Don't Pay The Water Tax

national | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis Tuesday October 13, 2009 16:44 by Gavin Gleeson - WSM (personal capacity)

The Greens and Fianna Fáil have "negotiated" a deal whereby a €225 flat tax will be levied on every household, regardless of income. The levy is expected to generate nearly €300 million a year in revenue.

For families which are just barely scraping by, a levy of €225 a year is a serious attack. Coupled with a proposed 20% reduction in the per-child allowance, decreases in rent allowance, and increasing unemployment, many families will be making decisions about what how much food they can put on the table and how they will clothe their children.

The Celtic Tiger was enormously beneficial to those at the top. Huge increases in income were gained for the top 10%, while the vast majority of us saw either modest increases in income, stagnation and even a decrease in real living standards for some.

Now that the boom has stopped and the rich see their value decreasing due to the capitalist crisis, they want us to step up to the plate and agree to lower our income so they can avoid sinking. In 2007 the 10 highest earners made €7 billion in a single year. A 4% levy on that years income for just those 10 people would be enough to avoid charging the rest of us. The rich were happy enough reaping the benefits of capitalism. If they think capitalism works so well that it needs to be kept, they can pay for it themselves. We wont pay their regressive tax, and we wont support their system of exploitation.

And in fact, we don't have to pay for it. If nobody pays, the tax will be impossible to collect. When the Government in the South attempted to institute water charges in 1994, we didn't pay. By the Summer of 1997, the water tax had been defeated. We won then, and we can win again. Don't pay the water tax!