File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_2003/anarchy-list.0303, message 308


From: "Dave Coull" <coull2-AT-btinternet.com>
Subject: Poll Tax Rebellion
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 01:09:32 -0000



I wrote


>>Then you are completely wrong. This is The Iron Lady
>>we are talking about. This is the Victor of the Falklands
>>War we are talking about. She was in absolute control
>>of parliament and her own party. Until she was defeated
>>by a mass anti-poll-tax movement which simply ignored
>>parliament. Until she was forced into the U-turn she
>>had sworn she would never make. Only  _after_  we had
>>proved that she was not an unstoppable force did political
>>vultures from within her own party emerge to attack
>>the weakened leader.


and Carp comments


>This absolutely cracks me up. Dave The-Holier-Than-Thou 
>cackling like a hen on an egg about an *electoral* victory.   


Crap,Carp.

I didn't celebrate an  _electoral_  victory. I celebrated
a victory for direct action. The Iron Lady was forced into
the U-turn she had sworn she would never make.  THAT  was
the victory. What happened afterwards, with her own party
turning on her, was  _their_  thing. I'm pleased she lost
control of her own party, but my pleasure is only out of 
sheer malice. I would have been pleased about any misfortune 
that befell Thatcher   -   NOT  because of celebrating 
the "victory" of whoever it was that replaced her, but
simply sheer pleasure at her downfall. But  OUR  victory 
was in defeating the poll tax. 


>Nothing was changed but the leader and the system 
>stays absolutely the same 


Minus the poll tax. We set out to defeat the poll tax
through direct action. We succeeded. You are seeking 
to play down the significance of that. Well, you can't. 
Nothing you can possibly say can detract from the sweetness
of that victory. So it was a limited victory. That
doesn't make it any less of a victory. Maybe a few 
folk who thought it would lead to revolution, but for 
most of us, we knew it would just be one campaign in 
a very long war. Anyway,  YOU  are a professional, or
semi-professional, politician. You are the last person 
to be in any position to criticise people for winning 
some limited but still desirable change. At least it was
won through direct action, and through self-organisation, 
and through solidarity. Through methods consistent with
fighting for a libertarian socialist revolution and not
through methods which led  _away_  from libertarian socialist
revolution. Large numbers of people got experience of fighting 
back, got experience of direct action, experience of solidarity, 
experience of organising together with others in an all-equal,
no-leaders context, and, last but by no means least, got 
to taste the sweet taste of victory won by using these 
methods. That really was something kinda marvellous.

Just what are you saying, Carp? That there is no point
in people fighting back? Experience proves you wrong.


Dave Coull



   

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