Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland

Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland or AIA Ireland is an Irish socialist-republican organisation that advocates for the establishment of a socialist state in Ireland through a socialist revolution. The group was founded in 2017. Since then, it has undertaken a number of protest actions across Ireland. The organisation has described itself as "a broad front" opposed to "the UK, the EU, the US and all other forms of Imperialism in Ireland".

Ideology
AIA "aim[s] to finish the work" of historical Irish revolutionaries such as James Connolly, socialist commander of the Irish Citizen Army, and Seamus Costello, founder of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and the Irish National Liberation Army. AIA opposes the Good Friday Agreement, and are staunchly opposed to reformism, not participating in elections and opposing a border poll as they believe these means are a pacification strategy and instead propose mobilising workers into creating "alternative power structures" and building an "Anti-Imperialist Broad Front".

It also has shown support for the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Naxalite insurgency in India. and previously called for the release of the now-deceased Peruvian Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman from prison. Members of the group are sympathetic to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and have republished texts from Maoist groups on their website.

History
AIA has conducted a number of protest actions across Ireland, mainly to bring attention to the struggle for Irish national liberation and Socialism against a perceived threat of British, American and European Union imperialism but also for other issues including Palestinian solidarity.

In 2018, AIA painted over numerous street signs of streets named after Queen Victoria and encouraged others to do the same to other street signs bearing the names of British officials. In the same year Israeli politician Gilad Erdan sent a formal letter of protest to the Irish government demanding they stop Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine member and former airplane hijacker Leila Khaled from appearing over a video call to members of AIA and another Republican group called Lasair Dhearg during a public talk held at the teacher's club in Dublin. However, the protest was unsuccessful and the call was not cancelled.

Since 2019, the organization has conducted and encouraged "Poppy Watch Patrols" to forcibly prevent the Royal British Legion from collecting donations.

Throughout 2020, AIA ran a political campaign against the extradition of Liam Campbell to Lithuania on charges of weapon trafficking. In June 2009, Campbell was found guilty in a civic court of participating in the 1998 Omagh bombing, the single deadliest attack of the Troubles, in which 29 people were killed and another 220 injured. In October 2022, the Lithuanian court announced that Campbell was returning home after all charges against him were dropped due to a statute of limitations expiry.

In June 2020, following the spray-painting of a statue of Seán Russell in Dublin with rainbow colours and pro-LGBT slogans, AIA released a pamphlet defending Russell, and maintained that Irish republicanism and LGBT liberation were allied, not opposed, causes. Seán Russell was a Chief of Staff of the IRA during World War II who organised a bombing campaign in Northern Ireland and England known as the Sabotage Campaign. Russell's time as IRA Chief of Staff was marked by the increasing influence of Irish fascist group Ailtirí na hAiséirghe over the organisation, as well as his direct collaboration with Nazi Germany.

In August 2022 the group was criticised by Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister for burning a Union Jack in a video which he dubbed a "hate crime". The flags of the Parachute Regiment and the Ulster Banner were also burned in the video.

In September 2022, a gathering of AIA members in Beresford Place, Dublin, mocked the death of Queen Elizabeth II by throwing a coffin marked "RIP British Empire" into the River Liffey.

In November 2022, AIA claimed responsibility for a paint attack on the headquarters of the Royal British Legion in Dublin, defacing the building's doorway.

In April 2023, after members of the group were targeted with a series of raids and arrests across Ireland by the Gardaí, various organisations expressed solidarity with AIA, including the Palestinian organisation Samidoun.

In August 2023, AIA alongside the Communist Party of Ireland took part in a protest in Dublin to denounce the Irish Defence Forces providing training to members of the Ukrainian Army, which they said went against Irish neutrality.

In October 2023, members of the group marched through Dublin, to Glasnevin Cemetery, to mourn the death of Irish republicans Thomas Ashe and Seamus Costello.

In November 2023, supporters of the AIA in Bangor, Maine were accused by the Bangor Daily News of distributing and hanging flyers in support of the Palestinian people, in reaction to the Israel–Hamas war

Associated organisations
The group has a youth wing called Óige Réabhlóideach

The Revolutionary Housing League is heavily affiliated with the AIA.