2020 – In the 70s, Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed one of the first computer programs to model global sustainability and predicted that 2020 would mark the beginning of the end.
2022 – Sci-fi flick, Soylent Green, claimed that in 2022, shadowy corporations control almost half of the world’s scarce food supplies.
2024 – In a banned 90’s episode, Star Trek: The Next Generation predicts ‘Ireland’s reunification’ while discussing the success of armed rebellions.
2025 – Stephen King’s 1982 novel, The Running Man, predicted gross wealth inequality and homeless destitution side-by-side with glass skyscrapers for the wealthy. Along with enhanced surveillance and ‘reality show’ exploitation.
2026 – Fritz Lang’s 1926 silent era sci-fi masterpiece, Metropolis, depicts downtrodden workers rising up against billionaire industrialists. It opens with; ‘The year is 2026, a Dickensian “best of times, worst of times,” total oppression and manipulation of the masses is wielded by the unquestionable power of the few.’
2027 – Cuarón’s Children of Men predicted disastrous decreasing human populations.
2029 – Inventor and futurist, Ray Kurzweil, predicted AI and nanotechnology would integrate our biology with software.
After the decade we’ve had, do any of these seem that farfetched?
Eleven years of austerity has brought misery and homelessness to our streets. It has driven young people abroad and into addictions, substance abuse and misery. In fact, this system in Ireland, makes a profit from our pain and misery. It facilitates a process whereby those who own certain institutions (such as hotels or direct provision centres) are making money from the fact that we are suffering.
The role of the State in Ireland is to ensure that political, economic and social power is maintained by one class of people. Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, the Labour Party, DUP and Sinn Féin however are the key political parties that secure the interests of the exploiters, the parasites, the pigs, the capitalists and in the last decade they have done so successfully and thoroughly, all to the detriment of the working population.
We, the future generations, are the hope for a different and more fair Ireland. The time has ended for waiting for things to get better, the time has come for us to force them.
We call upon the young nurses, teachers and social workers of the country who have been gridlocked by the rapacious officials of the State. Turn your back on them as they have turned their back on you.
To the soldiers of the Irish Defence Forces we extend a special dispensation. You are the auxiliary forces of capitalism. When the time comes to suppress the people, they will call upon you to stomp out popular discontent directly, or facilitate the Gardaí in doing so. The Irish Defence Forces are established to serve the people, so serve them for we assure you, your role will not be done to dignify or honour you, but to use you and transform you into thugs and henchmen.
We call upon the youth to rally and arise for the Irish Republic. To focus on AGITATING among your peers on the many problems facing us. To get EDUCATING, asking poignant questions, demanding answers and fighting for those answers. Why is the HSE underfunded? Why are communities not looked after properly? Why does your school not get the funding it needs? Why are young people under 18 discriminated on their wages? Why are there no decent opportunities? Why is the cost of living so high? What is the basis of the problems and socio-economic phenomena in Irish society and how do we challenge it? It is the youth who must ORGANISE for the advancement of the Workers Republic proclaimed in 1916.
In the New 20’s, we must be emboldened to get organised like never before. We have an ‘economic downturn’ incoming, and this recession will impact our island significantly more than anything we could have imagined.
History and our planet demands that we take action.
2020 New Year Statement of the Connolly Youth Movement
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