PRC-UTE
1st February 2007, 00:42
Understanding the Water Tax: Who is the real victim?
By Charlie Clarke
Irish Republican Socialist Party
The issue of water tax is an extremely complex one. It can be difficult to understand and comprehend, but I will explain it as simplistically as I can.
Come April of this year each and every household in the north of Ireland will receive their first Water Rates bill through their letterbox, no home will escape this levy.
This bill is for the use of your water, used for washing, sanitation, cooking and drinking throughout your household for the period of a year. All those things that we have taken for granted and to which water is an absolute necessity.
The working classes are the targets for this new tax. We already pay for our water through the rates that are paid to the city council. Household water bills averaging at £340 per year will begin coming through your door in 1st April. Yet we already pay for our water through our rates - 37% of our rates bill already goes to the Water Service.
Here are a few facts concerning the proposed Water Tax.
1. NO household will be exempt from water charges. Families on benefits, pensioners and those on low income will still be forced to pay 75% of their water bills.
2. Much needed investment in water & sewerage can be found without additional domestic water charges.
3. The water tax will do nothing for the environment or to safe guard water supplies.
4. A new water company is being set up. This will be sold to big business to maximise private profit from public charges.
5. The water tax can be defeated - the poll tax was defeated in 1990 and in Dublin water charges were abolished - both defeated by a mass campaign of non-payment.
The truth surrounding the whole issue is that we will be forced to pay for this over and over again. It is a double tax. We are paying for it in our rates, we will be paying for it with the water tax, and we will be forced to pay increases in prices by small and big businesses that are also going to have to pay this levy. E.g. (The ladies haircut that normally cost £30 will inevitably cost more as the hairdresser will have to pay for the water that they have to use so liberally, etc.) All business will be affected by this new tax, and in the rules of trading it is the consumer that pays for rent, wage, tax increases etc. Profit margins will remain the same so the additional revenue has to come from somewhere. It will be left to the working classes to foot the bill for everybody.
Why should we pay for this when the government are upgrading the water service and the sewerage to sell it off to the big business for profit? Companies are buying up the rights to all the water in the world. They are buying the rights to the rain! Farmers are being taxed for collecting rainwater in barrels, and from fetching water from streams. It is ridiculous and it is a breach of our human rights. Water is a human right! It is the essence of life itself! What gives the 'fat cat' the right to sell to us what doesn’t belong to him in the first place! What is next? Privatising the air?
There are many who are calling for the abolition of the Water Tax, politicians, community groups etc who are all launching and backing campaigns for the abolishment of this government extortion. They are shouting their opposition from the rooftops, in front of every poised camera, hoping to convince the public of their genuine approach to this issue. Some are telling deliberate lies.
The politicians that have been voted into the Stormont assembly have all voted for the Water Tax. They are in favour of this – regardless of the lies and spin they spew from their mouths.
They have stalled the “process” until the British have implemented this working class tax under the banner of “Home Rule” as none of them would be able to sell this to their constituents.
They can sell ceasefires, decommissioning and even endorsement of the PSNI – but they’d never get away with the water tax!
They lie by saying that if they had have had the establishment of the “Institutions” then they would never have allowed this to happen. This was agreed and endorsed by all the parties; SF, SDLP, DUP, UUP, PUP and the Women’s Coalition years ago at the inception of this so-called process.
So with the pro-St. Andrew’s agreement political parties against us, who is going to support and assist us?
Who can we trust?
Who is going to organise and maintain a successful campaign against this tax?
What directions are we going to take in order to successfully fight this and win?
There are so many unanswered questions that need to be put to the people of the working class community before we can secure their support for any campaign.
The working class community need to be convinced that there WILL be support for them on the ground and that they are not going to be abandoned by any of the campaigns that are asking for their support.
They need to be truthfully told and informed of the consequences that such a campaign can bring. People will go to jail, ordinary working class people! This cannot be distorted or brushed under the carpet.
People are going to receive severe fines and penalties for non-payment of their bills, and this will eventually result in imprisonment. Failure to inform the working classes of this will bring the campaign crashing around our knees and the imperialist will have won. There will be some of us who will experience imprisonment for this cause but what we must remember is that THEY CANNOT JAIL US ALL!
We need to have strategies and counter strategies in place. We need to have contingency and back up plans so that we may tackle every thing that the government throws our way. Families are going to have to be supported in the event that incarceration occurs. We have had to do just that before, so there must be no change to the eligibility of this assistance. If a member of a household is incarcerated for non-payment of their water tax because the campaign has called for them to do so – then their family needs to be financially supported. This needs to be addressed. People need to be convinced that this is an honourable cause. We can lie down and allow the politicians and the government to walk all over us, to implement the taxes that they wish and allow them to privatise the human rights of the working classes. Who is going to pay us for it? Who is going to subsidise us for the extra expenses that we will inevitably have to pay out? Our incomes are to remain the same but we are expected to pay out more than we can afford. It is only by refusing to conform to their wishes that we are going to win. We must rise together and stand against this imperialism that is oppressing us.
There are no easy answers to this problem. No quick fix solutions that will eradicate the plans of the government and stop them from enforcing this charge upon the working class. They will use the excuses that they are not charging for the water, but are merely charging for the use of their services and systems. This is a lie! As we stated earlier, 37% of your rates bill pays for the use of sewerage and water supplies! This goes directly to the Water Service. They will threaten that the revenue needed for this will not be found by any other means and that failure to pay this by way of levy will result in a reduction in budgets for the already under funded schools and hospitals owned by the government. Why then can it not come from the massive defence budget being squandered in Iraq and Afghanistan?
They claim they cannot find the money elsewhere. Why can they not reduce the ridiculously high salaries of the MP’s and the MLA’s who represent the wishes of their government and put it towards the cost, instead of endorsing ludicrous pay rises for the already highly overpaid fat cats?
The reason is that they don’t want to and that they don’t have to. The working classes will pay.
The water companies that will buy over the water and sewerage provision will also advocate the turning off of supply to your home in the event of non-payment. They will restrict you from having your human right to water. The anti-poverty network states that if you do not have access to clean running water then you are in serious poverty. These multi-national companies will do just that!
The government is saying that we are so worthless and insignificant that we do not have the right to water. They are saying that if we refuse to pay for it then they will disconnect our services, they will impose heavy fines and they will eventually imprison us! WE are the only people who can fight this and WIN! In order to do that though, we must join together and support the Anti-Water Tax campaign.
By Charlie Clarke
Irish Republican Socialist Party
The issue of water tax is an extremely complex one. It can be difficult to understand and comprehend, but I will explain it as simplistically as I can.
Come April of this year each and every household in the north of Ireland will receive their first Water Rates bill through their letterbox, no home will escape this levy.
This bill is for the use of your water, used for washing, sanitation, cooking and drinking throughout your household for the period of a year. All those things that we have taken for granted and to which water is an absolute necessity.
The working classes are the targets for this new tax. We already pay for our water through the rates that are paid to the city council. Household water bills averaging at £340 per year will begin coming through your door in 1st April. Yet we already pay for our water through our rates - 37% of our rates bill already goes to the Water Service.
Here are a few facts concerning the proposed Water Tax.
1. NO household will be exempt from water charges. Families on benefits, pensioners and those on low income will still be forced to pay 75% of their water bills.
2. Much needed investment in water & sewerage can be found without additional domestic water charges.
3. The water tax will do nothing for the environment or to safe guard water supplies.
4. A new water company is being set up. This will be sold to big business to maximise private profit from public charges.
5. The water tax can be defeated - the poll tax was defeated in 1990 and in Dublin water charges were abolished - both defeated by a mass campaign of non-payment.
The truth surrounding the whole issue is that we will be forced to pay for this over and over again. It is a double tax. We are paying for it in our rates, we will be paying for it with the water tax, and we will be forced to pay increases in prices by small and big businesses that are also going to have to pay this levy. E.g. (The ladies haircut that normally cost £30 will inevitably cost more as the hairdresser will have to pay for the water that they have to use so liberally, etc.) All business will be affected by this new tax, and in the rules of trading it is the consumer that pays for rent, wage, tax increases etc. Profit margins will remain the same so the additional revenue has to come from somewhere. It will be left to the working classes to foot the bill for everybody.
Why should we pay for this when the government are upgrading the water service and the sewerage to sell it off to the big business for profit? Companies are buying up the rights to all the water in the world. They are buying the rights to the rain! Farmers are being taxed for collecting rainwater in barrels, and from fetching water from streams. It is ridiculous and it is a breach of our human rights. Water is a human right! It is the essence of life itself! What gives the 'fat cat' the right to sell to us what doesn’t belong to him in the first place! What is next? Privatising the air?
There are many who are calling for the abolition of the Water Tax, politicians, community groups etc who are all launching and backing campaigns for the abolishment of this government extortion. They are shouting their opposition from the rooftops, in front of every poised camera, hoping to convince the public of their genuine approach to this issue. Some are telling deliberate lies.
The politicians that have been voted into the Stormont assembly have all voted for the Water Tax. They are in favour of this – regardless of the lies and spin they spew from their mouths.
They have stalled the “process” until the British have implemented this working class tax under the banner of “Home Rule” as none of them would be able to sell this to their constituents.
They can sell ceasefires, decommissioning and even endorsement of the PSNI – but they’d never get away with the water tax!
They lie by saying that if they had have had the establishment of the “Institutions” then they would never have allowed this to happen. This was agreed and endorsed by all the parties; SF, SDLP, DUP, UUP, PUP and the Women’s Coalition years ago at the inception of this so-called process.
So with the pro-St. Andrew’s agreement political parties against us, who is going to support and assist us?
Who can we trust?
Who is going to organise and maintain a successful campaign against this tax?
What directions are we going to take in order to successfully fight this and win?
There are so many unanswered questions that need to be put to the people of the working class community before we can secure their support for any campaign.
The working class community need to be convinced that there WILL be support for them on the ground and that they are not going to be abandoned by any of the campaigns that are asking for their support.
They need to be truthfully told and informed of the consequences that such a campaign can bring. People will go to jail, ordinary working class people! This cannot be distorted or brushed under the carpet.
People are going to receive severe fines and penalties for non-payment of their bills, and this will eventually result in imprisonment. Failure to inform the working classes of this will bring the campaign crashing around our knees and the imperialist will have won. There will be some of us who will experience imprisonment for this cause but what we must remember is that THEY CANNOT JAIL US ALL!
We need to have strategies and counter strategies in place. We need to have contingency and back up plans so that we may tackle every thing that the government throws our way. Families are going to have to be supported in the event that incarceration occurs. We have had to do just that before, so there must be no change to the eligibility of this assistance. If a member of a household is incarcerated for non-payment of their water tax because the campaign has called for them to do so – then their family needs to be financially supported. This needs to be addressed. People need to be convinced that this is an honourable cause. We can lie down and allow the politicians and the government to walk all over us, to implement the taxes that they wish and allow them to privatise the human rights of the working classes. Who is going to pay us for it? Who is going to subsidise us for the extra expenses that we will inevitably have to pay out? Our incomes are to remain the same but we are expected to pay out more than we can afford. It is only by refusing to conform to their wishes that we are going to win. We must rise together and stand against this imperialism that is oppressing us.
There are no easy answers to this problem. No quick fix solutions that will eradicate the plans of the government and stop them from enforcing this charge upon the working class. They will use the excuses that they are not charging for the water, but are merely charging for the use of their services and systems. This is a lie! As we stated earlier, 37% of your rates bill pays for the use of sewerage and water supplies! This goes directly to the Water Service. They will threaten that the revenue needed for this will not be found by any other means and that failure to pay this by way of levy will result in a reduction in budgets for the already under funded schools and hospitals owned by the government. Why then can it not come from the massive defence budget being squandered in Iraq and Afghanistan?
They claim they cannot find the money elsewhere. Why can they not reduce the ridiculously high salaries of the MP’s and the MLA’s who represent the wishes of their government and put it towards the cost, instead of endorsing ludicrous pay rises for the already highly overpaid fat cats?
The reason is that they don’t want to and that they don’t have to. The working classes will pay.
The water companies that will buy over the water and sewerage provision will also advocate the turning off of supply to your home in the event of non-payment. They will restrict you from having your human right to water. The anti-poverty network states that if you do not have access to clean running water then you are in serious poverty. These multi-national companies will do just that!
The government is saying that we are so worthless and insignificant that we do not have the right to water. They are saying that if we refuse to pay for it then they will disconnect our services, they will impose heavy fines and they will eventually imprison us! WE are the only people who can fight this and WIN! In order to do that though, we must join together and support the Anti-Water Tax campaign.