Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

In commemoration of the assistance provided to the starving people of Ireland by the Choctaw Nation 154 years ago, the international department of the Irish Republican Socialist Party issued a statement declaring the IRSP's solidarity with the struggle of the Choctaw and all Native American nations for sovereignty within their traditional lands and fighting to preserve their cultural integrity.

The statement declares:

"It was in the midst of Black '47, 154 years ago on March 23rd, that the Choctaw nation, then exiled to reservations in Oklahoma, learned of the mass starvation occurring in Ireland as a result of the potato blights impact on social conditions dominated by the reality of oppressive and absentee British landlords demanding food crops for rent from native Irish tenant farmers. As a result of this callous disregard for Irish life, over a million Irish women and men died during a five year period and a similar number were forced to emigrate. The Irish population has never again regained the levels known prior to the Great Hunger.

"The Choctaw had themselves been the victims of a colonial land left which culminated in the infamous Trails of Tears forced march over 500 miles to be relocated in Oklahoma only 16 years prior. During that inhuman ordeal, over half of the Choctaws forced to relocate lost their lives. So recently confronted with the theft of their lands, forced relocation, suppression of their native tongue, starvation, and suffering, the Choctaw immediately recognised the similarities between their own experience and that of the Irish people. Despite their own losses so recently, the Choctaw donation to the victims of the Great Hunger in Ireland was the single largest to come from the Americas.

"This act of deeply felt solidarity from one nation beset by colonial oppression with another such nation remains tremendously moving and serves as a shining example for all those confronting imperialism in the world today. Whether we find ourselves in the Americas, Australia, Africa, Asia, the Arab world, or in Europe, those of us who continue to struggle against colonialism, imperialism, and Zionism must recognise that our experience is the same, our enemies are the same, our struggles are the same. A victory for any of us, is a victory for all; a set back for any of us, does injury to us all."

The statement concludes by saying:

"We in the Irish Republican Socialist Party remember the debt of the Irish people to the Choctaw nation. For over a century and a half, our two nations have shared a bond that must be cherished and preserved. While the IRSP continues its fight for national liberation and socialism in Ireland, it remains ever mindful of the ongoing struggle of the Choctaw and all indigenous peoples of the Americas to preserve their culture and to regain their national sovereignty. We embrace the First Nations of the Americas as our sisters and brothers."

Your Struggle is Our Struggle!

Long Live the Solidarity Between the Irish and Native American Peoples!