Skirmishes with the age.: Demonstrations against the household tax ...

"And all of them were caught in something larger than themselves. Some of them hated the mathematics that drove them, and some were afraid, and some worshipped the mathematics because it provided a refuge from thought and from feeling. If a bank or a finance company owned the land, the owner man said The Bank - or the Company - needs - wants - insists - must have - as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling which has ensnsared them.
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The bank - the monster has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size."? - John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath.

The household tax, a flat 100 euro yearly charge on property owners, is on paper, a socialist tax : it's taxing private individual property owners to finance community maintenance - clean streets, swimming pools, parks, libraries etc. This is in the best tradition of social democracy. The community at large benefits and citizens become more engaged with local politics to ensure the delivery of the services they are paying for.?????
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Yet in Ireland the main opposition to the Household tax comes from the socialist left.??????
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Only in Ireland would we find socialists protesting a tax on private property.? Only in Ireland would we find? the left leaning party of Sinn Fein who supported and implemented a property tax in northern Ireland, in the foremost ranks of those protesting against this 'unjust tax'.??????
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Dysfunctional and intellectually dishonest politicians.????
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The problem of course is the erosion of trust between citizens and those elected to represent their interests. FG lied to their voters during the election campaign and lied spectacularly. We may shrug and mutter 'real politic' to ward off further discussion but the simple fact is the continuing disconnect between what politicians say and whay they do is eroding the trust between the political and working classes.?????

Meanwhile the abstract and self-serving financial system of the EU continues to turn the Irish government into little more than debt collectors for the troika.????
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This week also saw the delivery of the multi-million euro Mahon report which dispute detailing years of FF corruption and collusion with property developers, failed to delivery any knockout punches. Those most implicated in the report simply resigned from the party and walked away with their riches and tax payer funded pensions.??
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The link between the Mahon report and the household tax is trust. Irish citizens do not believe governmental assurances that money raised by the household tax will be ring fenced for local services. Talk from Kenny of "genuine patriotism" or "law of the land" rings hollow when he remains one of the highest paid politicians in Europe, who lied about the program for government, and made little attempt to reform the wasteful political and public system. But? the sad fact is, Kenny is the best we have.??
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Internationally, journalists are reporting that the stoic mask is starting to slip from the Irish people and the socialist left is claiming the start of a grass root movement. But the family day atmosphere of the protestors is in stark contrast to the violent rioting taking place in Spain and Greece.? Maturity perhaps, but also futility.
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Us Irish like our property. Property represents security.? We "are laughing when the house is paid for" and a household tax, truly a precursor to a full property tax, threatens that security by turning property rights into little more than a rental scheme.?
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So what we are seeing is not the start of a grass roots movement because there is no leadership and no uniform platform. (The government was quick and correct to point out the hypocrisy of sinn fein and the socialists in opposing such a tax). This is a single issue protest that further threatens the security of workers and their families, with no wider unifying political ideology other than the distrust of the Irish political class.Workers have always been excellent in mobilizing for single issues but less so in mobilizing behind a single political platform as the UK marxists discovered to their frustration during the late 60's.

There is however a lot of anger in the country but we have become a very introspective, inward looking people who have lost the means to articulate our quiet desperation in any meaningful way. We are politically dysfunctional with no clear alternative to faceless bureaucrats and debt collectors and the credit driven systems they represent. We have no enemy to fight but intangable economies which subvert human morality into endless economic growth. And that is the most frustrating thing of all.?
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" "But where does it stop ? Who can we shoot? I don't aim starve to death before I kill the man that's starving me.

"I don't know. Maybe there's nobody to shoot. Maybe the thing isn't men at all. Maybe, like you said, the property's doing it."? "
John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath.?

enews enews mona simpson mona simpson grady sizemore grady sizemore samhain