J.Kelly Reginal Sec. UNITE
The UNITE trade union in Ireland, which represents 100,000 working people, are calling for a public boycott of the Property Tax.
The trade union, which is one of the country’s largest, is urging the public to hold firm and start by refusing to engage with Revenue.
UNITE have joined forces with the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes and will be participating in a day of protest on April 13th next. This date will coincide with a meeting of European Union Finance Ministers at Dublin Castle.
Regional Secretary of UNITE Mr Jimmy Kelly believes that the fight against this tax can still be won by building a strong campaign and standing shoulder to shoulder in a simple boycott.
Kelly stated that UNITE believed there should be a tax, based on property, but has dismissed the bullying measures employed by some members within Government.
“We want to build a campaign as strong as possible based on a boycott. The Government is just threatening people imposing a further austerity tax, calling it a property tax and threatening people by telling them they will take it out of their wages or social welfare or farm payments.” stated Mr Kelly.
The word boycott first entered the English language during the Irish “Land War,” and is derived from the name of Captain Charles Boycott, the land agent of an absentee landlord, Lord Erne, who lived in Lough Mask House, near Ballinrobe in County Mayo, latter who was subject to social ostracism organized by the Irish Land League in 1880.
A boycott therefore is best described as an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for social or political reasons.
Today, grassroots members of the Labour Party are meeting in the Gresham Hotel to discuss the resignation, yesterday, of Nessa Childers MEP, plus the disappointing Meath East by-election result and the total collapse in Labour party support in recent polls.
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