From: "davecoull" <davecoull-AT-cableinet.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Top Anarchist Events of the Century
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 10:05:55 -0000


> > > Okay folks, if you had to compile a meaningless list of the top (10?
> > > 25? 100?) anarchist events (or "news stories" or "collectively
> > > shared experiences") of the century, what would you put on?

I don't know, but there is one event which nobody has mentioned yet which I
would include.
I'm not saying it should be high on a list which includes the Spanish
Revolution for instance, just
that I would include it. During the late 80s and early 90s you had the
anti-poll tax movement in
the UK. It started in Scotland, where the poll tax was introduced in April
1989, and spread to England and Wales with the introduction of the poll tax
there in April 1990. There was a whole series of riots, in lots of different
places, culminating in the big one in London on March 31st
1990. But of course, while rioting was both justified and necessary, rioting
by itself would not
have defeated the poll tax. More to the point, the anti-poll tax movement
succeeded in involving millions of people in refusing to pay the tax. I
believe at one point the figure for people refusing
to pay the poll tax was eighteen million or something like that. Although
most of that eighteen million did not go to meetings, take part in
demonstrations, etc., the reason so many people felt able to defy the law
was because there was an  _organised_  campaign of non-payment. They knew
that
if the sherrif's officers or bailliffs showed up at their door, large groups
of people could be quickly contacted personally or by telephone tree and
would turn out to prevent the law from doing its dirty work. Anarchists
played a major part in this  movement from beginning to end. Although it did
not lead to an anarchist revolution, or even to a mass anarchist movement,
it did help to keep the flame alive, and it showed what could be achieved by
taking direct action and organising on anarchist principles. Oh, we  _did_
get rid of the poll tax, and we brought down Maggie Thatcher.

Dave