From: "Dave Coull" <d.y.coull-AT-dundee.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 13:35:22 GMT
Subject: Re: Decline of Anarchism


I said

>> I am also old enough to remember that 
>> it was quite "impossible" to defeat Maggie
>> Thatcher, the Iron Lady. That is, it was impossible
>> until we did it, when a huge mass movement 
>> of defiance, with significant anarchist
>> involvement, ended the poll tax.

and Andy commented

>...but resulted in substantial VAT increases 

I don't accept that happened  _ as a result_
of the success of the anti-poll-tax movement.
Of course the defeat of the poll tax was not 
a revolution   -   we are not living in an anarchist 
society   -   so the ruling class continues to do 
horrible things. Nevertheless, our success in
defeating the poll tax was a real and substantial 
victory. 

Once, when I was sacked from a job, a group
of building workers staged a strike in which
the main demands were  "reinstate Dave Coull"
and union recognition. Mr Howe, the millionaire 
Chairman of Malvern Construction, stated 
(in front of eight witnesses) "I am prepared 
to recognise the Transport and General Workers 
Union, but there is no way I will ever allow 
Dave Coull back on any of my sites. It would 
be cheaper for me to pay him a wage to stay
at home and do nothing." Despite that declaration,
the strike was successfull, and I went back
to work on Mr Howe's site, with the bagpipes
playing. It was a tremendous feeling. The feeling 
when we defeated Maggie Thatcher was a similar 
sort of feeling, except that instead of being felt 
just by myself and a few of my fellow workers,
it was felt by huge numbers of people. That 
experience in itself, the feeling that we had 
actually influenced the course of history,  
was a real victory, and no "yes but......"  
talk can take it away from us.


Dave