North - Build for 31 March demonstration
70,000 already say: We Won’t Pay

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Gary Mulcahy, Secretary, We Won’t Pay Campaign

With less than three months to go before water bills begin to be delivered to homes, support for non payment is growing by leaps and bounds.

70,000 people have so far signed the Campaign’s Non-Payment Pledge, stating that they will refuse to pay water charges. In reality, this pledge is just the tip of the iceberg which will sink the government’s despised water charges.

Behind the scenes, Crystal Alliance (the private company contracted to enforce the payment of water charges) is preparing to confront people who refuse to pay or simply cannot pay the charges. They plan to intimidate and harass people into paying the charges by use of threats, even including jail sentences.

The fact that the government is paying a private company £70 million of taxpayers’ money to threaten to imprison people for refusing to pay for a service for which they are already paying is a major scandal.

However, this is a scare tactic. People cannot be jailed for simply refusing to pay their water bills. The water company first has to allow at least 28 days before sending a reminder letter to pay. The company will then make attempts to contact non-payers, either by phone or by home visits.

They claim that if there is no contact or arrangement for payment of outstanding bills, a notice of intention to ask the Magistrates Court to issue a Court Claim will be sent. This is just another threatening letter, and not a Court Claim. This process could take months.

Only by refusing to comply with an Enforcement of Judgement Order through the Magistrates Court can the threat of jail become a real one. But it is not likely that the government will begin to jail non-payers as this would further inflame opposition and threaten to extend non-payment.

It would take years for Northern Ireland Water Ltd. to drag hundreds of thousands of non-payers through the courts. The new water company could not survive independently without a guaranteed revenue flow. Water charges would become unworkable if hundreds of thousands of people are part of a mass non-payment campaign.

The We Won’t Pay Campaign is continuing to hold public meetings across Northern Ireland to organise We Won’t Pay groups in local communities. A special conference of the Campaign will be held in Belfast on 10 March to bring together representatives of all local non-payment groups to democratically discuss and decide the direction of the Campaign and how non-payment can be built.

A major demonstration has also been called by the We Won’t Pay Campaign which will take place in Belfast on Saturday 31 March, the day before water charges will be introduced.

The work to build for these important events starts now. If you can help leaflet or would like to organise a meeting in your local community to help build the Campaign then contact the We Won’t Pay Campaign on 028 90 311778.

North - Water Charges
Build a united non-payment campaign

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Gary Mulcahy, Secretary We Won’t Pay Campaign

With less than three months to go before water charges are due to be introduced, the government has failed abysmally to win support for these massively unpopular charges.

Millions of pounds have been spent on advertisements on TV, radio, billboards and bus shelters. They have wasted a fortune on sending so-called information packs to every household and workplace across Northern Ireland. But despite all the spin and lies, there is still no support for water charges.

The Socialist Party has played a key role in building this opposition to water charges through the We Won’t Pay Campaign (WWPC). The WWPC has been the only consistent campaigning group to organise in local communities and answer the governments lies in the media and the broader workers’ movement. It is a membership based Campaign that is democratically organised in the communities. As a result, it is now popularly seen as the established opposition to water charges.

The WWPC has successfully built active local groups in many areas across Northern Ireland, but also has much more work to do to spread the Campaign. All local campaigns should now come together under the umbrella of the We Won’t Pay Campaign, with full democratic rights, to co-ordinate a mass non-payment Campaign.

While the need for a single united Campaign may seem obvious, unfortunately it is not understood by the Socialist Workers Party who are trying to split the Campaign by setting up rival groups in a few areas, Ballynafeigh for example, where the WWPC is already well established. This sectarian approach will only isolate the SWP from the real struggle against water charges.

WWPC and Socialist Party members in the trade union movement have also been crucial in getting the trade unions to adopt a position of non-payment. This was against the leadership of most unions who were out of touch with the membership on this issue.

Since the NIC-ICTU biennial conference last year where mass non-payment was supported, the unions have launched “Trade Unions Against Water Charges” and have distributed a mass leaflet calling on people to refuse to pay.

This is a welcome development but it now needs to be followed up by putting the resources of the unions behind genuine non-payment campaigns organised in the communities. They can do this by making a substantial financial donation towards a legal defence fund and by calling on all trade union members to build local We Won’t Pay groups in their communities.

The WWPC has organised a conference to bring together local non-payment groups which will be held in Belfast on 10 March. This conference will also act as a springboard for a major demonstration in Belfast on 31 March on the eve of water charges being introduced.

Rock solid - not rock bottom

The government scored a spectacular own-goal when it was revealed that the private company tasked with enforcing payment of water charges labelled working class communities as “rock bottom” and wealthy householders as “affluent achievers”.

Crystal Alliance is a consortium of major private companies which specialise in utility debt recovery. They are being paid £70 million of taxpayers’ money to harass people into paying water charges.

As part of their “debt recovery” strategy, they have categorised working class areas as “rock bottom” and have stated that people in this category who do not pay water charges will be issued with reminders to pay after 14 days. They will then be issued with legal action if they still do not pay after 49 days.

But if you are an “affluent achiever” (ie. rich), in the event of not paying you will be sent a reminder after 28 days (twice as long as “rock bottom”) and threatened with legal action after 80 days (31 days longer than “rock bottom”).

The government has sunk rock bottom in resorting to these dirty tricks. This blatant class bias has further strengthened support for mass non-payment.

A non-payment election slate?

There has been speculation in the press about a slate of anti-water charges candidates standing in the Assembly elections, if they go ahead, in March. This followed a press release from Eamonn McCann announcing that he would be standing for the Socialist Environmental Alliance in Derry as part of a broader anti-water charges slate that would hope to stand in every constituency.
According to the statement the Socialist Party, among others, are about to take a decision on whether or not to become part of this slate.

In fact no approach has been made to the Socialist Party about the possibility of forming such a slate. In our view, the call for a slate of non payment candidates for a March election has not been thought out and is premature at this stage.

There is nothing in principle wrong with the idea of running candidates who would promote non payment and challenge the main parties on this. The problem is one of timing and of preparation.

The only point in running candidates would be if they could make a serious impact that would strengthen the non payment campaign. If such a slate got a low vote, it would have the opposite effect – the main parties would use the vote to claim that there is no mandate for non payment.

The problem with this election is that the charges have not yet been introduced. The non payment battle has not begun in earnest. Active community based campaigns only exist in the areas where the We Won’t Pay Campaign has been built.

During the election the main parties will all claim to oppose water charges – it is only if they get into power and implement the charges in some form that they will be found out on this. If the election is postponed and if non payment takes off, the basis might exist at a future date for a slate of non payment candidates representing areas where genuine community based, non payment campaigns have been built.

In the meantime the Socialist Party will be standing candidates in South and East Belfast: both areas where the We Won’t Pay Campaign is strong and has done a lot of work on the ground. Our candidates, Tommy Black in East Belfast and Jim Barbour in South Belfast are leading members of the We Won’t Pay Campaign and will be highlighting the issue of water charges in the election.

See here for further details on the Socialist Party election campaign.