Water charges: Setting the record straight

TOMMY BLACK is the East Belfast organiser of the anti-water charges We Won’t Pay Campaign.

Over many years Tommy and the We Won’t Pay Campaign have determinedly organised against the introduction of water charges. Over 120,000 people signed the campaign’s non-payment pledge.

Despite what the politicians may claim, if it was not for the work of the We Won’t Pay Campaign in building support for mass non-payment, water charges would have been introduced by now.

The campaign has saved households on average more than £1,300.

The We Won’t Pay Campaign was established by the Socialist Party together with trade union activists to organise mass non-payment of water charges across Northern Ireland. But water charges are not yet off the agenda.

 

Main parties support water charges

In a recent interview Sinn Fein’s Paul Butler has claimed Sinn Fein needed to start taking “hard decisions rather than populist decisions” in order to find extra funding and added “really the only place the Stormont executive can go is the area of water charging.” The Alliance Party, the Green Party and the DUP’s Sammy Wilson have also said they want water charges brought in.

 

Communities united defeated water charges

The budget passed by the Assembly has not scrapped water charges – they have only agreed to defer them. Water charges could be introduced in 2012 so Tommy will continue to build the We Won’t Pay Campaign until water charges are officially scrapped.

All the main parties are signed up to introduce £4 billion cuts in the next 4 years. These cuts will destroy our economy and leave young people without a future.

Whatever empty promises they make in the run up to this election, the politicians cannot be relied upon. Ordinary people need to get organised to make sure the rich bankers and speculators pay for the crisis they created – not us.

What the We Won’t Pay Campaign has proven is that it is possible to fight and defeat the Stormont parties. The Socialist Party has now launched the Stop the Cuts Campaign to fight the cuts.

If elected, Tommy will use his position to build the campaign across East Belfast and Northern Ireland.

 

Total
0
Shares
Previous Article

The Alternative Vote referendum - A 'miserable little compromise'?

Next Article

Picket against gas price hike

Related Posts

Intervention Needed to Save Red Sky Jobs

- Full support for protests to save jobs

- All Red Sky workers should be directly employed to maintain service

The disgraceful manner in which workers at Red Sky have been treated is a damning indictment of the politicians in the Assembly.

France – Sarkozy’s policies massively rejected in regional elections

’Third round on the streets’ - Big gains for Socialist Party and allies, and also for far right, but new Anti-capitalist Party in disarray

Little more than 24 hours after the second round of regional elections in France, strike action began on the railways, ushering in a day of action and protests in 80 cities across the country. March 23 was agreed on by the eight major trade union organisations to demonstrate mounting hostility to the government’s policies on jobs, pensions, working conditions and the cost of living. Mobilisation from on top was poor, but anger and hatred against Sarkozy has reached boiling point. He and his government have pushed ahead with attacks on the railway workers, universities, high schools, post office etc. Only in some cases, where widespread opposition has developed, has he been forced to step back.

Belfast Health Trust challenged to reveal cuts

In a letter sent to the editor the Socialist Party have challenged the Belfast Health Trust to reveal the cuts to health services.

Dear editor,

The Belfast HSSC Trust has attempted to deny claims by the Socialist Party that the rehabilitation services provided at the Elliot Dynes Unit of the Royal Hospitals are not being cut. This is empty rhetoric.