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?

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.

Fortunes of socialists rise with struggle

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

1. John Manning, “Pressure builds in Fingal's opposition to water charges”, Fingal Independent, 18 October 2014

2. Hugh O’Connell, “One of these Sinn Féin TDs is thinking about not paying their water charges”, The Journal, 8 October 2014

3. Mary Minihan, “Government must scrap water charges - Adams”, Irish Times, 4 November 2014