From top: Water protesters arrive in Dublin for a Right2Water rally in August, 2015; Dr Rory Hearne
The water protests and Right2Water have changed Ireland. They have helped people realise that we do not just have to accept everything that we are told, that there are alternatives.
Dr Rory Hearne writes:
Again they will come to Dublin this Saturday in their tens of thousands – from every corner of the country and from all parts of Dublin.
Another tidal wave of the ‘ordinary’ men, women and children of Ireland – taking to the streets to make their voice heard against austerity, the ‘unjust’ water charge, the unequal recovery and to have ‘a government for the people’.
It could be the biggest water protest yet.
And this one is even more significant because it takes place just a few days away from the general election. This is because the water protest movement, the largest protest movement in Ireland since the 1913 lockout, is changing the course of politics in Ireland.
The government and mainstream media have never fully understood or wanted to understand why so many people took part in the water protests and how they are changing how people think about politics.
The water protesters have become like the irritating fly that buzzes around a nice quiet room. We were supposed to be in recovery and austerity finished yet the protests just got bigger and bigger. They upset the cosy consensus. And so the government sent out Alan Kelly and the Gardai as their swat to try kill it.
But they have failed.
There will be tens of thousands of people in Dublin on Saturday saying to the entire political establishment, ‘we are the Irish people awakened from our slumber of passivity – we are saying ‘no more’, we want our country back to be run for the welfare of its people, and we are going to vote for politicians who have stood with us’.
This is a profound statement that will have a major bearing the outcome of the election because it shows that the Irish people are not just lying down as they did at the start of the crisis in 2008 and when the Troika rolled into Dublin to takeover in 2010.
Remember all the questions about why didn’t the Irish protest at the imposition of austerity, the bailout of the banks and the Troika (IMF, ECB and EU) taking over the country?
Remember when the former Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, said in April 2009 that other European countries were ‘amazed’ at the extent of austerity inIreland and that there would be “riots” if these were introduced in any other European country.
Remember Enda Kenny, smil the cover of Time magazine in October 2012 where he explained to the world that there had been no large-scale demonstrations in Ireland because “(Irish) people understand that you have to do difficult things to sort out our own public finances”.
They thought they had convinced the Irish people to stay quiet by getting us to blame ourselves for ‘partying to hard’ in the boom years.
They thought the election was going to be the Irish people sensibly choosing stability over chaos.
But the government never learned from their mistaken attitude to the water protests. They didn’t listen to the people then and they still aren’t listening now.
Through the water protests and the Right2Water/Right2Change movement –made up of communities, trade unions and Left political parties – the Irish people found their voice of protest. They found their dignity and decided to take a stand.
Water was the issue people could take action on. They could stop a water meter being installed outside their house in a way they couldn’t stop a cut to the local hospital or community centre.
They could protest on the street at a water protest. And through that people could express their anger at all the injustices of austerity, the bank bailouts and the debt. And while there had been smaller on-going protests such as the Ballyhea Says No against the Bondholder Bailout in Cork, against local hospital closures – the water campaign united everyone.
This is why the water campaigners are a key force that is making this election like no other in the history of the state. They are a key influencing factor in the decline in support for the establishment parties of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Labour and rise of the independents, Sinn Fein, Social Democrats and the AAA/PBP.
This is because the water movement, and particularly the communities who first started opposing the installation of water meters, took a stand to defend the Irish people against austerity when no one else would do it.
And their constant presence in communities and again on the streets this Saturday reminds people of this simple fact – that when the Irish people’s backs were to the wall – the establishment parties of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Labour and the Greens prioritised the bondholders, vulture funds, the ECB, developers and corporations – and made the ordinary joe soap pay the price.
It is interesting to compare the huge numbers of Gardai deployed to enforce the installation of water meters in the face of local community protests with the lack of policing available for communities being overrun by drug gangs.
And of course who benefits from the installation of water meters? Siteserv – the company belonging to Fine Gael’s favourite oligarch – Denis O Brien. It says it all about the government and Irish state’s priorities and who they actually represent – and it’s not ordinary people. And when it comes to voting next Friday week the people will not forget that.
The power and influence of the water movement is shown in its ability to involve people who were never involved or interested in politics or activism before.
And we know this because myself and some of my students in a module on social movements I was teaching in Maynooth last year undertook a survey of over 2000 water protestors. We found that over 55% of water protestors had never protested before (see findings of the research here).
The water movement has also successfully used new forms of media – particularly social media – to play a key role in providing a means of communication of a different analysis of issues and information that people would not have received before from the mainstream media.
This change is being translated into the election as the Right2Water/Right2Change campaigners have worked on getting people to register vote. Also through the Right2Change list of candidates they are encouraging people who never voted before out to vote (delivering 200,000 newspapers outlining this in the next week).
Just as with the Marriage referendum that motivated young people to register and vote in greater numbers than before so too the water issue and Right2Change candidates give people, particularly in disadvantaged areas with traditionally low turnout, a reason to be bothered to vote.
They see in the independents and Left parties politicians who have protested with them and who will stand up for them. That increased turnout of anti-establishment voters will have a big bearing on the election.
On top of that not only are people voting for alternatives, they are no longer giving preference transfers to the establishment parties. So after voters vote 1,2,3 for their favourite Independent, Sinn Fein, PBP-AAA, Social Democrat, they are stopping. In the past they would have filled out the whole ballot paper. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will lose from this reduced number of transfer votes.
But the water protests have done even more to change Ireland. For years people have been talking about the decline of community and active citizenship and that people in Ireland had just stopped caring about their neighbours and society.
Now the water protests have brought people together in local community campaigns. It has moved from the water issue to people getting together to see how they can address homelessness and the housing crisis, to local hospital issues, to educating themselves about politics, to looking for community centres and space for people to meet their neighbours and see how they can improve their community.
It has brought back a sense of solidarity and cooperation with people seeing how they can work together to build a better country.
The protests and Right2Water have changed Ireland. They have helped people realise that we do not just have to accept everything that we are told, that there are alternatives.
Make sure you bring your rain coat and umbrella on Saturday. It looks like rain.
Dr Rory Hearne is a Senior Policy Analyst with TASC, the Think-Tank for Action on Social Change. His column appears here every Wednesday. Rory is an independent candidate for the Seanad NUI Colleges Panel. Follow him on Twitter: @roryhearne
Right2Water rally information here
UPDATE:
Meanwhile…
Case against me dismissed. Awaiting further news from the court. Will update later.
— Joan Collins T.D. (@JoanCollinsTD) February 17, 2016
Previously: Joan Collins TD Arrested
r2w are the new Duke of York
march them up and march them down
what a waste of a life these guys wrap themselves in.
work harder, pay your way, enjoy your free time.
Was the last line an instruction to the F-parties and affiliates?
Good lad. Pick yer tenner up from yer nearest YFG office this afternoon.
Arbiet Mach Frei, is it?
All the little bitchy Young Fine Gaelers are caught off guard by Mercille appearing on a Wednesday. Their iCal reminders only have him set for Mondays.
Pity it’s Hearne not Mercille, then.
This is an entirely different person.
I thought broadsheet were officially impartial. Why are you retweeting his campaign tweets?
SF are given too much credit here, they had little to no interest in water issues until they lost a seat to Paul Murphy. If you’re going to call it, call it correctly and honestly, isn’t that what the ‘change’ is about.
Far too much credit. In the Six they went from – pardon the phrase – dying in the ditches over welfare budget cuts to handing the responsibility back to Whitehall alongside the DUP in the blink of an eye. The expedient volte face is PIRA/Sinn Féin’s stock-in-trade. Well, one of them.
+1 if it’s a vote, they’ll chase it, doesn’t matter what the cause. Willing to do or say anything.
‘Volte face’ is a new one for me, I like :)
@Clampers: I know you and I don’t see eye-to-eye on everything – Israel being an example – but I always enjoy your pithy opinions and robust disdain for political chancers. I do enjoy an aul’ foreign phrase; it makes one sound S-M-R-T.
“robust disdain” :0)
And you Neilo, sure wouldn’t it be terrible if we saw everything the same.
@Clampers: Agree wholeheartedly. Nothing worse than being sat in an echo chamber.
Fupp you, right !
SF has been protesting against water tax for decades. I remember them burning water bills in Ballymun back in the 1980s before Murphy was ever heard of.
Funny, I can only remember them implementing water charges in Northern Ireland…
People also forget that the make up of the original marches were from across the political spectrum, including FG and FF voters.
“…………..So after voters vote 1,2,3 for their favourite Independent, Sinn Fein, PBP-AAA, Social Democrat, they are stopping………”
I wonder if Comrade Dr Rory is confusing Ireland with Cuba or North Korea or some other workers paradise where the result of the election is determined before the actual votes are cast. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on Comrade Dr Rorys part?
“we are the Irish people awakened from our slumber of passivity – we are saying ‘no more’, we want our country back to be run for the welfare of its people, and we are going to vote for politicians who have stood with us’.”
It would be lovely if this was the case – but it’s not. Some time early next month, we’ll have a government featuring two of FG, FF and Labour. Same old, same old.
If this is the case (and I think you are almost certainly right), it will be because the populist-Left parties haven’t put forward a compelling enough case to convince enough of the electorate that they are competent to govern.
I’m starting to think that People Before Profit might make a good shove this time. I’m surprised, but watching their campaigns down the country in particular I think they’re picking up steam…
“So after voters vote 1,2,3 for their favourite Independent, Sinn Fein, PBP-AAA, Social Democrat, they are stopping. In the past they would have filled out the whole ballot paper. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will lose from this reduced number of transfer votes.”
This is not correct. Under PR a party can only lose out to another party if the vote is transferred. If there is no continuation of preferences, the vote goes to no one – it favours no one and disadvantages no one. The situation envisaged is that all of the higher preferences (SF, PBP, SD, etc.) would already be elected or eliminated. Let’s say that this means there is a final seat and it is being fought over by candidates other than those favoured by Dr. Hearne – let’s say FF, FG, Labour, Renua, etc. If Dr. Hearne is right and people are stopping, then whoever is currently leading between those non-preferred candidates will win. If people really want to disadvantage any party they should continue their preferences with their least worst candidates rather than stopping. Stopping means your vote may not count. It leaves it to others to elect who they want.
I appreciate that Dr. Hearne is pointing out that voters are not even going to give transfers to government parties. You might argue that this could in theory favour other non-preferred but less established parties like Renua, but I question whether this will have the impact that Dr. Hearne would like or expect to see – and in fact whether it will have any impact at all on the out turn.
I protest against the corrupt Quango that is Irish Water. I protest against Corruption full stop. I work full time. I am a Union member but my Union are not supporting these protests. Life is too cushy for the top layer in most Unions that they wont rock the boat. Our water should be in STATE ownership i.e. OUR ownership. Its not for sale. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to take off their blinkers before its too late. See you all on Saturday!
Irish Water is a semi-state; it is entirely in the State’s ownership. By what method could the state own IW other than by quango(?)
It is in state ownership
It is NOT in State ownership as you claim .irish water is a SEMI state. Huge important difference !
SEMI STATE. Huge important difference !
So who else owns it?
I’ll wait.
the gov. are keeping quiet about it until after the election. they wont talk about it at all, then when theyre voted back in they’ll start hammerin hard at us to pay, they’ll be taking their advice off Endas pals in Europe, and that will be to make examples of people, so they’ll be draggin people thru the courts and then using their media connections publishing stories about the trouble people got in over it, while demonising them at the same time, to make it look like “we’ve brought this terrible person to justice, dont let it happen to you” .. just wait n see .. once FG are back in, for the first 2 or 3 years theyll roll out all their harshest measures, then simmer down a bit in the fifth, then lather rinse repeat, same as now and last time, make lots of empty promises again, rely on the ignorant to vote them in yet again.
the politics of protest is a solution free zone!
For Dr. Rory, this will be a good case to see what it protest can really deliver over the next 3 to 5 years.
Perhaps, the protect will replicate the achievements of the 1913 lockout which are a mixed bag…..
Zzzzzzzzz
The new Chekov Feeney has arrived…
Presumably BS are going to offer similar column inches to all other candidates running for the electable NUI Seanad seats? Or are they just going to wheel a right wing demagogue out to counterbalance the increasing tide of left wing populism gracing its pages? Rónán Mullen, anyone?
R2W need to extend their attention to the doors of Denis O’Briens mouth piece
the “Oriish” Independent + RTE and not to forget the oldlady herself the “Times”
as they are all in a state of denial.
“Lets Keep the Abolition of Kenny and IW Going”
Exhortations to mobilise some Trot rent-a-mob against a free press: not exactly storming the Winter Palace, is it?