History
Britain 1990: the demo that broke the poll tax
April 2000
Ten years ago, on 31 March 1990, 250,000 people marched in London against the "Poll Tax" - Thatcher's flagship policy for her third government. The march came under sustained attack from heavily armed riot police.
But the demo fought back and the police took a hammering in what became known as the battle of Trafalgar Square. Less than eight months after the battle the poll tax was withdrawn and Thatcher was replaced as Tory leadeR.
The poll tax was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and then a year later in England and Wales. It was specifically designed to pass the cost of financing local services onto the backs of the working class.
The poll tax levied an equal tax on the entire local population, irrespective of income or the type of property you lived in. An unemployed single parent would pay the same as a mega-rich landowner like the Duke of Westminster. No wonder it became an object of such widespread hatred.
The threat of the poll tax led to the formation of mass local anti-poll tax unions. Usually based on local council estates, these bodies unified all sections of the local working class. In turn a federation of these bodies acted as a national organiser of the movement.
From the outset the unions and the Fed were led by the Militant Tendency (now the Socialist Party). Their promotion of the local anti-poll tax unions, through successive campaigns to oppose registration, collection and payment, helped unify and spread the movement.
Workers Power was active in the poll tax committees across the country. We supported all of the methods used to oppose the tax and advocated a general strike to unite them into a movement which could not only destroy the tax but the government as well.
We established committees in many important centres, including Cardiff and Hulme in Manchester. We participated in many of the huge meetings of trade unionists, such as the All Britain Anti Poll Tax Federation Union meeting of more than 1,200 delegates in Manchester, and participated in the protests which swept Britain prior to the national demo on 31 March.
In the run up to the national demonstration in London the Labour Party and trade unions publicly denounced the march. They turned their back on the biggest protest movement against the Tories since the miners’ strike.
The effect of the Poll Tax riot was immediate. The TV was full of images. Shattered police, describing how they had lost control of Trafalgar Square.
The Poll Tax movement itself underwent a crisis when leaders of Militant denounced the riot. On 31 March they withdraw their stewards when the attack began. Then a Militant leader threatened to name names to the police. This disgraceful response discredited Militant in the eyes of thousands of activists, and even though they eventually distanced themselves from Sheridan’s remarks they never publicly repudiated them.
This took place in the context of the Labour Party calling for the jailing of protesters. Class War were victimised and witch-hunted for their principled defence of the right to protest. Across the country, furious meetings of anti-poll tax groups were held in the following week. But there was no sizeable left organisation prepared to challenge the Militant leadership of the Federation.
Workers Power, alone on the left, called for the replacement of Militant as the leadership of the federation. The SWP refused to take the head of the movement and agreed a series of "non-aggression" resolutions with Militant.
Nevertheless, the sheer scale of the battle and the inspiring impact it had on local unions across the country, meant that the non-payment movement grew massively. And everyone who was imprisoned or threatened with bailiffs or court orders knew that hundreds of people would rally to their defence.
The bosses became increasingly worried that the revolt would mean that people would simply get used to not paying. With Thatcher sticking to the policy, the bigwigs of the ruling class decided it was time for her to go rather than risk anarchy in every borough in the land.
In November 1990 out went Thatcher and in came the Community Charge and a 5 per cent hike in VAT.
What the poll tax struggle and the second Battle of Trafalgar really showed is that the courage, determination, imagination and ingenuity of the working class is limitless and all-conquering. Our task is to build a leadership worthy of it.