Austerity Report - Hot Press meets Paul Murphy

He is the founder of ScamBridge, as well as one of the most prominent opponents of water charges. He is also the first TD elected under the banner of the Anti-Austerity Alliance. To say that Paul Murphy is a busy man is an understatement. In fact, when Hot Press sits down with the 31-year-old, he's just had his first day off in many weeks. How did he spend it?

“I didn't do much,” he laughs. “I tidied my house a bit, and tried to catch up with Love/Hate!”
For Murphy, it was a bit of quiet time the day after the rally in which tens of thousands of people took to the streets in protest against the introduction of water charges. Indeed, Murphy’s recent election campaign was almost entirely focused on the water issue.
Despite his relative youth, Murphy is a seasoned campaigner. He was seconded to the European Paliament to replace his Socialist Party colleague Joe Higgins, but lost that seat last time out. When Fine Gael's Brian Hayes vacated his Dáil seat in Dublin South-West, it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. All of the pundits were forecasting a Sinn Féin victory, but Murphy ran a very effective campeign.
“In the European election,” he explains, “you can’t talk to a significant percentage of the voters. This was far more door-to-door. That suited our message. A movement was simultaneously developing on water charges; if there wasn’t reason for such a protest, then I wouldn’t have won. Our tallies from one election to the next changed dramatically; that’s down to the water charges.”
The establishment of Irish Water — and way in which people are to be charged for water — is, of course, the single most contentious issue in Irish politics right now. Considering his opposition to the move, it’s interesting that Murphy doesn't consider it the most heinous notion.
“It’s far from the most unjust thing that has happened," he says, "compared to cuts in the health service, and to education. But this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back for many people, who’ve had six years of austerity. Importantly, it’s one that people feel capable of fighting. It’s a situation where they’re looking to take your money, but they don’t have the right to take it off you. And they don’t have the right to cut off your water. You can refuse to pay.
“There’s a really blatant game going on,” he continues, “to portray it as a communication problem. It’s not! Don’t get me wrong, they’ve certainly made plenty of mistakes. But the real problem is that people simply don’t want to pay water charges.”
Murphy is not for turning on the issue.
“There’s nothing that could be done to stop my opposition to water charges, and my opposition to Irish Water.”
Of course, the Anti-Austerity Alliance (AAA) have grievances with any number of Government policies.
“People are opposed to so many things," Murphy adds. "But they feel powerless on those issues. That’s why water has become a lightning rod for people’s discontent. It’s created an environment where people feel more comfortable about putting up a struggle. If you look at the US and the Great Depression, it was a couple of years before there was a struggle: there was a period of pure shock. When things looked up a little, there was an explosion of movements. There was a massive radicalisation, and people felt more confident. We need to see if Ireland continues along that route. Looking at the protests on Saturday, I think it could be the start of something.”
Are we talking about a potential socialist breakthrough?
“A lot of people appreciate the role that Joe Higgins played during the Celtic Tiger," Murphy says. "He was the one voice against the consensus, and in the long run was proven to be correct. Now, we’re a louder voice — and not just in the Dáil, but among the public at large. You can be in a minority in the house, but if you’re in a public majority that gets mobilised, then you can have enormous effect.”
Murphy was an early opponent of the Jobbridge scheme, which he claims was designed to normalise the concept of free labour.
“ScamBridge was important in turning public opinion against it, and it’s now about bringing political pressure to bear. The Government sing its praises, but what they say is so far out of line with how people actually feel. If they went out there and talked to people, they’d know better: people hate it. They genuinely hate it. At 31, I know lots of friends who are unemployed, who’ve been on JobBridge, and I think I can bring that to bear. Because of our pressure from below, Sinn Féin were forced to pledge to scrap JobBridge. Now, it’s another matter as to whether those promises are carried out or not.”
Does Murphy consider Sinn Féin a left-wing party?
“It can be a definitional thing — some people would have Sinn Féin there, as they’re left of Labour, but the forces of the genuine left are made up of the AAA, the Socialist Party, People Before Profit, and some serious left independents like Thomas Pringle and Clare Daly.”
Would the left alliance consider a role in a coalition government?
“There would never be a coalition, no, and that has to be a baseline. It’s the absolute graveyard for any progressive movement. You’re in government, but not in power. You’ll go in and manage capitalism with a traditional right-wing party, agreeing to impose austerity on the people who elected you to oppose it. It’s the choice that may face Sinn Féin quite soon. If they do, they’ll be going down the same road as Labour: with more skill perhaps, less cravenness, less desperation for the Ministerial cars and all that, but it’s the same road.
”But the anti-water charges movement is an opportunity to build something new; lots of people feel empowered, including far more young people than were involved in property tax, or bin tax, and so on. They’re the people that can build a solid basis for a new movement.
“Despite everything, there’s reasons to be positive.”