Over a month since the introduction of the tag system by South Dublin County Council, the Anti bin tax campaign continues to cause disruption to the bin service with weekly protests in many communities.

On their arrival in some estates, the trucks are still followed and any rubbish that they attempt to leave behind is thrown into the lorry.

An occupation and protest of the SDCC offices during a local Council meeting was a major success with 40 protesters remaining inside for over an hour before joining another 50 protesters who had gathered outside. Many of the councillors slipped out by side doors rather than face the questions of the crowd, of those that did face the crowd none left with any credibility as they tried to argue in favour of this double taxation.

In response to the growing hostility, SDCC has even threatened to not pay grants to local community centres that allow the Campaign to hold meetings in their facilities!

"Name and shame" posters, with the names of local Fianna Fail councillors, have been put up. Local candidate Mick Murphy and Joe Higgins TD addressed 120 people at a public meeting on the bin tax held by the Socialist Party.

Five weeks into the battle against non-collection in South Dublin County Council, the general significance of the battle against bin charges is clear. The mass opposition to double taxation is uniform across Dublin and remains strong.

Non-collection occurs in the morning when most people are at work. This along with legal threats, and the effect of the previous jailings of campaigners from these communities has hampered the Campaign's ability to mobilise the hundreds that would be necessary to defy the court threats and stop non-collection.

Many people feel they have no choice but to pay the tax. Nonetheless, a significant minority of people continue to boycott the tax, arranging for their rubbish to be disposed of in other ways, or throwing their waste in the back of the bin trucks as they come around.

The primary task for the Campaign now, while continuing to resist non-collection on the ground, is to ensure that double taxation remains a central political issue in the area.

The threatened introduction of water charges would have a big effect on the mood of ordinary people and the active boycott by the majority of the tag system at least for a short period of time could come back on the agenda.

The local elections will be seen by many in South Dublin and across Dublin as an opportunity to punish the establishment parties for their imposition of double taxation and non-collection. Where there are strong local campaigns, which have been able to mobilise serious opposition to the bin tax, they should consider the endorsement of genuine anti-bin tax activists as candidates to give political expression to the massive anger that exists.

In the Council areas yet to experience non-collection, the lesson from South Dublin is clear - what is needed is the active response of significant numbers of people on the ground to push back the Council immediately.

Dublin City Council have begun to send out letters to all householders requesting them to put "Bin Identification Labels" on their wheelie bins. The Council claims that these stickers are to "enable us to give credit to households for each week the service is not used."

Don't be fooled, these stickers and the plans to place micro-chips in our wheelie bins later this year, are not about reducing your bin tax bill - they are part of the Council's plans to introduce non-collection.

The Council are asking residents to put the paper stickers on their bins before 18 March 2004, yet say that the scheme won't start until 2005. Why are the Council asking people to attach a sticker onto their bins which will be destroyed by the weather nine months before they claim it's needed? There is a bar code on each sticker which could easily be scanned and used for the purpose of identifying non-payers.

Don't put the sticker on your bin - by refusing to co-operate with the Council's plans we can once again hamper their plans for non-collection. The anti-bin tax campaigns should take this as a signal that the Council are planning to implement non-collection in the near future. Getting more local activists involved in the Campaign is made all the more urgent by these new Council stickers.

Non payment figures as of 10 Feb 04

27,500 paid nothing over three years - 17%
45,000 in arrears - 28%
40,000 received waivers - 25%
50,000 fully paid - 30%
Obtained from Dublin City Council under the Freedom of Information Act