Anti Water Activists' statement in response to political stalemate and the way ahead

Below is a statement from Brendan Young on behalf of a group of anti water charge activists who met last Saturday, April 16, in the Teachers Club, Parnell Square.  

The meeting was in response to a unilateral call from Brendan Ogle for all TDs who support the movement's aims to vote for a Fianna Fail minority government  (see our article Anti Water campaign broadsided amid Dail doldrums ).  This controversial issue highlights  divisions and uncertainties within the anti water charge movement which the political stalemate in the country is causing.   The meeting was an initial attempt to find an agreement on the way forward for the anti water charge movement.  A further meeting will be held this Saturday, April 23, in the Teachers Club, Parnell Square, Dublin, 2-4pm.    The movement has to take the initiative away from politicians and demand that our voice be heard. 

We agreed the following: (see attendees below)

1. With regard to the public discussion on the formation of the next government, we are opposed to the movement against the water charge calling for TDs to vote for a government of the parties responsible for the austerity imposed to pay for the bank bailout – including the water charge; 
2. Instead we support a call for all TDs who say, or have said, they oppose the water charge to vote to immediately abolish the water charge and to immediately abolish IW when a Bill to that effect is put before the Dail;
3. We are aware of discussions amongst anti-water-charge TDs on drafting a Bill and look forward to seeing that draft Bill in the coming week;
4. We are in favour of such a Bill being a cross-party Bill, rather than a Bill presented by any one party;
5. We are in favour of all TDs who say they oppose the water charges being asked to sign this Bill;
6. While we support a Bill being put to the Dail, we regard mass non-payment as key to defeating the water charge and are committed to promoting the boycott of the charge;
7. We are in favour of a national demonstration against the water charge – and in support of a Bill to abolish the charge and abolish IW – involving all who oppose the water charge;
8. We are aware that a Bill will not be put to the Dail until after the formation of the next government; we favor a demonstration before the formation of the next government;
9. We are aware of discussions taking place, amongst the TDs and parties involved in the drafting of a Bill, on the possibility of a national demonstration – and the possibility that these TDs and parties may agree to call a national demonstration; we look forward to hearing the outcome of this discussion in the coming week;
10. We agree to a press conference being called, involving broad participation of anti water charge TDs, in response to IW payment figures when they are announced in the coming week;
11. We support a visible mobilisation of all who oppose the water charge at the Reclaim the Vision of 1916 event on Sunday April 24 in Dublin – assemble in Merrion Sq at 14.00 and bring banners; the organisers ask anti-water charge groups to join the parade behind the banner 'Irish Republic – ownership of Ireland' 
12. We are in favour of a national day of action against the water charge in the near future – provisionally on Saturday April 30, depending on the outcome of the discussion on calling a national demonstration mentioned above – and will discuss this at our next meeting;
13. In the event that the incoming government does not scrap the water charge, we support open discussion and democratic decision-making in the next phase of the campaign;
14. we agree that there is a need for systematic work on social media; we will discuss how best to do this at our next meeting;
15. We will meet again at 14.00 – 16.00 in the Teachers Club, Parnell Sq on Sat April 23. This meeting is open to all who oppose the water charge and we will publicise the meeting as much as possible.

Attendance: Paddy Healy, Sean Heffernan, Seamus McDonagh, John Lyons, Donall O'Ceallaigh, Garrett Banks, Joe Kelly, Enda Craig, James Quigley, Shane Fitzgerald, Eddie Doyle, Joanne Pender, Liz Wilders, Mary O'Donnell, John Meehan, Aaron Nolan, Paul Murphy, Ciara Hendrick, Evelyn Campbell, Pat Waine, Brendan Young. 

---

Anti Water Campaign Broadsided amid Dail doldrums

In these days of political intrigues in Ireland when media sleuths are waiting to pounce on controversy,  is it politic for an organisation's main spokesperson to air personal views without consulting the organisation?  Would that be considered correct or professional?  We know in times of political strife a tactic is sometimes used to sound out public opinion. Perhaps that is acceptable in the political arena but in a public campaign with multi party support and built on camaraderie,  then making a personal statement without consulting other members beforehand may not have been prudent.  

Brendan Ogle, Unite and John Douglas, Mandate.  Mr Ogle is spokesperson for Right2Water affiliated trade unions.

Last Thursday, April 14, Brendan Ogle, spokesperson for Right2Water affiliated trade unions, made a personal statement on his Facebook page calling on all Dail TDs who support the anti water charge campaign to vote for a Fianna Fail minority government.   

"I (unusually) had the time today to follow every word of what happened in the Dail and one thing is crystal clear to me, more than ever.
There is an opportunity to elect a FF minority Government that will abolish Irish Water and, if they break that promise, the plug can be pulled by those outside FF at any time.

I have received emails from politicians saying that nobody should trust FF. They are spot on. I don't. But I am not in any party precisely because not only do I not trust FF, but because I do not trust any of them.

Lack of trust however should not be a barrier to doing business. I have concluded many collective agreements with employers over the years and the hard fact is I trusted none of them either. But even without trust agreements had to be made and they were mostly honoured.  

In my view it isn't. An agreement can be reached that will abolish Irish Water and if it isn't delivered by the biggest part then, in a minority Government situation, the plug gets pulled and those who broke theircommitment exposed in an inevitable election then. But put it up to them. It may be that behind the scenes a political judgement is being made that it suits this group or that groups long term strategic interests to just keep going, regardless of Irish Water, and not form a minority Government to abolish Irish Water and charges now. If that is the case then that is a political strategic objective that may well be legitimate in that party or alliance "  Read full statement here.

Campaigners taken by surprise

This unilateral statement has caused quite a heated debate on his facebook page and among the  anti water charge movement in general.  It  has taken  seasoned campaigners totally by surprise.  

Fianna Fail as everyone knows is a right wing Irish party who were in government at the time of the 2009 financial crash and subsequent bank guarantee which the Irish Mirror described as "Ireland's €440 billion bank guarantee was the most destructive own-goal in history, a banking expert has told an Oireachtas inquiry."

The Irish General election took place on February 29th, 2016 and still there is no government in place , with parties in negotiations to form what looks to be some type of minority government.  What is looking more likely, at present, is a minority with Fine Gael, (50 seats),  doing a deal with the second largest party Fianna Fail, (44 seats) along with possible support from some Independents and the Labour Party, (7 seats).  In this scenario Fianna Fail would get some of their policies implemented  in exchange for committing their support to a minority Fine Gael/Ind/Labour government for a fixed term. 

Call is an error and should be dropped according to campaigners.

Cllr Brendan Young

Cllr Brendan Young and Mr Pat Waine, long time anti water charged campaigners and Right2Water activists, spoke out against Mr Ogle's statement.  

Mr Young said "Controversy has unfortunately arisen in the movement against the water charge. The main spokesperson for R2W,  Brendan Ogle, has publicly called for TDs, who oppose water charges (some or all of the TDs of the Left, or SF, SDs or Independents) to elect a FF minority government that would abolish IW.

There was no need to make such a call.  Mr Ogle could simply have called for pressure to be put on FF and Independents and parties to vote for a Bill to abolish IW and  water charges, whether or not they vote for a FG or FF minority government.  Indeed there are currently discussions taking place on the drafting of such a Bill. There could also be a meeting called to discuss other actions to put pressure on TDs, including the possibilities of mobilisations, non-payment.

Mr Ogle is mistaken in saying that electing a FF government is similar to a trade union making an agreement with an employer. A trade union that makes an agreement with an employer does not take on to impose cuts on other workers. But a TD who elects a FF (or FG) government would be taking responsibility for continued austerity in exchange for abolition of one charge.

Any TD who did this would be abandoning the fight against austerity, betraying their supporters and – like Labour – would never be trusted again. Surely UNITE members would not want TDs who declared opposition to austerity to let FF get on with it unopposed?

Pat Waine

I think this call to elect a FF government is an error that should be dropped."

Pat Waine and I have convened a meeting at 1pm in the Teachers Club, Parnell Sq, Dublin on April 16 to discuss the current situation and how to take the fight forward. While we have differences with others in the movement, we think we should all work together to enforce the abolition of the water charge."  Read Mr Young's full statement here

The proposed meeting took place last Saturday and Mr Young said that a statement and press release will be released on Wednesday.

To date there has been no official statement on the issue from Right2Water affiliated trade unions.

---

Cllr Brendan Young criticises Irish Water's threats and calls for boycott intensification

Brendan Young, councillor for Kildare North, calls for the boycott campaign against Irish Water to be stepped up.  His statement is in response to Irish Water's recent legal threat that water charges can not be abolished.  He sees this as a last ditch effort to keep Irish Water alive by 'undemocratic legalistic means'.

Brendan Young on the left

Brendan Young's Statement Mar 30, 2016

"Recent reports are saying that neither water charges nor Irish Water can be abolished because the EU says so – according to the opinion of two barristers who were undoubtedly paid a lot of money by Ervia (IW parent company) to give their opinion.  My opinion is that IW management know that there is a very real prospect of their jobs going down the plug hole. This is a last-ditch attempt to keep IW alive – undoubtedly with the support of FG – by undemocratic legalistic means: 70% of the recently-elected TD's said they oppose this water charge.

Whatever the opinion of barristers, the political reality is that prior to the election nearly 50% were not paying – and that number has increased, perhaps close to 60%. People who did not pay are standing firm; and those who did pay are stopping: why throw more money away if the charge is being scrapped?

It is non-payment that has made water charges a political issue. If a FG government tries to retain the charge and gives IW the green light next Spring to try to take up to 700,000 non-payers to court, individually, to get attachment to earnings, there will be uproar and the government could fall over it.  FG and FF know this. FF also know that if they go back on their promise to postpone the charge, or support court cases to enforce it, they would be hammered at a time when they are jockeying with FG to be the the dominant party of the rich while simultaneously trying to compete for working class support against SF and the Left.

So FF want to diffuse the non-payment movement and are calling for people to pay while the charge remains in place. They are also saying they are not legally bound to impose the charge and will postpone it. They may be hoping that the movement will dissipate and the charge can be revived in a few years' time.

We cannot rely on FF to abolish water charges. Nor should we entrust the decision on how to manage our water system to an 'independent commission' as proposed by SF's Eoin O'Broin. Who would establish such a commission? What does 'independent' mean in this instance?

Once the charge has been dropped and there is a commitment to fund water from direct taxation we can start discussing how to co-ordinate the upgrade and management of the service. My response to comments on the EU's Water Directive is this: there is no 'established', accepted procedure for charging for water in Ireland; and I reject the EU's regressive proposal of individually charging for essential services such as water – the trajectory of which is privatisation of profitable parts (which TTIP would make much worse).

IW was set up to charge domestic users for water – one of the bank-bailout charges. It has to go. The FF plan to postpone this charge and re-introduce something similar in a few years is unacceptable. The only way to ensure that it's abolished is to make it unworkable by not paying. In the short term, we need to begin planning the organisation of a big demonstration in support of non-payment and abolition before the discussions on the formation of a government are concluded."

Bruncrana Together
We asked Brendan to elaborate on what he meant by 'green light next Spring to try to take up to 700,000 non-payers to court' and about levies this year.  He replied

"A penalty of €60 for a multi person household and €30 for a single person household applies after a year of non payment. IW will presumably add this to outstanding bills. No court case is needed to levy the penalty. Anyone who is confident about not paying, or those who think it will be abolished, are likely to ignore the penalty. But you are correct about the timing and if the charge still exists in three months time a big demo needs to be organised against the penalties.

The crunch really comes when people owe €500 - at the end of 2016 - and IW have to decide whether or not to attempt to get attachment orders through the courts. That will determine whether IW can survive, assuming it survives til then. If non payment remains around 50% IW can't survive, and everybody knows this. So sustaining non payment is vital to keeping pressure on FF and FG. Both are susceptible to pressure because of the instability of whatever administration takes office. But if people pay, that pressure will be much reduced."

---