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Report of Anti-Bin Charges March in Cork - February 12th
 cork |
bin tax / household tax / water tax |
news report
 Thursday February 17, 2005 16:33 by Cork WSM
About 300 people marched on Saturday afternoon in protest at the ongoing stand-off over the bin tax and the non-collection of domestic rubbish in Cork City. The noisy and lively march was harassed throughout by motorcycle cops who insisted on running normal traffic though the streets at the same time as the march was in progress. The march finished in Daunt Square where it was addressed by an Sandra Condon, an activist with Householders Against Service Charges (HASC) who was jailed in 2001 for opposing Cork City Councils' policies. A number of recently elected city-councillors also spoke.
 Despite the positive signs in the march, the campaign against the bin tax in Cork is at an impasse. Cork City Council has been implementing its policy of 'non-collection' of domestic waste since last year and the move has seriously weakened the core of non-payers who make up the opposition to the bin tax in the Cork area. Many people, faced with no other alternative and unable to find a way around non-collection, have accepted their fate and paid the tax under protest. Others have found means of disposal that including the widespread dumping of rubbish throughout the city at cross roads and available spaces. The situation in some areas is chronic with a clear danger to public health. However, Cork City Council have ignored this situation and instead have allowed a public health problem to develop. More recently it has collected publicly dumped rubbish and issued a series of litter fines.
Despite the anger and desperation, anarchists are of the view that HASC has failed to build the campaign and support for non-payment at a critical time. This is not for want of effort by the numerous activists in the campaign, but reflects the long-standing inability of the campaign to breakout of its core membership and build strong local and democratic groups through the Cork City area. Anarchists have argued that the only hope of winning against the determined Thatcherite policies of Cork City Council lay with a strong grassroots based campaign built around local area activism. But HASC has been unable to move significantly in this direction. Support has been there for the campaign in the past and peaked during the protracted dispute with City Hall in 2000 and 2001 when a large number of HASC activists were jailed, but despite this it has not translated into a city-wide and vibrant anti-bin tax movement. As a result the City Council is now in the driving seat.
At the rally at the end of Saturday's march, the Socialist Party councillor, Mick Barry, encouraged those who support the campaign to phone their local Fianna Fail councillors to complain about the state of the city and ongoing problem with the bin tax. This, in many ways, reflects the cul de sac that some in the campaign are moving HASC towards. HASC's strength always lay in the mass non-payment of the bin-tax that existed throughout Cork, but with this in decline a section of HASC, and in particular the Socialist Party, are looking towards building an electoral opposition around the issue with an eye to the next elections. For their part, anarchists are determined to maintain the focus on the possibilities for rebuilding mass non-payment. It is important to note that the City Manager, Gavin, will not be stopping with the bin tax. Already there is talk of water charges, and in a more general sense the City Council and its management structure is committed in the long terms to the neo-liberal policy of 'pay per use'. From the bin-tax campaign valuable lessons can be learned. The important next step is to look at these lessons and not get tied up in City Hall electioneering.
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Comments (6 of 6)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6Thanks for that report as the only way forward now is not via City Hall.
From the outset, it was clear that the SP in Dublin as in Cork would use the campaign against the Bin Tax to get a foot in the Door.
Will there be further meetings in the weeks ahead to dicuss which way now?
Aldo
So why is it the case that the SP have and are organising meetings and building the campaign in areas in which they did not stand in the elections?
Anarchists love to think the SP are an electoral party, no matter how much you like to think it it is not true.
The Independent Workers Union, who marched on the day, have some neck to be critiscising SIPTU bin workers for not backing the campaign.
This is the only Union in the history of Irish Labour that has never had a strike.
This means:
(a) It has no members or
(b) It preaches one thing and practices the other by accepting Sustaining Progress Pay deal and in bed with capitalists all over the shop (something it routinely criticises other unions for - see it´s website).
It could begin to give good example by not having it´s conferences in low pay non-union hotels. This year for, the second time running, it hits the mark again in Galway. Socialists me arse.
if you create rubbish why should someone else pay for it to be collected and disposed of??? If everything changed tomorrow and this policy was adopted what hope would we ever have of getting people to recycle waste. Sure why would anyone even bother trying if it was going to collected from their doorsteps for free.
I ask you, could you campaign for anything more ridiculous? It beggars belief that people believe that whatever waste they produce should be collected for free.
It's time people considered what effect their actions will have on future generations living on this planet.
Did you know that if you purchase a new electric consumer good (from a toaster up to a fridge) then you have the right within seven days to bring your old one back to the shop and they have to take it and recycle it?
I've heard certain factions criticise this because "the shop will pass the cost to the consumer". Who the hell do you think pays the cost now!
What a great initiative. Compulsory or Incetivised recycling is the only thing works in this country at the moment. Maybe in 15 years we will do as the German's were doing 30 years ago and recycle and seperate at home voulintarily.
But then again the Germans have only 10% home ownership (the rest rent) so they must be backward.
I feel its time that cork city council gave a little help to those of us who do our bit to recylce! like providing the recycle bags at least, I have no problem paying for this service considering i have three kids and 90% of what we dump is recylcable anyway plus Im paying a licenced contractor to take away my rubbish at present and my understanding is that this service was introduce free but even I know in this town nothing is free. Im not asking the producers of all this extra packing to promote their products and create extra waste packaging on my behalf but im in no way paying for it. or for a rubbish service thats second class on some occassions it is the bin men who leave rubbish from the bins all over the roads, and I would like to know what the bin collectors opinion is on this phasing out policy taking by the city conmen "sorry" city councillors as they are now being reduced to collecting once every second week. they seem to be ok with the fact that their jobs are coming to an end or maybe they are due for retirement or maybe they agree with total privatisation of this service or has the council better jobs for them like they did with the rent men who became ignorant and arrogant with their new found employment in the local were watching you offices disguised as rent collection offices and if im not mistaking why are we paying for a service which is helping to reduce the amount of waste each year on behalf of the council, free recylce bags would go along away to preventing illegal dumping in the very near future.( mr gavin.)