A-Infos (en) Ireland, Small bin tax victory in Dun Laoghaire -Dec 11 2003

[Worker <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>]

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Over the past 5 weeks I have got myself a new job. Every
Wednesday morning I arise at 7 am and head out to join the
brother, along with comrades from the SWP Dun Laoghaire branch
(who, in fairness, have gotten up even earlier!) and some local
non-payers. Our mission to make sure that every bin on the
Granville Road, Doonsalla, Watsons road is lifted whether they
have paid some, all or no bin tax.

What we do is walk behind the truck and when the engineer taps a
bin for non-collection we fling in the bags and then contact the
resident. First week we were on our own but within two weeks
most people were coming out and by last week every non payer
was out to chuck in their own stuff - some were walking with us to
empty other bins - one bought tickets for a benefit for oxygen
strikers (next Friday - see the events calendar on indymedia). So
emptying the bins, at least, has enabled us to stabilise
non-payment, identify the non-payers and motivate them into
action. Obviously it's only a few on every street 3-5 in most cases.
The areas of non-collection were picked very carefully by the
council -private estates in Dalkey, Killiney, Blackrock, Dundrum -
where non-payment would be low and the campaign weak.

This morning we arrived down Granville road to meet the truck and
two bin men who told us we could go home, as there was no
engineer with them. This may just be respite for Christmas and a
small break. But there is at least a small possibility that the council
has squeezed out what they can here - and that it is not worth the
time and trouble to send an engineer out with the truck every week.

Also there is no doubt that on this route non-collection cannot be
implemented unless they want to up the ante and return to
injunctions and prisons.

One way or another - even if non-collection resumes we now have
a core of non- payers who know how to sling a bag into a truck
themselves and are more likely to be involved in more campaign
activity. For this reason - even in areas of high payment with few
campaign members this is a tactic that might be worth trying for a
few weeks just to see if people can be got out. Obviously if
residents themselves aren't prepared to come out and empty their
own bins then it probably isn't worth continuing the fight!

Conor

  Much more on the Bin Tax http://www.struggle.ws/wsm/bins.html


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