Anti Bin Tax Protest Tomorrow March 4TH @6PM @City Hall

by Sean Mon Mar 04, 2002 12:00

This is bullshit. How can you expect to have a decent sanitation program unless you pay for it. Are the bin men supposed to work for free?
I'm surprised that any figures of stature on the left are lending their support to such an unworthy cause when there are so many real problems, both local and global, to tackle.

by Paul Kinsella - Ballymun Echo Mon Mar 04, 2002 15:06 paulkinsella53 at yahoo dot com 53 Lorcan Grove, Santry, Dublin 9, Eire 087-9748511

With all due respects my friend and you're perfectly entitled to your opinion as we thankfully at least for the moment live in some semblance of a 'Democracy' (That thousands of Irishmen and Irishwomen and many generations of Irish people fought for, and in many cases sacrificed their lives for!) it's you who's talking bullshit! I'm NOT going to get personal here. If you'll excuse the pun I can 'rubbish' your reply. First of all you quite rightly ask "How can you expect to have a decent sanitation program unless you pay for it?" Fair enough! Fair point! Well this is the whole crux of our Ongoing Campaign against this DOUBLE TAXATION of PAYE Workers and of the poor. The whole point of our Campaign goes back to the Fianna Failure BANKRUPTCY General Election Manifesto of 1977 when Fianna Failure promised to abolish the hideously unfair and oppressive Domestic Rates and to fund our Local Authorities through increased Central Government Funding. This they did for a year or two. Then Fianna Failure started hiking up PAYE Tax Rates that directly lead to the mass PAYE Tax Marches and Work Stoppages of the late 1970s and the early 1980s. In the November 1982 General Election the Blueshirts and the so-called 'Labour' Party formed a coalition that immediately brought those hated Domestic Rates back in through the back door by introducing Service Charges for various Local Authority Services such as water, bin collection, sewerage and even calling out the Fire Brigade. Yes, even calling out the Fire Brigade! I wonder how many houses burned down because the inhabitants wouldn't pay or couldn't afford to pay this call-out charge for the Fire Brigade? Due to the Intense Nationwide Protests against these Service Charges and because of the intense unpopularity of those Double Taxation Service Charges Fianna Failure being the cute hoors that they are promised that if they were returned to power in the 1987 General Election that they would abolish these Service Charges and the Irish public having the very short memories that many of them have fell hook line and sinker for this Fianna Failure 'promise' and returned the Hockey (oh sorry I meant Haughey!) Government to power as a Minority Government in the 1987 General Election. Fianna Failure being the typical cute hoors that they are again 'abolished' those Service Charges for another year or two. But what they did was to deliberately starve Local Government of Central Government Funding thereby forcing the Local Authorities to reintroduce Service Charges. This is turn led to the Massive Nationwide Protests of the early and mid 1990s right up to today against these Service Charges best typified by the likes of Massive Organisations such as the All-Dublin Federation Against The Water Charges, The All-Dublin Anti-Bin Tax Campaign and Cork Householders Against Service Charges (CHAC). Sorry for the history lession but I think that a lot of people need to know the history of the Ongoing Nationwide Campaign Against these Double Tax Service Charges. Now if the Government were to reduce the Basic (Lower) Rate of PAYE Tax to 15c (15%) and to either lower the VAT rate to 15% or else reintroduce the two rates of VAT, let's say have one of 10% for 'basic' commodities and a 20% rate for 'luxury' goods, and if they were also to give real and drastically increased powers to Local Government then you might get a rethink of the Massive Ongoing Nationwide Campaign Against these Double Tax Service Charges! As regards your question "Are the bin men supposed to work for free?" With all due respects this is a bit of a red herring! The Binmen will ensure that they get paid come hell or high water trust me! They would take any actions necessary to ensure that they got paid and got paid properly as well. As regards your statement "I'm surprised that any figures of stature on the left are lending their support to such an unworthy cause when there are so many real problems, both local and global, to tackle." This is directly connected to the Global Agenda of neoliberalism and capitalist globalisation. Have you never heard of GATS or FTAA? Or the G8, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)? These organisations are aggressively forcing an agenda of privatisation of every one of OUR Basic Public Services and forcing everyone including the poor to pay for these very Basic Public Services. So that's why so many people are so quite rightly so strongly opposed to those Services Charges because they have already led in many parts of the Country to the privatisation of Local Authority Services to fat-cat corrupt private capitalists. Finally I do support the new 15c per plastic bag levy introduced from today. This at least is a genuine effort to reduce the plague of nonbiodegradable plastic bags polluting OUR Countryside.

by Finghin Mon Mar 04, 2002 17:05

I'm involved in the Anti Bin Tax campaign and I am sick of Sinn Féin trying to hijack it. Sinn Féin are hypocrites, they voted for the Bin charges in Sligo and they have the cheek to be opposing them in Dublin! THe bin collecteion service in Sligo is now privatised. Of course if we look at Sinn Féin were they are in power we can see what they are really like, in the North they lead the Blairite attack on publicly funded hospitals and schools. SF ministers in the north are closers of schools and cheerleaders for PFIs. I wouldn't mind their hypocracy if they put work in on the campaign, but they do very little work on the ground. They have no real faith in the power of the people, this can be seen in their half hearted support for mass non payment. They are just involved so they can appear as a 'radical' campaigning party so they can dupe the working class voters come election time.

by Paul Kinsella - Dublin Anti Bin Tax Campaign Mon Mar 04, 2002 18:27 paulkinsella53 at yahoo dot com 53 Lorcan Grove, Santry, Dublin 9, Eire 087-9748511

I couldn't agree more with you Finghin and it's not a case of petty Sinn Fein bashing just for the sake of it. As you correctly say it's about sincerity and genuinely putting work into the Anti Bin Tax Campaign no more and no less. Unfortunately they're are enough gullible gobshites out there who will fall for Sinn Fein's 'Radical' image this time around. Thanks Finghin for putting in the excellent link below.
related link: www.geocities.com/finghin2000/syucd/campaigns/bintax/index.html This is very Political without being Party Political. How often is this updated Finghin?

by Finghin Tue Mar 05, 2002 13:19

Its a page on the Socialist Youth UCD website under the campaigns section, the site is regularly updated, but the section on bin tax hasn't been updated in a while. The address is www.syucd.cjb.net

I know there are other Anti Bin Tax Sites being set up, Dún Laoghaire Campaign against service charges have one I know. I'll find out the address and let you know.