It’s clear that the imposition of water charges for something that we already owned has driven many over the edge. People are rising up in desperation. What will it take to push the government back?

We have to start off by facing facts. We can help build a campaign by popular demonstrations against water meters, by non-cooperation with disgraceful prying into our personal circumstances, by non-payment campaigns and by following the unions in a demonstration asking the government to change their minds. But we must also accept that we have done all this before. It’s not enough.

What we need is a new Irish rising – a popular mobilisation across the country against the privatisation demands of European imperialism and the collaboration of a quisling government.

We have to put working class mobilisation at the centre of our campaign. Workers are installing the meters. Workers are sending out the forms. Workers will be sending out the payment demands. Many of these workers are unionised and it is time the union bosses put their money where their mouth is and issued instruction for a boycott of the water charging process.

Above all let’s not settle for a game of musical chairs. We don’t want water charges moved to some other heading – we want an end of the austerity and an agenda set in the interests of bankers and capitalism.