A resistance
movement is born
Water
charges were highly controversial right from the beginning. People pointed out
that they had already paid for them through general taxation and were not
prepared to pay a second time. Moreover, the establishment of Irish Water as
one big, overarching company raised the understandable prospect that water was
over the medium-term to be privatised. After years of one austerity measure
after the other, people were not prepared to accept this.
When
Irish Water started to install water meters in 2014, an essential precondition
to water charges, it was communities, which started the campaign by organising
locally in opposition to the installation. In some areas, such as Crumlin,
Dublin contractors had to leave after several weeks without having been able to
install a single meter (Mac
Cionnaith 2015: 81). Observing these developments, it was activists within
the general trade union Unite and the retail union Mandate, who realised that
water charges may finally be the issue, which would allow the formation of a
broad-based, large-scale anti-austerity movement in Ireland. In a national
level meeting with representatives from radical, left-wing parties including
the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), also known as People Before Profit, and the
Socialist Party (SP), now called Solidarity, the trade unions were put in
charge of developing a broad campaign. Right2Water
was born!
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| Photo by William Murphy |
Preparations
lasted from June to September 2014 with the first demonstration to take place
on 11 October. The result of these efforts was overwhelming. ‘History will
record that this was the day that Ireland roared. Over 100,000 burst on to the
streets of Dublin that day, throwing off the shackles of compliance with
austerity to reclaim their pride and reinforce in themselves, and others, that
we could fight back, we could rise again, we could rock the establishment and
we could win!’ (Ogle 2016: 66). In a country
with about 4.8 million inhabitants, this is an enormous turnout. Overall, the
movement was based on three pillars, the trade union pillar, including the
Communication Workers’ Union, the civil service union CPSU and the plasterers’
union OPATSI in addition to Unite and Mandate, the political party pillar with
Sinn Fein joining the SWP and the SP, and finally the community pillar bringing
together the various local communities. Monthly meetings in Dublin were in
charge of preparing the various demonstrations and co-ordinating overall
strategy.
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| Photo by SinnFéin |
Blocking,
marching and non-payment: the strategies of the movement.
Second,
the main agents behind large demonstrations were the trade unions and here
especially Unite and Mandate. They had the finance and logistical experience to
organise these events. Unlike in the past, demonstrations culminated in squares
with a professional stage and proper sound system. Political speeches were
mixed with performances by artists and musicians. The goal was, as one
interviewee stated, that these marches were a fun day out for the whole family.
Finally,
especially the political parties SWP and SP were behind the non-payment
campaign. In their view, non-payment was an easy way for every Irish citizen to
participate actively in the movement. When the alliance Right2Water declined to become transformed into a non-payment
campaign, these parties set up their alternative, parallel ‘Non-payment
network’.
Of
course, there were tensions within the campaign. Communities and their
grassroots, direct democracy organisation accused the trade unions of
undemocratic, centralised decision-making. They were also suspicious of
political parties, the actions of which were often interpreted as purely
electioneering in the search for new members and more votes. This impression
was at least partly shared by trade unions.
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| Photo by SinnFéin |
There
was also disagreement over which of the strategies had been the most crucial
one. Political parties felt it had been non-payment, while communities emphasised
the blocking of meter installations. Trade unions, in turn, emphasised the importance
of large marches. In the end, all three strategies were re-enforcing each other
well. The blocking of meter installations prevented the successful
implementation of charges right at the source. The non-payment campaign was
very successful in that around 70 to 75 per cent of those subjected to water
charges had not paid them (TheJournal.ie, 1
December 2016),
making the running of Irish Water and thus potential privatisation
unprofitable. And the marches, finally, gave people the confidence that they
were not alone in their resistance, re-enforcing the blocking and non-payment
strategies.
Victory and the
way ahead
When
the elections in 2016 ended without a clear government majority, the new
minority government decided to suspend charges. Since November 2017, those who
had paid have been reimbursed. There is some discussion of introducing charges
for excess usage of 1.7 times the average water consumption, but with 40 per
cent of homes still without a water meter (The Irish Times,
10 February 2018),
it is difficult to see how this could be implemented. As one interviewee
pointed out, activists know that every victory is only temporary and they may
have to fight again, should there be an attempt to introduce charges through
the backdoor. Overall, however, the Irish water campaign was a major success.
During the campaign, especially the trade unions
underpinning Right2Water established
in June 2015 the Right2Change
campaign, focusing on individual candidates for the 2016 elections to sign up to
its agenda for change including rights beyond water. Due to internal divisions
within the campaign, however, this push for additional rights beyond water
never fully took off. First, the Solidarity Party did not participate, as Right2Change refused to pledge not to
participate in a governing coalition with centre-right parties. Second, the
focus on elections in order to bring about change contradicted the emphasis
within communities to experiment with alternative democratic forms as a result
of general disillusionment with representative democracy.
As
water activists have experienced elsewhere, while water is a particular issue
which allows the mobilisation across the whole political spectrum, expanding
into other areas of social justice such as public transport, education, housing
or health is often difficult, if not impossible. In Dublin, some activists now
focus on organising a campaign around the right to housing against the
background of increasing homelessness and sky-high property prices with a National Protest
– Housing is a Human Right scheduled for 7 April 2018. Although the campaign
includes again trade unions and other social movements, observers
question the viability of this approach. Housing affects people in very
different ways, making it difficult to establish a broad-based, fairly
homogenous movement.
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| Photo by SinnFéin |
Now in 2018 with the
charges abolished the Right2Water
campaign still exists but is hardly active, while local community organisations are no longer
meeting regularly, if at all. And yet, we should not underestimate the seeds of
resistance planted during the campaign. Having been politicised at a much
higher level, Irish civil society may erupt in a new large-scale campaign again.
Capitalist exploitation is always contested and Right2Water has demonstrated that resistance can be successful.
Andreas Bieler
Andreas Bieler
Professor of Political Economy
University of Nottingham/UK
Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk
Personal website: http://andreasbieler.net
20 March 2018
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