From Ireland to Bolivia, there’s something in the water
From Ireland to Bolivia, there’s something in the water
Fifteen years on from Bolivia’s ‘water war’, Thomas McDonagh looks at the developing parallels between those dramatic events and the current Irish battle over domestic water charges
June 2015
For months people across Ireland have been protesting against the introduction of charges for domestic water – which, until the first wave of bills arrived in April, had been paid for through direct taxation. Opposition to the charges peaked on 1 November, when more than 150,000 people attended 90 different protests across the country, building on months of local campaigning. Equally spectacularly, just weeks earlier almost 100,000 people took to the streets of Dublin to express their anger at a reform that was agreed as part of the 2010 bailout brokered by the Irish government with the European Union and International Monetary Fund. The campaign still has considerable momentum and may well get a new lease of life as payment becomes a pressing issue.
The events in Ireland are reminiscent of what happened in Bolivia 15 years ago, during Cochabamba’s famous ‘water war’. In April 2000, this city of half a million people – about the size of Dublin – joined together across boundaries of class and ethnicity and literally shut itself down in three separate general strikes that had the common objective of taking back their water system from a foreign multinational.
In a grassroots struggle that resembled David and Goliath to the point that it even saw the use of slingshots on the city’s streets, the victory over the Bechtel Corporation became known across the world. But less understood is how this struggle over water radically transformed the politics of a country in ways that have been enormous and enduring.
The echoes of Bolivia in the current Irish water conflict are clear. One is that the struggle has awoken a sleeping giant, mobilising people in ways that until recently seemed impossible. And two, how the struggle plays out may have equally enormous and enduring effects on Irish political culture.
More:
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/from-ireland-to-bolivia-theres-something-in-the-water/
