Article from the March 2006 issue of the Socialist
newspaper of the Socialist Party, Irish section of the CWI

Lessons of the battle against the poll tax

When Non-Payment Won

By Ciaran Mulholland
In 1991 a mass campaign of non-payment defeated the Poll Tax, Margaret Thatcher and her hated Tory government. There are many lessons for today's anti-water charges activists from that famous struggle.

In 1987 Thatcher was returned to power for a third time. She immediately set about implementing the "community charge", a new form of local taxation which she described as the flagship of her administration. The community charge was levied on all adults, at the same rate, regardless of their income or personal wealth (at an average of £400-600 per person). It was quickly renamed the Poll Tax after the infamous mediaeval tax which had sparked the Peasants' Revolt.

Thatcher argued afterwards in her biography that many working class people were not paying their way and that the Poll tax meant that "a whole class of people-an 'underclass' if you will-had been dragged back into the ranks of responsible society and asked to become not just dependants but citizens."

There are more than echoes of this approach in Peter Hain's assertion that people in Northern Ireland are not paying their way and must pay more in both water charges and rates.

The Poll Tax clearly penalised the poor and benefited the rich. The water charges will do likewise. The charge on a household will increase with the price of the house up to a maximum of £725. This maximum means that those in the least valuable homes, and with the lowest incomes, will pay proportionally more of their income on water than those in the most expensive houses.

Prior to the introduction of the Poll Tax, there was much debate as to how best to oppose it. In the late 1980s many workers in England, Scotland and Wales still looked to the Labour Party for a lead. The debate quickly crystallised around one key issue - non-payment. The Labour Party gave a lead eventually, but the wrong one. Neil Kinnock, then Labour leader, claimed it was "a complete distraction to fight the Poll Tax with an illegal campaign of mass non-payment".

Kinnock's position is echoed by many of our local politicians today. Whilst in office they were letting water charges through on the nod. Out of office they offer verbal opposition. No politician from the main parties has backed non-payment however and it is extremely unlikely any will do so.

Labour disappointed - would the trade union leaders deliver? The Poll Tax was introduced first in Scotland in April 1990. Prior to this date Campbell Christie, general secretary of the Scottish TUC, was challenged on non-payment and he made his position as clear as mud: "let's get to April and then decide what to do". In practice waiting to April meant waiting forever - the STUC never backed non-payment.

In Northern Ireland today most trade union leaders take a similar position, arguing that to organise non-payment now is to accept that the game is up. In this way they side-step taking any position on non-payment. This doesn't mean that the trade unions have no role to play in the struggle. NIPSA, for example, voted overwhelmingly for non-payment at its last annual conference and can play a key role in building non-payment.

Mass non-payment of the Poll Tax was not a spontaneous phenomenon. Opinion polls showed that more than 40% of people in Scotland were prepared not to pay in the months running up to the implementation of the Poll Tax. Similarly, when the We Won't Pay Campaign appeared on Steven Nolan's radio and TV programmes, text polls showed that 85% and 75% respectively were prepared not to pay.

The question for the anti-Poll Tax movement then, and for the anti-water charges movement today, is how to turn mass sympathy for the idea of non-payment into a solid campaign. The answer is through organisation.

On 25 November 1989, 2,000 delegates representing hundreds of anti-Poll Tax Unions met in Manchester Free Trade Hall to establish the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation. The We Won't Pay Campaign is building a similar organisation, based in every estate, town and village. Existing groups (such as community groups, residents' groups and trade union branches) can play a role in building the Campaign, but it is essential that tens of thousands are signed up to individual membership, and that thousands of activists become the local organisers of non-payment.

Ultimately, 18 million people (approximately 50% of eligible adults) refused to pay the Poll Tax. 117 people were jailed by 46 councils (26 controlled by Labour), but it soon became clear that the law could not break the movement and in 1992 the Poll Tax was abolished.

The lesson of the struggle against the Poll Tax is clear. Mass non-payment works. In Thatcher's words "the eventual abandonment of the charge represented one of the greatest every victories for these people (the left and the "underclass") ever conceded by a conservative government." Anyone in doubt about the effectiveness of organised mass non-payment should consider her words with care.