In the run-up to Saturday’s water charges protest, it was all about the numbers. Whenever representatives advertised the Right2Water event in the media, they were invariably asked how many they expected to turn out.
The subtext was obvious. What size of a protest would signal that the campaign still had a pulse? And, how far down would it be on the transformative protest back in October that brought up to 150,000 onto the streets?
The turnout might also answer whether the Government’s revised charges had definitively changed the narrative about water charges.
Cometh the hour, it was to transpire that most of the questions remained unanswered. Garda sources and elements in the media put the turnout at between 30,000 and 40,000. Organisers put the figure at anything from 50,000 to 80,000. Take your pick.
Either way, the Right2Water campaign can claim that getting such a sizeable number of feet on the street, this far into the protest, was a considerable achievement.
It signals that the disenchantment hasn’t gone away. There is still a sizeable number of people willing to give up their Saturday and travel, some of them from hours away by bus, to voice their protest.
The fare on view as the three streams of protest poured into O’Connell St spoke volumes. There was colour aplenty and solidarity expressed with other issues, particularly the Greeks. One banner advertising Syriza’s kindred spirit in Spain, Podemos, was prominent. A Sinn Féin activist held aloft a poster proclaiming “Extortion by Extortionists”, which indicated its bearer had either a short-term memory, or no sense of irony, considering what the party’s armed wing used to get up to. And there was a considerable presence from a group marking the UN’s Anti-Racism day.
The theme from the stage was defiance. Socialist party TD Ruth Coppinger said that non-payment was now the issue. “Any future government, no matter who is in it... if the water charges are paid they will keep the water charges going,” she said.
Richard Boyd Barrett referred to Enda Kenny as “a clown”, which was a bit harsh.
And on it went, at pace because with the clock ticking on, there was the little matter of a rugby match to catch. What emerged is that the Right2Water group now sees the main phase of the campaign as non-payment of the charge, the deadline for which is a fortnight away.
In reality, the campaign is in a different phase, one beyond the issue of water. For at this juncture, it would appear there will be no going back to the regime where water is treated as free and plentiful by everybody.
Irish Water may well become an election issue, but the chances of any new government — even one led by Sinn Féin — returning to the old way of doing things is practically nil.
What has come to the fore over the course of the whole debacle of Irish Water is that the infrastructure is badly creaking, and any effort to fix that out of general taxation is likely to meet the same fate that has befallen water treatment and supply over the last 30 years.
Despite the huge success of the campaign in forcing the Government to completely revise its intital plans, no real alternative to the principle of user pays has gained any traction.
Right2Water repeatedly suggests it could come from “progressive taxation”, but very little in the way of specifics is offered. Boyd Barrett has spoken of some form of wealth tax. There may be merit in taxing wealth, but if so, surely areas like health, education, and disability would be more deserving beneficieries.
Brendan Ogle, of the Unite trade union, last week talked up increasing the PSRI contributions of employers to pay for water. This would give rise to employers, big and small, effectively sponsoring the rest of us to use water as we saw fit. Would that really work?
The notion that access to free and limitless water is a human right, as Right2Water contends, is highly suspect. If charging for water constitutes the stripping of a right, then all countries in the developed world are guilty of human rights abuses on this issue.
Things have moved on. Saturday’s turnout was the first real manifestation of an effort to organise on the left of the political spectrum, exploiting the mobilisation and networking that the water issue has tapped into.
Chief among those behind this phase is Ogle. He has repeatedly stated that he would like to see a coming together of strands of the left to form a coherent bloc. The second item on the agenda of any such meeting of minds would most likely be the abolition of the charging regime. (Naturally, the first item would be the split.) But at this stage, the issue is being used as just a bridgehead to a wider political movement.
How big or how organised such a movement might be will become obvious. With a volatile and, in places, seething, electorate, some success would be up for grabs. Whereas the vast numbers initially angered by the new charges might not flock to such a standard, many might provide a grudging scratch in the polling booth. All of which depends on the left defeating history, and setting aside the minutae of policy and personality differences to provide a solid grouping. Don’t bet on it.
In the meantime, the Government will be hoping an improving economy will diminish the chances of water impacting on the election. If that comes to pass, then Kenny and co can consider themselves lucky in light of the unholy mess they created over water.
Michael Clifford
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