South Dublin Campiagn Press Statement:
Housholders' Refuse Bins "Stolen" Today and Held to Ransom by Council

TODAY IN an area of Tallaght, South Dublin County Council carried out a major provocation in an attempt to intimidate thousands of householders to give up their campaign against the Councils bin tax.

Today's Campiagn Press Statements:
Waste Campaigners Target Debt Collection Company

MEMBERS OF the Dublin Campaign Against the Bin Tax are today holding a symbolic picket of a debt collection company which has been employed by Dublin City Council in an attempt to force non-payers to paying the Bin Tax. Campaigners will also hand in a letter to the company, Legal & Trade Collection (Ireland), asking them to cease sending intimidating letters to non-payers.

Audio & Video Downloads:
Socialist Party & the Bin Tax Campaign in the National Media

SINCE THEIR release from prison last Saturday, Cllr Clare Daly and Joe Higgins TD have been featuring prominently on the national broadcaster RTE. Below you will find downloads of some of these appearences in MP3 and RealPlayer format.

Socialist Party Dail Debate:
Taoiseach Challenged Over Bin Tax & Waste Management

YESTERDAY A leading representative of the small business community sharply highlighted the contrast between the taxation treatment of ordinary working men and women in this State and the jet-setting tax exiles who make massive profits from the resources of the Irish people before escaping with virtually no tax being imposed on them. This happens because the Taoiseach's legislation permits the fiction that they do not live here. A few months ago, the Government introduced a blunt law to allow local authorities to coerce tens of thousands of ordinary working people's households into giving up their boycott of the bin tax.

Joint Anti-Bin Tax Campiagns Press Statement:
We Call on ICTU to Represent the Real Opposition Within the Unions on the Bin Tax to the Government

AT A press conference in Dublin today, the Anti Bin Tax Campaigns in Dublin has called on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, at its meeting with the Government this week, to oppose the bin tax as a double tax which will undermine jobs and public services. In taking such a stand they will be reflecting the views of tens of thousands of working class people. The majority of working class people in Dublin do not support the Bin Tax.

Socialist Party Dail Debate:
Higgins Vs Harney - Government Double Standards Exposed

THIS WAS Joe Higgins first Dail speech after being released from Mountjoy Prison. He confronts the Tánaiste, Mary Harney, on the issue of double standards of the Government and of the economic, political and judicial establishment in the State. She, of course, declined to give a straight answer.

Socialist Party Article:
Mass Struggle Shakes the Establishment

OVER 14/15 October, the battle against the bin tax in Dublin reached new heights. Over those two days, protest action forced 90% of bin services in greater Dublin to close down.
  Following the call from the anti-bin tax campaign in Fingal, seven bin truck depots that cover the greater Dublin area were picketed successfully. Overwhelmingly, the bin workers respected the pickets. Furthermore, many wanted to co-ordinate action with the campaign in order to put maximum pressure on the local councils which are implementing the tax.

Socialist Party Press Releases:
Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council Waste Management Department is Mired in Corruption Scandalsr

DUN LAOGHAIRE/Rathdown County Council is dragging 18 ordinary working people including pensioners before the High Court tomorrow (Wednesday) seeking injunctions against them for peacefully opposing the brutal new policy by which the refuse bins of tens of thousands of decent taxpayers are left uncollected.
  Meanwhile, the Wicklow Times has published allegations of a stunning corruption scandal involving waste companies and some Council officials in Dun Laoghaire and Wicklow. (Also contains the Wicklow Times article)

Today's Campaign Press Releases:
Late Late Show Sidelines Bin Tax Campaigners & Bin Tax Families Reply to Media Slur

THIS FRIDAY'S Late Late Show on the controversial Bin Charges is unfair and undemocratic in format. The Minister for the Environment is to be interviewed by Pat Kenny while those opposing the Bin Tax are consigned to the audience...
  ...Having failed to quell the opposition by jailing residents the political establishment backed up by Tony O’Reilly’s media are now trying to discredit those women and men who made a principled stand to defend the right to effective protest.

Today's Campaign Press Releases:
Anti Bin Tax Campaigns Thank Bin Workers - Call for End to Non-Collection and Jailings

THE BIN depot blockades of the last 48 hours have put the issues of the unjust jailings and the Councils’ discriminatory non-collection policy firmly back onto the political agenda.
  We wish to thank Dublin’s bin workers who showed their clear opposition to the jailings and to the policy of non-collection over the last 48 hours despite management bullying, payroll suspensions and threats to use private contractors.

Socialist Party Article:
Greater Dublin City Bin Service Shut Down! - Bin Workers Come out in Solidarity Action!

THE CAMPAIGN against the Bin Tax took a massive step forward today. All of Greater Dublin’s bin service was shut down during the day by pickets of bin depots organised by the four anti-bin tax campaigns in Dublin.
  This action was called in response to the jailings of 13 more people, most of them ordinary residents from Finglas and other parts of the City of Dublin. Fingal Anti Bin Tax campaign, Finglas Against the Bin Tax campaign and the relatives of those jailed issued a call on the 3000 strong Dublin Trades Council demonstration last Saturday for a day of protest action today, Tuesday.

Press Round Up:
Blockades Escalate - Bin Service Shut Down - Activist Injured

TODAY THE All Dublin Anti-Bin Tax Campaign shut down all bin collection services in the Greater Dublin area. All seven Council depots were blockaded by pickets, and as a result over 52,000 bins went uncollected. The major escalation of the campaign comes on the back of the latest jailings of campaign activists. In total there are now 15 people in prison for protesting against this unjust double tax.

All Dublin Campaign Against the Bin Tax Press Release:
Pickets To Be Placed on Bin Depots Throughout Greater Dublin Area Again Tomorrow (Wednesday)

ANTI BIN Tax campaigners will place pickets on bin depots right throughout the greater Dublin area again tomorrow (Wednesday) with the aim of shutting down the Dublin bin service for a second consecutive day.

Dublin CABT Press Release:
Activist Injured by City Council Truck

THE DUBLIN Campaign Against the Bin Tax has condemned the disgraceful and dangerous incident at the Collins Ave City Council depot this morning when a Campaign officer was dragged 30-40 yards along a busy road by a Council truck.

Dublin CABT Press Release:
Three More Imprisoned! Jailings Condemned

THREE MORE anti-bin charge campaigners have been sent to jail today. The Dublin Campaign Against The Bin Tax has condemned today’s imprisonment of another three activists; Chrissy and Karen Heffernan and Brid Smith.

Socialist Voice :
Bin Tax Jailings: Unions Must Act

BIN TAX protesters, their relatives and fellow campaigners were visibly shocked by the imprisonment of ten residents by the High Court on 9 October. This shock quickly turned to anger and determination to continue the blockades of bin trucks and opposition to this government and their hated bin tax. (This link contains the new issue of Socialist Voice, a Bin Tax special featuring ten articles about the strugle so far).

Some Background Notes on Environmental, Taxation and EU Issues

THESE ARE briefing notes on the bin tax and some related environmental, taxation and EU issues prepared by Joe Higgins T.D. The Fingal Anti Bin Tax Campaign invites activists to read this as you may find it of some use in your local anti bin tax group.

FABTC Press Release:
Campaign Condemns Jailings - Calls for Massive Protest on Saturday

IN LIGHT of today’s decision to jail ten Anti Bin Tax campaigners, the Fingal Anti Bin Tax Campaign calls for Saturday’s Dublin Council of Trade Unions Anti Bin Tax - Anti Jailings demonstration to be made into a massive show of opposition. We call on the trade union movement to pull out all the stops to ensure this is the case. We call on ordinary people the length and breadth of the country to travel up to join this protest.

Article from The Socialist (CWI in England & Wales):
A Decisive Stage in the Struggle

KEVIN MCLOUGHLIN of the Socialist Party in Ireland spoke to The Socialist on the escalating anti-bin tax struggle and the campaign to free Socialist Party representatives Joe Higgins TD (MP) and councillor Clare Daly, jailed for their part in the movement.
  "The protests against the bin tax are now moving in a more decisive way in all the four local authority areas in Dublin. At present Fingal is where the battle is centred. This is because of a coordinated attempt by the government, we believe, - part of a waste management plan hatched in 1999. They thought that by attacking the Fingal campaign first and breaking resistance to the tax there it would enable the tax to be introduced throughout Dublin.

FABTC Press Release:
Fingal Anti Bin Tax Campaign Welcomes Decision to Hold Trade Union Demonstration Against Bin Tax

THE FINGAL Anti Bin Tax Campaign welcomes Tuesday night's decision of the DublinCouncil of Trades Unions to organise a citywide demonstration against the Bin Tax this Saturday, October 11th (Assembling 12 noon, Parnell Square, and marching to Mountjoy Jail).

FABTC Press Release:
Motion calls on Fingal County Council to end its Policy of Non-Collection

THE FINGAL Anti Bin Tax Campaign today claimed that there is more than forty truckloads of uncollected household waste in the Fingal area and that twenty truckloads of this is concentrated in the Huntstown/ Hartstown/ Blakestown/ Mountview/ Corduff/ Ladyswell area of Blanchardstown/ Mulhuddart.

FABTC Press Release:
Supporters of the Demand to Free Cllr Clare Daly and Joe Higgins TD

WE PRESENT the list of national and international signatories to the Free Clare and Joe Campaign demands.

FABTC Press Release:
Government Must Call Off Non Collection of Bins or Face Chaos

THE FINGAL Anti Bin Tax Campaign fully backs the demonstration at the Dáil tomorrow, Tuesday, at 6.30 PM as the Dáil reconvenes without a leading opposition T.D. jailed for his political stance on the bin tax.
  If the Government and local authorities persist with non-collection, they will face new fronts of opposition from residents in Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown, South Dublin and Dublin City. Jailings, the courts and intimidation will not suppress the widespread revolt against this tax throughout Dublin.

Socialist Party Analysis:
Government's Attacks Boosting Socialists' Reputation

DUBLIN WEST Socialist Party TD (MP), Joe Higgins and Dublin North Socialist Party councillor, Clare Daly have been sentenced to a month in prison and are currently serving their sentence in Dublin's Mountjoy prison.
  An opinion poll carried out by a Dublin radio station - admittedly on a small sample of people - put the Socialist Party at 12% across the city. A text poll carried out by TV 3 found that 60% of those responding supported the tactics of the campaign. Following the imprisonment of Joe and Clare the Ireland on Sunday newspaper commented: "Mr Higgins and Ms Daly could find themselves at the centre of an electoral backlash against this government".