Water charge

News & Analysis of the resistance to the attempt to introduce a Water Charge from 2014, By late 2014 regular demonstrations of tens of thousands against the charge were taking place and confrontations were taking place in estates across the country as GMC Sierra crews tried to install meters in the face of community resistance. For the successful campaign against the water tax in the 1990s see our archive at http://www.wsm.ie/water-tax

O'Connell Street Blocked by Water Charge Protesters Demanding Release of Stephen Bennett (Video)

Date: Mon, 2015-05-25 16:11

Dun Laoghaire court remanded one of the water charge protesters arrested 19th May to Cloverhill prison for a week. An emergency protest called for the 20th blocked the quays and O'Connell St. for an hour in the evening demanding his release.

Stephen Bennett is a well known water charges activist in Dublin who has been successful in defending himself in numerous cases brought by the Garda. He was remanded after refusing bail conditions that would have denied his freedom to protest in future. These conditions were clearly intended to remove him from the streets.

Anarchist Bloc on the April 18 Bin Your Bills Water Charge March

Date: Mon, 2015-05-25 15:44

Taking advantage of the fact that a lot of local water charge groups were not seriously mobilsing for the April 18th march we called a last minute Anarchist Bloc to encourage people to attend via our Dublin radical events from WSM group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/radical.dublin)

Anarchist bloc on the water charges march through Dublin

Posted by Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland) on Saturday, 18 April 2015

The Fight Against the Water Charges - Where Next? - Contribution to DABF 2015 Panel with Video

Date: Wed, 2015-04-29 11:08

Can we turn the water charge movements away from the self-destruction of taking the electoral route, can we convince people in large numbers that it is on the streets and in conversations with their neighbours that the battle will be won not in the ballot box?

Over the coming months we need to solidify the message of the twin direct action tactics of blocking meter installation and not paying the bills – the message of people seeing themselves as leaders in their communities in terms of having that conversation – ‘I’m Not paying. You Shouldn’t Pay’ – retaining the many headed monster and avoiding the false ‘unity’ that involves leadership from above being imposed on self-organising community campaigns

Coverage of the massive M21 Water Charges demonstration

Date: Fri, 2015-03-27 15:08

March 21st saw tens of thousands of protesters take to the streets of Dublin once more for 3 marches from different points of the city that converged in O'Connell st. This video attempts to give a sense of the huge size of the marches by mixing footage taken from among the marches on the streets with that taken from overhead during the huge rally at the end.

Our coverage started early in the morning on our new Solidarity Times page with "19 buses are leaving Donegal as we write for the long trip to Dublin and the massive M21 protest marches against the Water Charge"

Minister Alan Kelly Says Water Protesters are False Revolutionaries Chasing Utopia up a Hill

Date: Sat, 2015-02-28 18:00

Comical Alan strikes again. Who could put it better, that Labour are a shower of 'false revolutionaries who believe in leading people up to the top of the hill and then they'll blatantly abandon them, like they have done on many issues before'? Who are more utopian than Labour, who believe that endless electoral compromises could ever bring us 'a society that is fair, prosperous, and sustainable [Labour Party, General Election 2011]'?

It's amusing to see a Labour minister echoing Thatcher's declaration that 'There Is No Alternative'. But he couldn't be more wrong. There is an alternative. It is revolutionary, and funnily enough involves things being free.

In this massive uprising against the water charges, more and more people are realising that nothing much will change without fundamentally overhauling, or revolutionising, the system we live under.

Labour Minister Kelly claims Protesters Make 'No Contribution to Society'

Date: Thu, 2015-02-26 23:28

Minister for the Environment, and 2nd in command of the Labour Party, Alan Kelly has dared to denounce protesters as not contributing to society, despite his own status as grand leech.

Without a hint of irony the minister accused some in Sinn Fein and 'the hard left' of being jobless and not making a contribution to society despite being politically active.

Though Kelly is virtuous enough to have a job - because remember, you're a bad person if you don't have one - he and his party's contribution to society is much like a bullet's contribution to the healing process, despite the fact that he is very politically active.

Although Kelly was keen to point out that these comments were totally unrelated to the campaign against the water charges, we all know they are part of a long line of government smears designed to rip apart our movement.

Indeed many of us wait with hands to our ears for the next damning fiction to slop out of a Labour or Fine Gael politician's mouth. What will it be next time? We're already dole scrounging terrorists, how much further can they push it?

Don't Let the Media Redefine the Meaning of Peaceful Protest

Date: Thu, 2015-02-26 16:15

With the mainstream media hounding the anti-water charges movement with their calculated 'but is it peaceful protest?' narrative, it's important to clarify just what peaceful protest is and is not.

Peaceful protest is not protest which is placid, docile, quiet, polite, tranquil, serene, gentle, or soothing. It is merely protest which does not use violence.

Establishment figures exploit the many meanings that 'peaceful' can have, and use this equivocation to dupe us into thinking our protests should be docile and polite.

We must not be constrained by the narratives the media and politicians try to cast on us like a fishing net. We have to decide what we want to do on our terms, not theirs.

Labour Pinkwashing is Cynical Seat-Saving Measure

Date: Wed, 2015-02-25 14:00

In a desperate attempt to save a few liberal seats the Labour Party have been engaged in trying to suggest the water charge movement is some sort of homophobic mob. It's an argument based o

n the worst Dublin 4 prejudice and snobbery. Joan started the slander after Jobstown, Aodhan continued it in the Irish Times in a piece whose only outcome if believed would be to win election votes at the cost of equality votes.

Aidan writes "As a queer and a participant in the anti-water charges movement, I regard Aodhán Ó Ríordáin's comments as a rather cynical and desperate attempt to paint one of the most promising movements for progress in this state as somehow regressive, and to staple together some progressive credentials for himself by co-opting LGBT demands and organising.

Ireland - No Water Charges! Italy - No TAV!

Date: Sun, 2015-02-22 13:00

Our struggle is international!

In solidarity with the NO TAV struggle.

Let's put an end to useless major public works and to the repression of protesters!

As thousands marched against the repression of anti-water charges protesters in Dublin yesterday, a similar demonstration was taking place in Turin. Thousands of protesters took to the streets to oppose the construction of the controversial high speed railway from Turin to Lyon.

The following is a statement signed by organisations of the Anarkismo network, including the WSM.

Water Charges & Civil Disobedience: Unjust Laws are to be Broken

Date: Fri, 2015-02-20 13:00

What is important is that we do what is right, not what is legal. Sometimes these things overlap, often they are in conflict. What the struggle against the water charges has shown clearly is that a slave mentality of blindly obeying the law will never lead to a better world. We must attend to real justice, not the judicial system.

There's a famous quote from US historian, author, and activist Howard Zinn:

“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders …and millions have been killed because of this obedience …Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves … [and] the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”

Workers Solidarity Movement

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