Report on SWP bin tax rally

dublin | bin tax / household tax / water tax | news report

Friday October 31, 2003 00:27

by Brian - SP (personal capacity)

On Wednesday night, the SWP held a rally against the bin tax in Wynne's Hotel, Dublin. Between 55 and 60 people were in attendance.

The meeting was called in part to welcome back Brid Smith, one of the fifteen people jailed so far in the campaign.

Smith was one of the platform speakers and she received a warm welcome and a round of applause before the speeches began. The other platform speaker was Shay Ryan, an SWP member active in the anti-bin tax campaign in Ringsend.

The focus of the meeting was very firmly on tactical questions and on what the SWP feels that the campaigns should do. Most of the speakers from the floor were members of the SWP and certain common themes were apparent in their interventions and in the platform speeches.

A great deal of time was spent explaining that blockades were undesirable in areas where bins are still being collected. Instead, it was argued that the campaigns should be going out into the communities and further building support. Why the two should be considered counter-posed to each other was never explained.

Brid Smith told us that the bin men in the city were angered by the mounting of blockades. She also argued that the emphasis placed by some in the campaign on such blockades was a result of needless panic.

While opposition to blockades where non-collection has not yet been implemented was the dominant theme of the evening, some other points were repeatedly made.

The weekly City Council area activist meetings were described as "unrepresentative", instead we were told that they should be replaced by delegate meetings. Rory (another SWP member), speaking from the floor, put forward the remarkable idea that the SWP had been too "nicey-nicey" in the campaign so far and that they should argue their strategy firmly and pay less attention to the "old left" who don't understand how things have changed.

Finally, Derek Delaney's campaign for the Vice Presidency of SIPTU was plugged by a few speakers, with people at the meeting being urged to help him get a nomination to stand.