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(For all of the ultraleft attacks on Syriza, there is little
understanding that its election has the effect of encouraging resistance
to austerity. It is the accumulated spread of anti-austerity movements
that will in turn create the conditions for a renewal of a revolutionary
left that the big bourgeoisie most fears. That is why they are trying to
break the back of Syriza.)
NY Times, Mar. 27 2015
A New Irish Rebellion, This Time Against Water Fees
By SUZANNE DALEY
DUBLIN — Miranda Lumsden, 43, a single mother of four, had never
protested against anything before the Irish government introduced new
water fees last summer.
But the prospect of yet another bill arriving in the mail made her angry
enough to join a cluster of demonstrators outside Dublin’s City Hall
recently, even as sleet turned their homemade “We Won’t Pay” posters soggy.
“I’m scrimping from week to week as it is,” said Ms. Lumsden, pulling
her jacket closer. “I’ve only got my bus fare home to last me the rest
of the week.”
Until now, Ireland was emblematic of German-led austerity policies. Its
citizens offered little resistance as their government — grappling with
huge debts from the country’s failed banks — introduced new taxes and
increased old ones, even while laying off workers and cutting health and
welfare benefits.
In recent months, however, the Irish have been anything but quiet. The
prospect of paying for water, which many see as yet another new tax at a
time when the government has assured them that austerity is over, has
prompted a series of mass protests across the country, from Dublin to
Cork. Many demonstrators say they have no intention of paying the new fees.
About a third of the country’s households have simply refused to
register with the newly created state authority that is to run the
country’s water service, though the deadline for doing so has now been
extended three times. In some neighborhoods, workers trying to install
meters have been met with angry mobs and forced to flee.
The pushback has been so strong that the government has already lowered
its sights somewhat, setting a cap on the water charges, at least for
now, and adding a sweetener — 100 euros, equal to about $110, for
households that register.
Still, some experts say that the protests are far from over, reflecting
growing fatigue with austerity policies that have taken a toll on most
families, even as the economy has recovered to the point that it is the
fastest-growing in Europe.
Many expect a widespread refusal to pay when the bills are sent out in
April.
“It’s been like watching a dam bursting,” said Paddy Prendiville, the
editor of a biweekly political and current affairs magazine, The
Phoenix. “A defiance that wasn’t there is here now. The water charges
have been the final straw for people.”
Anger over austerity policies has already changed the face of politics
in Greece, where, after trading power for decades, the center right and
left parties recently lost national elections to a leftist party,
Syriza. In Spain, the new leftist party Podemos has been ahead in the
polls for months, with elections expected later this year.
Here, too, polls indicate that a political shift is brewing. Support has
been growing for the anti-austerity left-wing opposition Sinn Fein party
and for smaller parties that are, like Syriza in Greece, calling for the
renegotiation of terms on loans.
Sinn Fein is the political offshoot of the Irish Republican Army and is
headed by Gerry Adams, who has long denied assertions that he was an
I.R.A. member or took part in I.R.A. violence.
Sinn Fein is polling at more than 20 percent of the vote, about level
with Ireland’s two traditionally dominant parties, Fine Gael and Fianna
Fail, and more than twice the votes it got in 2011. Elections must take
place by April 2016, but could take place later this year, experts say.
“Things could get very interesting,” Mr. Prendiville said. “Sinn Fein
will surely double its seats. No one cares what the I.R.A. did 30 years
ago.”
The present Irish government, a coalition of the center-right Fine Gael
party and the center-left Labor Party, appears to have been taken by
surprise by the depth of resentment over the water charges.
The protesters say they have been paying taxes for water for years and
the government is double-billing now.
At first, Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s administration sought to install
meters and charge citizens by water use. But then the government capped
charges and promised that the rates would not change until 2019. For
most households, that means paying no more than $285 a year, officials said.
Alan Kelly, the minister of environment, community and local government,
said that creating an authority with a dedicated revenue stream that can
sell bonds is the best way to finance the infrastructure work that is
needed. He dismisses the protesters as “left wing” or “populists,” and
he recently suggested they were in “cloud cuckoo land.”
But Sarah Murphy, 35, who lives in Ballymun, one of the poorest areas of
Dublin, said that her husband has been unable to find work since his
business collapsed in 2008. The family, after paying rent and
electricity, lives on $73 a week for five people, she said.
Ireland’s economy has been recovering. It grew by nearly 4.8 percent in
2014, and unemployment fell to about 10 percent from a high of 15
percent. But many experts say the figures are misleading, as the
unemployed continue to leave the country and many multinational
companies, based in Ireland because of its low corporate tax rate, are
recording financial transactions that actually take place elsewhere.
A report by the country’s Central Statistics Office that was released in
January painted a direr picture of what has happened in Ireland since
the crisis began. The most recent figures available show that nearly a
third of the population in 2013 was suffering from “enforced
deprivation” characterized by a lack of two or more basic requirements
for a comfortable standard of living, such as adequate food, heating or
a warm winter coat, up from 13.7 percent in 2008, before the financial
crisis and the recession.
Confrontations between protesters and water meter installers have
resulted in numerous arrests, with five protesters receiving what many
considered hefty sentences of 28 to 56 days recently for violating a
judge’s order to stay more than 20 feet away from the installers before
the proceedings were voided on a technicality.
One Socialist Party member of Parliament, Paul Murphy, who was elected
in a by-election last October on a pledge of abolishing the water
charges, was also arrested, accused of having a role in a protest last
November that trapped the deputy prime minister and leader of the Labor
Party, Joan Burton, in her car for hours.
The police did not arrive at Mr. Murphy’s house until Feb. 9 around 7
a.m., prompting members of his party to suggest that the arrest was more
about damaging the movement against water charges than anything else.
Mr. Murphy, still in his pajamas when the police arrived, was given time
to get dressed before spending more than eight hours at the police
station answering questions. He said he had no idea whether the case
against him would proceed.
He said he believes that even households that have registered, many
because they were eager to get the €100, will not be paying their bills.
Refusal to pay could bring the project to its knees, Mr. Murphy said.
The government cannot automatically take the water charges from people’s
paychecks, as it can with a tax, though officials have said that those
who do not pay could face late charges.
“A lot of people now see the bailouts of the banks as an ongoing crime,”
Mr. Murphy said. “There is a real sense out there of ‘O.K., is there
going to be any recovery for us?’ ”
Douglas Dalby contributed reporting.
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