Next Move in the Household Charge Campaign

national | bin tax / household tax / water tax | opinion/analysis Sunday April 01, 2012 15:54 by Off the Cuff offthe.cuff at yahoo dot ie

Change tactics so they work.

The tax protests back in the 70s and 80s proved futile when it came to ordinary working people being heard by their government. In reality the only thing that really happened on those occasions was that working people lost a day's pay. Mass demonstration in Ireland achieves nothing. It is seen as a way for working people and the unemployed to let off a bit of steam so that everything can move along as it was. The trade union movement has not seen or has deliberately avoided other forms of demonstration beyond mass demonstration. The time for change has come, mass demonstration is no longer a proven method of having the will of the people upheld by their political representatives. ts time for change.

Fine Gael got over its Ard Fheis in a way that would make a funeral look like a party. The protesters outside were making all the right noise but unfortunately that noise will have long cleared the air by the time the lads and lasses stopped patting one another on the backs once the television cameras cleared the building. Enda, without openly thanking his buddy Eamon for all his support in helping to maintain the status quo that is Irish political system, wore an off colour red tie with a hint of stripe to indicate the minute levels of difference between Fine Gael and the Labour Party in 2012. If anything the short mention of the Labour Party during his speech when he told the nation how great Fine Gael was handling the chaos that was caused by "the last government" can only give comfort to the Labour Party when it comes around to the next general election and Fine Gael goes to the nation with all the cards in its hands. So what is the next move in the arsenal of the household charge campaign? Has the campaign got the strenght to keep those who refused to pay the charge on board before government intimidation really kicks in on a personal level. Will Hogan find strenght in the 800,000 people who paid the charge and start a witch hunt in order to victimise those who government politicians now describe as being unpatriotic? Are the 800,000 who paid the charge being unpatriotic in not standing up to past, present and possibly future levels of corruption by politicians and county councillors who themselves caused their country to fall from grace? If we want to talk about patriotism then lets start by lloking at those who walk and have walked the corridors of Leinster House.

So wehere from here? Well I think the next move should be to hold low level 24 hour protests (4-6 people) outside the homes and constituency offices of government politicians. Protest outside the offices of Fine Gael, Labour and not forgetting the Fianna Fail party that got us into this crisis in the first place. Protest outside local authority offices and the agency handling the household charge. Spread the protest around my making these protests low level. Mass demonstration has proven in the past to be just one day events that really achieve nothing. Picketing Enda's or the parasite Hogan's home would bring people power directly to their doorsteps, an action that has never been considered and no doubtably would find a huge level of silence from trade union leaders and the likes who love to stir up public protest and demonstration that comes and goes like the seasons.

Time to keep up the pressure before it is forgotten as was the protests in the past.