Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 14:17:11 -0800
From: "Senex R. Rupicapra" <olgoat-AT-kdsi.net>
Subject: Re: Top Anarchist Events of the Century


davecoull wrote:
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

way to go, Dave.  lotsa folk be indebted to ys to this very day.  BTW,
i'd like to add to the list with the date (whenever it was) o the birth
o Bugs Bunny, my childhood anarc hero.

	old goat.
	We are all born chronologically--
	why do so many of us die alphabetically?
	ÐÏࡱá