By Dave Murphy

The anti-water charges campaign is the most significant working class political movement to take place in Ireland in the 21st century.

Just over 10 years ago in October 2014 the campaign burst onto the streets and became the fulcrum around which politics turned for the next 3 years. It is a reference point for the working class on how a struggle could be fought and won.

Now, as we are faced with right-wing reaction and demoralisation in the working class, the lessons learned from the water charges movement can provide reasons for optimism for socialist and working class activists.

The straw that broke the camel’s back

In financial terms the water charges weren't the worst of the austerity measures introduced, so why was it the one which sparked a movement? The phrase ‘it was the straw which broke the camel's back’ was used by many people to describe their reaction to it.[1]

“The 2008 economic crash, the arrival of the Troika and the Great Depression that followed had a devastating impact on working class people’s lives in Ireland. ”

The 2008 economic crash, the arrival of the Troika and the Great Depression that followed had a devastating impact on working class people’s lives in Ireland. Many of the crises which affect people hardest today have their roots in the austerity policies which were implemented.

The Fianna Fail/Green government of 2007-2011 and the Fine Gael/Labour government of 2011-2016 attempted to put the burden of bailing out the banks and developers onto the shoulders of working class people. Unemployment sky-rocketed especially in the building and trades industry while at the same time, people were hammered with vicious austerity measures such as slashing lone parent payments; the USC; property tax; pay cuts in the public sector; cutting the dole and forced emigration for young people; cutting the minimum wage by €1 an hour. There were cuts to vital services like SNAs in education and access to healthcare. The media and establishment drummed into people the idea of TINA: There is No Alternative.

Initially, in the years following the crash, people were stunned at the magnitude of it and the crushing effect it had on their lives. From some sections of the working class there was a feeling of ‘keep the head down and get through it’, hoping that things would change. People’s anger was often kept private, reduced to shouting at politicians on the TV rather than taking to the streets.

Struggle is inevitable

There is only so far that people can be pushed or so much of anything that they can take before there is a reaction to it. The cumulative effect of the water charges, on top of all of the other austerity measures and misery inflicted on people became a tipping point and caused a qualitative change in people’s attitudes to it.

On a couple of occasions since 2008 when leadership was given in the fight against austerity people responded but were ultimately let down or defeated.

Initially in 2010, when the Fianna Fail/Green government was signing up to the bailout, over 100,000 people turned out in snow and ice to a protest called by the trade union leadership. But despite the massive turnout, this went nowhere. Again in 2013 when the Campaign against Household and Water Taxes was established to fight the Household Charge and subsequently the Property Tax people responded to its call for a boycott of the charges. This was initially successful, however, the government was able to defeat the campaign by handing collection over to Revenue and removing people’s ability to boycott.

Why were the water charges different?

These setbacks and defeats added to the sense of demoralisation and powerlessness people felt. In communities and workplaces a common refrain, that is still heard today when people speak about housing is “Why aren’t people out on the streets?” or wondering “Why is no one fighting back?” So, why then when people’s anger had reached boiling point did they feel confident to fight back on water charges?

Twenty years beforehand in the mid ‘90s there had been an attempt to introduce water charges in Dublin. The Federation of Dublin Anti-Water Charges led a non-payment campaign which resulted in the charges being scrapped. People remembered this and drew confidence from it as a successful example of how they could win.

They naturally understood that if there was a large enough boycott of the charges it would be impossible to take everyone to court. And they knew that it would be extremely difficult for the government to pass the collection of the charge from Irish Water to Revenue as they had done with the Property tax.

The government stoked people’s anger further when then Minister Phil Hogan declared that they would cut people’s water down to a ‘trickle’ if they didn’t pay. Joan Burton later said that if people had iphones they could pay their water charges.

The coming together of the Right2Water united front campaign of the trade unions, political parties and community groups signalled that there would be a serious campaign on the issue of water charges. There were many differences and important tactical and strategic debates within R2W but for the broad mass of people, it became a banner to rally against water charges and had huge success in organising protests.

Ultimately though what made the water charges different was that this was an issue where people saw that they themselves, through people power, could have an impact.

“Ultimately though what made the water charges different was that this was an issue where people saw that they themselves, through people power, could have an impact. ”

A militant movement from below

At its most basic the water charges struggle was a militant movement from below which shook the political establishment.

The most significant development was that working class communities began to self-organise. Up to this point, generally, for a campaign to get up and running on an issue it would typically involve the local leftwing public representative taking the initiative and calling a public meeting in the local community centre, that meeting would become an organising point and a campaign would be launched from it.

“working class people organised street meetings themselves to discuss with neighbours how they would oppose the meters being installed”

However, this time was different. In many communities, working class people organised street meetings themselves to discuss with neighbours how they would oppose the meters being installed or organising a protest. This self-organisation from below gave confidence to other communities to do the same across the country. The street meeting was an organisational development which came from the working class itself and which experienced left-wing activists then adopted.

Before the first major demonstration on October 11th the other major sign that people were up for a militant fight on water charges came in the Dublin South West by-election. It was expected that water charges would be an issue in the election and that the Sinn Fein candidate Cathal King would win quite easily. However it didn’t pan out that way.
Water charges proved to be the issue of the by-election but the question was not whether a candidate was pro- or anti- water charges. The election became a referendum on how best to defeat water charges and particularly focused on non-payment.
Sinn Fein put forward a position which essentially was based on political pressure. They said they are against the charge and they support protesting against it. They did not advocate for non-payment, in fact, many of their TDs including Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald and Pearse Doherty indicated that they would pay. They argued that the only way to scrap the charges was to elect a Sinn Fein government.

Anti-Austerity Alliance candidate Paul Murphy put forward a position that people should boycott the charge. He used the election debates to argue that with non-payment as the bedrock of the campaign, a mass movement against the water charges and austerity could be built and that if elected he would use the Dáil platform to help organise resistance to the charge.

In a shock, Paul Murphy won the seat on the same day that over 100,000 people took part in the first major R2W protest. People chose the tactic of confrontation through boycott and people-power advocated by the Anti-Austerity Alliance over the Sinn Fein position of relying on them to get into government and scrap it. Sinn Fein TDs would go on to change their position within a month.[3] However, for many, it was not far enough. They now said they wouldn’t pay the charge themselves but as late as April 2015 still refused to call for a boycott.

The role of the state

In the final three months of 2014, R2W organised two national protests and a local day of protest which saw hundreds of thousands of people on the street. Water charges bills would be boycotted when they started to drop in 2015; the only question was over the scale of non-payment. When government Ministers or TDs turned up to an event they could be almost guaranteed a protest would follow them. The huge demonstrations and constant local activity in communities had given people further confidence. There was a water charges revolt.

The state tried to repress this genuine working class movement through political policing. It was a far cry from the hands-off approach they have adopted to the far-right in recent months. It's hard to imagine Gardai escorting socialists into the offices of Irish Water to hold a protest the way they escorted the far-right into Balbriggan library.

Almost immediately, the Gardai intervened in the anti-meter protests to intimidate people away from protesting in their own communities. Threats of arrest and arrests were made including of then TD Joan Collins. This escalated until in February 2015 four people were jailed.

A sinister special policing operation called Operation Mizen was established to monitor the anti-water charges movement.

In November 2014, after the Jobstown Protest when Joan Burton was delayed by a couple of hours due to a sitdown protest and slow-march, the political class, media and Gardai decided to try to stamp down on the protests. Taoiseach Enda Kenny claimed Burton had been kidnapped. Varadkar spoke about a ‘sinister fringe’ in an attempt to split the movement, another Fine Gael TD compared the protest to an ‘Isis-type situation’ and for days the media was full of absolute outrage from establishment windbags attacking the movement. An incredible police operation saw dawn raids on the homes of people who had simply attended the protest and faced trumped-up charges of false imprisonment with a potential life sentence. Eventually, in 2017 the defendants were found not guilty after the show trial fell apart when about two dozen gardai had their co-ordinated evidence directly contradicted by video evidence.

The movement had such huge support, and strong roots in communities and workplaces that despite these attacks it was able to stand against them.

Fortunes of socialists rise with struggle

“water charges were defeated on the streets and in communities”

The water charges represent a high point in sustained class struggle in Ireland over the last number of decades. This struggle found an electoral expression in the 2016 general election with socialist and left-wing TDs being returned, Anti-Austerity Alliance - People Before Profit in particular returned 6 and hit 9% in the opinion polls at one point.

It is a simple fact that when there is struggle on class issues within society socialists will be standing shoulder to shoulder with working class communities, fighting and organising alongside them. This has a clarifying effect and people can begin to see clearly who is on their side and represent their interests.

This clarifying effect also demonstrates to people where change actually comes from and the power that working class people have. The defeat of the water charges didn’t come from elections, water charges were defeated on the streets and in communities. During intense class struggle, a party which attempts to say that the struggle can only be won by voting for them rather than people power will be seen through.

The fortunes of socialists and the building of a socialist organisation rise and fall with the class struggle. Despite the huge housing crisis, we’re at a low ebb in terms of protest movements in society and are faced with a growing reactionary far-right. The task for socialists now is to re-orientate towards the working class to generalise their experience so that when people inevitably move into struggle on the housing crisis it's the socialist left they look to not forces to the right who place the blame for the crisis on immigration.

Notes

John Manning, “Pressure builds in Fingal's opposition to water charges”, Fingal Independent, 18 October 2014
Hugh O’Connell, “One of these Sinn Féin TDs is thinking about not paying their water charges”, The Journal, 8 October 2014
Mary Minihan, “Government must scrap water charges - Adams”, Irish Times, 4 November 2014

Ireland’s Water War