After Greece and Spain, the rise of anti-austerity in Ireland

News

Since the financial and property crisis of 2008, the Irish government has applied all the measures advocated by its new creditors. Although the official line is that the medicine is working, the situation on the ground is not, in fact, that healthy.

The unemployment rate has gone back down to just under 10 per cent, but this is partly owed to the massive number of young people that have emigrated to countries like Australia.

Growth has picked up, reaching 4.5 per cent in 2014, but this wealth has been largely generated by big corporations such as Microsoft or Amazon, attracted to Ireland by its extremely generous tax incentives.

The people of Ireland, for their part, are being hard hit by the dismantling of public services, repossessions and evictions. Housing prices in Dublin have never been as high and the threat of another property bubble hangs over the city once again.

A survey conducted by the Central Statistics Office reveals that almost one in six people were at risk of poverty in 2013, and that a third of the population had difficulty making ends meet.

Until recently, the government, made up of the centre-right Fine Gael and the Labour Party, had faced no more than minor resistance. But the events of recent months seem to indicate that being the Troika’s most obedient patient comes at a price.

 

It all started with the water

At the end of 2013, the government announced the establishment of Irish Water, a company presented as a subsidiary of Bord Gais, the public body managing drinking water.

Irish Water began installing new meters across the country, explaining, in passing, that each individual household would be charged for what they consumed.

Until that point, water consumption and the maintenance of the network had been funded through progressive income tax. Many consider the new system to be an unjust double tax.

The arrival of Irish Water, a provider eager to cut off the supply of non-payers, raised concerns that the next step would be privatisation.

Citizens were quick to join forces through social media networks, launching initiatives to halt the installation of water meters or to sabotage those already in place.

The police clashed with small groups of protestors in towns across the country. In Trim, a man was arrested for obstructing the installation of water meters. But his arrest did nothing to deter other protestors, who became increasingly numerous during the summer of 2014, with no measures being taken to soothe the situation.

In the meantime, the parties in government received a show of disapproval from voters at the European elections in May 2014. Support for the Labour Party fell from 13.9 to 5.3 per cent, whilst the left-wing Sinn Féin party won 19.5 per cent of the vote - double its usual score.

In autumn, the water protest movement organised around the Right2Water (R2W) label, a large grouping of radical left parties, civil society organisations and five hitherto minority trade unions.

The Sinn Féin, although identified as the key anti-austerity party, remained on the sidelines of this initiative. Some R2W members, it has to be said, had no qualms about calling for a boycott of the new water bills.

Already burdened by its historical links with the IRA (Irish Republican Army), Sinn Féin can ill afford to take part in a movement advocating even vaguely illegal actions. The party did, however, announce that if it were elected to government, its first political move would be to put an end to the Irish Water system.

R2W organised an initial day of action on 11 October 2014. The scale of the event surpassed even the most optimistic forecasts. Around 10,000 protestors were expected; at least eight times that number responded to the call.

The same day saw the victory at the Dublin South-West by-election of Paul Murphy, the first Deputy representing the Anti-Austerity Alliance, a party affiliated to R2W. “What we have seen today is a genuine revolt,” he said after the results had been announced.

 

Following in the footsteps of Podemos?

Following the protest march, the government announced that a €100 (US$110) water grant would be made available to most households, but the announcement had little impact on the general mood. The idea of a mass boycott was gathering growing support.

The number of protestors rose to an estimated 100,000 during the second day of action held by R2W on 1 November. Ireland’s political class is slowly coming to the realisation that Irish Water is set to be at the top of the political agenda in the run-up to the next legislative elections, due in 2016.

But what started out as a water issue has grown into a much larger movement against austerity measures.

Rory Hearne, a lecturer at Maynooth University, conducted a survey of water protestors.

“People have had enough,” he explains. “The water charges are viewed as an austerity measure too far, especially from a government that had promised, in 2011, not to pursue austerity policies.”

The movement shaking Ireland is in the throes of transformation: “We are witnessing a politicisation, a very clear stance against corruption, against a debt that is seen as unjust, against ever deeper inequalities... We are seeing it with the rise of Sinn Féin and non traditional political practices. R2W is becoming a solid citizens’ movement reminiscent of initiatives such as Podemos,” concludes Hearne.

In the role of Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias is Brendan Ogle, a trade unionist renowned for his firmness, who recently left his post at the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) group of unions to get more involved in the movement.

Hearne’s survey shows that a third of the respondents said they would vote for the Anti-Austerity Alliance, whilst a quarter said they would vote for Sinn Féin.

Most importantly, 79 per cent of the respondents said they would vote for candidates endorsed by R2W.

The movement is, in any case, heading in that direction. On May Day 2015, R2W organised a ’Platform for Renewal’ bringing together, on an equal footing, political, trade union and independent actors, to draw up a set of core principles for a progressive government.

In addition to the proposal to overhaul the water management system, the text also centres on improving the health and education systems, reducing the power of finance on the country’s economy, as well as promoting decent work.

In the meantime, for Ogle, it is time for debate and reflection: “We launch parties, we launch brands, we launch personalities, we launch names and then they sit down and scratch their heads trying to figure out what they stand for. What we are going to do is to try to reverse that....It seems to us to be very logical. Start off with some ideas in areas that affect people’s lives, see if we can we come up with principles, see if there is a public appetite for that. And if there is, then a new alliance of candidates and personalities.”

 

[Editor’s note: on Wednesday 8 July 2015, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ (ICTU) Biennial Delegate Council supported a motion rejecting water charges and calling for a Constiutional referendum ensuring that water remains in public ownership.]

 

This article was first published by Basta!

This article has been translated from French.