Workers Solidarity Movement

The ruling class strategy of making working people pay for the crisis has seen public and private sector pay cuts, job losses, welfare reductions and slashing of important services like special needs assistants for children with physical and mental problems. Coming soon, if Cowan and Gormley have their way, is the return of a domestic water tax.

The Greens and Fianna Fáil have agreed a deal whereby a €225 flat tax will be levied on every household, regardless of income. The levy is expected to generate nearly €300 million a year in revenue. For families which are just barely scraping by, a levy of €225 a year is a serious attack.

The Assembly plans to charge us for water from next April. Even though the DUP and Sinn Fein said they opposed the water tax when they wanted votes, they don’t regard that as important. They got the votes and now they can ignore the promises.

“Oppose the imposition of water charges and the privatisation of the water service, and any other forms of regressive double-taxation”
(Sinn Féin, 2007 manifesto)

“Other parties are against water charges now but the DUP has been consistently opposed to the scheme”(DUP, 2007 policy document)

After a month of fooling around, the government has finally declared that they will implement water charges for schools, backdating them to 2007. These charges come as a serious blow to Irish schools, which are already among the worst funded in the OECD. In many schools, funding does not cover basic requirements such as computers or gym equipment, forcing them to fundraise among parents of students.

Over the weekend of November 24-25, protesters clashed with police in Sucre, Bolivia - they were demanding that the capital of the country be moved to Sucre. Three people died and over some 100 were wounded in the clashes. Yesterday Morales announced plans for a nationwide referendum to resolve a deepening political crisis in the country. A few months ago, two recent works on Bolivia were given a look over for the WSM's Red and Black Revoltuion 13. The review now appears on line for the first time.

A story about how a Government who could see the winning line suddenly got side tracked by the issue of poisoning the very people they were hoping would elect them again.

Galway city has grown by over a quarter since 1996. Its major source of water is the big lake, Lough Corrib North of the city. This is the same water source which deals with sewage from two plants, and has its water treated by a plant which was built in the 1940’s. The planners and the gombeens at the Ministry for the Environment do not appear to be aware of the dangers of that old saying ‘don’t shit where you eat’.

It's like the topsy-turvy world of George Orwell's "1984" where politicians engage in "double-speak" by saying they are doing one thing, while in fact doing exactly the opposite. Nobody could think the Water Charges are a fair way to pay for the upkeep of the dilapidated water and sewage system that the State has neglected for decades. The Anti-Poverty Network has calculated that 37% of the household rates we already pay goes towards their upkeep.

A non-payment campaign has been launched by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions through 'Trade Unions Against Water Charges'. The campaign advocates non-payment of the water charges, which are due to be introduced in April 2007, as the best way to overturn the Government’s proposals.

This text looks at the successful fight against water charges in Dublin a decade ago (the author was Secretary of the Federation of Dublin Anti Water Charge Campaigns) and asks what lessons campaigners preparing to fight water charges in the North can take from that campaign. (Image: The strength of the campaign: working people)

Northern Irish homes are to be subjected to a tax on water, unless enough of us get together to stop the government's plan. Friday 20th June saw the end of the "consulation" period, not that the government was doing much "consulting" with us - because they had already said that the next announcement would be about how to pay this tax! The decision had been made before they pretended to listen to our opinions about whether or not such a tax should be introduced.