Ireland: As Irish Water crashes and burns, a people is risen

Water protest in Dublin

The Irish government’s unpopular public utility, Irish Water, has been dealt a body blow, after it failed two key tests within the space of a fortnight, gifting a huge victory to opposition parties and the massive anti-water charges movement.

On 15 July the government revealed that, of Ireland’s approximately 1.5 million households, only 645,000, or about 43 percent, had paid the first water bills issued by the new body.

Facing down threats of tax increases or of having water supplies cut off, and accusations from an increasingly hysterical government that those opposed to water charges were “fascists”, "ISIS" and a “sinister fringe”, more than half of Irish households have refused to pay the hated new charges.

Perhaps expecting a poor return, the government has already rammed legislation through the Dáil that will allow unpaid bills to taken from people’s wages and welfare payments.

Mary Lou McDonald TD, Deputy President of the anti-austerity republican party Sinn Féin, welcomed the low payment figures.

“This is a serious embarrassment to the government who have done their best to denounce and belittle the resistance to their introduction of water charges,” she said.

“The defiance of the Irish people tells them in no uncertain terms that water charges are unwelcome and that they will not be cowed by threats.”

Germany: Blockupy protests target Europe's financial hypocrisy

Tens of thousands protested in Frankfurt on March 18

The protests that met the official opening of the new European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt on March 18 were largely symbolic – not only because bank staff had already moved in last November, but also because the building itself represents the ugly hypocrisy lying at the heart of the European project.

Over 20,000 anti-capitalist protesters took to the streets of Frankfurt last week to coincide with the heavily-policed opening, taking part in mostly peaceful protests in the German financial capital to oppose the ECB’s “asphyxiating” economic policies.

Included in the ranks of the protesters were representatives of Germany’s main opposition party, the left-wing Die Linke, German trade union Verdi, the Greek ruling party SYRIZA, and Podemos from Spain, as well as unions, NGOs and grass-roots activists from 39 European countries.

Across the Eurozone, the ECB – part of the “Troika”, along with the International Monetary Fund and the Eurogroup – is playing a central role in forcing national governments to cut public spending, privatise infrastructure and push down wages while unemployment and poverty continue to increase.

These policies have caused untold misery and suffering for millions of Europeans in order to maintain a system of corporate profits and a false sense of economic order in the name of “austerity” and “growth”, but have also given rise to powerful popular resistance movements across Europe – particularly in Greece, Spain and Ireland.

Ireland: Massive water protest keeps pressure on government

Water protesters in Dublin, March 21

On March 21, nearly 90,000 people took to the streets of Dublin, in an unprecedented fifth mass protest in six months against the introduction of water charges by the Irish government.

Protesters from across the country gathered at three different locations in the city, before converging on O’Connell Street, home to Dublin’s iconic General Post Office – site of the Easter Rising in 1916 that began Ireland’s War of Independence nearly a century ago.

The human sea of flags, banner and placards was addressed by a range of politicians, community activists and union leaders. Between speakers, the crowd chanted slogans against water charges, including “Can’t pay! Won’t Pay” and “From the rivers to the sea, Irish water will be free”.

The protest was organised by the Right2Water campaign – a broad coalition of community groups, NGOs and political parties, led by some of Ireland’s largest unions.

Since October last year, Right2Water has coordinated a series of massive protests in Dublin and across the Republic of Ireland, involving hundreds of thousands of people in what is being described as the biggest mass mobilisation of people the country has ever seen.

Ireland: Sinn Féin fights welfare attacks in the north

Sinn Féin MLA and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness

On Monday March 9, Sinn Féin announced it would oppose the new welfare reform bill in the northern Irish Assembly, accusing its government partners – the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – of acting in bad faith on protecting welfare recipients.

Sinn Féin is in a power-sharing arrangement as part of the Good Friday peace agreement signed in 1998, which sought to end the violence that had wracked Ireland's north since the late 1960s, known as The Troubles.

The same day, Sinn Féin moved a Petition of Concern — supported by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) — in the Assembly to prevent the passage of the bill, which would impose cuts to welfare. This forced the DUP Minister for Social Development, Mervyn Storey, to withdraw the bill and re-enter talks to resolve the stand-off.

The welfare reform bill forms part of the recent Stormont House Agreement (SHA) – a five party agreement covering national identity issues, welfare reform and government finance in northern Ireland that was agreed to on December 23 last year, after several months of fraught negotiations.

Throughout last year, disagreements between Sinn Féin and the DUP on a range of issues escalated dangerously, and there was growing risk that failure to arrive at an agreement on the SHA might bring down the Stormont administration.

Irland: Der Ruf nach einer neuen linken Kraft wird lauter

Proteste gegen Wassersteuern in Dublin, November 2014, informatique/flickr

Von Zeitschrift LuXemburg - Gesellschaftsanalyse und linke Praxis. Bitte lesen Sie diesen Artikel >>HIER<<.

Führende GewerkschafterInnen, die republikanische Partei Sinn Fein und eine Reihe weiterer linker Stimmen haben einen Aufruf zur Bildung einer neuen politischen Kraft gegen die Austeritätspolitik unterstützt – mit der Perspektive, die Regierung in der Republik Irland zu übernehmen.

Anknüpfend an den historischen Sieg von SYRIZA in Griechenland am 25. Januar, rief der Vorsitzende von Sinn Fein, Declan Kearney, dazu auf, eine organisierte Diskussion um den Aufbau einer breiten linken Koalition zu führen. In der Februarausgabe der republikanischen Zeitung An Phoblacht hatte Kearney die Linke aufgerufen, sich die verbreitete Wut gegen die lähmenden Sparmaßnahmen zunutze zu machen, um eine glaubwürdige linke Alternative in Irlands südlichem Staat aufzubauen.

»In Irland sollte eine politische Diskussion um die Frage beginnen, wie ein Konsens zwischen Sinn Fein, progressiven Unabhängigen, der Gewerkschaftsbewegung, lokalen Initiativen und der nichtsektiererischen Linken herbeigeführt werden kann«, so Kearney.

»Es ist jetzt Zeit für ernsthafte politische Diskussionen zwischen AktivistInnen progressiver irischer Politik, der Lokalpolitik und den Gewerkschaften über Ideen und Strategien, wie die Wahl einer linken Koalition im Süden erreicht werden kann, um eine neue nationale Republik zu begründen. Es ist der einzige Weg nach vorn.«

Ireland: “Political” arrests used to intimidate water charge protesters

Jobstown protest against water charges

A series of coordinated early morning police raids in south-west Dublin have seen at least seventeen people – including several left-wing politicians – arrested for attending a peaceful rally against water charges last November, amid claims of “political policing” and intimidation.

Shortly before 7am on Monday February 9, six police arrested Anti-Austerity Alliance (AAA) TD and Socialist Party member Paul Murphy at his home while he was still in his pyjamas, having breakfast with his children.

Two AAA councillors on South Dublin Council – Mick Murphy and Kieran Mahon – were also arrested in separate raids the same morning, as was Scott Masterson from socialist republican group Éirigí. They were held for several hours, questioned, and then released without charge.

The following morning, ten police burst into the home of a 16 year old boy, arresting him as he got dressed for school. Another three people were arrested by the same morning, and then later released, amid ominous warnings that another 40 people were going to be arrested.

The pattern was repeated again on February 11 and 12, with four arrests on Wednesday morning, and five on Thursday, including boys aged only 14 and 15. All were released without charge, but their files have been sent to the Department of Public Prosecution, and charges are expected at a later date.

Irish water protesters bring Dublin to a standstill

Up to 100,000 protesters shut down Dublin city on December 10 in the latest mass demonstration against the introduction of water charges.

Protesters from across the country braved media hysteria, riot police and police barricades, and the threat of a fierce storm to descend on the centre of Dublin, placing Leinster House – home of the Dáil (Irish parliament) – and other government buildings in “lockdown”.

The protest – organised by the Right2Water campaign – was the third major protest against the charges in two months, following on from a 100,000 strong march in Dublin on 11 October and protests across Ireland on 1 November that attracted around 200,000 in dozens of towns and cities.

The introduction of new charges on water use, levied via new state-owned company Irish Water, has brought years of anger with austerity cuts and government arrogance to a head.

Not only is the cost of water already covered by general taxation, however, but it is also widely believed that water charges are only the first step towards the privatisation of Irish Water and water charges.

Ireland: Government drowning between water revolt and a rising Sinn Féin

Faced with a growing public revolt against the introduction of water charges and a faltering support, the Irish government is in a deepening crisis.

The government — a coalition between the right-wing Fine Gael party and the Irish Labour Party — came to power in 2011 on the back of public outrage over austerity and social spending cuts.

The impact from the global financial crisis hit Ireland particularly hard. According to Eurostat, Ireland has paid 42 percent of the total cost of the European banking crisis, or 41 billion euros — about 9000 euros per person. The average across the European Union is 192 euros per person.

The government of Fine Gael Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny is presiding over further austerity cuts at the behest of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB). The unemployment rate, however, remains well into double figures, and wages are low.

Despite the scale of Ireland’s economic collapse, social unrest has remained minimal. Instead, Ireland — with a population of only 4.5 million — has witnessed a more literal decimation. More than 400,000 people, mostly young people, skilled workers and families, have emigrated in search of work and a better lifestyle.

Germany announces the phase-out of nuclear power

On May 30, the German government announced that all of Germany’s seventeen nuclear power stations would be permanently shut down by 2022.

Germany’s seven oldest nuclear power stations – temporarily switched off after public outcry and protests in the aftermath of the disaster in Fukushima – will remain offline, and will be permanently decommissioned.

An eighth plant – in northern Germany – is already offline because of technical problems, and will remain shut down for good.Six of the remaining 9 power stations will be shut down in 2021, and the final three will be turned off in 2022.

"It's definite: the latest end of the last three nuclear power plants is 2022," Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen told reporters. "There will be no clause for revision."

The announcement has been greeted with critical support from anti-nuclear and environmental organisations such as Greenpeace, who have maintained their call for an earlier phase out date of 2015.

The announcement is not an entirely new proposition, either. In 2001, the then coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the German Greens passed legislation to phase out nuclear power in Germany by the end of 2021.

Germany: Record demo, Green vote rejects nuclear power

The largest anti-nuclear protests in German history were held on March 26. About 250,000 people marched in Germany’s four largest cities.

Under the slogan “Fukushima Warns: Pull the Plug on all Nuclear Power Plants”, more than 120,000 took to the streets of Berlin, 50,000 in Hamburg, 40,000 in Köln and upward of 40,000 marched in München.

In state elections held the next day, the German Greens won a historic victory in Baden-Württemberg. They will form Germany’s first-ever Green-led government.

They also tripled their vote in elections in Rheinland-Pfalz.

Riding on widespread public opposition to nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster, the Greens doubled their vote to 24.2% of the vote in Baden-Württemberg.

Germany: Greens win historic electoral triumph

State elections on March 27 saw the German Greens win an historic victory in Baden-Württemberg – where they will form Germany’s first-ever Green-led government – and triple their vote in the Rheinland-Pfalz.

Riding on widespread public opposition to nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the Greens doubled their support to 24.2 percent of the vote in Baden-Württemberg.

The centre-left Social-Democratic Party (SPD) won 23.1 percent of the vote – a small drop on their 2006 result – while the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won 39 percent of the vote, down by over 5 points.

The CDU’s ruling coalition partner – the neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) – lost more than half its support, dropping to 5.3 percent – barely enough to remain in the Landtag (state parliament).

The socialist party Die Linke (“The Left”), which took 24 percent in state elections in the eastern state of Sachsen-Anhalt on March 20, won only 2.8 percent of the vote – not enough to enter parliament.

The results mean that Baden-Württemberg will be governed by a Green-SPD coalition, led by the Greens’ Winfried Kretschmann – a founding member of the party in Baden-Württemberg and now the first ever Greens state Minister-Präsident (Premier).

Germany: Protests force nuclear closures after Fukushima disaster

Facing public outrage and concern over the nuclear meltdown unfolding in Japan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced the temporary shutdown of several of that country's nuclear reactors.

On March 12, over 60,000 anti-nuclear protesters in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg formed a 45 kilometre human chain, stretching from Stuttgart to the Neckarwestheim 1 nuclear plant.

Smaller protests took place in more than 450 towns and cities across Germany, according to anti-nuclear organisation "Ausgestrahlt" (Irradiated), and more protests are planned for March 26.

Merkel responded by announcing on March 15 that all 17 German nuclear plants would undergo safety checks. Of these, the oldest seven – all of which began operating before 1980 – would be shut down for three months, beginning immediately with the Isar 1 power plant in Bavaria.

Two of the seven older plants are already shut down – one is undergoing maintenance, while the other was taken offline in 2007 after an accident.

The move has been criticised by anti-nuclear groups and opposition parties as inadequate, and as a cynical, dishonest manoeuvre, designed only to arrest the desperate decline in support for Merkel’s ruling part, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

English woodlands under Tory threat

Plans by Britain’s Conservative Party government to sell off all of England’s public forests have sparked a rural revolt and mass public outrage across the country.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s Tory government has announced that it plans to sell off 15 per cent of all English land managed by the government-owned Forestry Commission by 2015 – the largest sell-off the Government can authorise without an act of parliament – for around £100 million.

There are also plans to sell the remaining 85 percent, and a clause in a new Public Bodies Bill would give the Environment Secretary the power to do so – the biggest change in land ownership in England since the Second World War.

The Forestry Commission manages over 250,000 hectares – almost 20 percent of the total woodland in England – comprising approximately 1,500 forests, including the New Forest, the ancient and beautiful Forest of Dean, and parts of the famous Sherwood Forest.

The public forest estates in Wales (126,000 hectares) and Scotland (660,000 hectares) – also managed by the Forestry Commission – remain under the control of the devolved assemblies in those countries (rather than the UK government). There are no plans to sell off the Scottish forests, and the Welsh Assembly has said it will keep forests in public ownership.

Germany's ‘hot autumn’ of protests

Germany’s centre-right government is facing what many have dubbed a “hot autumn” of protests, as conflict over a range of social, political and environmental issues come to a head across the country.

As the governments of Europe attempt to offload the costs of the financial crisis onto working people, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has initiated a series of “austerity” measures aimed to undermine Germany’s social welfare system.

About 100,000 trade unionists took to the streets on November 13 to protest cuts to social welfare, including government plans to raise the pension age from 65 to 67.

On November 15, Merkel was successfully re-elected leader of her party - the right-wing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) - with the support of over 90 percent of the party conference.

Facing criticism from the party's influential right-wing, Merkel has shifted her rhetoric rightwards, claiming that multiculturalism had "utterly failed", and calling on Germans to return to their "Judeo-Christian values".

The day before the CDU conference began, tens of thousands of protesters in Stuttgart, Dortmund, Nürnberg and Erfurt came out to oppose her government’s cuts.

Minister for labour Ursula von der Leyen has tried to defend the attack on pensions. Claiming it was necessary because of Germany’s low birth rate and high life expectancy, Von der Leyen described the move as “a question of fairness”.

Protesters, led by Germany’s largest union IG Metall, rejected the claim. They condemned the changes as an attack on working people designed to maximise corporate profits during the German economy’s current upswing.

Berthold Huber, head of IG Metall, told demonstrators in Stuttgart: “We don’t want a republic in which powerful interest groups decide the guidelines of politics with their money, their power and their influence.”

Ecuador: Tension rises in the 'citizens' revolution'

On July 8, the government of Ecuador's left-wing President Rafael Correa took over three television stations and nearly 200 private companies, prompting the resignation of the finance minister.
The companies seized include the TC Television, TC Noticias and Gamavision television stations, as well as another 195 insurance, construction, real estate and other businesses, all owned by the Isaias Group.

The take-overs are linked to embezzlement charges surrounding Filibanko Bank, which collapsed in Ecuador's financial crisis of 1998, and to the Isaias brothers, who are now living as fugitives in the US and are wanted on criminal charges in Ecuador.]

Debt

While government representatives have given assurances that the assets would be auctioned off to repay shareholders with outstanding claims from the 1998 financial crisis, finance minister Fausto Ortiz — described as the most "market friendly" member of Correa's government — had already resigned in protest.

Thousands protest NT intervention on 'sovereignty day'

On February 12, almost 2000 people gathered in the rain at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, before marching, in the sunshine, to Parliament House to demand an end to the federal government's racist "intervention" in the Northern Territory.

The protest, organised by the Sydney-based Aboriginal Rights Coalition (ARC) and Aboriginal communities from all over Australia, was the focus of a week of actions and meetings in Canberra, as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous activists gathered to send a message to the new Labor federal government that saying sorry was just the first step.

On February 10, the new National Aboriginal Alliance (NAA) held its second meeting. The alliance was formed last year in response to the Howard government's NT "intervention".

Sol Bellear was chosen as president and Pat Eatock secretary. The alliance intends to meet four times a year, and aims to build a new national organisation for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.

On February 11, more than 200 people attended workshops on the implications of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and heard first-hand reports from communities in the NT affected by the ongoing intervention.

However, the main focus of the convergence on Canberra was the protest in opposition to the intervention on February 12. 

Ecuador: Protests threaten - 'FTA signed, Palacio out'

Several weeks of turmoil have escalated as thousands of workers, students and indigenous groups have taken to Ecuador's streets and highways, bringing the country to a standstill, forcing the resignation of the interior minister and demanding an end to negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US.

The latest round of protests were sparked on March 6 when 4000 contract oil workers in Orellana province took industrial action demanding back-pay and secure employment, and opposing environmental damage from the US-based oil company Occidental Petroleum.

Since then, the protests have broadened rapidly to reject the proposed FTA with the US and demand a new constitution and the removal of US troops from the Eloy Alfaro air base at Manta. Protesters have also demanded the expulsion of Occidental from Ecuador and the nationalisation of the country's oil.

In the capital Quito, protesters occupied the metropolitan cathedral and broke through a police cordon to blockade the presidential palace. In rural areas, highways were blockaded across the central highlands and throughout the Amazonian regions.

Ecuador's President Gutierrez walks a tightrope

On June 10, the 10th round of negotiations for a free trade agreement between the South American nations of Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, and the United States, ended in a stalemate, with neither side willing to budge, in yet another example of Washington's increasing isolation on the continent.
Colombian farmers boycotted the negotiations, thousands of Ecuadorians protested in the streets of the country's largest city, Guayaquil, until police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse them, and on June 8, a bomb was set off outside the hotel in which the negotiations were taking place.

Ecuador's social movements, confident after forcing the overthrow of President Lucio Gutierrez on April 20, are demanding a referendum on the agreement. Protesters chanted: "We don't want to become a North American colony".

Gutierrez was unpopular for his implementation of neoliberal austerity measures, expansion of the US military presence in Ecuador and for attempting to subvert the role of the Supreme Court. 

His replacement, former vice-president Alfredo Palacio, came to power promising to hold a referendum on the trade agreement, increase social spending and to "re-found" the country by setting up a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution.

However, while he initially spoke out against deepening military ties with the US, Palacio has since affirmed that the US air base at Manta, used as part of Plan Colombia, will stay, and there are fears he will cave in to Washington over trade as well.

Ecuador: Mass protests drive president from power

After four months of mounting political pressure and constitutional crisis, the people of Ecuador have driven President Lucio Gutierrez from office. In the face of unstoppable mass protest, and growing calls for the dissolution of Congress and establishment of popular assemblies, Ecuador's right-wing Congress abandoned Gutierrez, leaving vice-president Alfredo Palacio to assume the role.

Gutierrez was overwhelmingly elected in late 2002, on a campaign supported by the left. Styling himself an "Ecuadorian Chavez", he promised to destroy corruption in Ecuador, remove the contentious United States military presence at the Eloy Alfaro Air Base, and free the country from neoliberalism. Gutierrez had supported the 2000 uprising, led by indigenous groups, that overthrew a corrupt president.

Like most Latin Americans, Ecuadorians have been hit hard by neoliberal economic policies pushed by the US and international financial institutions, including privatisation of basic services that has led to increases in the cost of living; and increased debt that imposes crippling repayments. These policies have increased the economic and political subordination of the country to the US, which has strengthened support for left-nationalism.

Upon his election, however, Gutierrez quickly revealed himself as another US puppet, increasing US military ties; embroiling Ecuador in Plan Colombia (the Washington-Bogota-led war on Colombian left-wing insurgents); increasing Ecuador's IMF debt; supporting the war on Iraq; privatising basic services; agreeing to negotiate a free trade agreement with the US; and approving oil exploration in indigenous and environmentally protected areas.

ECUADOR: 'Lucio out! Democracy yes! Dictatorship No!'

On April 13, thousands of Ecuadorians protesting in the capital Quito were violently attacked by riot police with tear gas. The protesters, led by unionists and students, blocked roads with burning tyres and shut down the centre of the city, demanding the resignation of President Lucio Gutierrez and the reinstatement of the Supreme Court judges sacked by the president last December.
Quito Mayor Paco Moncayo, leader of the opposition Democratic Left Party (ID) and an organiser of the protest, ordered the closure of public transport, municipal offices and schools, as protesters shouted "Lucio out! Democracy, yes! Dictatorship, no!"

About 800 fully armed police and soldiers occupied the two blocks around the presidential palace, erecting metal barriers and barbed wire fencing across roadways.

This is just the latest in a wave of protests. On April 11, a group of about 100 protesters from various social movements occupied the nearby Metropolitan Cathedral. Despite being denied food and water, they are refusing to leave until the former Supreme Court is reinstated.

The prefect for Pichincha province, which covers Quito, ID member Ramiro Gonzalez, declared an indefinite strike from April 12, closing roads — including the Pan-American Highway — businesses and the local airport.

Roads were also blocked by demonstrations in the regions of Imbabura, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, Loja, Azuay and Canar, and the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador (CONAIE) occupied the education ministry building in Quito.