Calling all non-payers: Join the fight for a No vote to the Austerity Treaty
Until May 31st, the campaign to defeat the Austerity Treaty must be a top priority for all those resisting home taxes, education cuts and the bail outs.
The fight against home and water taxes has shown the opposition that exists to these unjust taxes, to cuts and to bail outs. However, these are the very policies that this treaty tries to write into law. The treaty will mean an extra ‚¬6bn in austerity taxes & cuts, undoubtably including hikes to the home taxes.
Whilst the key battle undoubtedly is the building and maintaining of mass non-payment, and a community based campaign, defeating this treaty can be an important boost. A strong no vote will deliver another powerful blow against the austerity agenda, on top of mass non-registration, and the recent elections across Europe. On the other hand, if passed the treaty will be used as a further excuse for the government to hide it's anti-working class agenda behind.
This referendum comes at an important juncture in the battle against the Household & Water taxes. Having lost the battle to get everyone to register for the home taxes, the government now has up to 1m householders in defiance of their threats. They look set to try go after non payers in the second half of this year, with letters and court cases. If they do this, it will unleash the biggest protest movement, and battle between ordinary people and the establishment in decades.
However, if they suffer a further defeat in the referendum, proving that they have no mandate for these attacks, it will severely weaken their ability, and their resolve to take on the million non-payers. More than that, it would be an important contribution to the European European-wide battle against austerity and for socialist change. The focus on austerity alone has been shaken now by the mass opposition to these policies. Now the likes of Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, and the government here like to talk now about austerity and growth. Of course, this is a contradiction in terms. You cannot write austerity into law and then hope that talking about growth will deliver it.
A defeat of the Treaty can broaden the debate and allow people across Europe to go on the offensive against austerity. This debate and struggle can pose the need for a fundamental transformation in the nature of the Europe. To defeat the austerity agenda fundamentally, it will not be enough simploy to defeat the Austerity Treaty, although that will be a very positive first step.
The active resistance across Europe needs to be unified and made into a common battle against this agenda. A European-wide day of general strike action will be a vital step in showing the power of the working class and its mass opposition to these policies. Through these struggles and events like the big vote for Syriza in Greece, the idea of struggling for a fundamentally different Europe, a socialist Europe, can become popularised and become a reality.
The fight against home and water taxes has shown the opposition that exists to these unjust taxes, to cuts and to bail outs. However, these are the very policies that this treaty tries to write into law. The treaty will mean an extra ‚¬6bn in austerity taxes & cuts, undoubtably including hikes to the home taxes.
Whilst the key battle undoubtedly is the building and maintaining of mass non-payment, and a community based campaign, defeating this treaty can be an important boost. A strong no vote will deliver another powerful blow against the austerity agenda, on top of mass non-registration, and the recent elections across Europe. On the other hand, if passed the treaty will be used as a further excuse for the government to hide it's anti-working class agenda behind.
This referendum comes at an important juncture in the battle against the Household & Water taxes. Having lost the battle to get everyone to register for the home taxes, the government now has up to 1m householders in defiance of their threats. They look set to try go after non payers in the second half of this year, with letters and court cases. If they do this, it will unleash the biggest protest movement, and battle between ordinary people and the establishment in decades.
However, if they suffer a further defeat in the referendum, proving that they have no mandate for these attacks, it will severely weaken their ability, and their resolve to take on the million non-payers. More than that, it would be an important contribution to the European European-wide battle against austerity and for socialist change. The focus on austerity alone has been shaken now by the mass opposition to these policies. Now the likes of Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, and the government here like to talk now about austerity and growth. Of course, this is a contradiction in terms. You cannot write austerity into law and then hope that talking about growth will deliver it.
A defeat of the Treaty can broaden the debate and allow people across Europe to go on the offensive against austerity. This debate and struggle can pose the need for a fundamental transformation in the nature of the Europe. To defeat the austerity agenda fundamentally, it will not be enough simploy to defeat the Austerity Treaty, although that will be a very positive first step.
The active resistance across Europe needs to be unified and made into a common battle against this agenda. A European-wide day of general strike action will be a vital step in showing the power of the working class and its mass opposition to these policies. Through these struggles and events like the big vote for Syriza in Greece, the idea of struggling for a fundamentally different Europe, a socialist Europe, can become popularised and become a reality.
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