The Sparrows' Nest Library and Archive - Spotlight on: The Struggle Against The Poll Tax

This time we want to put the spotlight on records documenting the campaigns against the Poll Tax in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Background

Our anti-Poll tax collections primarily document local campaigns, mirroring struggles fought across Britain. Nottingham activists had learned from the experiences of the grass roots resistance in Scotland, where the government of Margaret Thatcher had piloted the ‘Community Charge’ in 1989, before also implementing the policy in England and Wales the following year. It meant a change from the old system of rates (not dissimilar to our current Council Taxes) to taxing individuals, with flat rates having to be paid by everyone, regardless of the value of the property they lived in. An occupant of a run-down terraced house suddenly faced the same bill as someone living in a lavish property within the same local authority. This caused widespread outrage. The main strategy to fight the Poll Tax was to make it unenforceable by promoting mass non-registration and non-payment, which developed into varied and sophisticated tactics, e.g. designed to hamper the judicial system.

Local groups formed quickly to organise people to ignore registration forms, to give strength to keep up the commitment to mass non-payment in the face of the council’s attempts to collect, and to defeat bailiffs. The anarchist input to these groups was especially influential in Nottingham, for instance in the Forest Fields & Hyson Green and Radford groups.

The lessons from Scotland were very beneficial in terms of how to provide mutual aid. Door-to-door leafleting was widely used to share information and tips on how to avoid the tax, covering entire postcode areas, alongside with the organisation of regular local meetings, events, fundraisers and street stalls. Experiences in Scotland also served as a warning about the tactics of local councils, politicians and Trotskyist tendencies (notably Militant), who were attempting to take the take over the campaigns across the UK for political gains. In Nottingham(shire) the actions of Militant are evident in the discussions and angry words seen in various local newssheets.

Nottingham had its fair share of direct action, including the invasion of the City Council Chambers by activists dressed at Robin Hood characters, which resulted in prison time and other extraordinary sentences for the outrageous ‘custard-pieing’ of councillors with paper plates topped with shaving foam while they were setting the rates for the city. Later a Nottingham Defence Campaign was formed, alongside the London-based Trafalgar Square Defence Campaign, to raise funds for those arrested locally as well as during the huge demonstration in London which became known as the ‘Poll Tax Riot’ of March 1990. Nottingham saw a number of high profile imprisonments for non-payment after a lengthy campaign to delay the courts by bringing ‘friends’ into hearings and the rehearsing of long-winded speeches to be given in the open sessions.

The long and protracted efforts to defeat the tax, fought with an excellent degree of solidarity, were ultimately a success, accelerating the eventual end of the Thatcher regime. Millions paid little or no Poll Tax, and the struggle marks one of the most significant mass grass roots movements in twentieth century Britain.

Our Poll Tax collection

The Nest’s collection includes a large number of published and unpublished documents as well as stickers, videos, photographs and assorted ephemera. We are also proud to be looking after two of the original local group banners from the time.

Having made a small amount of materials accessible in 2010, when we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the struggle with a very fun commemoration at the Nest, another decade later we have returned to our grown collections.

Please find below a list of digitised materials. Most of these records were produced locally, documenting e.g. the activities of Nottingham(shire) based community groups, but many others were collected at demonstrations, conferences etc. all over Britain.

Please note that a considerable amount of materials are not eligible for digitisation as they contain non published information. These materials can be made accessible to researchers upon request. Furthermore, a number of items could not be digitised for technical reasons (size of posters etc.), but are being kept with the digitised material and are available to researchers.

Furthermore, please be aware that numerous other publications from the time also covered events from the start, local papers like Nottingham Anarchist News as well as non-regional publications like Organise! So if you want to dig deeper into our vaults, there is plenty more to be found (search e.g. Poll Tax and tick “Digital Library only”).

Spotlight on: The Struggle Against The Poll Tax

Newspapers, bulletins, etc.

3D

All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation Bulletin

Axe the Tax

Fight Back

Nottingham Defence Campaign Newsletter

Poll Axe

Poll Tax Prisoners News

Refuse and Resist

Stand Firm

Various

Leaflets

Pamphlets

Posters and other