Workers Solidarity Movement

Over the past two months the Campaign against the Household and Water Taxes has grown from strength to strength. Since the start of government registration in January, campaign meetings across the country have been packed out. 500 attended a meeting in Cork city, only to be surpassed by a meeting of 700 in Waterford city a week later. Likewise, across Dublin dozens of meetings have been held in parish halls and community centres, all with the clear message of “Don’t Register, Don’t Pay”. Building on this support, the campaign has now distributed nearly 750,000 leaflets explaining the tax and why we must refuse to pay it.

Support for the campaign has remained extremely strong in spite of the fact that government politicians have tried to bully people through threats and with the state distributing a leaflet to every house in the country. The extent of support for the campaign was revealed on February 21st last when the government released figures showing that less than 10% of people had registered for the tax. With over 1.5 million people refusing to pay, it is clear the tax is becoming unworkable. 

The strength of the campaign so far has been its base in communities across the country and it now has hundreds of branches from Cork to Donegal. This has seen a surge of activity across the country with thousands of people organising their local campaigns. With this level of support and, more importantly, involvement, the campaign is in a great position to force the government to withdraw what is a completely unjust tax. 

To this end campaign is now preparing to step up activity in the run up to the government deadline 31st of March. Over the coming weeks the campaign intends holding hundreds of meetings across the country and distributing hundreds of thousands of leaflets entitled “The Household Tax: Funding your Local (or not so Local) Bondholder”. This stage of the campaign will culminate with a National Rally in Dublin on the 24th of March. If the campaign holds its position and defeats the household tax, it will be the serious blow against austerity. To achieve this, the campaign will require the involvement of people in their local campaigns. No one else can refuse to pay this unjust tax on your behalf, we all must take action. If you haven’t joined the campaign, contact it on 1890 98 98 00 or check out the campaign website at  www.nohouseholdtax.org to out what is happening in your local area.

This article is from Workers Solidarity 126, March 2012