Bin Tax war hots up again

With the attempt of Dublin City Council to impose a policy of non-collection of bins of those who owe bin tax arrears the Bin Tax war has entered a phase of renewed conflict.

Dublin City Council has long flagged its intention to bring in the new pay-by-weight system throughout the city starting this January. It was widely expected that this opportunity would be used to stop collecting the bins of non-payers. The Council and the establishment politicians who support the bin tax were working on the assumption that the campaign of opposition was dead and that there would be little or no resistance in working class communities which until now were strongholds of the struggle.

As it turns out things have'nt gone according to plan. In the last week or so the Council's attempt to impose non-collection in areas close to the city centre have run into serious problems. They assumed it would be easy to defeat non-payment here because residents still just put out bags instead of wheelie bins. In East Wall hundreds of bags were left behind by one collection but when a large number of residents gathered subsequently they cleared the backlog by putting the bags in the trucks themselves. In other effected areas public meetings have been held, clean ups organised and preparations made to organise residents to put their rubbish into the trucks themselves. In the outer suburbs such as Finglas, Cabra, Crumlin, Ballyfermot etc. the local campaigns have been working away quitely since the crisis of autumn 2003 preparing to resist the imposition of non-collection so activists in these areas are well prepared for the inevitable battle ahead. The Council has thought the better, at this stage, of taking on these areas where people were willing to go to prison over this issue.

On another level the Dublin Campaign won an important victory in the High Court in December when a resident who owed Bin Tax arrears won his appeal case against DCC. Things now hang in the balance with a decision due in the High Court next monday on whether another 200 or so cases should be dismissed or tried one by one. The Council will try to appeal to the Supreme Court which would preclude any further residents being taken to court for months. One way or another the policy of dragging ordinary people through the courts to wring a few hundred euro out of them is in disarray.

Finally out in Dun Laoghaire the local Labour councillors voted, along with their FG colleagues, to increase the Bin Tax and abolish the full waiver scheme. So much for 'reforming' the charge and 'protecting the most vulnerable'!