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Statements by Our Candidates in the 2005 Elections

Eamonn McCann, SEA candidate for Foyle and for Waterside Rural

Only SEA wants real fight on water tax

Thursday, April 21st 2005

None of the main parties has a serious strategy for defeating water charges.

Not one of them backs a non-payment campaign----the only strategy with a realistic chance of stopping the charges, keeping water in the public sector and saving the hundreds of jobs under threat.

If the huge majority who are against charges were mobilised for non-payment, the NIO would have to back down. So why wonıt parties which insist they are against charges support the efforts of Communities Against the Water Tax?

One reason is that a non-payment campaign has to be organised across the board. It has to mobilise people on a basis which has nothing to do with which community they come from. Thus, it directly challenges the basis on which the main parties are organised. 

This is a practical example of how single-community parties canıt deliver for the most needy in either community.

The main parties are also worried that the Executive will be re-established and they will be expected to implement the charges and privatisation. Their previous record shows that theyıd do this---while insisting that they were doing it reluctantly.

None of the four parties has said that, back in office, theyıd reverse the privatisation plan. None will pledge not to sit on an Executive which sells off our water, sacks 700 workers and introduces charges.

Only the SEA stands for a serious fight on the water charges issue. Iıll use the platform of a Westminster seat for Foyle to spread the campaign of non-payment. On Derry City Council for Waterside Rural, like all SEA councillors, Iıll refuse to pay water charges and will campaign for the council to put its weight officially behind non-payment.

We will propose that Derry be declared a water charges-free zone.   





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