British Government, and we are not in the least amazed that they have adopted a unionist agenda. We said that they were unionists all along. They are an so is the current leadership of the British Labour Party. Unless republicans recognise this and act accordingly, then we will all face a severe political defeat. We also predicted the collapse of the political house of cards built up by the Hume/Adams approach. As socialists we cannot endorse a pan-nationalist alliance.

Now, there are elections with British approved parties. Is this the road Sinn Fein want to go down? If things stay as they are, then any party fighting that election condones the marginalisation of our party, the Irish Republican Socialist Party which has been systematically excluded by now both the British and Irish Governments. Not only are we excluded, but so also are other valid political points of view. Big Brother is alive and well, and living in the British Government.

We will not be dictated to by a foreign Government as to whether we can participate or not in elections in our own country. Let us now see, out of all the other political parties, who really are the democrats. Will they defend our right to be different, to be politically opposed to the politics of the peace process? Or will political expediency keep their conscience quiet?

There is another road to either a return to full scale war, or rebuilding the nationalist consensus. It is the road that the Republican Socialist Movement has been advocating since May 1995. It is our plan B, the one we took to independent republicans and socialists last summer, and tried to build a consensus for a radical non-violent mass movement based on the needs of the working classes in Ireland. Part of that plan involved the establishment of a Labour sponsored Forum, where the representatives of the unofficial armed groups could meet without preconditions and begin the dialogue that we recognise is essential if the interests of the workers are to be paramount.

It is not too late, nor can it ever be too late, to forge a radical alternative to the sad sorry mess we now endure. We call on radicals and republicans, on socialists and class conscious workers to initiate internal talks about the best way for a radical alternative. We ourselves believe this might be best achieved by working towards the establishment of a Republican Congress type body. But we are of so arrogant as to believe that we alone know the way forward. We don't particularly want to be the drivers of any bus, but we do have a part to play and we say, not only to the other dissidents with the peace process, but also to all the establishment parties in Ireland, the Republican Socialist Movement is and will be a permanent fixture of the Irish political scene. We have a part to play and play it we will.

If the INLA is part of the problem, it has to be part of the solution. If Richard Spring, foreign minister in the 26 county coalition, thinks that decisions of the INLA to adopt a position of defence and retaliation is an "act of madness" then let him have the political courage to articulate that to the IRSP face-to-face. He has talked to the loyalists, now it is still not too late to talks to the Irps. We are ready.

Comrades, before we leave this spot, think what we commemorate. Republicans throughout the world acknowledge the magnificent achievement of the insurgents of 1916. A mere handful of revolutionaries took up arms against the world's largest imperialist power. They began the anti-colonial movement that lead to the liberation of millions throughout the world. The task they began has not been completed. Much remains to be done. We here will do our part. We salute the memory of James Connolly. We salute the volunteers of 1916. They were revolutionaries, they were internationalists, they were Republicans.

Can we be anything less? Renew here your commitment to the radical non-sectarian tradition of Irish Republicanism, to the red blooded socialism of Connolly and Costello. Salute the courage of Ta and Gino, the organising skills of Miriam Daly and Noel Lyttle, the enthusiasm and dedication of Ronnie Bunting, and the sacrifices of all our comrades and supporters, both living and dead, too numerous to mention.