On behalf of the CEC/Ard Comhairle I would like to take this opportunity to extend New Year’s greetings to all Party members, their families and to all our friends and supporters both at home and abroad.

I would like also to take this opportunity offer my condolences and sympathies to the families and friends of all Comrades who died in the year gone by, as well as to Comrades and friends who lost loved ones.

The year that has passed has been another one of steady but sure progress for the Party as it faces into a New Year that holds major elections in both parts of the island. That progress is reflected in the revamping of our Dublin base with new members and Branches performing particularly well,and having representation on Dublin City Council for the first time in some 20 years. Also, in Northern Ireland, the Party experienced a significant upswing in electoral support right across the constituencies we contested this year in Belfast,  Derry, Armagh and Antrim. All of this is positive and augurs well for the upcoming elections which will dominate our attention for a large part of the new year.

With Assembly elections in Northern Ireland in May, and the by  now very distinct probability that the General election in the south will be held towards the end of February, we must be prepared to fight those elections armed with the firmest resolve to seek to defend and advance the interests of the Irish working class above all else. These elections will undoubtedly make enormous demands on our time, energies and finances, but they must be contested with the specific intent to ensure the building of the Party into an even stronger one that will continue to defend and advance the interests of all the workers of this country, both north and south.

We will go into those elections with confidence. It gives us the opportunity to re-iterate that any government that commits itself to relentlessly pursuing unashamed pro-banker/financial speculator agenda by draining scarce funds away from health, education  and  public welfare,  pumping it instead into the coffers of the very people who caused the crisis in the first instance, does not deserve to continue in office. Whatever crumbs were thrown onto the floor for workers to scramble for in the recent budget in the south, the Fine Gael-Labour coalition continues to ram through virtually to the letter the orders from their EU and World Bank masters.

It is not fit for office and the sooner it goes the better!

Similarly in Northern Ireland the Sinn Fein-DUP coalition relentlessly pursues a similar agenda, albeit in ways less obvious and direct but still no less damaging to the lives and welfare of all working class communities. Like the classic stage illusionists SF & DUP  successfully distracted attention from the savage cut-backs  in social spending, along with huge cuts to public sector jobs, by staging the by now traditional sectarian stand-off routine and diverting the public gaze from their joint savaging of welfare and jobs. Working class communities in Northern Ireland did not endure some 30 years of violence from the Provos and Loyalist paramilitaries just to end up with a government no different to the one in Dublin, and that seeks only to represent the interests of a wealthy minority. In contesting the elections in Northern Ireland the Party will be offering leadership and direction to the real majority there; working class people and their families!

Undoubtedly, then, the year that lies ahead is likely to be a very important one both for the Party and for the people we represent. It will indeed be dominated for the first half by the two forthcoming elections: that is for certain. But even though we will contest those elections passionately and with a strong resolve, we must never lose sight of the great tasks that lie ahead if we are to finally lead all Irish workers to the ultimate victory of state power. We must ensure, therefore, that in contesting the elections we are seeking not just electoral representation but also to recruit, organise and mobilise ever more people to both join and support the Party.

Our long-term task, then Comrades, still remains; not just reforms but revolutionary change! So let us be resolved to make 2016 a year in which we make further progress towards that objective.

Yours etc.

Michael Donnelly

President

The Workers’ Party

31st December 2015