Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Falklands War Landing Craft is Decorated for Pride Sat May 17, 2025 15:00 | Will Jones
The decoration of a Falklands War landing craft in rainbow colours to celebrate Pride has caused uproar among veterans, who called it "entirely inappropriate" and said, "Our Falklands dead will be turning in their graves."
The post Falklands War Landing Craft is Decorated for Pride appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Worldwide Embalmer Survey Reveals Striking Rise in White Fibrous Clots Following COVID-19 Vaccinatio... Sat May 17, 2025 13:00 | Will Jones
The latest Worldwide Embalmer White Fibrous Clot Survey ? a multi-year investigation into the sudden and widespread appearance of anomalous clots in the deceased ? has revealed a striking rise since COVID-19 vaccination.
The post Worldwide Embalmer Survey Reveals Striking Rise in White Fibrous Clots Following COVID-19 Vaccination appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link UK Puts Chagos Islands Deal on Hold to Avoid ?Toxic Backlash? Sat May 17, 2025 11:00 | Will Jones
Downing Street has delayed plans to hand over the Chagos Island to Mauritius, amid fears of a "toxic backlash" from Labour MPs over the cost of the multi-billion pound settlement.
The post UK Puts Chagos Islands Deal on Hold to Avoid “Toxic Backlash” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Why We Politicise Science Sat May 17, 2025 09:19 | James Alexander
Modern politicians lack the personal authority of ancient kings and so they appeal to The Science to impose their schemes on the population. This is how science becomes corrupted by politics, says Prof James Alexander.
The post Why We Politicise Science appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Sat May 17, 2025 09:03 | Will Jones
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

The Irish water charges movement

category national | bin tax / household tax / water tax | opinion/analysis author Wednesday January 25, 2017 21:44author by Laurence Cox - MA in Community Education, Equality and Social Activism Report this post to the editors

Theorising "the social movement in general"

A working paper on the water charges movement now available online for comment and discussion.

This paper uses participant narratives and Marxist social movement theory to analyse resistance to water charges as the driving force of Irish anti-austerity struggles – or “the social movement in general”. It locates this movement within the history of working-class community-based self-organisation in Ireland. Contemporary resistance to metering and refusal to pay are not “spontaneous”, but articulate long-standing local rationalities.

The current situation has seen the crisis of other forms of working-class articulation: union dependence on a Labour Party which enthusiastically embraced austerity in government; the co-optation of community service provision within “social partnership”, under attack from the state since the mid-2000s; and the collapse of far left initiatives for shared parliamentary representation and resistance to household charges. New forms of popular agency are thus developing; community-based direct action has enabled a historic alliance between multiple forms of working-class voice and unleashed a vast process of popular mobilisation and self-education.

Finally, the paper relates the Irish movement to the wider loss of consent for austerity on the European periphery, and asks after the political prospects for effective alliances “within the belly of the beast”.

The paper can be viewed or downloaded at the link below. Activist and researcher comments welcome.

Related Link: https://www.academia.edu/31075937/The_Irish_water_charges_movement_theorising_the_social_movement_in_general
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy