A-Infos (en) Ireland, Anarchist Workers Solidarity 114 - Keep Water Free

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. ---- About 100 
people attended an anti-water charges forum called by Socialist MEP Joe Higgins in 
February. We discussed building opposition to this latest attempt by the wealthy to put 
their hands into our pockets. ---- 15 years ago a mass campaign of non-payment, which the 
Workers Solidarity Movement helped to organise, forced the Fine Gael/Labour government to 
abolish water charges. There is no timetable for bringing in the new tax but it’s expected 
to be within the next year or two. The first step will be trying to install meters in each 
house.

This is so they can pretend it’s “environmental”. The plan is to start off with households 
being allocated a "free" allowance of water and only when they use more than this amount 
will they start paying. We can be sure that’s just a temporary measure, as demonstrated 
recently by the introduction of charges in Dublin for bin waiver holders.

The real purpose is to generate an “income stream” and eventually privatise water supply. 
That‘s what happened with water supply in Britain and it’s what happened here with refuse 
services.

Speaking to the forum Michael Taft, Research Officer of the UNITE trade union, reminded us 
of the huge differences of wealth in Ireland, where the top 5% own 40% of all wealth and 
the top 1% have 33% of all the financial wealth. He also pointed out that service charges 
are part of the ongoing transfer of wealth from working people to the rich.

Environmental engineer Maurice Sweeney rubbished the Green argument that ordinary people 
waste water. The real waste is down to the crap state of mains water pipes in much of the 
country. About 35% of all drinking water is lost through leaks. Some of this is down to 
aging Victorian pipes not being replaced, while some is down to letting building firms on 
state contacts get away with incredibly low standards in recent years.

He explained that there is no evidence to suggest that meters will lead to a reduction in 
consumption. A good example is England and Scotland, where water use per household is 
slightly more than in Ireland, despite the fact that they have meters and charges in these 
countries already. Meters, he said, were simply a tool to charge for water.

Everyone at the forum seemed to be agreed that mass non-payment must the basis of a 
national campaign. The government is getting ready, and so are we. A large number of those 
present volunteered to be part of an interim organising committee to discuss, in detail, 
the nuts and bolts of building a campaign.
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