The Poll Tax
In 1988, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher began preparations for a Community Charge to replace the council rates. Instead of one payment per household based on rateable value of the property, the poll tax was to be paid by all people who were 18 or over. Militant argued for a strategy of non-payment and organised Anti-Poll Tax Unions, beginning in Scotland. The anti-poll tax unions grew rapidly in 1989, and soon regional and national bodies were set up, which Militant organised and led. Militant supporter, Liverpool MP Terry Fields was sent to jail for 60 days for refusing to pay. In Glasgow Tommy Sheridan the leader of the Scottish Anti-Poll Tax Federation was jailed for 6 months for being present at, and helping to prevent, a Warrant Sale (public sale of a debtor's possessions by Sheriff Officers) after a court order had been issued prohibiting his attendance. Sheridan was elected to Glasgow City Council as a District Councillor from his cell in Saughton Prison, Edinburgh.
The All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation called a demonstration in London on 31 March 1990 which led to a riot in Trafalgar Square. Non-payment rose to 17.5 million people in serious arrears, and central government began to consider the community charge unworkable. The poll tax was swiftly abandoned by the newly elected Prime Minister John Major.
Militant MP Terry Fields was removed as a Labour MP for not paying his poll tax less than two weeks after being released from jail after serving sixty days for the same crime. Labour leader Neil Kinnock said "Mr Fields has chosen to break the law and he must take the consequences." Most Militant members drew the conclusion that the way forward was blocked in the Labour Party.
Militant MP Dave Nellist had been elected from Coventry South East in 1983. The Labour-run Coventry City Council held a referendum on implementing the poll tax in the city, essentially giving two alternatives - to cut services or pay the poll tax. Militant called for a boycott of the referendum and for a socialist alternative to the poll tax. Nellist was deselected by the Labour Party NEC and his constituency was later abolished. Standing as an Independent Labour candidate in 1992, Nellist lost his seat to the Labour Party's Jim Cunningham by 11,902 votes to 10,551.
Read more about this topic: Militant Tendency
Famous quotes containing the words poll and/or tax:
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—Mary Frances Berry (b. 1938)
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