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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