(en) WSM.ie: Defeating the water charges - Don?t be fooled by the concessions - 4 page PDF paper*

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 D?il 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. ---- 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.

* http://www.wsm.ie/sites/default/files/WSM4pageWC.pdf
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 D?il 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.

This text is from the 4 page mini paper
we produced for the water charges campaign
December 2014.