If you  have been looking to the prospect of a restored Assembly scrapping water charges – forget it!

True the major parties all claim, to one degree or another, to be opposed to water charges. But then, with the possibility of an Assembly election in March, they are hardly likely to say anything else.

The truth is all of them have already accepted that, in a new Assembly, they will implement water charges. They have offered no real resistance to the legislation that the government is now putting through to have the charges in place by April.

The last thing they want to do is delay this – and then be faced with the possibility that, if the Assembly is established, they would have to bring the charges in themselves. On their way to meet Gordon Brown to ask for a "peace dividend", they made noises about water charges being on the agenda.

It is clear that water charges, if they were discussed at all, were very low on their priority list at this meeting. Their main concern was reducing Corporation Tax and other tax cuts for the rich – not the misery that water charges will inflict on working class people.

In the event, Gordon Brown offered them next to nothing. The financial package he put forward is based on increased revenue to be raised by the Assembly from higher local taxation, including water charges. The local parties capitulated and barely raised an objection. Why would they when, in reality, they accept water charges and have done so for years?

When the Assembly was up and running, the four parties which made up the Executive, the UUP, the DUP, the SDLP and Sinn Fein, agreed in principle to bring in water charges. If the Assembly had not collapsed it would be them, not the New Labour ministers, who would now be preparing to get the first bills out. Now, in their latest meeting with Brown, they accepted, in effect, that, under a new Assembly, the charges will stay.

It is little wonder that every one of these parties has come out firmly against the idea of a non-payment campaign to defeat the charges. They don’t want non-payment because they don’t want the charges to be defeated. And they don’t want to inherit a mass civil disobedience campaign if they ever do take office.

Water charges can be defeated, but not through the sectarian and right wing political parties. If tens of thousands of people refuse to pay, there is no way the charges can be made to stick. Non-payment groups now need to be organized in the communities to make sure that a majority of people stand together and don’t pay.

The We Won’t Pay Campaign is leading the struggle to build support for non-payment. You can help by joining the Campaign and helping to get people in your area organized.

JOIN THE WE WON’T PAY CAMPAIGN - Tel: 90 311778

A massive £18 million of taxpayers’ money has been wasted on consultants for advice on introducing water charges and privatising the water and sewerage service. £12.5 million is expected to be spent this year and another £1.4 million in 2007/8. However, they could end up spending a lot more having to deal with the mess that privatisation is making of the service.

Crystal Alliance, the private consortium which was awarded the contract to send out water bills, was due to take over from the NI Water Service on 2 October. Money was supposed to have been taken from non-domestic customers between 8 and 15 October, but the new company failed to bring in a penny in water charges.

This is bound to add to the panic amongst the over-paid senior civil servants in the Department of Regional Development and the board of directors of the new company in the run-up to the introduction of domestic water charges.

Even the parliamentary side of things is not running smoothly. The passing of legislation through Westminster to introduce water charges has been delayed by at least a month after a legal challenge was won by the General Consumer Council at the High Court in Belfast.

The Consumer Council challenged the legislation after “procedural defects” were found in the consultation process before the draft Order was due to go before parliament. This delay though is not enough to stop the legislation from eventually being passed, as it comfortably will, in parliament. However, it is an embarrassment for the government that they were caught cutting the “consultation” period by two weeks.

The government has also announced that it is to spend another fortune producing a special booklet containing more lies about water charges to every home and business across Northern Ireland. They lost any chance there was for winning support for water charges a long time ago. This is a desperate attempt to try and cut across the preparation for mass non-payment that is now gaining overwhelming support.

We Won’t Pay Campaign meetings

The We Won't Pay Campaign is holding meetings in local communities to prepare for mass non-payment.

More than 20 local residents attended a meeting in Ballynafeigh Community House on the Ormeau Road area of Belfast. An update was given which dealt with the government’s progress, or lack of, in setting up the new company, Northern Ireland Water Ltd, and how with the We Won't Pay Campaign is developing.

It was announced that every door on the Ormeau Road had been knocked on by campaign members and 93% of people who answered signed the non-payment pledge. This was added to by people who brought along dozens more sheets with signed pledges to the meeting.

More meetings are being held in Finaghy, Belvoir, Cregagh Road, West Belfast and North Belfast. Meetings are also being planned in Newry, Portadown, Ballymena and many other locations. Activity is also spreading to more areas in Belfast such as the Lisburn Road and the Shankill Road. If you would like to set up a local We Won't Pay group in your area, then contact the campaign on 90311778 today.