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The
Bin Tax was introduced almost four years ago in Dun
Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council and thereafter in
the other Dublin Councils. Since then campaigns against
the tax have sprung up throughout the capital. According
to an article in Socialist Voice in May this
year the tax ‘is the battering ram of a strategy
to reintroduce some form of local tax of up to €1,000
a year! It is also part of the commitment of this
government to privatisation of essential services.’
In
2001, the two Socialist Party elected representatives
Joe Higgins and Clare Daly, won a court case which
compelled the councils to collect household rubbish
whether or not the tax had been paid. It was a significant
victory but this summer the government managed to
get its way, shifting control over waste management
from elected councillors to bureaucratic appointees
– county managers. For their part councils now
can refuse to collect bins from those homes where
the tax has not been paid.
Now
both Joe Higgins and Clare Daly are subject to the
whim of those other managers – prison governors,
both having obtained the status of political prisoners,
courtesy of the wealthy. Their political offence has
been to lead protests against the bin charge in Dublin
from a fortnight ago in response to the council deciding
to stop collecting bins from householders who had
refused to cough up the money. Those refusing to part
with their badly needed income may feel that enough
of their taxes has went to pay for the most expensive
waste carrier of them all - the government jet which
ferries the country’s political rubbish from
junket to banquet across the globe. As Gerry Murray,
who was arrested after obstructing a Fingal County
Council refuse collection lorry, stated, we have been
kicked around for too long. In Dublin 15 there are
no shops, no doctors, no post offices, and Fingal
have the cheek to charge us for refuse.’
Joe
Higgins made the point that it was not lost on people
that the council was jailing him while none of the
Ansbacher tax-cheats were even taken to court. 'It's
an outrage that we're being sent to Mountjoy for standing
up for the community when gangsters in the pockets
of speculators will never come before the courts.'
An Irish Times editorial, while not sympathetic, nevertheless
felt sufficiently shamed to opine ‘many will
question whether it is too severe, compared, for example,
to the sentences imposed on Mr Liam Lawlor for not
co-operating with the Flood/Mahon Tribunal.’
And as Pat Rabbitte, leader of the Labour Party, argued
in response to a government hypocrite urging labour
to condemn the protests, the jailing of Higgins and
Daly stood in sharp contrast with the failure to jail
industrialists for the illegal dumping that had taken
place in Co Wicklow. ‘Corporates have been dumping
indiscriminately and, as yet, nobody has been arraigned
before the courts for the disgraceful dumping in a
beautiful county like Wicklow.’ Nor did the prison
sentences square with the failure to prosecute those
‘who have obstructed justice, lied to tribunals
and evaded tax.’
Even
for those who are not fans of Trotskyites, having
over the decades witnessed enough Trotskyites against
Trotskyism thriving on their endless sectarianism
and wallowing in their semi-theological correctness,
it is hard not to be impressed by Joe Higgins and
Clare Daly. They are bringing back into vogue a phrase
long since abandoned elsewhere - the voice of principled
leadership.
And
it is leadership that may have a better appreciation
of the mood in Dublin than the political establishment.
After a sizeable march to Mountjoy Jail last Friday
evening Socialist Party councillor, Ruth Coppinger,
said the attendance had given the lie to media claims
that the anti-bin-charge campaign had little support.
Sinn Fein Dublin chair, Daithi Doolan, said that the
city manager John Fitzgerald is wholly out of touch
with public opinion there:
He
has already sent out over 40,000 letters and now
he is sending out 40,000 more and they are all extremely
confrontational. We have no idea if he has even
considered the health and safety implications of
his decision. He's talking about not collecting
from streets that can afford to pay their taxes
now, but how soon will it be before he starts going
into other areas? And who decides who can afford
to pay and who can't? We are looking at a potential
massive build-up of rubbish in Dublin and a great
deal of anger from its residents. The council policy
seems to be one of divide and conquer.
In
defence of refusing to pay the bin tax Socialist
Voice maintained that the campaign is not the
result of some local scam but:
is
based on the principled opposition to unfair double
taxation. PAYE workers still pay more than 80% of
all tax in this country and the rich and big business
don’t pay enough. Until there is a fair and
progressive tax system, there will be organised
opposition to any double taxation like bin charges
or water charges.
In
spite of this not all of those who would claim to
defend communities against gangster capitalism have
rallied behind the Socialist Party’s political
prisoners or the protest. While Mick O'Reilly of the
ATGWU attended the picket of Mountjoy Jail to express
his outrage at the imprisonment of his fellow socialists,
other trade unionists were eager to demonstrate to
authority that they were, in the words of one anti-bin
tax activist ‘management by another name.’
General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions,
Mr David Begg, urged the jailed Socialist Party politicians
to purge their contempt of the High Court. In this
he was joined by Fine Gael who, singing from the same
hymn sheet, rhymed, ‘Joe Higgins should immediately
desist from encouraging others to protest in this
fashion and purge his own contempt.’
This
is the sort of logic that ultimately leads to trade
union leaders becoming so absorbed by the system that
they begin to see judges as comrades - workers with
wigs. Contempt for a court that punishes the poor
and rewards the rich is a honourable thing. If the
bench wants our respect rather than disdain let it
direct that the government increase commercial rates
and get the taxes from those who do most of the polluting
and have the wealth to pay for it.
Meanwhile,
Joe Higgins and Clare Daly continue to provide inspiration
from their prison cells. Higgins’ robust dismissal
of the Roy Link-type David Begg, has illustrated that
while handcuffs have sharp fangs they can’t shackle
minds that refuse to give in.
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