Right2Water Galway was established in April 2014, following a national conference in Dublin. A meeting was held in Galway with a speaker from Bolivia, where a huge campaign had successfully stopped the privatisation of water there.

The group brought members of a number of political parties including the People Before Profit Alliance, Sinn Fein, Eirigí together with non-aligned community activists.

The group really started to get going in late summer of 2014 as activists did stalls and leafletted a number of areas of the city. The first Galway demo was held on the 1^st October in Eyre Square with an attendance of around 200. It was the first demo in Galway and there had been no large mobilisations against water charges anywhere in the country at that point.

The massive mobilisation for the national demo in Dublin the following week really changed things. Estimates ranged from 150,000 to 250,000 at the demo with the route having to be extended to accommodate the huge turnout. This boosted the campaign as people were suddenly aware of the size of the opposition to water charges. This was followed by two more large demos, one at local levels and one at the Dáil in Dublin just before Christmas.

These massive demos had an effect, as the government changed a number of measures involved with water charges. They reduced the charge to a flat fee, and said people would not be charged for usage until 2018. The government backtracked on threats to take people to court for unpaid charges. Efforts to placate the movement against water charges failed miserably though as protests continued to be huge.

In 2015, the focus of the campaign shifted from large demos to resistance to water meters. Irish Water, through their contractors, Murphy’s, started installing water meters in Galway in the spring. Installation started in the county in Kinvara and Athenry where there was little resistance despite the efforts of a number of locals with support from Right2Water. But Clarinbridge saw a significant level of resistance, with meter installers kept out of certain areas.

There was a similar pattern in Galway city when installations started in Knocknacarra. In common with other areas of the country, Irish Water started with wealthier estates where there was less resistance. In more working class estates there was far more resistance and meter installers were successfully stopped in Garraí Dhónaill and Slí Búrca.

This continued as Westside and Shantalla saw huge resistance while there was little resistance in Salthill and city centre areas.

Resistance to meter installation was organised through a number of steps, but Right2Water took the lead from residents themselves. When residents got in touch to say that meters were coming to their estate, we helped them organise a street meeting. Right2Water would attend the meeting and help explain the situation with water charges and water meters and also what had happened in other areas. It was always the residents themselves who decided what happened in their estate. Right2Water were always clear that we would not resist meters for them, we would help residents who wanted to resist meters being installed. In areas where nobody was interested in resisting meters we didn’t do anything.

Using the networks of contacts we had built up through stalls, demos and leafletting, we had a significant number of activists who were willing to go to other estates and support residents there, while also leafletting and organising resistance in their own estates. We also held organising meetings of activists for planning demos, public meetings and fundraisers.

We held a fundraising table quiz, and did collections at all our events in order to fund the campaign, this helped pay for leaflets and placards. Buses to national demos were also subsidised to make them accessible for all.

Right2Water Galway is proud of its grassroots nature. Decisions are made collectively within the group which is diverse in age, gender, race, and political affiliation and activists come from all over the city and county. The group also has a number of members involved in the arts. This has been seen in the water goddess puppets which have become famous, while activists regularly dress up for demos and have written our own protest songs.

The groups democratic nature and artistic trend have kept the group cohesive while generating a big, visible public presence in Galway and nationally.

At the moment, Right2Water Galway is building for a national demo on the Saturday before the general election to keep the pressure on politicians and remind them water is still a issue. The group is contacting all local candidates to establish where each of them stand on the issue of water charges. Right2Water Galway will publicise the results when they hear back from all candidates.

Regardless of the election result, Right2Water Galway know that water charges will still be an issue and will continue to campaign against them.

As we mark the centenary of the most significant event in modern Irish history with farcical posturing and vague references to the bravery and patriotism of those who laid down their lives for the cause of Irish freedom we have lost sight of exactly what the women and men of 1916 were fighting for. The Easter Rising has taken an almost mythic status in popular discourse. Romanticism and sentiment have overridden fact and substance. The truth is that the volunteers of 1916 didn’t gallantly “lay down their lives”. Many died terrified and in agony. The same is true for the many civilians and British soldiers who died that day.
Some have seen through the veil of romanticism but have failed to see the facts and have instead turned to a revisionist version of history. Former Taoiseach John Bruton has recently said that he regrets that the Rising ever took place. He points to the fact that over half of the dead were civilians and that the volunteers did not have a “democratic mandate”. Instead he says that we should commemorate “peaceful”, parliamentary politicians such as John Redmond.
The former Taoiseach, however, has a very misguided view of history. He forgets that the vast majority of civilian death was caused by British Artillery and their shooting of looters. John Redmond, Bruton’s man of peace, lead over thirty thousand Irish soldiers to their death in the bloody, horrific battles in Europe on behalf of an imperialist state. More people died for this cause than in all the subsequent conflicts on this island combined. As for a democratic mandate? The Irish people had consistently and emphatically expressed their will to self-determination before the Rising but Irish representation was minimal in London and voting rights were very limited and completely excluded women. Many would agree that in a functioning democracy there are certain rights which are not subject to popular vote such as the right to life, to vote and other human rights. The volunteers believed that every Irish person had the democratic right to control their own destiny, regardless of popular opinion at the time. They fought for democracy and against imperialism, sectarianism and oppression. One hundred years on activists of all shades of red and green have a similar battle in front of us. Regardless of who we elect the decisions which affect our lives are in the hands of the economic elites and European institutions.
While most of the action took place in Dublin there was a significant mobilisation in Galway which involved assaults on RIC stations in Oranmore and Clarinbridge and a brief gun battle in Carnmore where a police officer was killed before they occupied Athenry town until shelling from HMS Gloucester and the westward advance of British troops forced them to disperse. The volunteers, lead by Liam Mellows, were very poorly armed and knew that the London government had tens of thousands of soldiers mobilized since the outbreak of war in Europe that could be sent to Ireland in a moment’s notice. They went out anyways and put up whatever resistance they could to the British Empire. Most of the 600-700 that fought in Galway were small farmers or agricultural labourers and had ties to a local secret society focused on land agitation. They had been raised in the poverty made necessary by foreign rule and many had grandparents or even parents who had lived through times of drought and famine. Stories had been passed down of An Gorta Mór. Today stories of the Great famine are generally told in a folkic and almost mythic style for their poetic value but in the early 20^th century this was a reflection of the real conditions and tragedies of just 70 years previous. The ripples of class consciousness were present despite the area being a traditionally conservative one. What we are seeing today as a result of the banking collapse and the troika bailouts is a similar raising of consciousness in Ireland, though on a much smaller scale. Liam Mellows believed at the foundation of this state that it would serve merely as a buffer between a true republic and British capitalism. Today the state serves the interest of global capitalism and adheres to a neoliberal ideologue which puts the market before all else. We do not have to brave guns or shells and we do not have to do the extraordinary things that those very ordinary women and men did. We do have to do what we can, however, to uphold the ideals that they fought for by fighting intolerance, inequality, racism and misogyny by campaigning for a progressive change in Irish politics. That is the only way we can properly commemorate the dead of 1916.

Radical Imagination: TAMA. There are many alternatives!

Let’s start with a question: what is activism? Or what is an activist? For most people, one conception comes to mind: somebody who resists. Activism is often used as a synonym to resistance. Activists either resist the status quo, or an upcoming change to the status quo, working towards the ‘better’ option. Movements coming from this perspective often define themselves and their goals in dependence on that which is resisted. Without war, no anti-war movement. I argue, that without an anti-war movement, there is no war. This is a strong claim to make, so lets weaken it a bit: the anti-war movement is contributing by its activities to the existence of war. It is doing so by setting the focus on war, by perpetuating the dominant thinking of the ideology of war. This is all in line of the TINA-doctrine: there is no alternative. It has permeated our minds. Thatcher lives on. When all roads are leading to Rome, it is not enough to change the direction. We need to leave the road. Of course, war and its anti-movement are just one example, but once looking at the names of movements, you can realize that the anti-stance is a wide spread phenomena. What I propose is to shift the focus, naming movements in line with what is desired, the other side_s_ of the coin. Admittedly, some movements are doing that already: there is the peace-movement, there is the right to water movement. Naming the movement is important, but successively, many steps have to follow, in a holistic way, as an overall strategy, even as an general approach to activism. This new approach will lead to, and depart from, a new way of thinking, what I call TAMA: there are many alternatives.

The new approach I shall name: prefigurative activism, or short: preAct. It reminds of minority report’s preCrime, and this is no accident. Resistance always means, that it is reaction, even reactionary to something one or another authority is doing. preAct wants to turn this around: the actors take the power that they have and do something, outside of the vicious circle of resistance. They are the first to do something, and not intentionally in relation to any authorities around. It draws mainly from the concept of prefigurative politics, which primarily focuses on the internal process of protest groups and networks. It means to enact the wished for future society, especially its relations, already in the now. This means for example: horizontal decision making and organising, mutual aid. PreAct looks for the cracks that come up in the capitalist system, filling them, temporarily, with autonomy and creativity. Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ), or autonomous geographies, many names exist for more or less the same phenomena.

So you say: but some things are so bad, they need to be resisted, they need to be fought against, they need to be stopped. Is this all some kind of hippiesque escapism? No. The focus is shifted, with the main purpose of not getting stuck in TINA. Traditional ‘acts of resistance’ can still happen, but need to be re-framed holistically!

What do I mean by holistic? a) changing the internal processes towards horizontality, inclusion, and empowerment, b) changing spaces towards growing autonomy, c) changing the messages and rhetoric towards positivity, d) change thinking towards radical imagination, e) changing and creating institutions, f) changing emotional spaces towards mutual support, and g) redistributing power and resources. While this list surely is not complete, and while all of the points demand further detailed explanation, I say it all starts with the radical imagination. Do you, fighting against one or another injustice, really believe that it will change? Do you really believe capitalism and patriarchy will be overcome? That is what we need to work on together, in small and bigger groups, because ideas grow in exchange, debate, and difference of opinions, and not in secluded, silent cubbyholes. All else will follow from there. In order to preAct, we need to preImagine. Lets work together towards the many alternatives!

TAMA!

The first issue of the new Galway Grassroots zine has been published.

Contents in this issue include:

• What is the Galway Grassroots Network?
• Join the network
• Climate Justice after Paris
• Solidarity through anti-racism
• Towards a Galway social centre
• An Mheitheal Rothar / Community Bike Workshop
• Calais Camp for Refugees
• NUI Galway’s gender discrimination
• We’re not criminals
• Radical Imagination: TAMA!
• Critical Mass Galway
• Poetry from Calais
• 1916 rising
• Galway Right 2 Water

click to download GGN-Zine Issue 1 Jan2016