Ireland, wsm.ie: CAHWT in a trap? - Reviews from 2013 Anarchist Bookfair

The talk on the Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes (CAHWT) at the Anarchist Bookfair 
2013 in the Main Hall was relatively sombre in tone to say the least. The echoing clamour 
of the Main Hall only served to highlight the strange impasse which the campaign has found 
itself in of late. The assembled survivors could have fitted easily into Room 2, which was 
packed to capacity by speakers on issues which would seemingly be less of a political 
immediacy. ---- Guest review by Ciara ---- The speakers Alan and Kevin focused mainly on 
the recent failures as opposed to the triumphs of the campaign which had by this stage 
lost significant momentum after a promising zenith around April 2012. Within local 
campaign groups, the speakers emphasised the need to encourage people to take ownership 
instead of relying on more experienced leader figures to determine the direction of the 
campaign.

With the coalition threatening to use ?draconian measures? to directly steal the tax from 
bank accounts. It?s hard to know what was achieved by the campaign.

The main issue which warned me away from taking part in the campaign in my area was the 
People Before Profit saturation the group, which proved horribly prescient. It all comes 
back down to elections, which is an obvious non-runner. The problems of self-promotion 
and personality crises appear to have exacted a significant toll on the campaign. This is 
particularly problematic for people who are new to activist politics or aren?t willing to 
shout down the opposition.

A definite schism emerged between those focused on using the tactics of direct action and 
non-electoral means to advance the campaign and the vocal advocates of electoralism. Those 
intent of working on the inside of the limited political sphere saw the campaign 
opportunity to put Labour under pressure and elect single issue candidates to oppose the 
implementation of the tax. Its opponents viewed this as the inevitable erosion of 
self-organisation and empowerment that involvement in CAHWT had granted its participants.

This approach would inevitably lead to the main focus of CAWHT being the election of 
candidates, which would logistically limit the time and resources available for other 
forms of activity. One of the strengths of the campaign was the emergence of strong local 
organisations and relatively successful attempts to instate direct democratic methods of 
running meetings. However, these structures were undermined by strong personalities who 
effectively disregarded them in favour of forwarding their own political agendas.

From the speakers accounts of what went on in the local CAHWT groups they were involved, 
this is exactly what happened in many local groups, the focus of the campaign became 
dominated by electoralism and the idea of fielding single-issue candidates in the 2014 
Local Elections on an anti- Household and water tax proviso. Inexpertly attached to this 
proposal was the hollow promise that this would merely serve as an adjunct to a campaign 
of mass resistance and in no way drain the campaign of all energy and enthusiasm. This 
proved to be a major sticking point, which diverted the attention of the campaign from 
addressing the wider problems of capitalism beyond the current crisis and of developing 
links to other groups such as unions, community groups and focusing on direct action based 
tactics such as non-implementation of the tax.

It wasn?t a total failure though as activists managed to facilitate the adoption of 
non-hierarchical methods of organising and running meetings. Large-scale non-payment was 
achieved, leading to the scrapping of the erstwhile Household charge in its original guise 
in favour of the Property Tax circa 2013. The depths of disgrace the enforcers of the tax 
are supposedly willing to sink to in its implementation is to the credit of CAHWT and 
shows the strength of the campaign and the fear it has generated in the heart of its 
enforcers. The solution is unclear but radical and certainly not to be found in the Dail 
Chambers. Ultimately, the campaign will have to decide to either fully embrace or eschew 
the electoral route in order to establish a much-needed sense of cohesion both in local 
CAHWT groups and in the campaign as a whole. However, the former poses inevitable 
difficulties for the continued involvement in the campaign of those opposed to electoralism.

WORDS: Guest review by Ciara

You can listen to the audio recording of this session below

Fighting the Property & Water Taxes - how to fight and win - DABF 
http://www.mixcloud.com/workerssolidarity/fighting-the-property-water-taxes-how-to-fight-and-win-dabf-2013/