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 >>

Human Rights in Ireland
A Blog About Human Rights

offsite link UN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights

offsite link 5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights

offsite link Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights

offsite link Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights

offsite link Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Women?s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player ?Broke Opponent?... Thu Mar 28, 2024 19:30 | Will Jones
A women?s football competition has been branded misogynist after it was won by a team featuring five transgender players, amid accusations one had broken an opponent?s leg in two places.
The post Women’s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player “Broke Opponent’s Leg” ? But Teams Who Refuse to Play Against Them Are Branded “Discriminatory” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Further Evidence Gaza Casualty Numbers Are Fake Thu Mar 28, 2024 17:36 | Will Jones
The evidence that the Gaza casualty numbers from the Hamas-run Health Ministry (now over 32,000) are wildly inflated continues to mount. Mark Zlochin looks at what the proportions of male and female UNRWA workers tell us.
The post Further Evidence Gaza Casualty Numbers Are Fake appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Don?t Be Fooled by the ?Britain is Growing? Fairytales Thu Mar 28, 2024 15:22 | David Craig
Don't be fooled by the 'Britain is growing' fairytales, says David Craig. Any 'growth' is accounted for by the hike in the benefits bill and in civil servants' pay and a heap of other unproductive deficit spending.
The post Don’t Be Fooled by the ‘Britain is Growing’ Fairytales appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Climate: The Movie is a Perfect Cure for Climate Anxiety Thu Mar 28, 2024 13:00 | Toby Young
Climate Change: The Movie, the new film by Martin Durkin, should be shown at every school in the country to disabuse anxious young people of the idea that we're in the midst of a 'climate emergency'.
The post Climate: The Movie is a Perfect Cure for Climate Anxiety appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The WHO?s Plot to Seize Power Over Nation States in Future Pandemics Must Be Stopped Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:12 | Will Jones
The World Health Organisation is gearing up to persuade the world's governments to sign a new pandemic treaty that would allow the unelected body to seize power over nation states in future pandemics, warns Matt Ridley.
The post The WHO’s Plot to Seize Power Over Nation States in Future Pandemics Must Be Stopped appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Moscow attack reminds us of the links between Islamists and Kiev's fundamentalis... Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:57 | en

offsite link Failure to assist a people in danger of genocide, by Hassan Hamadé Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:32 | en

offsite link Yugoslavia March 24, 1999 The Founding War of the New Nato, by Manlio Dinucci Sun Mar 24, 2024 05:15 | en

offsite link France opposes Russian Korean-style peace project in Ukraine Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:11 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N°79 Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:40 | 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
© 2001-2024 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