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Greens, Labour, Sinn Fein and the Socialist Party on the bin charges national |
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news report
 Friday January 17, 2003 04:23 by Brian Cahill - Socialist Party
 Their records contrasted. From time to time Sinn Fein and Labour pose as opponents of the bin charges, looking for a few cheap votes. This article takes a brief look at their real records on the issue along with that of the Green Party - another organisation which sometimes pretends to be a radical alternative to the right-wing establishment. The Green Party supports the bin tax. No ifs, no buts, no prevarications. It is in favour of introducing flat rate taxes onto ordinary people to pay for the mess created by business. Stick an "environmental" badge on any attack on workers and you can get everybodies favourite sandal-wearing liberals to vote for it. You could almost admire their honesty, which is more than can be said for Labour and Sinn Fein. The latter two parties rely mostly on working class people for their votes and therefore have to be a little more careful. Labour officially opposes the bin tax, but its councillors have voted it through in towns and cities across the country. In Cork last month its councillors, including the Mayor, voted again for the bin tax. Last night its Mayor in Dublin voted for the tax. From time to time Labour feels the need to assert its anti-bin tax credentials and it takes disciplinary action against a few councillors by slapping them on the wrist. When the tax was first introduced in the Dublin Corporation area, with the votes of Labour members, its errant councillors had the party whip taken away for a few weeks! Torquemada himself would shiver in fear. It should also be remembered that Labour opposes the tactic of mass non-payment - the only strategy which can beat the tax and which beat the water tax. Sinn Fein are even oilier on the subject. Like Labour they are also formally against the bin tax. Unlike Labour they even formally support the strategy of mass non-payment, but as an organisation they have played no role in actually building non-payment. Which of course hasn't stopped them from trying to take credit for the campaigning work of others in their election material. For them a stance of radical opposition is strictly for the election leaflets. When they actually get anybody into a position of power, it is business as usual. In the North this has meant their Ministers privatising schools and hospitals and fighting against the term time workers demand for a living wage. In the South it has meant helping pass the bin charges. In Sligo their councillors voted for the bin tax. An Phoblacht then defended their decision to do so. The next year they came back to vote through an increase in the charges. In return they got their thirty pieces of silver - a Sinn Fein Mayor for Sligo. When the tax was being introduced in the Dublin Corporation area, none of the parties wanted to carry the can. It soon became clear that a slimy deal was being cooked up. "The Voice", the newspaper of the Socialist Party predicted that two Sinn Fein councillors would fail to show while some Labour councillors would break their party whip and receive a slap on the wrist. Sure enough, the chosen Labour scapegoats raised their hands for the tax, while two of the Sinn Fein councillors had their mothers write sick notes. The other two Sinn Fein councillors voted against publically recording the votes of all councillors on the issue, further helping to sow confusion. Despite all of this, Sinn Fein have had the cheek to sneer at the disappearing tricks of the Labour councillors last night. Some ordinary Sinn Fein supporters have chipped into the campaign and will probably be as horrified by the antics of their leaders as the rest of us are. But the message is clear: We can't rely on Sinn Fein or Labour. The two parties care nothing for ordinary people. I don't mean to imply that all organisations are the same. The campaign against the service charges involved the Socialist Party and other groups (including the WSM and SWP). We are active across the city trying to build a real community campaign. The Socialist Party was heavily involved in the campaign which defeated the water tax a few years ago, and as an aside our councillors have always turned up and always voted against the bin tax. The only way for us to beat this tax is to stick together. Join your local campaign. Get involved and build mass non-payment.
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Comments (36 of 36)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36"A Polluter Pays principle based on a "Waste Not - Pay Not" policy is also a fundamental component of any Green Party waste strategy."
From Green Party waste policy at http://www.greenparty.ie/policy/Waste_Policy.htm
The Green Party is NOT "in favour of introducing flat rate taxes onto ordinary people to pay for the mess created by business". Flat rate taxes give people no incentive to reduce their waste (by composting, buying in bulk, consuming less, etc.). Instead, the Green Party is in favour of those who produce the most waste paying the most, just like it is in favour of those using the most oil paying the most carbon tax, etc..
The Green Party also is NOT in favour of ordindinary people paying for the mess created by business. This is why the party is consistant in arguing that business and producers MUST take responsibility for packaging and waste and MUST pay for it.
To suggest that the Green Party supports "any attack on workers" is ridiclous. I'm not sure who 'workers' are, but the Green Party has a strong and consistant record on equality and social justice issues.
Finally, most members of the Green Party DO NOT wear sandals (at least in the winter).
I take back what I said about almost admiring the honesty of the Green Party. Graham's comments on the issue are almost worthy of Sinn Fein.
Fact: The Green Party have voted for flat rate service charges across the country.
Fact: The Green Party voted for just such a charge only last night.
Fact: The Green Party opposes the campaign of non-payment being waged by ordinary people across Dublin.
Fact: The Greens tried to blame non-payers for the possible privatisation of the service in Fingal.
Draw your own conclusions.
The Workers' Party has been totally opposed to all forms of service charges since Day 1 back in 1982/83 when Dick Spring as Minister for the Environment and Local Government introduced them under a FG / Lab coalition. Of course he stole the idea from Fianna Fáil who actually proposed introducing them some months earlier.
The WP were instrumental in having water charges abolished in Dublin City in the mid-1980s but they were reintroduced later only to face further opposition and eventually be abolished nationally.
The Workers' Party has been actively opposed to all forms of service charges right across the country. Last Monday the three Workers' Party councillors on Waterford City Council led the opposition to bin charges.
Let's give credit where it's due.
Do you guys never get tired of writing turgid and factually flawed pieces of 'journalism' which always end with the same last para or two paras about how the SP is the only real working class alternative to blah blah blah? :)
So, the Green Party voted for a REGRESSIVE, DOUBLE tax. Shame on them! The slogan "the polluter pays" spouted by the Greens and Fianna Fail does not wash when applied to the bin tax.
The ordinary householder is a WASTE RECEIVER not a waste producer. Anybody serious about the waste crisis in this country would see that the only way forward is to tackle waste AT SOURCE. Practically all waste is produced by large scale industry and agri-business, the packiging industry etc.
Come to think about it this shower of polluters don't pay for anything! We have the lowest rate of corporate tax in the EU! Why don't the greens advocate taxing the REAL polluters and not the poor PAYE sucker who pays the vast bulk of tax already.
Does this sound a bit too left wing for you?
As for labour's Lord mayor voting the increased bin tax through, the sooner this shower of frauds disappear like Fine gael and are replaced by a GENUINE party that fights for the interests of working class people the better.
Perhaps the Greens should wager the SP.
Take a typical "working class" estate in the City Council area. Count out the first 1000 houses if, say, 60% or more have satellite dishes the SP should do the honourable thing and shut up about bin charges.
The point is wish to make is that, coming from a working class area where the SP are active I'm constantly struck by the huge numbers of satellite dishes in the estate - where, according to the SP the oppressed working classes are being further harried by the so-called "bin-tax". If people can hand over upwards of three hundred euro per year, sometimes 500 or 600, for 50 channels of audio-visual sludge then they can afford to pay the bin charges. Obviously there are those who can't and won't be able to pay, but there appears to be provision for these cases.
Cash spent on satellite TV goes directly to Rupert Murdoch or similar scumbags. The bin charges to local government.
Which of these two, Murdoch or local democracy, institutions do the SP favour most??
to make = sweatshop labour.
to watch = endocrinological effects most pronounced in chilrdren = akin to slow damamging of the brain.
to watch = psychological adjustment of individual place in society = brainwashing = propaganda.
to watch = most adverts are for cars.
to make = advertising capitalism maintains TV
to dump = TV is too toxic to give to your bin men.
TV IS TOXIC
IS TOXIC IS TOXIC.
{world position / policy of anarchists}
{we don´t adjust these essential policies for local concerns}
how can you sort out your rubbish collection if you can´t sort out your TVs?
the answer by the say to Solomon´s baby riddle
was the clash between patriarchal monarchy and feminist concerns.
We are meant to understand that the women cared for the child´s life so much they did not dare to continue taxing Solomon´s patience.
In truth the story informs us that the women chose not to trust to Patriarchal judgement and demnostrating contempt for the court left with the child´s life saved from Solomon´´s justice.
I qoute.
She let me.
Satelitte dishes what the fuck?
What exactly is your point? Are you saying that you are not working class if you own a satellite dish? Grow up
I think that Labour have been seriously exposed as a clearly capitalist party to even more people as a reesult of the latest bin tax contraversy.
3 Labour councillors were missing, 2 were out of the country, and Mary Freehill just didn't turn up! The vote was tied, if Freehill turned up the estimates wouldn't be passed! (presumeing she voted against them!)
As for Lacey, that man is someone that should have no place in any party that even pretends to be left-wing. He is a careerist, all he cares about is his position as Mayor and the prestige that goes with it. That man played a leading role in a witch-hint against genuine socialists in the Labour Party, not content with that he has to stab working people in the back again by voting in the hated bin tax.
Labour shouldn't expel that creature, because he is typical of most Labour politicians- a bunch of self-centred careerist fucks! He's at home in the Labour Party of Spring, Rabbitte, Gilmore, Finley and Blair.
As for the Greens, at least they are honest. They actually believe that the bin charges are good for the environoment. It think that their assualt on workers and the environment is more out of Political Immaturity and Ignorance.
SF are just like Labour. They are not in principle against bin charges. They dont call for mass non-payment and dont build for it seriously. They are only against bin tax when they know they can get votes. That's what it comes down to for Sinn Féin. In Sligo they calculated that they could get more votes if they had a Mayor, so they went ahead with bin tax.
As Brian said it's not a case that all parties are bad. Socialist Party, WSM, WP, SWP are all involved in the anti-service charges campaigns.
If anyone comes on here and says that LAbour are left-wing or are any type of workers party should have his head read. Labour have long abandoned the working class, and the working class have abandonded Labour.
Excuse me for a butting in "foreigner" but this is NOT an easy matter for "environmentals" who happen ALSO to be for "social justice". See, the realities are.....
1) OF COURSE it would be better to have less "trash" to dispose of and "producer of trash pays". But there are two problems associated with this... lack of power to enforce it AND there is nothing the producers can do to cause separation of returnables and recyclables from trash (they aren't at THAT decision point).
2) The people who ARE at the decision point, the ones who get to choose whether to bother separating out recyclables or simply pitching them into the trash, deciding whether to "compact" their trash so it takes up less room, even deciding whether to bring trash home with them, etc. are the ones whose behavior must be modified.
Now in our area (a "hilltown" of Western MA) we have what you would call a "bin tax". We get charged so much a bag. But that's just for TRASH. If we take the time to separate out the paper, the metal, the glass, the recyclable plastic, into their respective containers we don't pay for THOSE. If we can't be bothered, just throw everythign into a trash bag, then we pay.
A careful family can get by with less than one bag of TRASH per month. Do all people bother to do that? HELL NO! Many bring a whole bunch of bags every trip. It's just too damned much trouble for them to spearate -- simply pitch it. You'll even see "returnables" (we have a deposit on things like soda or beer bottles/cans) simply thrown into the "trash" bags -- too lazy to bother.
But some people make the effort. By charging per unit NOT recycled they can see that bothering pays. OK, it's not a big deal (by US standards) but people get "careful" even about small savings and that's not "class" but "custom". The point is, charging per unit TRASH does serve as a reminder at the point the decision gets made.
Our society DOES have to "pay" because of all the trash we produce. But the point of decision "is this thing to become trash or will it be reused, returned, recycled, etc." is with each of us, not the producers. You don't HAVE to throw away "disposable" plastic party utensils, you CAN wash them and put them away for the next party. You don't HAVE to crush beer cans and pitch, you CAN take them back for the deposit, etc.
Now having the society "pay" collectively, especially the rich pay more may be good "social justice". But does it provide ANYBODY with the incentive of reducing TRASH?
Can any of these defenders of the Labour party come on here now and defend the actions of their party last night?
The Labour Party are a party of big business, and when it came down to it they will preserve their privilages and perks even if it means voting for a hated bin tax.
Rupert M, the working class are all people that sell their labour in order to make a living. This makes up the vast majority of the population. What's your problem with working class people having satelitte dishes? Workers do receive wages, and companies do sell their goods to people that receive wages. What's the problem with working people buying goods? I'm sure if you were around a few centuries ago, you would be slagging off workers that have in-side toilets and washing machines!
While I'm here I'd just like to try to express my hatred of the Labour Party. I think that they are nothing but a bunch of careerist right-wingers. That party have NO genuine members. They are nothing but a bunch of careerist hacks, nothing but TDs, wannabe TDs, TD fans and Union bureaucrats.
You Labour fucks have totally sold out the ideas of the founders of your party. Connolly and Larkin would be spinning in their graves. You fuckers have no concept of struggle or fighting alongside workers.
You go for coalition, you support 'partnership', you support bin tax, tax amnesties. For fucks sake what kind of Labour Party even allows the likes of Dick Spring and Fergus Finley join.
I dont even have words to express my hatred of Labour and Labour memebrs. If I see any of you pathetic Fucks on an anti-war demo I'll give you a piece of my mind, BASTARDS!
1) Jim I didn't deliberately exclude the Workers Party. I referred to "other groups" and gave a couple of examples, which were not meant to be exhaustive. I have no problem including the Workers Party and for that matter the Irish Socialist Network.
2) Justin you can call my post "flawed" all you like, it is absolutely accurate about the role of Sinn Fein. Your councillors DID vote for the bin tax in Sligo and they DID go missing (as predicted) in Dublin.
3) Whoever is blathering on about sattelite dishes above is an idiot. Next week I expect we will see the same guy complaining that some working class people - shock! horror! - spend some of their hard earned wages on going to the cinema or having the odd pint or even smoking. What the hell does that have to do with the unjust, regressive bin tax?
All those whinging about the effect of the bin tax on the "working class" should start growing up a bit.
SP/SWP/WSM/WCA etc etc etc ad nauseum have no representatives on the Council ie when they last got the chance to present their arguements before the electorate, the majority of whom are working class, the "working class",in whose name these groups claim to speak either a) ignored them by not bothering to vote or b) voted for FF/SF/GP/FG/LAB etc - is that not a clear enough indication of where the political loyalties of the working class lie?? Or is it just "False Consciousness" that will be expunged after the revolution??
Simply put, until such time as these groups actually represent the "working class" ie have members elected to the council all this huffing and puffing about the bin-tax is just building a band-wagon. We'll see what the true effects of the bin-tax are after the next local elections. If the SWP/SP and others rally sufficient support to gain a block of seats on the council that can overturn the bin-tax or prevent it from passing again then we can safely say the bin-tax is an issue - if they can't, then it shows equally firmly that most "working class" people are indifferent to the bin tax issue.
Firstly, I am well aware of how and why they voted the way they did in Sligo. I happen to disagree with it.
Secondly, SP members predicted SF wouldn't turn up last year, they predicted we wouldn't turn up this year, they predicted we'd go into coalition with FF. Throw enough shit you're bound to get lulcky once. Our councillors made no deal, they were absent with good cause. If you don't believe it, frankly neither I nor the people who give us increasing levels of support, give a fuck.
I do know this though. Sometimes people can't be in two places at once. Joe Costello didn't vote against the Charges last night. He was on his honeymoon. Frankly, I wouldn't have come home either and the man doesn't deserve abuse as a result. This doesn't mean I support or love Labour. It means I realise the man has a genuine reason. Let not your ignorant hate blind you to the fact that sometimes things more important than a Bin Charges vote occasionally crop up.
Maybe you should take a leaf out of the SPs book; keep predicting in An Phoblacht that Joe or Clare will miss a vote. Like them you are bound to strike lucky eventually.
I agree with you about Joe Costello.
You claim that working people are indifferent to the bin tax issue! Why is it then that most refuse to pay! even when there are threats from the council about starting legal action, people still refuse to pay. Workers are pissed off with being on the shit end of the stick when it comes to extra charges and cut-backs. Not paying the bin tax is a way to oppose this assault on working people.
I think you will find that the SP do have elected councillors. We have 2 seats on Fingal council. We dont have any on the City Council, we didn't stand in the city in 1999. we are a small party, and we make no apologies for not being able to run a load of candidates in all council areas.
Ok the SP have 2 councillors in Fingal - you poor dears make no apologies for not being able to run candiates in all council wards - could that be because most people are repelled by the SP??
Anway, I thought, we were discussing the City Council??
I'm not a member of the SP but I have to take you up on something, Do you really think most workers are repelled by the SP?
Where is your evidence of this? In all the areas in which the SP work they do recieve support. This is reflected in the elections, in areas whewre they have done alot of work they have recieved very good votes and are the largest party in many areas.
Well, election results. Not good showing's like Clare Daly's in Dublin North at the last Dail election- I mean people elected.
Fair enough, the SP do some good work - but their appeal is limited and will remain so. Therefore their political effectiveness will not be significant.
I'm not trying to pick a fight with the SP - just the overdrive on the Bin Tax issue within the lefty ghetto is just a bit much when there are other serious issues out there to be confronted - which I acknowledge the SP etc are also active against.
With war against Iraq certain within the next few months - the issue of the right or wrong of paying for bin collection fades in importance, in my opinion.
'I'm not a member of the SP but I have to take you up on something, Do you really think most workers are repelled by the SP?'
Yes. The SP have disgusting personal habits.
Maybe your right about the war being of more importance that the bin tax, but do you expect the SP to just drop the bin tax like a hot potatoe when another more juicy campaign comes along?
This idea that working people don't produce waste is utter nonsense. Of course they do.
The Greens have always held the view that the more waste you produce, the more you pay and if you manage to produce no waste at all by composting, recycling and careful shopping then you pay nothing.
Paying for services that you use yourself is not a taxation so long as you have an opt out clause. Most local authorities have this opt out clause so long as people can demonstrate that they are disposing of their waste in a responsible manner.
Nobody in Dublin gave a damn that people around the country have been paying waste charges for years.
In Galway City we have the highest waste charges in the country but also the best recycling scheme. We are hoping to move to a pay by weight system soon.
Anybody who claims to be a socialist and doesn't give a damn about the environment is not worth much in my book.
Rupert you aren't just reacting to an over-emphasis on the bin tax issue. Your posts have been entirely hostile to everybody to the left of the Green Party.
Why is such an emphasis put on the bin tax issue?
First and foremost it is important because it is the thin end of a very large wedge. The bin tax is just the first stage of a process which the government hopes will see ordinary families shelling out up to a thousand euro a year for local services, all of which will be privatised. Refuse collection, water, sewerage, you name it and the government and the big multinational utility operators want working people to pay a flat rate to private companies for it.
This isn't some kind of secret. Ask the WTO, or the GATS negotiators or the EU.
If we don't take our stand here, when do we take it? When the bin tax is running at 500 euro to a private contractor and a water tax is being introduced? When local charges are 800 euro a year to private operators and the ESB is to be privatised? When?
They only expelled him from THEIR GROUP ON THE COUNCIL. Not from the PARTY. So like the other year when their group split to get the estimates through, he will be let back in after a short while supposedly 'suffering in limbo'. This 'whip' and mandating is all a charade.
Working people do pollute but nowhere near as much as big business. And who gets lumbered with the highest waste charge? it certainly is not big business.
You imply that there is nothing wrong with paying for all our services at the point of use. therefore the logical extension of this is that Univeristy and second level fees be re-introduced, people should pay for water, sewage and every other state supplied service you can think of.
Another agenda of the bin tax id the privitisation of Bin collection. DO the GP support this? Privitisation will not be to the benefit of the environment or the workers. Council workers will be laid off and forced to give greater productivity. The environment will suffer as it will be profitable for these companies to deal with waste, they wont want recycling. You will also see a massive increase in illegal and irresponsible dumping by these privitly owned cowboys. Look at the state of Wicklow. Do the GP support this?
That prick Lacey was at the forefront in the campaign to expel socialists in the 80s from the labour party. Will he take up the cause of his own expulsion with the same zeal?
Lets try this again, for the slow learners in the class:
The bin tax is not an environmental tax. It is not levied "by weight". The money raised is not spent on protecting the environment. And most importantly it is targetted at ordinary householders - who produce a tiny percentage of the waste which goes into landfills each year - rather than the developers and business interests who produce almost all of it.
The bin tax is just the water tax under a different name. It is firstly an attempt to shift the burden of financing local authorities away from the government support grant and towards a flat rate tax on workers.
It is also an attempt to ripen local services for privatisation. Once they have their own established income-stream they are that much more attractive to the Vivendis of this world. One might expect the Green Party to have caught on to the agenda of the EU, the WTO, GATS and the rest by this stage.
Lets say it one more time, slowly and clearly - THE BIN TAX HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ENVIRONMENT.
The allegation that socialists who campaign against the bin tax don't care about the environment is rubbish (pardon the pun). The Socialist Party (and others in the anti-bin tax campaigns) has a long record of involvement in environmental campaigns. We just aren't foolish enough to believe the establishment when they try to stick an "environmental" badge on an attack on workers living standards. For those who are interested you can find a detailed socialist approach to the environment at the site linked below (look at the right hand side of the page for the article).
Lastly the idea that Dubin campaigners are in favour of service charges elsewhere is just another empty smear. The Socialist Party has been involved in anti-service charge campaigns in Limerick, Cork, Drogheda and elsewhere.
Niall, householders in rural areas did not (and do not) pay the same rates that people living in urban areas did. Those rates that are still being payed and are supposed to be used for the disposal of our waste are now being added to. That is manifestly unfair.
Furthermore, having lived in rural areas myself I have seen the illegal dumping frequently practiced in order to avoid paying the fee for entrance to the local dump. This evidence is bin-bags stuffed with nappies, tins, plastic, paper slung over the side of the ditch into the nearest piece of forestry.
I think that it's reasonable to predict that the introduction of this extra fee for a service we've already paid for will increase the phenomenon of littering.
"Polluter pays" is a catchy slogan, but in practice it is not the producer that is paying it is the already taxed worker.
If the Green Party were to introduce the measure mentioned by Graham Caswell, namely increase taxes dramatically on the manufacturers and importers of disposable goods, then introduce community areas where composting, mulching and macerating can be done _easily_ then there'd be some argument for a Pay-As-You-Waste fee.
As it is there are few if any resources to enable ordinary people to reduce their waste. Recycling facilities are few and far between. Lots of people spend a good deal of time working and don't have time to arse around finding products with minimalist packaging. They don't have nice large houses with good places to mulch or compost.
As it is the Greens have been tricked into voting for half of a solution and they've come out of it looking like anti-working class fools.
I am completely in support of recycling, reducing and reusing. I bicycle instead of drive etc etc but I am completely opposed to this implementation of the slogan "The Polluter Pays".
Brian Cahill is completely right about this being the thin end of a wedge. It's the first step of privatisation and its attendant displacement of collective social services by private companies.
I know that the Green Party and its members wanted something different: the reduction of waste and that the cost be born by those that help create the waste but that's not what you're getting here. If the Green Party is serious about changing society then you'd better think this one through again because you're going to be the ones that get the heat on this. Not Labour, not FF, not FG, not PD. Everyone already knows they're swine. Watch your parties ratings drop in the next election.
Interesting debate.
This is not the first time I have attempted to explain this to the Green Party.
If a council levies a bin tax the inevitable consequence is that a private contractor will come in and undercut the council (this has happened all over the country). As a result the council withdraws from the service and gives the private contractor a free run (again this has happened all over the country). The private contractor then pushes up the price of the bin tax (once again this has happened all over the country). Following on from this the contractor applies to build a waste incinerator arguing that this is the only way to bring down the charges(happened all over the country). Even the Green Party will admit that an incinerator needs to have more and more waste created to make a profit. If the contractor raises the charge too high and another contractor moves in, they are either bought up or a cartel is formed (again this has happened all over the country).
Follow the logic.... Refuse charges create waste. The only way of dealing with waste is to tackle it at source and provide a comprehensive recycling programme. Don't put the cart before the horse (or you won't be able to pick up the shite off the road).
As a green supporter, I admit we have a lousy policy on bin charges, there are various reasons for this, one is because unlike me many green supporters are well off and dont mind paying another tax. They look at me as if I had 2 heads when I explain that many of us are sick of being ripped off since the introdiuction of the Euro last year as well as as the almost weekly increases for almost everything except corporation tax and wages and social welfare payments. I hate to admit it but some (not all) green supporters are 'wooley' on issues such as bin taxes and privatisations and simply dont realise that the gameplan is to privatise such services and make huge profits in the process. Some are kind hearted naive people who are hoodwinked by 'green'washed nonsense about the 'envirnment'from cute hoors such as city manager fitzgerald.
dissappointed Green
surely one thing is clear from your experience. Its time to leave the Green Party and join a party that fights for workers namely ....the Socialist Party
The scenario painted above is an interesting one, but it's far from inevitable. However, I must say that some Greens are only just copping on to the fact that privatisation is a con job. I think the party's waste management policy even mentions 'private partnerships'. In fairness, however, this policy is currently under review.
I'd be more comfortable as a Green if the party's support for waste charges was backed up with a commitment to fight privatisation in this and other areas.
Phuq and Brian C have raised an excellent point. If this tax is successful then what next? Rental charges on library books? Road sweeping tax? Bycicle lane tax? Reintroduction of the water tax?
Hats off to all involved in the campaign against the bin tax be they SP, SWP, WP, WCA, WSM or community activists.
I hope to get involved in Finglas soon.