New Events

National

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link Ukraine Buys Huge Amounts of Russian Fue... Fri Jan 20, 2023 08:34 | Antonia Kotseva

offsite link Turkey Has Sent Ukraine Cluster Munition... Thu Jan 12, 2023 00:26 | Jack Detsch

offsite link New Israeli Government Promises to Talk ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 21:13 | Al Majadeen

offsite link Russia Training Iranian Pilots Ahead of ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 15:19 | The Times of Israel

offsite link Lukashenko Abolishes Copyright Protectio... Tue Jan 10, 2023 15:05 | Nikki Main

Anti-Empire >>

The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.  We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below). 

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

The Saker >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link A Few Months of Drought and the BBC Blames ?Climate Change? For Spanish Olive Oil Shortfalls Mon Dec 11, 2023 07:00 | Chris Morrison
The BBC's latest bit of alarmist drivel is that the poor olive harvests in Spain are due to man-made ?climate change?. In fact, says Chris Morrison, Olive oil production in Spain has been at record highs in recent years.
The post A Few Months of Drought and the BBC Blames ?Climate Change? For Spanish Olive Oil Shortfalls appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Mon Dec 11, 2023 00:54 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the virus and the vaccines, the ?climate emergency? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Put Trans Criminals in Female Jails to Help With Their Gender Identity, Says Scottish Prison Service Sun Dec 10, 2023 19:00 | Richard Eldred
"Outrageous" new guidance for Scottish prisons allows biological males, including those with a history of violence against women, to serve sentences in female prisons.
The post Put Trans Criminals in Female Jails to Help With Their Gender Identity, Says Scottish Prison Service appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link U.K. ?In Danger of Becoming a Two Nation? State After Covid Lockdowns Sun Dec 10, 2023 17:00 | Richard Eldred
The U.K. faces a dangerous societal divide, exacerbated by Covid lockdowns, with 13.4 million people experiencing economic and mental health challenges, according to a newly released report.
The post U.K. ?In Danger of Becoming a Two Nation? State After Covid Lockdowns appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Private Eye Used to Be a Thorn in the Side of the Establishment. Now It Has Become a Weapon to Attac... Sun Dec 10, 2023 15:00 | Gareth Roberts
Gareth Roberts laments Private Eye's diminished satirical edge, attributing it to complacency and a failure to engage with societal changes, leaving readers nostalgic for its sharper, more impartial past.
The post Private Eye Used to Be a Thorn in the Side of the Establishment. Now It Has Become a Weapon to Attack the Establishment?s Enemies appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N°65 Sun Dec 10, 2023 11:21 | en

offsite link Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Israel, by Thierry Meyssan Fri Dec 08, 2023 05:39 | en

offsite link Samantha Power in Gaza Thu Dec 07, 2023 06:51 | en

offsite link On October 2, insiders bet on decline of Israeli economy Wed Dec 06, 2023 11:32 | en

offsite link The New York Times seeks to demonstrate that Netanyahu and Hamas are not complic... Fri Dec 01, 2023 02:40 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Defeating the water charges - Don’t be fooled by the concessions

category national | bin tax / household tax / water tax | other press author Tuesday December 02, 2014 23:28author by wsm Report this post to the editors

4 page PDF paper from the WSM

This article was written by the WSM and appears on their website and is the text for a 4 page PDF leaflet which you are encouraged to print and distribute.

In the face of massive opposition to the water charges, the government have made several clumsy attempts to placate us, while their partners in the media seek to frighten us off the streets. The latest attempt, delivered by Alan Kelly, Minister for the Environment, Community & Local Government in the Dáil on the 19th of November, is the plan to charge us €160 per year for our water and to give ‘eligible households’ a water conservation grant of €100.
defeating_the_water_charges_4_page_pdf_cover_image.jpg

These allegedly ‘very attractive’ and ‘reasonable’ double charges for our water remain the real issue, despite government claims that there has just been a ‘communications failure’. That is, they think the problem is that they didn’t soften us up with enough propaganda first, not that we simply won’t accept double charges, commodification and privatisation of our water supply. The government will promise us anything and everything in order to get us to lie down and accept these charges, including the laughable claim that if we use a low enough volume of water that we’ll each actually make money off the water charges! Rest assured that any temporary and limited reductions in charges from the figure they initially stated will be swiftly removed if we were to pay up come April. Though, with the credibility of the Irish political class at an all time low, no one is buying the lies the government are selling. Even a concerted media onslaught has failed to scare people off the streets and into silence.

It’s worth noting that the reason that the Fine Gael/Labour government is throwing concessions at us is because of the scale and militancy of the anti water charge protests, rather than because of the actions of any government party. It is above all ordinary people, who perhaps have never considered themselves political before, who have stopped the government in its tracks. The democratic self-organisation that underpins the recent protests is what the State really fears. The reason the media have been foaming at the mouth, con- demning militant working class protest is because the system can handle a few dissenting voices elected to the Dáil but it cannot handle a risen population.

Even as Denis O’Brien’s media machine tries to scare us, and the government parties attempt to divide and conquer, we must continue to educate ourselves, to organise and to protest the water charges at every turn. Protests, marches and pickets on the current scale are impossible to ignore and are putting politicians under serious pressure to comply with our demands. If we keep it up, we will see off this latest attempt at squeezing more money out of our already struggling communities.

PDF Leaflet of above text
You can download and print out extra copies
from the PDF files we have included below
Colour version: http://www.wsm.ie/sites/default/files/WSM4pageWC.pdf
Ink saving Black & White version: http://www.wsm.ie/sites/default/files/WSM4pageWCbw.pdf

Related Link: http://www.wsm.ie/c/defeating-water-charges-2014dec
© 2001-2023 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy